Butadiene is made from a butene rich feed by passing a superheated butene rich feed including superheated steam and oxygen at a temperature of at least about 343° C. (650° F.) over a catalyst bed having a depth of over about 69 cm (27 inches) of granules of ferritic oxidative dehydrogenation catalyst. Inlet conditions being controlled such that the oxidative dehydrogenation reactions initially occur in the lower most layers of catalyst. Process control includes monitoring the temperature throughout the bed and increasing the inlet temperature in response to a drop in the temperature in the active layer, when the active layer of oxidative dehydrogenation catalyst begins to become deactivated so that the reaction zone moves upwardly in the oxidative dehydrogenation bed.