Breeding,  Food,  Meat,  Nutrition,  On the soap box

The developing grass fed beef market (Part 2)….

Bill Roberts’ dissent from the old bromide perception is reality reminded me of another:  “Each man is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts”.  It’s generally attributed to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan but goes back a lot farther than that.

And while we have some serious concerns over Bill’s article (see Part1 just below), we accept his basic fact:  to meet the requirements of the commercial meat trade a steer must have a hanging weight of at least 600 pounds and that requires a live weight of more than 1,000 pounds.  That’s Bill’s major concentration right now….putting together trailer-loads of grass steers…to be sent to processors.  To borrow the phrase of the commercial meat trade, that’s what fits “in the box”.

So there’s no disputing Bill’s facts.  Except….except….

First, I am reminded of another old bromide…from boxing?….I worry that in launching into a debate with my old friend I am “punching above my weight”.  Bill Roberts has more experience than I in every phase of both the commercial and grass fed business and if he says you’re not going to make a profit by ignoring The Box, you better pay attention.

However, my own basic “fact” is that raising what “fits in the box” is what got the meat industry in trouble in the first place.  Some years ago size and how fast you got your steers to the target weight became the predominant fact in the beef industry.  Quality became subordinate; taste so unimportant that was not even discussed, not then, not now; not even by most of the advocates of smaller cows.  For them, it’s all about feed efficiency.  Whether you’re feeding grass or corn, the requirement is for the most efficient converter of feed into beef.

As a result the commercial beef industry has produced the cheapest, most consistent product for more people in history.  And with a taste which approximates cardboard and with side effects that can kill you.  Is that really the model the grass fed farmer wants to follow?

And do we really want commercial processors—even those as good and as ethical as Bill—telling us how big to raise our cows?  And, inevitably, telling us what we’ll be paid for those cows?  In short, do we really want to see grass fed beef turned into a commodity like the rest of the food industry?  That, I fear, will make us just one more cog in the machine and, don’t kid yourself, that machine will adulterate our product as it has done all others.

Those big producers aren’t buying up all the organic labels they can find because they believe in healthy food.  It’s because they don’t want the indictment staring them in the face at the supermarket and, more important, in the blogosphere.  And, in my opinion, once they possess our credibility, they know exactly how to cut corners to get around oversight and produce what’s beneath those labels for less.

Healthy food takes time and that increases costs and reduces profit.  Healthy food requires transparency and accountability.  Even Bill will admit that the grass fed steak you buy at the supermarket is never going to be from the same cow as the one right next to it in the display case.  No label won’t tell you that.

Just a week ago, one of our neighbors said he had bought some grass fed burger (according to the label) at Wegman’s, an upscale prominent food chain in the east that’s reputation is based on purveying healthy products.  The feel and the taste of the burger was so bad he had to spit it out!

There is no one he can really complain to—certainly not the farmer—and no way he can know whether the next package of burger he buys will be any better or worse.  Do you think the Wegman’s store manager cooked up some of that burger before he sold it?  At Thistle Hill, we do; with every animal.  At Wegman’s, it wouldn’t make any difference; their burger is a composition of not only many animals, but almost certainly many herds.

So what our neighbor did was buy a full half a steer from us.  Probably only 250 pounds instead of 300, but he knew where it came from and he knew who to call if he was unhappy.

And believe it or not, we worry over every package of meat we sell and whether our neighbors will be happy with it.  Much easier to ship a bunch of steers and not worry about them ever again.

But that’s not why we’re raising cows and not why we chose Devon.  Like most farmers in the grass fed movement, we believe in food that is healthy, produced locally, at a decent price and a benefit to the families who consume it.  And we believe Devon beef tastes better.

It’s tilting at windmills, I suppose, but no more than those Devon breeders trying to boost the size of their bulls for the elusive western cattle rancher.  It can’t be done, not without “help” in the form of crossing with another breed or with some miracle supplements.  And then you wind up with the same slab-sided, tasteless monstrosities that eventually can’t be finished on grass but need a lot of grain (and hormones and anti-biotics) to make it to the slaughterhouse.

Finally, having dabbled a little in cognitive psychology, I do think you can change reality.  It’s hard and it requires perseverance but you can perceive of something and make it true, not only for yourself but for others.  And my reality is a network of farms across the country making healthy food available for those neighbors who want it and are willing to pay a fair price for it.

So while I wish those who are pursuing “The Box”, Godspeed, I’ll stick with my own reality…my own facts.

4 Comments

  • David Hawkins

    At our peak we were selling 40 grass finished beeves a year. When you compare the revenue from an animal weighing 900 lbs and one weighing 1100 lbs the difference is huge. Fixed costs were similar and beef quality was the same. Why leave $500 per animal on the table?
    David Hawkins,
    Munfordville, Ky.

    • David

      All things being equal, then you shouldn’t. But, as they say, all other things are seldom equal. And I have to ask: with a profit of apparently well over $1000 a cow, why did you stop?

      My point though is that my Devon steers cannot consistently “make” 1100 pounds in a reasonable time without “help”, either feed or crossing with another breed. And I believe that both do affect quality. More important, you go the route you suggest and you enter the commodity market. Sooner or later, in addition to losing control of your product, you lose control of your price.

      The landscape is littered with operators who were going to make a killing in the grass fed business. The name “Bill Kurtis” ring a bell? So far, the only business model that seems to work is small and local.

      It is still a niche market with big dreams.

  • Bill Roberts

    This is an argument where both sides are right! Years ago, Koch Industries published a book called “Market Based Management.” It illustrated that most people build their dream production and then look for a market to sell it. The better way is examine the market and build your product to suit it. Our market is smaller regional processor/wholesalers who want quality with profitability. The 1,050 to 1,200 pound cow that can produce a calf that becomes a grass finished steer in 24 months at 1,100 to 1,250 #’s is what our market wants. If your market demands different, I do not want to give a wrong “perception.”

  • David

    Some days you just can’t pick a fight. The point is, I think, to find satisfaction in what you do. And profit is no small part of finding satisfaction. But not the whole part.

    As Dave Pratt says: if it isn’t profitable it isn’t going to be sustainable.

    At this stage in our lives, maximizing profit is somewhat less important to us than it once was. The Thistle Hill “business model” is different than the Roberts/Hawkins model.

    And in a side conversation, David Hawkins made a point that needs to be made for anyone starting down the road of providing grass fed beef direct to the consumer: you spend a lot of time on that road—David estimates it was 50 man-days a year—just driving back and forth to the processor. We tend not to include that in the cost.

    Fifty days is a lot of time that you’re in the trucking business, not really in the cattle business. When you design your business model, I’d recommend you pencil in a day per animal just for sorting, loading, transporting, returning the meat, and then distribution.

    The so-called “middle man” gets a bad rap; and not just in the cattle world.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

%d bloggers like this: