Herding Beef In a New Direction

“I always thought it was unfortunate that commercial cattle producers spend so much time — they calve the animal, they breed the animal and then they just send them off and we really don’t know where our product’s going — if it ends up here in the U.S. or not,” said Nate Baltrusch, cattle manager at Baltrusch Land and Cattle, who also runs his own herd of registered black Angus.

“It’s something I had in my mind, that I thought it would be more fulfilling if I could go pasture to plate — not so much that it made more money but to know that my neighbors or whatever were getting to enjoy the product that I spend so much time on.”

And when the price of cattle sold at market plummeted, while the price of beef in the store nearly tripled, this last spring, Baltrusch decided to act on his idea. He had three head of his own cattle processed at Pioneer Meats in Big Timber, a U.S. Department of Agriculture certified packing plant, and started selling the packaged beef through his new venture, Baltrusch Angus Beef.

After successfully applying for a Montana Agriculture Adaptability Program grant, he used the money to help pay for freezers and a point of sale system for online shopping that shows his current inventory on his beef store website. A little of the funding also helped to convert an enclosed trailer into a refrigerated unit to keep everything at 30 degrees during transport back to his store.

Baltrusch he hopes his move helps bring about changes in the beef industry.

“I would say that with the packing plants shutting down, and the COVID, and the big hit to the whole beef market that it is today, was kind of the catalyst,” he added.

Starting March 31, just more than a month after the U.S. documented its first case of COVID-19 transmission within the country, hundreds of workers at several meatpacking plants across the country became ill, forcing the plants to shut down. This crippled the industry for ranchers and created a meat shortage for consumers at the grocery story.

Serious weaknesses were showing

in the food supply chain which now “Us producers were standing there relies heavily on a few major packing saying, ‘There’s beef everywhere, and plants to supply most of the U.S. we can’t get it to people,’” Baltrusch beef, as well as pork, chicken, and said. lamb. The few local meat processors were quickly overwhelmed with reIt’s young people who want to stay quests to schedule beef in for butch ering. Baltrusch said he called Pioneer here and make a Meats while planting spring wheat, go, but also support each and when that meat started selling other. We just want to out right away he called back in about make a living and enhance the community. three weeks later and the company was booked up until January. He expected his next bump in inventory Nate Baltrusch, Cattle Manager, at the end of September or beginning of October from two Angus he was Baltrusch Land & Cattle having processed at Bear Paw Meats in Chinook. The meat processors that Baltrusch October 2020 | LIVING Havre and the Hi-Line MAGAZINE |

said he can use are limited because going to be pushing those mid-level any local sellers,” he added, but he is he is a beef retailer so the beef has cuts,” he said, though 600 pounds of hoping that this new venture will help to be processed in inspected and hamburger along with cuts like T-bone change the meat processing system, certified meatpacking plants. Meat steaks and prime rib went quickly. make it more stable, from the ground processed at a USDA certified plant His solution could be to have more up, and bring back the mom and pop can be sold anywhere, and meat hamburger made or offer more round operations. processed at a state certified plant roast rather than round steak, he said. Entrepreneurship is strong in small like Bear Paw Meats can only be sold Though he is also working on securtowns — especially Havre — and within the state. ing a commercial meat contract lothese new business people aren’t Baltrusch said he sat down and cally — hopefully, he said, for burger, afraid to work for a living, Baltrusch figured when he could expect cattle flat iron steaks, finger steaks and top said. ready for processing from his 200 sirloin. “It’s young people who want to head of commercial cattle, and 50 A contract of some kind would stay here and make a go, but also head of registered black Angus and make expanding easier and provide support each other,” he said. “We just started booking dates. He said he’ll stability, he said. want to make a living and enhance have three head processed in January, “I’m not trying to out compete the community.” but then is bumping up production to 20 head in May or June as well as another 20 head as early as December. Before the big influx of inventory in early summer, he said, he’ll have to Order online at https://baltruschangusbeef.shopsettings.com have his planned upgrade in place – a Follow the ranch at frozen storage building, basically a large meat locker. Starting out slow has given Balhttp://www.baltruschangusranch.com or trusch the opportunity to figure out https://www.facebook.com/BaltruschAngus what sells, what customers want. “I can tell that my challenge is 22 | LIVING Havre and the Hi-Line MAGAZINE | October 2020