
By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Area feedlot employees throughout the Great Bend area have to feel proud whenever someone goes to Wendy’s restaurant and orders a hamburger.
Progressive Beef, located in Great Bend, announced that 40% of Wendy’s U.S. fresh, never frozen beef supply, is sourced from their certified feedlots.
Progressive Beef
is a quality management system that focuses on providing consumers more
information about how their beef is raised and cared for. Vice President of Operations Heather Donley says Progressive Beef’s goal is earning the consumer’s
trust by being transparent on beef production at feedlots.
"We have an advisory board that sets the standard for the program," said Donley. "We have experts that work in the industry to keep it practical. We really strive to have the standards as something we can implement in the yard."
Just a few of Progressive Beef’s certified feed yards include Great Bend
Feeding, Barton County Feeders and Ward Feed Yard in Larned.
Donley says today’s
consumers want to know where their food comes from and that the cattle were
ethically and sustainably raised. Progressive Beef commended Wendy’s for their commitment of
being more transparent and traceable through their fresh beef supply chain.
"I think Wendy's commitment to Progressive Beef validates the hard work and extra effort the yards have put into the certification process, which is pretty intense," said Donley. "Progressive Beef has been around since 2000 and someone finally believes that is as important as we feel it is."
The 40% of Wendy’s U.S. beef supply sourced from Progressive Beef represents a
15% increase in 2020. Wendy’s goal is to source more than 50% of its supply
from cattle raised under the Progressive Beef program in 2021.