Mark's grass-fed farm in the Ozarks.
We met Grass-fed Party member Mark Hudson in September at a Cowcus in New York. Mark had come all the way from Arkansas for the Cowcus! We found out that Mark was in the process of starting a small grass-fed farm in Southwest Missouri, the heart of Ozark country. The land he currently owns was settled by his great-grandparents in the 1860’s when his grandfather drove cattle over from Georgia and Tennessee to the Ozarks and met his wife, a woman of the cattle owning Caddo tribe. They established a farm together, which stayed in Mark’s family until the 1950’s. Mark, who grew up on an adjacent farm, recently bought part of the old family farm, which had changed hands in the 50s.
Tell me a little bit about the farm you grew up on. Did your family raise grass-fed cows? Our cattle were on grass; however, the majority of the calves were weaned and sold as feeder cattle. This is on land my father purchased in the 1960’s. Until the early 1970’s most of these light calves went to the wheat pastures in Kansas for finishing. Typically, during the 30 days prior to slaughter, grain was provided. As a kid we ate grass-fed beef from our own cows. I remember wishing we could eat the plastic wrapped supermarket beef, but I’ve since realized how much better I had it.
When my ancestors came to this area in the 1860’s they brought cows. Their calves were weaned and tuned to grass. They also grazed the mountainsides for acorns to supplement their diet. Old folks around here say, “A good acorn meant fat cattle in the spring.”
After 1 to 2 years, the fat cattle were driven to market. My Grandfather drove cattle to markets in Kansas City on horseback. They were all grass-fed. At first to Kansas City and later to the railroad in Crane, Mo. They were truly grass-fed for over 100 years.
As a kid did you see yourself owning your own farm one day? Yes. I always planned to continue and expand the farming operation. FFA and 4-H were a significant part of childhood on the farm.
Have you been able to do that?
While working as a grain inspector I established a farrow-to-finish hog operation. I grew grain, mixed feed, farrowed pigs and finished to 245 lbs. With high input costs and low returns, the operation was not sustainable.
Three years ago land next to our family farm came up for sale. This land was part of my great grandfather’s place. I purchased this acreage and am in the process of reclaiming pastures and installing improvements.
I spent a few years looking for a bank that would give me a loan to buy the cattle. Because grass-fed cattle need more time to grow, I wouldn’t be able to make a payment for at least 2 years. I finally found a local banker who knows me and helped me buy the cattle. It took a few years of looking.
I am establishing all pasture without chemicals and using the most environmentally sensitive practices. The USDA Conservation Service is very helpful in this area. I recently gained funding through the federal EQIP program. It basically helps pay for wells and fencing to keep cattle out of natural springs and to put native grasses back on the land. I have until November 2009 to finish my improvements.
What is ecologically distinctive about your part of the country? One distinction is in the Ozarks we have some of the highest carrying capacity per cattle per acre, given to the grasses, soil, and climate. We get about 2 snows per year. Grass is growing all year round. My cows will graze native warm weather grasses in the winter and cool weather grasses such as clover fescue in the summer. We also have hardy cattle for four seasons grazing.
What kind of cows are you raising?I’m raising Charolais and I just bought a new herd of Black Angus Heifers from a local farmer, so I know their history well. I know what they’ve been eating. They’re bred so they’ll be calving in February.
What are the biggest issues in your region? The biggest issue is the market for the live grass-finished cattle. Where can I take a live grass-fed cow and sell it? We can’t process meat and sell it to anyone without a USDA certified facility processing it, and most of those are own by the big 3 packers. I couldn’t just bring in 30 cows. I consider myself a wholesale producer meat on the hoof. We never had control, before the packers, it was the government – they bought and processed the cows.
If the USDA would ease up, I could produce any grass-fed beef cheaper or for as much as a feedlot. If we truly had a Grass-fed America, I could take my calf to a sell barn that would have a way to process it or pack it as a grass-fed product without shipping it to a feedlot. The 2 sell barns within a 50 mile radius of my place run about 5,000 to 6,000 calves per week.
I was trying to find out what to do with my cattle that will be ready in 2010. I have friends who own restaurants, but because I don’t have a USDA processing facility to process them, legally I’d have to sell them as live cows to the restaurants owners, who would be in charge of processing them. I’m committed to it though. I’m raising them. I’m raising grass-fed cows and what I do with them I’ll have to figure that out when the time comes.
I’m very excited about our new administration. Our cheep food policy in the US has had many benefits but it has created the subsidized corn/feedlot/agri-busness we have today. It is imperative that we revisit our food policy as build new energy and economic policies.
