2024 Top Producer Of The Year Christine Hamilton: Driven For Excellence

At Christiansen Land and Cattle, they’re committed to excellence and continuous improvement, a mindset that started when Christine Hamilton’s family homesteaded in South Dakota in 1891.

“We're always looking for opportunities to grow,” says Christine, co-owner, Christiansen Land and Cattle, Ltd. (CLC). “However, we can respect what the land can produce for us and work in tandem with that to create opportunities as we go along. I think it’s an honor.”

Christine came back to help transition the operation in 1993. Today, she serves as co-owner with her husband, Eddie, and enjoys her role of overseeing CLC’s vision, but she attributes their success to a management team of nine full-time employees who run the day-to-day activities. 

Their accomplishments have led Christine and the team to be named the 2024 Top Producer of the Year, sponsored by BASF, Case IH, and Rabo AgriFinance. 

This diversified operation is comprised of nearly 26,000 acres of range and cropland.

“We farm 14,000 acres and with a diversified rotation, mainly corn beans,” says Matt Huizenga, crops manager at CLC.

They use cutting-edge technology to push yield potential, while protecting the land. They have an intensive precision ag system that involves strip-till, and satellite imagery to help variable rate their fertilizer, Huizenga explains.

CLC also has 11,000 acres of rangeland and runs 1,100 head of cattle, managed by Shawn Reis, with a holistic approach.  

“We are cow-calf mainly to offset the markets,” Reis says. “We background two different times a year, we have run stalkers, we've even finished some cattle just trying to use our resources to the full advantage —rotating pastures, staying away from season long grazing, we rotate our cows probably monthly and try not to be on the same pasture two years in a row.”

CLC uses activity-based accounting, which they adopted in 2001 following the Hamiltons’ involvement with the Farm Financial Standard’s Council. The intensive approach helps them know their costs and understand their business progress.     

“One of the things that's really unique to the accounting side of this operation is our cost accounting and managerial accounting,” says Christy Rasmussen, CLC’s accounting manager. “We have a very extensive system for that that really helps the whole management team know where their costs are at any given time.” 

“Christine has always led the organization into taking a look at opportunities both traditional and nontraditional,” says Steve Hofing, CLC’s chief financial officer, “and not afraid to examine things that might be a little bit riskier as long as they have the opportunity to provide returns, and the organization has had good success in doing that over the years.”  

One of those opportunities is their wholesale beef business.

“We have a business in Las Vegas called Dakota Packing, and we provide spec meat to casinos and restaurants in Nevada,” Christine says.

The Hamilton’s are also part owners in SAB Therapeutics, which is now publicly traded.  

“SAB Biotherapeutics is technology that is one of a kind, that is unique,” says Edward Hamilton, co-owner of CLC. “It's a source of human polyclonal antibodies outside of the human.”

It’s through CLC’s business innovation that ensures all these companies as well as the farm are financially sound.        

“So, we are always looking at measuring costs and analyzing our performance,” Christine says.

In 2015, they also started a sustainability management plan, creating a living document representing the goals of the stakeholders and the community, part of the legacy Hamilton hopes CLC will be remembered for in years to come.   

“I think first and foremost, we care,” she says. “We care a lot about each other and about the land, and about our communities.”

Congratulations to Christiansen Land and Cattle, the 2024 Top Producer of the Year.