36 Texas Longhorn Trails

USDA data from the last Agri-culture Census reveals 1000ranchers (cattle producers)

going out of business per month.When over 800,000 people raise beefcattle this is a slow death, barely no-ticeable, certainly not of concern byUSDA. Yet in the last 20 years, with thisdwindling down process, there are lessbeef cows in the USA than most can re-member. Last year alone 18% of all beefconsumed in the USA was imported.The consumer has no clue what countryit was imported from — and they don’tlike that one bit!

As the USA imports 18% of theconsumed beef, USDA and the BeefCheckoff are spending millions devel-oping export markets to sell more USAbeef. (The Beef Checkoff receives a $1tax from cattle owners each time a crit-ter sells.) The more beef sold outsidethe USA, the more imported beef isneeded to feed the nation. Do themath! It is now high-time for the USAcattle producers to raise more beef.Over 80% of beef cattle in the USA

are black — who knows what breed,but black. These black producers are themain people who comprise the 1000business failures per month. Why doessomething so approved by the majoritykeep failing? What can we learn bythese business failures?As Col. Eddy Woodwould say, “Let’s take along cold look” at thisprocess.The consumer pur-

chases beef at a grocerystore. A USA consumer is the eighthbuyer of that piece of meat, on average.First there is the cow/calf producer whosells calves promptly at weaning time.The good operators have already pre-weaned calves and have administeredthe main vaccinations. The cow/calfproducer hauls his calves to an auction,

pays $1 Beef Checkoff, (in the West hepays a brand inspection fee) yardage,and commission on the sale and gets his pay check. He sells whole-sale, then an order buyer purchaseswholesale. The buyer sends them to agathering point, groups them by sexand color, pays more auction commis-sions, hauling, yardage, $1 Beef Check-off tax and more unnecessaryvaccinations. In Ohio many of thesecalves go to Kansas and sell at auction,then go on wheat pasture. Their newowner immediately gives new shots,pays hauling to the wheat pastures andhopes for a profit. He bought wholesaleand will sell wholesale in a few months.Next they may go to the mountains forthe summer with a new owner, then tothe feed lot with a new owner, to thepacker and then the grocery store. Thefirst few owners give preventative shotsagain and again. Every buyer and sellerdeals wholesale with very small mar-gins, until a hanging carcass arrives atthe grocery store, who marks the prod-uct up 57%, then here comes the con-sumer with a grocery cart.Yes, you read that right. According

to USDA the first 6 owners divide up43% of the consumer’s purchase price.The average steer travels 3000 milesduring their short life and has 8 own-

ers. The first 6 owners deal only whole-sale and many are going out ofbusiness, yet the grocery stores (retail)are doing quite well. People in the USAare eating “high on the hog” more thanany time in history.In order to increase profit in this

business there is the pie-in-the-sky Cer-tified Angus program. (Everyone wants

to make more profit along the whole-sale trail.) Certified Angus is the shin-ing light of the wholesale/retail beefbusiness. Producers who raise the best

marbled high choiceor prime carcass’ canreceive one of thelargest premiums inthe branded beefbusiness, $3 per 100lbs live weight. Less

than 45% of steers fed and carefullyaimed at this prize actually earn thissmall premium. In the Texas Longhornbeef business we believe “Fat is to Cer-tified Angus what Lean is to Texas Long-horns.”Dave Nichols, Bridgeport, Iowa says

the fat trim from two Certified Angus

RAISING TEXAS LONGHORNS

Large grocery stores have helped cattle pro-ducers by driving beef prices far above othermeats. City stores sell at the highest priceconsumers ever pay for meat. Now it istime for Texas Longhorn producers to takethat business away from the city meatcounters. The 57% must stay in the TexasLonghorn rancher’s pocket.

Note: This is the first installment for the Trails by Darol Dickinson which will detail plansfor a profitable business with Texas Longhorn retail beef sales, locating processors, buildingyour own business, market development, expanding the ranch acreage, meat distribution,and nutritional advantages over other breeds of cattle.

