Up close: Local beef demand surges

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Local resource Missoula-area beef producers see big spike in demand

DAVID ERICKSON david.erickson@missoulian.com A pparently there’s nothing like a locally raised steak to get Missoulians through a long home isolation and boost the economy.

Missoula-area cattle ranching operations have seen a big uptick in sales during the coronavirus pandemic as consumers stock up on meat in order to avoid going to the grocery store.

Carly Lewis is an ex-vegetarian-turned rancher in Frenchtown. She and her family, husband Jim and son Clay, run Triple L Livestock. She said business has been great the last few weeks.

“We’ve definitely seen new interest from people in buying local meat,” she said. “I would say in the last month we sold like 800 pounds of ground burger. I think folks are looking for local sources a little bit more, and realizing that food security is something they’ve taken for granted in the past. “

She’s noticed on social media that more people are showing interest in their own gardens.

“People are realizing, gosh, we’re depending on big systems and if they crash it’s going to cause major problems,” she said. “If there’s any bright spot in this tragedy it’s people getting a new awareness of how important it is to be tapped into the local food system.”

Jim Lewis, who’s managed cattle his whole life, definitely noticed a surge in demand.

“When the COVID-19 hit, our hamburger sales went boom, through the roof,” he said.

He said that at $5 a pound, his grassfed, grain-finished beef is a good deal because it has a great taste and isn’t too fatty. He says people might appreciate the fact that they don’t have to drain all kinds of fat off Triple L hamburger when they cook it, thereby saving money.

Sales have also been climbing for Oxbow Cattle Co., located in the Miller Creek area south of Missoula.

“For us, business is really good,” said co-owner/manager Bart Morris. “We lost a lot of restaurants, which breaks our heart, but our little store and direct sales are doing really good.”

Morris and his wife Wendy, who has a day job as a local health care worker, run the operation with a ton of help from their only employee, Caroline Caldwell.

They raise the cattle using progressive intensive grazing techniques and sell the grass-finished beef in all kinds of cuts, from ribeye steaks to brisket and burger.

The also sell whole and half beef portions, the largest of which can be in excess of 500 pounds, as long as customers have the freezer capacity to store it.

“We sold two today,” Morris said on April 2. “We have another two that we’re splitting into halves, quarters and eighths. We have 13 people coming to pick up today.”

Oxbow Cattle set up a farm-tomarket store about two years ago, and it’s based on an honor system. People can go in whenever they want and leave cash, checks or pay by Venmo. Morris said he attributes the rise in business to a variety of factors.

“I think a little bit of everything from a food security standpoint locally, to keeping the money local,” he said. “It’s been really amazing. It’s awesome to see. It makes us feel good. People want to support local ag and they want some of the best beef in the country.”

Caldwell, who has studied and worked on agricultural operations from Finland to Australia to the Falkland Islands, said Oxbow cattle get treated better than they would on an industrial feedlot. They are free to graze on an open pasture, although Caldwell and Morris often move their fences to make sure the pasture has time to regenerate in areas that have been intensively grazed.

“I think the special thing for us, too, is our beef is raised here,” Caldwell said. “I think people really find value in this is a Missoula beef, you know. You can buy grass-fed, grass-finished, but you’ll still have to pick it up in a Walmart parking lot.” “If there’s any bright spot in this tragedy it’s people getting a new awareness of how important it is to be tapped into the local food system.” - Carly Lewis, Triple L Livestock

Nick Silverman, left, looks to purchase meat from Oxbow Cattle Co. at their farm-to-market store.

In 2017, Wendy and Bart worked with Five Valleys Land Trust to put 168 acres of important agricultural soil, scenic grassland and riparian wildlife habitat into a conservation easement.

“We have Bitterroot River estuaries, high native grasses in the hilltops and deep wooded areas,” Caldwell explained. “It’s really varied. I think that’s why the beef tastes so good, too. Because you can have grass-finished beef on monoculture. You know, you can put them on an alfalfa pivot and the taste is so singular, whereas for us they eat native grasses and forbs and kinda everything. It’s super complex.”

It all comes down to a simple motto. “We believe you are what you eat,” she said. “And so if what you eat is just eating grain or alfalfa then it just tastes like that, you know.”

Morris said they’re seeing a lot of growth in housing around the ranch, and he hopes to be the local meat supplier for his neighbors.

“We’re hoping to be here for a long time,” he said. “We got a lot of different things going on, a lot of communitybased things.”

For people looking for vegetables, the Western Montana Growers Cooperative and farms like Missoula Grain and Vegetable Co. are taking online orders and getting food to customers with minimum or no contact.

Carly Lewis, at Triple L Ranch in Frenchtown, said customers bought almost everything they had on stock after the statewide stay-at-home order came down.

“We’ve got less than 50 pounds right now,” she said on April 3. “But we’ve got two more cows headed down to butcher. We raise natural beef, so that’s no hormones, (no) antibiotics, and they’re pasture-raised. We do finish them off with a touch of barley to change the flavor profile right at the end.”

She said they sell bulk butcher steers in the whole, half or quarter, and they can also get customers steaks or roasts along with the burger.

“We have a licensed retail site at Nourishing Cultures in Missoula (2825 Stockyard Road, Suite C2),” she said. “We can do curbside pickup. People are buying bulk meat.”

Through her Triple L Livestock Instagram page, Lewis also tries to show the community what life is like on a small-scale cattle ranch in Montana’s varied seasons.

Morris and Caldwell, at Oxbow Cattle Co., are just happy that they’re feeding the community and getting supported in return.

“We’re trying to do our best and that’s all we can do as humans,” Bart Morris said.