Getting up early led to lifetime of success

Ken Monfort never spent much time setting goals; he's been too busy reaching them.

"I never had great plans," he said. "I got where I did by luck, timing and hard work.

"I've always gotten up early in the morning."

Monfort didn't make a decision to be an anchor of the agricultural

Northern Colorado, but getting up early started him down that path. At the age of 10 he was up with the chickens to feed cattle.

The Monforts' cattle feeding business was started by Ken's father, Warren. Monfort grew up in the business, and when his older brother died in World War II, he became the logical successor to the family business. He left Colorado State University, where he was studying journalism, to help run the business.,

"My dad was my biggest role model," Monfort said in phone interview from his retirement home in Florida. "Just by being with him and watching him work, I learned so much."

In the '60s the Monforts were the first to process meat where the animals were raised, rather than shipping live animals to processing plants. The innovative move reaped financial rewards by reducing the ship weight of meat. The family also was among the first to feed cattle year-round, by saving sugar beet tops from the summer's crop.