Sustainable Beef Production

Rancher Co-op Raises, Markets Grass-Fed Beef

Kansas rancher and co-op business manager Annie Wilson tells people she raises "healthy animals on healthy land." She and her partners hope their extra profits will help preserve a way of life they see disappearing on the prairie. Photo by Vada Snider

The nine Kansas ranching families who comprise Tallgrass Prairie Producers Cooperative bank on the willingness of consumers to pay for sustainably raised beef. Aided by a SARE grant, the co-op worked with the Kansas Rural Center to hire staff to create labels, coordinate production and, above all, market their healthy product. They now sell locally to a hospital, restaurants, small groceries and directly to individuals. Most U.S. beef comes from cattle finished in feedlots, where they eat large amounts of grain. By finishing beef on pasture, co-op members cut out the extra, energy-intensive process of planting, harvesting and shipping grain. Instead, their production model keeps land in grass, conserving soil and water quality, and their animals are raised without hormone implants or antibiotics. The resulting leaner cut has yielded impressive nutritional test results: a four-ounce serving offers just 116 calories, 1.5 grams of fat and 0.7 grams of saturated fat. Recently, the co-op landed its first out-of-state customer when a Baltimore trade show brought co-op representatives in contact with a distributor that supplies food clubs and natural food stores in the Northeast. "It’s a great effort by people trying to live by their principles and have their product reflect that," says Dan Nagengast of the Kansas Rural Center. (LNC95-78)

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