The consumer purchases beef at a grocerystore. A USA consumer is the eighthbuyer of that piece of meat, on average.

January 2014 37

AS A BUSINESS

For years I knew a lot of people wereselling retail Texas Longhorn beef, but I re-fused to go that direction. I dreaded spend-ing hours selling a pound of ground beef; itwas below my dignity. I had been spoiledby the adrenaline of sellingtruck loads of live TexasLonghorns for thousands ofdollars each — I would notbow down to marketing a

pound of grind — no way!Things change. It may take time, but

get over it. Here is why I love it now andhow to do it.

Start your own Texas Longhorn beef

business. Don’t form a coop and hopesomeone else does the hard work. Startsmall and grow it yourself. Control yourown success and build your business withcare and wisdom. Be the owner, president

and benefactor of the wholebusiness.

Direct marketing fromranch to consumer elimi-nates numerous middle menallowing people to purchasedirect from the producersthemselves, which is verypopular today. Consumerslike to buy food productsfrom people who raise andalso eat their own products.

Each person has oppor-tunities in their location tocapitalize on niche markets.No two areas are the same.

prime grade steers will fill a 55 gallonbarrel. The day of cheap corn to addbarrels of fat is more costly than anytime in world history. Obviously some-

thing has to give.In my opinion the above beef sce-

nario is archaic, yet millions of cattle godown this trail. The chicken producersare much more efficient with less landcosts, one owner from day old chicks toprocessing, no auction commissions,no brand inspections, with only twohauling fees, to and from the grower.

What can be learned here? Why doagricultural colleges continue to teachthe traditional historic 8-owner system?How can hundreds of wasted dollars beprevented, and income for the rancherincrease? Here are recommendations.

1) Raise easy fleshing Texas Long-horns, keep the cow maintenance costlow, have genetics that produce into thelate teens, raise cattle that don’t requirecalving assistance, use one bull on alarge number of cows and plan a grassoperation with low input.

2) Retain cattle from conception toconsumption and eliminate the costly(eight owner) above mentioned ex-penses.

3) Raise steers on grass then finishwith 80 to 100 days of grain for freezerbeef retail sales. Don’t place them on

grain feed until they weigh 900 lbs oneconomical forage. Shoot for a 1250 lbcarcass finish weight.

4) Grow cattle the most economi-cal way rather than the fastest way. Raisehealthy beef without hormones,steroids or implants.

5) Sell retail beef from less desirablegenetics. Develop a clientele that willpurchase all natural Texas Longhornfreezer beef.

6) Sell the best premium stock asregistered breeding stock (females, ex-hibition steers, and bulls) at a premiumwell above meat prices.

7) Market polished skulls, tannedhides and other TL products that can’tbe produced from non-horned cattle.

In the future people who deal inthe wholesale cattle business aregoing to continue to reduce profitsunless they have their main incomefrom registered breeding stock or re-tail meat/beef. The huge clusters ofeasy grapes are gone from the days ofthe Ponderosa — now we study how tomake good profits from raisins. TexasLonghorns can be and are positioned tobe that success tool.

By Darol Dickinson

Starting a Texas Longhorn Retail Meat Business

This is what 95% lean TexasLonghorn beef looks like.People sell this product from$4.50 per lb, which is reallycheap, up to a health foodsstore that gets $9.75 perpound. Somewhere in themiddle, about $5.45 perpound is a good place tobuild a business.

