The Idea Behind the Cooperative
We all have many years of experience with cattle - most of us from a very young age. What has been the typical practice for most of our families is that we tend to herds of momma cows year round, help them with their calves and monitor those calves that stay with their mothers until they are big enough to wean. At that point, we were taking the calves to a stockyard
where they were being bought by producers who would be feeding them out to finish. Some of our calves were being transported hundreds of miles away from home to feedlots in other states, only to be sent back many months later as a finished product and marketed to consumers. The idea behind the cooperative is that we utilize the local desire for fresh beef, while at the same time, keeping the steps of production within our local economies. This way, we can meet the needs of consumers who care about where their meat comes from, while at the same time finding a niche for our family farms that can hopefully preserve them for our children and other future generations. In order for our families to be able to provide enough beef to our vendors, we decided to create a cooperative of experienced cattlemen (and women) that share the same values and practices, so that we can supply our vendors year-round. What we could not do individually, we can accomplish together.