My Biz: Business finds its footing in grass-fed beef

Raising cattle on pasture may be a return to Jamie Reichert’s roots, but selling that beef is something she never really left.

“I’m not sure I ever didn’t sell meat,” Reichert said. “I used to sell (beef) halves and quarters to my high school teachers.”

Reichert, 42, was preparing for another busy day at the Iowa Meat Shack, the retail shop she and her daughters opened in March on West Branch’s Main Street. The Iowa Meat Shack is closed Mondays, but Reichert had deliveries to make.

“Tonight, we’ll go out to Des Moines,” she said. “Des Moines orders huge, so it will be a full carload. I probably need to buy a big box van, just to go to Des Moines. I’ve been putting it off because I’m making my cars work right now. I don’t know what’s happened over there but they must have gone into grass-fed beef.”

A fifth-generation farmer, Reichert launched Iowa Farm Fresh Meats in 2017. It was strictly a business decision, after realizing she couldn’t sustain conventional commodity agriculture, either in the pasture or the balance sheet.

“It’s nothing real noble,” she said. “I had a $30,000 feed bill that I couldn’t pay. We said, ‘We got cattle growing without feed before,’ so we started doing that. Just a strange series of events that all led down that lane of grass-fed beef.”

At about the same time, Reichert was trying to corral an escaped beef calf. While on the run, the animal grazed and didn’t eat grain.

“I couldn’t get her in, and she was dangerous and had to be put down in a humane fashion in the field, and we butchered her,” she recalled. “It was the best beef I’d ever had.

“After growing up on a grain-feed farm, I was very, very surprised. I said ‘Wait a minute, if I like it, other people will, too.’ Everything went off of grain. We didn’t have feed bills anymore.”

Business education

After selling dressed beef at area farmers’ markets, Reichert has transitioned to home delivery, including to customers in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.

“We only do Iowa City farmers’ market now, on Saturdays,” she said. “Otherwise, we’re here, and we’re doing so much delivery. We’re money and time ahead to do it this way. There’s not as much labor, and we need to optimize that.”

The adjustment was part of Reichert’s business education.

“I started mentoring with people who have been doing rotational grazing in order to increase profit, increase sustainability, increase biodiversity and regeneration of the grass,” she said.

“Within a year we were able to double our cow herd, on the same acres. It then increased profit. We had healthier land, healthier cattle, we had healthier people and a healthier business because we had a better bottom line. Within a year, my entire life changed, as far as raising cattle went.”

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Reichert raises cattle on three family-owned parcels around West Branch, usually running about 200 head. She’s assembled a loose network of about a dozen small-town plants to butcher and process them.

“We try to keep it as local as we can, but the real bottleneck in a business like this is having the processors inspected,” she said. “You have to have a USDA inspector on-site.”

Reichert also sells grass-fed pork and lamb. Several small producers also supply free-range organic chicken and eggs.

“Some people are really good at raising hens, so I just work off of them,” she said. “I had to let some of it go in order to add into the retail end and serve more customers.”

Daughters help

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Reichert, who also works as a massage therapist, credits her three daughters for their role in the family business. Her youngest, Lucy, a high school senior this year, pretty much runs the retail store.

“She manages most of it,” Reichert said. “She manages her high school friends who work here. She manages payroll and schedules. It’s the best way I’ve figured out how to raise a kid with a business mind is to put them in a business.

“That’s ultimately the goal of any farmer, I think. We want our kids in it. Otherwise, what’s the point? If you get one of your kids to farm, I think you’re doing a good job.”

One of Jamie Reichert’s herd grazes on grass at her farm in West Branch as the sun sets Sept. 12. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

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Ground beef patties are for sale at the Iowa Meat Shack in West Branch. The store sells grass-fed beef, pork, poultry and lamb. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

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