“The most natural meat is the most profitable method” 

Marionville, Missouri

In 1996, Rick Hopkins was just about at breaking point with his 100-acre Missouri beef farm on the flat foothills of the Ozark Mountains . He was raising 40 head of adult cattle on a small plot of unmanaged pasture, supplementing their diet with 300 bails of hay per year and weaning calves on grain. As per the advice of extension agents, he gave his animals antibiotics at the first sign of a runny nose, anti-worm medication twice a year, and three to four vaccinations at birth, followed by annual booster shots.

“It seemed like every time we turned around we were spending money on something,” he said. And while costs were high, the prices he fetched from feedlot operators that bid on his calves at livestock auctions were low. So low, in fact, they often dipped below his costs of production.

“When we looked at all our liabilities and assets … it became pretty apparent that how we were operating at the farm was one of our greatest liabilities,” Rick recalls. So he got on the phone, calling everyone from university extension agents to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, to learn about other ways to raise and market livestock, and he started pouring through book on grazing techniques.

He discovered that moving his cattle to a new plot of grass every other day, eliminating grain and all forms of medication could not only save labor and significantly reduce expenses, it would also make his cattle healthier.

“The most natural meat is the most profitable method,” he observed. Since changing practices, the rancher has reduced the amount of hay needed to supplement grazing by 90 percent. He has also increased the herd health, claiming 100 percent calving rate now, compared to only three quarters of cows that delivered healthy calves by his previous method. Not only did the transition make farming easier, it opened up new market opportunities with people that wanted chemical-free beef.

Rick admits he had no business experience when he started exploring direct marketing.

“I just kind of stumbled along there for a while,” he said, and for the first few years spent almost all of his time advertising. He built a Web site, got a stall at the Springfield Farmer’s Market, and began developing relationships with the chamber of commerce, local restaurants and grocers. He lost money for the first two years, but had set his sights on a five-year business plan to sell everything he could produce by that time.

Rick surpassed his goal and then could no longer keep up with demand for his beef with the grass-fed, old-fashioned flavor.

So he began recruiting other farms to market through his American Pasturage label. Soon three growers were on board, all adhering to the standards that cattle be fed only hay and forage (grass)—no grain. Growers are prevented from treating cattle with chemicals or medications, although Rick makes some allowances to vaccinate for growers who introduce new animals to their system.

With the added supply, American Pasturage could move at least a dozen veal calves and as many as 50 mature animals per year through three wholesale accounts, one restaurant, three grocery stores and the farmers market. He also sells through his Web site and directly off the farm.

He has added a 30-head flock of sheep, which generate 15 percent of his earnings, and 1,000 free-range chickens and 80 laying hens, which pay for themselves and fertilize the pastures.

Rick moved to more natural growing practices to save his farm from bankruptcy, but his new ways have evolved into a land ethic. He is converting his pastures to native grasses, which typically have deeper roots than non-natives and can retain water and nutrients better, and preserve habitat for quail and other prairie animals.

The former power industry employee takes pride that his operation relies on fossil fuel energy only to cut and bail hay and to transport the meat. And with 95 percent of his clients within a 40 mile radius of the ranch, the beef doesn’t travel very far.

Rick has also become a family farm advocate. As farms get bigger and more removed from consumers, he sees an increasing need for smaller farms with local clientele to ensure food security. That’s why, even if the business plan hadn’t worked and he’d been forced to sell off most of his land, he insists he would still have kept a garden and a few livestock to feed his family.