Meat Production and Processing: Lessons Learned from Doing Both
Are you a farmer or rancher who struggles to find adequate meat processing? Are you thinking of trying to do it all? Hear the ins and outs from someone who has been there too. Or if you know you’re not interested in opening a meat shop – come learn how best to work with your butcher from someone who knows both sides.
Join Cody and Jen Hoseth from Lone Crow Ranch as they share their journey from cattle production into meat processing and retail store management. Learn what they wish they had known going in and how.
About the Speakers
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Cody & Jen Hoseth
Lone Crow RanchCody and Jen are first generation cattle ranchers, meaning they weren’t born into families with cattle or land. They started out working at a feed store and delivering hay, and owning zero cattle and zero land – only 13 years go! Now they own about 400 acres, plus lease about 2000 more, and run 1000 head of cattle. They started selling meat north of Spokane, and their OG meat store is still here on our Loon Lake pasture. Now where they finish our cattle, their ranch in Eltopia, has 300 acres of irrigated pasture, and is located in the agriculture-rich Columbia Basin. They established our USDA butcher shop in Connell, and now have another meat market in Richland.
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Kira & Brent Olsen
Olsen Farms, Smoky Ridge MeatsKira and her husband, Brent, own and operate both Olsen Farms and Smokey Ridge Meats in Stevens County, WA. Olsen Farms produces beef, pork, lamb and several varieties of specialty potatoes which they direct market in Seattle and Spokane through farmers markets and restaurants. Smokey Ridge Meats is a USDA inspected meat processing facility where their crew processes livestock for Olsen Farms and for many other farms and ranches from throughout Washington and nearby Idaho. Smokey Ridge offers basic slaughter and cut & wrap services along with a variety of secondary processing such as seasoning, stuffing, curing and smoking. Kira grew up outside of Bellingham, WA, and met Brent in 2010 while working at the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance in Seattle. She has spent the past 13 years learning the ins and outs of farming in northeast Washington and the intricacies of processing meat under federal inspection, while also raising two feisty daughters.