Montana Branded Beef – New cooperative hopes to sell Montana beef in the retail marketplace

Steve Christensen got a glimpse into the power of the Montana mystique at a metropolitan airport recently.

He was hurrying through the crowd wearing a shirt with the Montana Branded Beef logo embroidered above the pocket, when a woman he’d never met "grabbed" him.

By Perry Backus of The Montana Standard

http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2004/02/05/newsbutte_top/hjjfjhjejcghjc.txt

She was looking for reassurance.

"She asked me if I was from Montana and then she wanted to know if her meat was safe to eat," Christensen recalled. "She said ‘we love the mystique of ranching country. We just trust what you tell us. Tell me it’s safe to eat, and I’ll eat it.’"

That short conversation reaffirmed everything that Christensen had been working toward over the last 20 months.

Christensen is the president of a relatively new beef supply cooperative called the Montana Branded Beef Association, which is working toward selling Montana beef in the retail marketplace. The idea is to offer the consumer a consistent, high quality product at a premium price and in turn Montana ranchers will get paid more for their cattle.

Through the month of February, Christensen is crisscrossing the state talking with ranchers about his idea that could eventually put Montana beef on the retail map. Tuesday night he met with about 50 ranchers in Dillon. Thursday night he’s scheduled to be in Deer Lodge at the Community Center at 6 p.m.

The idea for the cooperative came following failed attempts at getting state and national groups interested in finding a way to add value to Montana beef.

"None of the groups could come together," Christensen remembers. "They didn’t want to meet in the same room."

So Christensen invited 40 ranchers from around the state to a meeting and gave everyone five minutes to stand up and share their ideas on what Montana ranchers needed to do to capture more value for their product. From that humble beginning, the cooperative was formed. It has 54 members.

Since then, the members of the cooperative have also created a separate company named the Montana Beef Group, which will handle the marketing of the beef products.

Among those first members was Ray Marxer, manager of the Matador Ranch near Dillon.

The vision of the organization is to work toward improving economic development in Montana, said Marxer.

"We’re still in the developmental stages," Marxer said. "We still have a long ways to go."

Montana ranchers produce quality cattle, but often don’t cash in on that fact when cattle are sold in the traditional manner as a commodity, said Marxer.

"Historically, we have not been good at capturing that additional value," he said. "Someone else has captured it."

The ranchers involved with the new cooperative hope that this program will change that.

Over the last year or so, Christensen and others have been working to pull together enough producers to supply cattle on a year around basis; find feedlots willing to go the extra mile to ensure a quality beef product; and develop a relationship with a packer willing to work with the new organization.

Members of the cooperative are already putting cattle through the feedlots that have been selected so far to fatten Montana Branded Beef. By following strict nutrition guidelines and carefully sorting cattle to ensure they’re butchered when prime, Montana ranchers are already often receiving top dollar for their cattle.

"We’re already adding a lot of value to our cattle, and we don’t have our product up and running yet," he said.

The Montana Branded Beef product will probably debut this summer, although Christensen isn’t quite sure where that will happen. Now, he and others are finding a huge amount of interest in Montana beef.

"I’m getting five or six calls a day from people who want our beef," he said.

Before the organization can begin marketing its product, it has to be sure that it can supply beef on a year-around basis. In a state where ranchers have traditionally sold their cattle one or two times a year, that means some members are going to have to make some adjustments to their operations.

"Supply is what carries clout with packers. It’s what carries clout with the consumer," he said. "We’re going to grow tremendously. I believe we will double our numbers next year."

With consumers more concerned that ever about beef products due to the Mad Cow Disease scare, Christensen said the number one issue is will be health and safety concerns.

"One mistake in this business — just one case of hoof-and-mouth or one case of BSE, and we’re done," he said.

Ranchers who want to market their cattle through the cooperative have strict guidelines they have to follow, including having their operations beef quality assurance certified, having a complete health history for their cattle and using electronic tags. The requirements are necessary to ensure that the cattle’s source can be verified and quality of the finished product can be assured.

Consumers want a consistent quality product every day that they pick it up," said Christensen. "And they want to know it’s safe. We can give them that."

Right now there is quite a bit of variation in the beef retail markets, said Marxer.

"Use McDonald’s as an example," Marxer said. "The consumer knows that he can go get a hamburger in Dillon or Phoenix or Japan or China and they know what it’s going to taste like."

"The consumer has been telling us that is what they want from beef," Marxer said.

Randy Smith, a rancher from Glen, is another founding member of the cooperative.

In between capturing cows in a squeeze chute Wednesday morning and recording their weights on a nearby computer screen, Smith talked about the challenges the new organization faces in marketing a Montana beef product.

Montana is far away from major metropolitan markets. What if people won’t pay a premium price? How will Montana ranchers make sure that the supply is there on a year-around basis?

But then, after cutting an old ear tag from a black baldy bawling two year cow, he smiled and asked — "What if this is the one that works? That’s really what we’re all looking for. You just never know unless you try."

Reporter Perry Backus may be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

In Deer Lodge tonight 2/5/04

Steven Christensen of Montana Branded Beef meets with local producers at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Deer Lodge Community Center.