Wedding Vows and Raising Cows

Lettie McKinney never expected to house a wedding venue on her property, but when her younger sister came to her with the wish to get married on McKinney’s recently purchased property, McKinney got to work.

“I wasn’t looking for a wedding venue, but the venue found me,” McKinney said.

The fourth generation on her family’s farm and ranch in Johnson, Kansas, McKinney returned to the operation after getting an animal science degree at Oklahoma State University, graduating Texas Christian University’s Ranch Management Program, and working in feedyards for a few years.

“I was able to get experience in the feedyards that is absolutely necessary for what I do today,” she said.

She moved back to Kansas sooner than anticipated to be closer to her family and assist her father with farming and cattle production while he battled health issues. She knew it’d be valuable to learn beside her father so she could successfully run the operation one day.

“I had to make the tough decision to either go home now and be able to learn from my dad, or there’s going to be a day when I don’t have an option and I have to go home and I won’t be able to glean his knowledge,” she reflected. “I knew there would be a lot of sacrifice, but it was a really great decision.”

McKinney bought a piece of property near her parents’ that had been in the family since the 1950s. On the property, there are views of beautiful rolling hills, native grasses, an old grain bin and metal RoundTop structure. Around this time, her sister got engaged and decided to get married on McKinney’s new property.

“I just wanted to create an opportunity for people to get married out here where their family was from or on the rolling hills of a prairie ranch, having the aesthetic of something that is unique and different, and that’s where the RoundTop began,” McKinney explained.

When the McKinney family began work to create the event space and wedding venue that the RoundTop is today, it was just a structure and an idea. It had a dirt floor, no running water or electricity. Within a month, with an all-hands-on-board effort, it was transformed. Electricity, septic and running water were added as well as decorating and finding vendors for the wedding.

“We had four or five people here working every day,” McKinney said. “I don’t know how we got it done but we sure did! It was in 2020, the worst year to open a wedding venue.”

To date, they’ve hosted 10 weddings and they are focusing on ranch destination weddings in 2023. But it isn’t all white dresses and marriage vows, the RoundTop is also the location for numerous other community events like concerts, banquets, baby showers, graduations and more. That was part of the appeal for McKinney, since her small town did not have a space for local events besides the local 4-H building. This was not only a way for her to add value to the family business, but it was a way to do something for her community and provide a place for memories to be made.

“It makes my heart happy. I love when people rent it out,” she said. “It has been great to see the different demographics as well. Seeing everybody come together and have a place to celebrate all different occasions is special.”

The RoundTop is unique because it can be made into whatever the client can dream up. It is a blank canvas, so whether it is a wedding or quinceañera, it can be decorated any way to create whatever environment they envision.

Diversification on a long-time farm or ranch can be the make or break for generations looking to come home and create a living for themselves and/or their family. However, many of the ideas people have for diversification take a large initial investment. The relationship and trust McKinney had with her local bank allowed her to get a loan to create her vision for the RoundTop. On top of that, she found numerous USDA

National Resources Conservation Services programs to help fund projects like updating the septic system. Other than updates and improvements, the RoundTop does not require much financing to maintain and was a great investment for McKinney and her family. Recently, McKinney added an Airbnb to the property by repurposing the grain bin that was there.

“The grain bin is the coolest part, I think,” McKinney said. “During the winter, the RoundTop is pretty slow. I knew eventually I wanted to create an Airbnb experience that brings people to the ranch to see it for themselves.”

The grain bin was first used as the bar for weddings, but now it triples as a bridal suite for brides to get ready and an Airbnb for people passing through rural Kansas. They installed a small kitchenette and living space downstairs as well as a loft.

“It’s a perfect stay for hunters, and honestly, I get a lot of people from everywhere,” McKinney said. “I had some people from Germany!”

As McKinney looks to the future, the next projects for the RoundTop are to add fencing around the perimeter and to install insulation so it can be used more frequently in the winter. She also wants to increase the amount of community events hosted at the RoundTop and continue to build name recognition.

Besides hosting beautiful ranch weddings, the McKinneys run a cow-calf operation, background calves on wheat pasture, and grow crops like corn, wheat, alfalfa and cotton (a new experiment). When her great grandparents originally bought the land and started running cattle, they bred shorthorns. Now, some genetics of that herd remain, but they’ve added Hereford cows and Red and Black Angus crosses. McKinney puts the crossbred heifer calves into MC- Meat Co., a direct-to-consumer beef business that she began before moving back to the family farm. The idea was sparked during her time at Oklahoma State University.

“When I was in Stillwater, I saw the huge disconnect with our customers and people who think beef could harm them,” McKinney said. “That was where MC Meat Co. started because I wanted to share the journey of how we raise beef, and this is an animal that never leaves our home until it is processed.”

The business has grown exponentially, from selling four head the first year, to now selling four to six head every month. She attributes much of her growth to the loyalty of her customers and the trust she built with them.

“It took me a long time to build my customer base, the loyalty and the trust factor. I’ve been working on this project for five years, and I am finally starting to feel like I am getting somewhere,” McKinney explained.

McKinney often gets inquiries asking how to start a direct-to-consumer company and the steps to start. She gladly shares her knowledge and experience because she knows that each producer will have a different customer base, a different story to share, and will be providing a high-quality product to their community.

“Hearing people’s testimony on how amazing our beef is, I take a lot of pride in producing that quality. You’re responsible for the product that person is eating,” she said. “Having that ownership and hearing my customers’ testimony is everything. Almost all my customers are returning customers.”

McKinney has excelled at diversifying the farm and ranch when she moved home, and she sought many avenues for profitability so multiple families can live off the land her great grandparents had since the Great Depression. Her creativity and persistence launched her into these opportunities.

“I think it is so important to find your passion within your operation, because [ranching] can be a hard life. I think everybody knows that. Finding something that you can stay lit up and passionate about every day is so important to get out of the rut,” McKinney said as a piece of wisdom to other producers looking to increase the value of their operation.