Project Director: Rebecca Thistlethwaite – Oregon State University
Co-Project Directors: Thomas Bass – Montana State University and Martha Sullins – Colorado State University
Situation: A ranching family from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California were used to selling most of their calves at auction or sending off to feedlots. Many years they did not even breakeven in this endeavor. In the last few years they began holding back their most promising steers and finishing them on pasture with a grain supplement. They sold this meat as quarters and halves to people in their surrounding community. The response was good for this meat. The family realized they could scale up this enterprise and improve their profitability. They enrolled in the Western Meat School in the fall of 2020 to help them figure out the best direction to take their nascent meat business.
Outcomes: While taking the course they wrote a marketing plan and got feedback on the plan from the WMS project lead. In 2021 the family built and opened up a farmstand on their property and also started a “meat subscription” business selling various mixed bundles of their beef to people in their community (so not just quarters & halves anymore). They also began selling ground beef in bulk to local wildland firefighting crews for use in their food preparation for their large teams.
Impacts: This diversified strategy is starting to pay off and allowing them to scale the meat business.
“Coming from the producer side, I learned so much from this course. I loved that this course had expert speakers from all sides of the meat industry. I now am able to communicate better with our meat processors and am very excited for the next year.”
Around 100 Extension, 4H, and FFA staff & volunteers from various states (Oregon, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Washington, Missouri, Tennessee, and other states) took the course. As one Extension director in Colorado said, “I am glad we can make this content available to youth through 4H and FFA. There is nothing like this in our area to show them different modes of production and innovative marketing opportunities.”
“Taking the Western Meat School and building out our marketing plan has allowed us to think outside the box in terms of how and where we can sell beef in our largely rural area. By finishing more beef on our property and having a few market channels, we are able to sell the whole animal for much greater returns than we did before.” – California Producer
