From time to time I will turn the blog over to a farmer to tell their story. And I was highly honored when Emily from Bravo Steaks said yes when I asked her to write a post about her experience as a farmer.
My name is Emily and I’m a farmer. My husband and I raise Angus cattle and Berkshire pigs, and we operate two agri-businesses from our farm. One of our businesses is targeted at fellow cattle farms and breeders, but our other business, Bravo Steaks, has a much wider audience. Bravo Steaks is a meat company that sells and ships beef and pork from our farm directly to homes nationwide.
We are a first-generation operation – John and I started our farm from scratch. It’s really hard to start any business from scratch, especially a capital-intensive, experience-intensive business like a farm. Fortunately, from the start, both John and I came in with more experience than money can buy. Both of us were raised around livestock (I showed cattle and raised wool-breed sheep; John showed market livestock through his hometown 4-H). In college, we both pursued and furthered our livestock experience in many ways. We didn’t realize it at the time, but individually we were setting ourselves up with the golden experiences that would be useful later in life once we started our own farm. For example, I interned in Consumer Education for a beef company, and I studied beef & sheep production abroad in New Zealand. John was the ranch hand on a 600-head cattle operation during college summers, and he traveled the country evaluating and learning about correct livestock structure and appearance while he was on a collegiate livestock judging team. Because we were both relatively fresh to our exposure with livestock, we absorbed anything and everything we could find – we took every opportunity presented to us.
A few years later, we met, started dating, got married, and decided to pursue our mutual dreams of operating a farm. We had the knowledge and experience, but we lacked the location and resources.
We saw that there was a need in our community and amongst our friends and family. Everyone placed value on where their food came from and they wanted to know that it was raised ethically, responsibly, and by farmers who are deeply invested and committed to farm animal husbandry. The way our food is raised matters in really big ways. It influences taste, our individual connection to our food, our environment, and the makeup of our communities. Our friends and family all recognized this, and they encouraged us in our hard-fought path to make our farm a reality.
We started our farm by leasing one pasture from a retiring farmer. Soon after we started leasing another, then another, then another. Eventually, we were leasing several hundred acres but they were at multiple different locations, 20-30 miles apart. We were thankful for our scrappy start, but we recognized that a hurdle to the success of our business was efficiency. We sought a more efficient way, hoping to find one contiguous farm property that would save us time and resources by being all in one spot. Eventually, we found one contiguous farm property for lease, relocated our entire farm there (no small feat!), and that’s where we operate today.
We use social media to tell the story of our farm – especially through Instagram @bravosteaks. We find that our customers enjoy knowing and experiencing what happens behind the scenes of a farm – to share and understand the time and commitment involved in raising high-quality beef and pork. We use social media to paint the backdrop of where our beef and pork are grown. Our customers can visualize the landscape and we find that that matters to our community. Bottom line (and we’re quick to admit that we’re biased!) – we think meat is nutritious and one of the most minimally processed proteins in the market. We think meat-eaters want to know that the meat on their grill, skillet, or plate was raised with care. Our Bravo Steaks customers have full confidence in that, thanks to our ability to share about our farm through the internet.
Because we are a first-generation farm operation, we are willing to do things differently. We are not shackled by the notion that “we’ve always done it that way” – we are an autonomous operation and we’re willing to adjust our farm to what our customers want. We go the extra mile to make the delivery of our premium product as easy and as positive as possible. Many “old school,” farmers think we are cuckoo, and we’re okay with that. (Many “old school” farmers think our versatility and animal husbandry is outstanding, so we’re not casting shade on all old farmers.)
I’ll share 3 examples of things we do that are different than other farmers or our peers.
We sell our product online through an e-commerce website that we built and manage ourselves. Entrepreneurs and small business owners have to wear many hats, and one of our hats includes webmaster and e-commerce marketer.
We sell our beef and pork nationwide. We have loyal customers who are deeply connected with our farm from across the country, all thanks to regular interaction on social media. We ship frozen meat overnight across the country in a custom insulated box with dry ice. We’ve shipped to nearly every state in the continental US.
Many of our customers ask for recipes using our beef and pork, so in 2021 one of my goals was to develop ways to share some of our favorite recipes with our customers. I wrote one small “cook booklet” in early 2021 (Recipes from the Farm: All Ground Beef Recipes), developed several recipe cards that we share with our customers, and I’m finishing up two more small self-published cookbooks just in time for the holidays this year.
Being a first-generation farmer has its own set of challenges, but we’re excited for the future, committed to our livestock, and thankful to provide beef and pork to hundreds of families nationwide who support our work.