The Kansas coincidence
The basics of quality beef production know no borders
Driving from Kansas to Ohio, farmland stretches out to the north and south of Interstate 70. Rolling hills that remind me of home soon begin to climb higher, and trees grow thicker alongside streams. “And people say this isn’t scenic?” I say aloud behind the wheel of my neatly-packed Nissan headed east last week. It […]
Living their story
The Bledsoes rely on consistent suppliers to raise consistent cattle
Meet Lucile: She’s 96 and flies a Beechcraft. Then there’s her son Bob, who started digging up dinosaur bones on their ranch as a relaxing hobby. Bob’s son Grant fly fishes in Alaska. When I visited the Bledsoe family near Wray, Colorado, last week, it was a bit like reading a page-turner. With each question, […]
Beef chain in the backyard
“When the snow melts and the boat docks are in, CAB better be on the shelf.” I’m in the passenger seat of a Ford pickup backed up to a large animal veterinarian’s practice. I’m in a border town of Wyoming and Idaho about to unload a horse off a trailer. I’m with Jim Benedict and […]
A Heritage of Quality
Learning to care about quality from five generations before him
The first thing we talked about was how dry the winter had been. It was mid-April and the Kansas prairie didn’t look a day after January. Andy Larson’s cows were out on pasture near Green, Kan., but still being supplemented as, ironically, there was very little green grass in sight. While it was too early […]