Lexington, KY - The gently rolling pastureland of central Kentucky is home to arguably some of the best horses and beef cattle anywhere, and Walnut Hall Farms, located in the heart of horse country in Fayette and Scott counties, has both.
Justin Sautter and his family have managed Standardbred horses (trotters or pacers) and beef cattle at Walnut Hall for more than 100 years. And since 2009, they have been in the business of selling the beef that comes from their Angus and Charolais herds.
Their Walnut Hall Grass Fed Beef Company is one of a growing number of locally operated beef producers springing up to accommodate the demand for local food. Sautter manages the beef sales for the enterprise.
What makes the business so unique is the fact that the cows are raised and finished on the farm and are 100 percent pasture fed. In fact, their cows only leave the farm once, and that is for processing at a USDA facility in Nelson County, less than 60 miles away.
Pasture feeding makes for better beef, according to Sautter, and keeping everything local just adds to the quality.
"We feel strongly that it's important to know where the animal you're eating comes from. Our animals are born here and they leave here one time," he said. "Overall, a lot of people, including us, believe it's a much healthier and more natural way to eat meat. We know where the animal has been its whole life. We know it has never been given grain, it's never been given antibiotics and it's never been given hormones. That means that the meat has a healthier profile with more Omega-3s (more desirable fatty acids) and less Omega-6s (less desirable fatty acids). Couple that with dry-aging and processing it at a USDA-inspected facility - well, that gives us a fantastic product. And people are willing to pay to take an extra step in their grocery acquisition to have that product."
Starting a new business in an economy that is struggling to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression has been no small task, and even though the family has been in the cattle business for generations, marketing beef is a whole new ball game.
"Every day we learn something new. Sometimes we learn we did something right, and sometimes we learn we didn't," he said. "There is always a learning curve in any new enterprise, to understand how to produce at the correct time the correct product for possibly a shifting customer base."
Sautter has a day job as an investment advisor, so he knows the ins and outs of money management and just how tough the economy has been, but still he said the idea of the beef business was good enough to explore even in a bad economy.
"There was an opportunity to pull the plug on this as the economy went down the tubes," he said. "We are doing this for several reasons, but there is a safeguard to this business. As long as you have the land to raise these cattle, you can sell them any time on the hoof. Now, the minute you take and process them, then you own that and need to sell it."
And sell they have, to individuals and restaurants, through direct Web sales and with the help of the Kentucky Proud marketing initiative.
"We are fortunate in that we have plenty of prime grazing land, and on that note, I think this grazing land, in its location in the heart of the Bluegrass, with this incredible soil, is one reason why our beef tastes so good," said Sautter. "But as far as the business conditions, it is very hard in this environment. If we were selling into the New York City market, our prices would be 50 to 75 percent higher than they are. This is not a market where you can have leverage over the consumers; it is a buyers market. I think we are priced very low, and one reason we are doing it is to create a customer base. There is real value in what the customers are getting right now, and I believe the value will still be there even if prices increase to market rates."
He added that while the types of orders vary, the company's customers so far are exactly the type of consumers he anticipated he would get.
"They are people who are increasingly concerned about the food they are eating and where it comes from, and they are people that are interested in supporting local businesses," said Sautter.
That "buying local" idea is one that is growing here and across the country, while the idea of grass-fed beef seems to be taking hold in an industry traditionally linked with grain-fed animals. The University of Kentucky recently held a series of Pasture-Based Beef Finishing Workshops designed to help producers analyze their operations and explore the financial potential for locally finished beef.
The American Grassfed Association held its annual conference in Berea last month. The organization got its start in 2003 to promote the grass-fed industry through government relations, research, concept marketing and public education, according to information from the group.
At the heart of pasture-fed beef is, of course, the pasture, and that is something Walnut Hall has to offer. There are actually three separate farms that come together and are owned by the family. Walnut Hall Stock Farm, Dunroven Stud and Walnut Hall Limited are all part of the legacy of Walnut Hall Farm started by Sautter's great-great-grandparents in the late 1800s. The beef products are marketed as Walnut Hall Bluegrass Fed Beef, and the business is a family operation between Sautter, Dunroven and Walnut Hall Stock Farm.
"We have a lot of land here, and we love it, and we like living here," said Sautter. "This is an alternative to only being involved in the horse business. It keeps all our eggs from being in one basket, and it's a great use of the land to keep it green and open and to keep development from getting into this part of town."
It takes a lot of know-how to put together a business venture like this one, and Sautter said he's lucky to have so much knowledge in the family to help. His uncle is a longtime cattleman and his father is a veterinarian.
More and more traditional farms have become diverse in their operations, but Sautter's great-great-grandparents had the foresight to see the value of diversity a long time ago. Aside from the horses and cattle that roam the farms now, sheep and hogs once called Walnut Hall home, and there still stands a beautiful dairy barn as a reminder of an era gone by.
Sautter noted that, at one point in time, Standardbred racing was the sport in America, and this historic farm was one of the greatest Standardbred nurseries of all time.
Upon listening to him speak of his home, it is obvious he still feels it is the greatest. For more information about Walnut Hall Bluegrass Fed Beef or to place an order, go to its Web site at http://whgrassfedbeef.com, call 859-255-0860, or e-mail them at walnut.hall.beef@gmail.com.