Mark Schmitz Raising Kobe Beef in Panamaiowa
Supervised Agricultural Experience Develops into Value-Added Beefiness Business for Logan Peters
Logan Peters grew up on a small, diversified family unit functioning. He spent a lot of time post-obit effectually his dad and granddaddy as a young boy and bought his kickoff bucket dogie when he was eight years old for $210.00. This is what sparked his love of beef cattle. He wanted to commencement his own herd of beef cattle. Knowing the slow process to grow a cattle herd internally, as well equally the uppercase required to purchase bred cows to aggrandize his operation, Peters began brainstorming means to support and grow his herd through value-added profits.
In his free fourth dimension, he started a lawn mowing business, picked up chip metal, raised chickens for both meat and egg production, put together field corn test plots and helped neighboring farmers. Pumpkins were his next big venture. After much research and limited land, he decided to try information technology and produced 700 pumpkins in his first year. He learned chop-chop how to grow, store and market this seasonal production and eventually would sign a contract with a Papillion shopping mall to supply fall decorations, including pumpkins, gourds, straw bales, cornstalks and ornamental corn. All the turn a profit from these ventures went to support his dream of growing his cattle herd.
And grow it he did. He purchased xv Wagyu bred cows at the local auction barn. While the purchase doubled his herd size, it also created more challenges. He needed to detect a more than profitable fashion to market because there is such a niche market for the Wagyu brood. Wagyu is a Japanese brood of cattle known for the extreme amount of marbling found in the meat. He wanted to sell these cattle privately, then Peters listed his calves for sale on Craigslist and he began conversations with Jill and Mark Schmitz of Panama, Iowa. Mark, a old Ag Ed teacher and FFA advisor, became a mentor and heir-apparent of Peters' calves. Schmitz would end the cattle and distribute the meat to local restaurants and sell it online and in the wholesale marketplace. This relationship eventually gave Peters the opportunity to purchase purebred Wagyu bulls from Schmitz.
Peters says he learned a lot considering of his agricultural educational activity classes, supervised agronomical experience (SAE) and FFA. He credits his leadership skills to his fourth dimension every bit a chapter officer and the leadership development activities he participated in during high school. The skills he learned in classes and the Career Development Events he participated in have been very relevant to his college coursework and day-to-solar day aspects of his operation.
He shared a story of a bad snowstorm nigh his hometown where he lost three calves in ten days. "I was irritated and frustrated," Peters said, "but information technology taught me to take more ownership of my herd." He began to pay more than attention to and make his own decisions regarding vaccinations, feedstuff and the layout of the cattle grand to exist meliorate prepared for severe weather.
Peters says he'due south always had the entrepreneurial spirit. When he was eight years erstwhile, he started Logan'due south Corn Palace. He says, "I was riding in the combine with my dad, saw corn left in the field and started request questions almost the waste." He began picking up ears of corn left lying on the ground, designing and building squirrel feeders and learning to marketplace these products to local customers.
Peters says he attended Nebraska's FFA Convention with his parents when he was in Junior High. His older blood brother was involved in FFA. It was seeing the Stars Over Nebraska Pageant on stage that he set a goal of condign the State Star Farmer.
As a senior, he wasn't even selected as a country finalist for the award, but he didn't give up. Peters waited a few years to develop more of his SAE, narrowed his focus to premium alfalfa hay and Wagyu beef cattle production and practical for the American Star Farmer as role of the American FFA Degree. Considered as the highest recognition in the nation for an aspiring young farmer, the American Star Farmer Accolade recognizes accomplishment in both career and leadership development. He was chosen as a finalist, meaning Peters was in the top four in the nation.
But his story doesn't stop there. Peters, a senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, volition graduate and continue to grow his operation. He has washed thorough research and written a concern plan for PrimeFire Meats. "I realized early in my loftier school career that in that location wasn't going to be an opportunity for me to come back to the family farm and I decided to create an opportunity myself," he says.
His plan includes vertically integrating his SAE into a birth to plate operation. This means he volition finish out the cattle himself, go them processed at a specialty packing found, employ cold storage and sell American Manner Kobe Beef directly to loftier-stop restaurants all beyond the Midwest.
Source: https://neffafoundation.org/what_we_do/stories.html/article/2016/11/14/supervised-agricultural-experience-develops-into-value-added-beef-business-for-logan-peters
0 Response to "Mark Schmitz Raising Kobe Beef in Panamaiowa"
Post a Comment