38 Texas Longhorn Trails

It can be a simple business which may noteven require a license to operate in yourstate or it may require some governmentenforcement’s. Stay under the radar asmuch as possible.The three parts of retail beef sales are

1) Inventory, 2) Processing and 3) Market-ing. Assuming a Texas Longhorn producerhas inventory of less than registered value

breeding stock, jump directly to the pro-cessing plan. Locate the processing facility that

works for you. There are three types 1)USDA approved, 2) State approved and 3)back yard butchers who label product NOTFOR RESALE. You can use either of thefirst two for retail sales, but never the lat-ter. USDA inspection is the most expensiveservice to purchase, but allows you to sellproduct all over the nation. Most stateshave state inspection which is nearly asgood or possibly even better than USDA.State inspected product has a stamp onevery package stating that it is inspected.The back yard butcher, for some reason,does not want to become inspected by theauthorities and therefore it is illegal to selltheir products marked NOT FOR RE-SALE.It is a nice thing, in fact a true luxury to

have a nearby processing plant. If a plant iswithin 50 miles that is good. It costs tohaul cattle to be processed. The further theplant the more the cost of the final prod-uct. If the plant that does the best job forthe best price is 200 miles away, just haullarger numbers of cattle less often, and itamortizes out the same. The important partis quality clear plastic packaging and good,clean, honest people to deal with.Call every custom beef processor in the

country. Get prices for their, 1) kill fee, 2)

cost per pound to cut and wrap based onhanging weight, 3) make sure there is noproblem getting the skulls back, 4) onlysettle for clear plastic vacuwrap packages,and 5) what long or short term storageavailability of processed product is of-fered. In every business there are plantsthat are over priced, some need more busi-ness, some are booked up, some are good

managers and some are bad. You may notfind out these answers until after a fewdealings with the company. Of course theshade tree butcher of NOT FOR SALEproduct is normally the most economical.Kill fees bounce from $50 to $80 per

critter, small or large. The packer normallykeeps the hide as part of the kill fee. If tan-ning hides is a part of your business plan,they will have to be purchased back fromthe processor. All of that is negotiable.Cut and wrap fees are from $.40 per

hanging weight pound up to $.80. Skills topackage vary from plant to plant. You willsoon get very opinionated about profes-sional packing; clients will help you know

what they like and what they want to buy. Consumers have to see Texas Long-

horn lean beef in clear plastic shrink wrap.It sells itself and the packing is very im-portant. Lean Texas Longhorns are easy toprocess a 92 to 98% lean product. It is vi-sually far different than the garden varietystore-bought grind. Most stores pump a lotof cheap grain fat into the grind mix just tomake more volume and increase profits. Ground lean beef is the fastest growing

meat product in the USA and the easiest toinventory. A normal family eats moregrind than any other meat. Your businesscan start with one product, the best one,ground beef.Freezer space is always a considera-

tion. You may start with one chest typehome deep freeze in the garage. Chesttype freezers hold more product than the

upright shelf freez-ers. It will holdabout one or oneand a half beeves. Ifthe processor willprovide free frozenstorage that is aplus. As inventorysells from the homedeep freeze morecan be added frominventory stored atthe processors.Planning inven-

tory is what everymerchant must do.It is ideal to havesurplus cattle to

process every month and have an equalnumber of buyers every month. If futurebeef “volunteers” are all born in the Springit takes some planning to move the earlyones forward in their process date andmove the last critters back to make an-nual/monthly production. This is done bymanagement and feeding.As a Texas Longhorn producer and re-

tail meat marketer you might have someconcern about the competition. Not onlydoes every Angus producer in the nationpromote Certified Angus Beef, but otherslike Tyson Foods of Springdale, Arkansasdid $32,270,000,000 in gross sales lastyear. Tyson has to compete on a world

level with JBS of Brazil who did a whoop-ing $37,300,000,000 last year in meatsales. Although the competition lookslarge, keep in mind there are over300,000,000 people in the USA who enjoyabout 60 pounds of beef per year and overa thousand are your neighbors — notneighbors of Tyson or JBS in Brazil. Thatis your advantage — you can competeeasy, and win.

This is what pure Texas Longhorn steers look like that grade low choice and are ready to process. They weigh1245 & 1265 lbs. Thicker bloodlines of TL steers will reach this grade with 100 days of grain finishing at 24 to29 months. It is recommended to allow them to grow on grass or economical forage to beyond 900 lbs before grainfinishing.

Consumers have to see Texas Longhorn leanbeef in clear plastic shrink wrap. It sells it-self and the packing is very important.

