New Wyoming Law Lets Local Ranchers Sell Cuts of Meat Directly to Consumers

[HDRider]

A new animal share amendment will let consumers buy individual cuts of meat directly from ranchers though an animal-share agreement, completely outside of the typical U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection regime. That's something that's still illegal in the other 49 states. It's also why the Wyoming law could be a game changer for ranchers in the state and—should other states follow suit—a valuable new revenue stream for farmers and ranchers across the country.

The new amendment was introduced by Wyoming State Rep. Tyler Lindholm (R), who co-sponsored the bipartisan Food Freedom Act five years ago.

"The idea for the bill is simple," Lindholm—a rancher with whom I serve on the board of the nonprofit Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund—told me this week. "Let ranchers and farmers sell herd shares for their animals. That way the entire herd is 'owned' by all of the customers before slaughter, thereby meeting the exemption standards of the federal law, and now the rancher does not have to jump through the hoops of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and can utilize the smaller mom and pop butchers that still [exist] in most of our small towns."



https://reason.com/2020/04/04/novel-new-wyoming-law-lets-local-ranchers-sell-cuts-of-meat-directly-to-consumers/

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Very clever work around.

 

[Dave]

I was talking to a rancher at his branding last week. We were discussing the direct marketing thing. I know two different guys who are doing very well by direct marketing. But both of them sell over on the Washington coast where there are millions of people. His comment was how to you do that with nearly 400 calves in a county with only 16,000 people. The same thing will apply in Wyoming where in the vast majority of the state there are more cows than people. It is a nice sentiment but not really much help.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Our farm is 45 miles from Cincinnati, 55 miles from Louisville, 70 or so from Lexington, and 100ish from Indianapolis. I might be able to make something like that work.

 

[HDRider]

Other states need to adopt something like this Wyoming law.

It gives us another market outlet beyond the big four mega processors.

 

[HDRider]

Beyond direct sales to beef customers, this gives us the ability to sell directly to retailers, cutting out the mega processors and their strangle hold on current retail.

 

[dieselbeef]

people only want steaks........3$ a lb too

 

[greybeard]

Or 80/20 ground beef at $1.50/lb

 

[TerraceRidge]

I was talking to a rancher at his branding last week. We were discussing the direct marketing thing. I know two different guys who are doing very well by direct marketing. But both of them sell over on the Washington coast where there are millions of people. His comment was how to you do that with nearly 400 calves in a county with only 16,000 people. The same thing will apply in Wyoming where in the vast majority of the state there are more cows than people. It is a nice sentiment but not really much help.

If 16,000 people eat beef 4 times per week at a half-pound per meal, that's 32,000 lb of beef per week, or 1,664,000 lb of beef per year. Divide that by a 70% yield and again by a 60% dressing percentage, and you get right at 4 million pounds of live weight. At 1,200 lb per finished steer, it would take over 3,300 finished steers to provide that whole county with beef for a year. If they only eat beef twice a week, then it will still take over 1,650 finished steers. The market potential is there if people actually resolved to buy and sell locally.

 

[Dave]

I was talking to a rancher at his branding last week. We were discussing the direct marketing thing. I know two different guys who are doing very well by direct marketing. But both of them sell over on the Washington coast where there are millions of people. His comment was how to you do that with nearly 400 calves in a county with only 16,000 people. The same thing will apply in Wyoming where in the vast majority of the state there are more cows than people. It is a nice sentiment but not really much help.

If 16,000 people eat beef 4 times per week at a half-pound per meal, that's 32,000 lb of beef per week, or 1,664,000 lb of beef per year. Divide that by a 70% yield and again by a 60% dressing percentage, and you get right at 4 million pounds of live weight. At 1,200 lb per finished steer, it would take over 3,300 finished steers to provide that whole county with beef for a year. If they only eat beef twice a week, then it will still take over 1,650 finished steers. The market potential is there if people actually resolved to buy and sell locally.

In the winter when the cows are down out of the hills there is nearly 2,000 cows between my house and the post office. That is only 5 miles. I know of several operators who have over 2,000 cows. I helped a guy brand calves out of his replacement heifers today. A little over 100 calves and that is just the replacement heifers. And there are still some heifers who haven't calved yet. There is some local sales. But pretty much everyone knows a rancher or two. Those who want a beef or half buy one from a rancher they know. But it is 2 or 3 here and 5 steers there.

 

[TerraceRidge]

I was talking to a rancher at his branding last week. We were discussing the direct marketing thing. I know two different guys who are doing very well by direct marketing. But both of them sell over on the Washington coast where there are millions of people. His comment was how to you do that with nearly 400 calves in a county with only 16,000 people. The same thing will apply in Wyoming where in the vast majority of the state there are more cows than people. It is a nice sentiment but not really much help.

If 16,000 people eat beef 4 times per week at a half-pound per meal, that's 32,000 lb of beef per week, or 1,664,000 lb of beef per year. Divide that by a 70% yield and again by a 60% dressing percentage, and you get right at 4 million pounds of live weight. At 1,200 lb per finished steer, it would take over 3,300 finished steers to provide that whole county with beef for a year. If they only eat beef twice a week, then it will still take over 1,650 finished steers. The market potential is there if people actually resolved to buy and sell locally.

In the winter when the cows are down out of the hills there is nearly 2,000 cows between my house and the post office. That is only 5 miles. I know of several operators who have over 2,000 cows. I helped a guy brand calves out of his replacement heifers today. A little over 100 calves and that is just the replacement heifers. And there are still some heifers who haven't calved yet. There is some local sales. But pretty much everyone knows a rancher or two. Those who want a beef or half buy one from a rancher they know. But it is 2 or 3 here and 5 steers there.

That does make perfect sense. I was thinking about the guy with 400 calves. If he wanted to go into direct marketing big time, he could probably make it work with 400 feeder calves. But, if it's anything like North Carolina, his problem might be finding custom processors with that kind of availability.

 

[HDRider]

A big problem is most people cannot store a quarter of a beef, much less a half or whole.

 

[Dave]

I know a guy about 2 hours west of here who does the direct marketing. He has a small feedlot and cows out to pasture all over the place. Has a couple good looking young ladies who sell or him at farmers markets. Sells meat to restaurants. And I am assuming direct to people too. He must have a huge walking freezer at home. But he is a full time road warrior getting it all done. It is 3 hours west of him to a small USDA inspected slaughter facility. Then the carcasses have to go 2 hours north to a USDA inspected cut and wrap (that is only a mile and half from where I lived on the Washington coast). He is on the road constantly, hauling cows or meat. Runs to tires off his truck.

 

[HDRider]

I know a guy about 2 hours west of here who does the direct marketing. He has a small feedlot and cows out to pasture all over the place. Has a couple good looking young ladies who sell or him at farmers markets. Sells meat to restaurants. And I am assuming direct to people too. He must have a huge walking freezer at home. But he is a full time road warrior getting it all done. It is 3 hours west of him to a small USDA inspected slaughter facility. Then the carcasses have to go 2 hours north to a USDA inspected cut and wrap (that is only a mile and half from where I lived on the Washington coast). He is on the road constantly, hauling cows or meat. Runs to tires off his truck.

I admire his effort, but that just sucks.

He travels 6 hours there and back to slaughter. Then 2 hours to wrap. Then back home. He has a full day to haul a load ready for market. Then he (or the good looking ladies) sits all day, maybe two days, at the farmers' market.

He is running his tires off. That is not how I see things working.

Ideally he hauls to a small processors much closer. A retailer buys it from the processor to build some volume for the producer, and the guy sells it direct himself.

Here the USDA processes, ages, and wraps.