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Read the entire story at https://www.extension.iastate.edu/AGDM/ ... 5-220.html
A few snippets...
Editor's Note: Tallgrass Prairie Producers Co-op
operated from 1995 to 2000, raising and marketing
grass-fed beef from ten Kansas ranches. It ceased
active operation in 2000. Below is the story of why
and how. While the cluster continues to explore ways
to work together, former business manager Annie
Wilson offers the following as their lessons learned
in the hopes that others will benefit from what
they've learned.
The purpose of this article is not to discourage other
producers from niche marketing, but to share our
experiences in our five years of marketing grassfed
beef. The variables in any business effort are so
endless that we cannot conclusively pronounce what
will or won't work for others. Times change and
undoubtedly some of the production and marketing
realities we faced are different now. A new and different
formula may work today. We only know what
happened to us, and will try to communicate our
perspective here.
First we will give a general overview of our history,
followed by what we saw as the critical elements of
success, some of which we unfortunately lacked.
Business history
Tallgrass Beef is a product produced by ten ranch
families in a marketing cooperative called Tallgrass
Prairie Producers Co-op. Our original mission was
"to produce and market meat products from livestock
raised in a way to maximize conservation of
natural resources and minimize use of fossil fuels
and farm chemicals." We decided to raise cattle that
spent their entire lives on the pasture, never in the
feedlot, avoiding the grain and feedlot production
model and producing a unique lean, grass-fed beef
product raised without hormones or sub-therapeutic
antibiotics.
Catch-22 or barriers
Barriers we encountered were numerous. Many
we were able to overcome through hard work and
determination. Others had become insurmountable
by the time we perceived them clearly, and we found
ourselves caught in a vicious cycle.
Our volume was too low to obtain processing of our
product at an economically viable, competitive rate
(our costs were triple those of other high volume
suppliers). Yet even managing the volume of orders
we had was exhausting our members and employees.
We lacked adequate supply to access the markets we
needed to reach the volume we needed to obtain affordable
processing and transportation. Additionally,
we did not have the capital to acquire professional
management to guide our company in these directions.
A few snippets...
Editor's Note: Tallgrass Prairie Producers Co-op
operated from 1995 to 2000, raising and marketing
grass-fed beef from ten Kansas ranches. It ceased
active operation in 2000. Below is the story of why
and how. While the cluster continues to explore ways
to work together, former business manager Annie
Wilson offers the following as their lessons learned
in the hopes that others will benefit from what
they've learned.
The purpose of this article is not to discourage other
producers from niche marketing, but to share our
experiences in our five years of marketing grassfed
beef. The variables in any business effort are so
endless that we cannot conclusively pronounce what
will or won't work for others. Times change and
undoubtedly some of the production and marketing
realities we faced are different now. A new and different
formula may work today. We only know what
happened to us, and will try to communicate our
perspective here.
First we will give a general overview of our history,
followed by what we saw as the critical elements of
success, some of which we unfortunately lacked.
Business history
Tallgrass Beef is a product produced by ten ranch
families in a marketing cooperative called Tallgrass
Prairie Producers Co-op. Our original mission was
"to produce and market meat products from livestock
raised in a way to maximize conservation of
natural resources and minimize use of fossil fuels
and farm chemicals." We decided to raise cattle that
spent their entire lives on the pasture, never in the
feedlot, avoiding the grain and feedlot production
model and producing a unique lean, grass-fed beef
product raised without hormones or sub-therapeutic
antibiotics.
Catch-22 or barriers
Barriers we encountered were numerous. Many
we were able to overcome through hard work and
determination. Others had become insurmountable
by the time we perceived them clearly, and we found
ourselves caught in a vicious cycle.
Our volume was too low to obtain processing of our
product at an economically viable, competitive rate
(our costs were triple those of other high volume
suppliers). Yet even managing the volume of orders
we had was exhausting our members and employees.
We lacked adequate supply to access the markets we
needed to reach the volume we needed to obtain affordable
processing and transportation. Additionally,
we did not have the capital to acquire professional
management to guide our company in these directions.