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54 Texas Longhorn Trails

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Most start-up businesses fail, and forgood reason. They fail due to lack of capi-tol, lack of business judgment, lack of ex-perience, lack of good vender/providersof services, failed promotion and prod-ucts that many have minimal interest in.All these startup pitfalls for the beginningretail Texas Longhorn beef provider canbe avoided. Success can start promptlyand grow by carefully touching the rightbases.

Understanding the word “retail” isimportant. Retail sales is wonderful, butwholesale is not. All restaurants buywholesale and sell retail. All grocerystores buy wholesale and sell retail. Don’twaste time with restaurants or grocerystores. Go direct to the consumer who isaccustomed to buying retail, cut them aslight discount; now you are ready tomake friends and do a lot of business.

Playing with numbers is a moving tar-get; this is a shoot-from-the-hip look atit. A 1300 lb. steer fed 140 to 200 days on

heavy grain, to a choiceor better grade will sellpieced-out at the grocerycounter for $2900 to$3200. The same steerfed and raised for theCertified Angus pre-mium will be sold by thefeeder/owner to CertifiedAngus for $1400 to$1550 on the hoof. Totarget Texas Longhornfed freezer beef with a1200 plus weight grainfed steer at $2400 is anact of kindness to the re-tail buyer and far supe-rior to selling a liveanimal to CertifiedAngus. People who buy a half or quarterbeef, cut and wrapped, can save severalhundred dollars rather than buy onesteak at a time in their local store. It re-quires a change in buying habits from

$50 a week in a grocery buggy to a halfbeef that would last 7 to 10 months forthe average family. Buying by the half willcost less per week but requires a largerstartup cost.

The next consideration is the FarmersMarkets. These are organizing everywhereand very popular. The consumer gets tomeet their food provider, and that isVERY big now, especially with all types ofmeat. People like to know what breed,where they were raised, what country themeat comes from, were any hormones orimplants used, how much it was aged,how much time on grass, what kind ofgrain was fed, then down to if it wastreated kindly the day of processing --nojoke! Some of these questions are amaz-ing, but never the less, impossible to an-swer by the local grocery store. FarmersMarkets are a way to meet buyers and at-tract new clients.

June Cohron, DVM, and her fatherLarry work the Staunton-Augusta Farm-ers Market in Staunton, Virginia. This istheir third year with a portable refrigera-tor/tent display. June says, “We marketfresh Longhorn steaks and hamburger,beef snack sticks, and fresh eggs all fromour farm in Stuarts Draft. We do well atthe market and the increased exposurehas resulted in a 3 to 4 fold increase inour sales of beef by the quarter and half.Needless to say we no longer sell anycalves as ropers. I can have a steer sired

Building a RetailBeef Business

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Rosemont Manor’s Farm Market display is the project of JuneCohron, DVM, and her father Larry. They are a regular atthe Staunton-Augusta Virginia weekly market providingTexas Longhorn beef and other farm products. Regular clientsknow the quality of Rosemont all natural beef and come pre-pared to purchase. Clients connecting at the public marketbecome buyers of beef all year even though the market is sea-sonal

by a thick Longhorn bull ready to slaugh-ter at 20 months of age with a 550 poundcarcass. Our animals are both grass andgrain fed, depending on the season. Wegrain feed all of the steers or heifers for90 days before market as we feel it en-hances the flavor and tenderness of thebeef.” The Cohrons have numerous pro-motional pieces they offer to potentialbuyers providing detailed nutritional in-formation. They have a crisp refrigeratorwith a glass front for meat visual displays.

James and Carol Gentz of Winnie,Texas work their Farmers Market straighteast of Houston. They have raised TexasLonghorns for many years and work toget good beef gain in their breedingstock. Their tent/display includes a certi-

fied scales and a cleverly designed towtype trailer with two chest freezers keptfrozen with an electric connection at-tached to their truck battery. Their inven-tory includes halves, quarters and up to

40 cubic feet of fresh frozen Texas Long-horn beef available right on site. Theirclients know they will be at the marketand come prepared to purchase in vol-ume with ice chests ready. The Gentz

have invested in serious laboratorydata to provide information onomega 3, lean percentages and pro-tein content of their beef. Jamessays, “The serious part is in the pas-ture where cattle are bred for themarket, weighed and evaluated forrate of rain, easy fleshing and econ-omy of production.” James believesraising bloodlines that are provento gain efficiently are imperative toa good profit when selling by thepound. Some bloodlines gain welland some don’t.

Quality beef is a wonderfulbarter product. The fact300,000,000 people in the USA eatbeef, it is easy to trade for otherservices or products. Texas Long-horn beef becomes a currency in it-self. Consider trading home grownbeef for accounting services, me-chanical work, haircuts, home re-

James and Carol Gentz of Gentz CattleCompany work a Farmers Market andmove a whole crop of cattle annually. Notethe freezers in the handy trailer, the certi-fied scales, promo materials, price sheetsand enough product to feed a large group ofbuyers. Texas Longhorn all natural beef isright at home in their area east of Hous-ton, Texas. It is a native product.

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60 Texas Longhorn Trails

Please send an acknowledgement to:Name ________________________________________Address ______________________________________City ____________________ State _____ Zip _______My Name _____________________________________Address ______________________________________City ____________________ State _____ Zip _______

Enclosed is my gift of ___ $25 ___$50 ___$100 __$_____

___ In memory of: ______________________________

___ In honor of: ________________________________Name of person to be remembered. Please print.

Please mail form and donation to the Texas Longhorn Breeders of AmericaFoundation, P.O. Box 4430, Ft. Worth, TX 76164.

January 2014 63

pairs, hay, tires, labor, fire wood, otherfood products, pasture use, etc. Thewhole world is a consumer and a barterprospect.

Longhorn beef is a wonderful gift.The health benefits certainly merit pro-viding family members a food productyou are sure is healthy and nutritious.Rather than givesome importedelectronic gadget--give beef. Givebeef to familym e m b e r s a tChristmas – it isthe best gift togive. You will be remembered with everyenjoyable bite.

Many have tried TV, radio and newspaper advertising to minimal success.These media are very expensive for a tar-get audience, few find them profitable.Hand out materials and tear off stripposters are economical and they do work.Hand out promotion materials to peopledeparting after church and ask yourfriends to post promo materials. (This

works best if you attend a large church.) There are thousands of social organi-

zations like Rotary, Moose, Bears, Kiwa-nis, Lions, Elks, etc. Offer to be thespeaker and discuss the many health ben-efits of Texas Longhorn beef. Rotary hasweekly noon lunch meetings and hunt anew speaker for each week. While mak-

ing a sales presentation hand out pro-motion materials, show a frozen beefsample pack, and pass around a yellowtablet for each person to write down theirname, address and e-mail. You will get afree meal, the gift of a Rotary cup or ballpoint pen. (Always act gracious to receiveeven your twentieth Rotary pen as if itwas the first.)

If you live in a small rural area jointhe Chamber of Commerce in the largest

city around. Attend meetings and speakup about your product. There will bestrong support for Chamber membersand their products. They will buy prod-uct from chamber members quicker thannon members. At the farmers marketthere may be a half dozen others sellingbeef, but you will be the only chamber

member wear-ing a westernhat peddl ingbeef at the downtown chambermonthly meet-ing. (Don’t weara free farmer

seed cap, wear a western hat.) Start out with one or two chest freez-

ers, some coolers and grow the business.Although it may seem slow at first, somehumble appearing “meat peddlers” arecranking out 20 to 50 steers a year withan average gross per steer of $2200 to$2600 each. That is just the start --then itreally grows!

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There are thousands of social organizationslike Rotary, Moose, Bears, Kiwanis, Lions, Elks,etc. Offer to be the speaker and discuss themany health benefits of Texas Longhorn beef.