Shaye Koester 00:08
Hey, Hey, it's Shaye Koester and I'm your host for the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast where we foster innovation and enthusiasm in the ranching industry through sharing the stories and practices of different ranchers and beef industry leaders. Be sure to be a greater part of this podcast and become involved on my social media pages. Follow @cattleconvos on Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok or Shaye Koester on LinkedIn to join the conversations around the challenges we face as ranchers and how we can overcome them. You can also find more information about this podcast all my episodes and how to partner with me on this show, by going to my website, casualcattleconversations.com. With that, thanks for tuning in, and let's see who our guest is today. Welcome back to the show, or welcome to the show if you are new. I am grateful to have you listening and a part of this journey. Today we are listening with Logan Peters about raising Wagyu beef and niche marketing. Logan has a unique entrepreneurial story and honest advice about selling beef directly to consumers as well as getting that beef into restaurants. Remember to share this podcast with your friends or on your social media. Be sure to follow @cattleconvos on all social media platforms as well. If you want to join a meeting of the minds with ranchers from around the country, be sure to go to my Instagram and Facebook pages for more info on that. If you want these episodes, delivered straight to your inbox, please go to my website casualcattleconversations.com/newsletter and sign up. With that. Let's get on with the episode. Thank you for hopping on the show today. It's great to have you on here.
Logan Peters 02:09
Absolutely, thanks for inviting me.
Shaye Koester 02:11
So to start off, do you just want to talk about what your background in agriculture in the ranching space?
Logan Peters 02:19
Yeah, sure. So I actually grew up on a farm in northeast Nebraska and fifth generation off of a small diversified family farm. So we had anything from hogs to cattle to corn, soybeans, alfalfa. And I really fell in love with the cattle part of the the deal so I pursued that and 4-H and FFA and had had some experience working for neighbors and seeing what they're doing with cattle and basically kept pursuing the cattle deal because I liked it so much and decided to pursue Animal Science at the University of Nebraska. I focused more on learning about the cattle business.
Shaye Koester 03:04
Go Big Red.
Logan Peters 03:05
Absolutely, heck yeah.
Shaye Koester 03:08
Yeah. Well, and also you were in the Engler program as well.
Logan Peters 03:11
Yep, the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship program and actually helped me feel my business. We can dig into that here after after a bit some more but that's really where this business kind of started.
Shaye Koester 03:23
Yeah. So what is that business?
Logan Peters 03:26
North 40 Premium Beef. We're selling world class American Wagyu beef direct to individuals and restaurants. We'll ship it throughout the lower 48 US states. And I have a business partner, Alex Heine that's in on that actually. We actually met through the university and the Engler program. But basically what we're doing is we're raising American Wagyu beef direct on our family farm and finishing them out. And then this business has taken it to the next step and we're going going direct the consumer actually selling the meat and selling direct into restaurants.
Shaye Koester 04:06
Well, that's really neat. I mean, direct to consumers really cool, but it's neat that you have that direct to restaurant connection too. So when did this journey start? Was it after college was it in high school?
Logan Peters 04:18
Um, so I started with the cattle deal. I had my first bucket calf when I was eight. And then the next milestone was kind of in FFA, and I did all these different things in my SAE project for FFA. I had this cow calf project. I raised a bunch of corn and did test plots for different seed companies. I raised pumpkins and sold pumpkins. I had chickens, meat chickens, egg laying chickens and show chickens. I did a little scrap metal enterprise there for a while but I did all these little businesses to fuel my love for cattle. I guess is what it boils down to it. When I was in high school, I accidentally made some money selling some corn. The market was really high kind of like it isn't actually is higher than it is now. So I had all this corn coming in from these test plots, you know, really didn't have a marketing plan around it. This market skyrocketed I made some money on that and I bought these cows from a neighbor at a sale barn. There's like 16 of them. They're just kind of an Angus cow and they're bred Wagyu. I'm like, I don't even know what that means. But they're my neighbors cows and I want to support him. I know they come from a good home, and I'm going to try to buy some cows. So I took off school that day and went and bought some more cows to add to my herd and they're all bred wagyu. And they have the ugliest calves. They had some ugly calves and so it challenged me to figure out what am I going to do with with this calf crop and decided to put an ad on Craigslist and found a gentleman in Iowa, who I ended up getting connected with and he bought the calves at a premium. My alternative was selling them to the sale barn at a discount. So fast forward, long story short, this guy ended up being a mentor of mine, he was raising Wagyus himself and selling the meat direct and had some purebred Wagyus and I got into college and wrote a business plan how to vertically integrate that operation, selling the meat direct and finishing out the cattle all the way and this gentleman this mentor of mine, he actually started a farm and got out of the purebred end of the things and the meat part of the thing. So I bought his purebred herd. So sitting here today, Shaye, I have an Angus Wagyu cross cattle herd, I got a purebred Wagyu cattle herd and then we're finishing out the cattle all the way to finish and selling some of that meat direct.
Shaye Koester 06:58
That's awesome. So I mean, sounds like you started yourself. And you said you have Alex Heine on your team. Is there anyone else really on your team? Or is it just kind of the two of you spearheading and at the moment,
Logan Peters 07:09
So the two of us are spearheading the meat side of the business. We do work with another beef company that helps us with our shipping logistics. Basically, being able to pull together resources we buy dry ice together, we buy boxes together, ship out UPS together. So it's kind of a win win situation. I'd call them a team member. And then I got a couple other team members on the cattle end of it. I got a dad that helps. I got a hired guy that helps, and some neighbors, you know, that are always there when you need advice or a hand. So that's our team.
Shaye Koester 07:46
Awesome. So you said you ship to the 48 states? So would you say most of that's local? Or does a lot of it go outside?
Logan Peters 07:56
Yeah, that's a good question. Most of its local, we see this really hot spot in Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas kind of area. And then you have then you have Texas as a pretty big spot and then the west coast and east coast. And anywhere between there it's been pretty hard. So Wagyu beef is more expensive than your conventional beef. It's known for larger amount of marbling and higher in Omega three. higher omega six to lower monounsaturated saturated fat ratio, meaning it's a healthier kind of fat, scientifically. So it's more expensive. It's hard to sell in small town, Nebraska. But you know, if you get to some of the metropolitan areas, we've had a lot of good luck around Omaha, Lincoln, St. Louis, Missouri, California, Texas, Massachusetts, Maine, Florida, there's these little pockets that really seem to be our loyal customers.
Shaye Koester 08:57
Well, that's awesome that you have those loyal customers. So how did you kind of get started towards that restaurant route?
Logan Peters 09:06
Yeah. The restaurant route started with a problem. The problem was we had too much hamburger in inventory. I think you'll hear that from anyone that does a direct to consumer beef sales, but our freezers are just slammed full of hamburgers. It's easy to sell good steaks, people are willing to pay good money for good steaks, but there's only so many steaks on animals. What do you do with the rest of it? So the challenge to myself was, how are we going to liquidate this hamburger and not go backwards on it? And we got connected with the local restaurant called the Bohemian Duck. And they've really started a local vibe. They're kind of a fancier upper scale restaurant for a small town Nebraska I'd say but they're all about local. They get some local bread made. Two different Pork Producers supplied local products. We got there's a lot of local honey, there's local beers. And then we got our burgers in there. And the funny thing is this restaurant, well, not really funny looking back at it, but the restaurant started and kicked off right before COVID. So you're looking what year and a half ago. And all these all these dine in orders were no longer there. And it's kind of turned into a takeout business. So we shift his focus from high end steaks and seafood, pastas, all those different things and and start offering these burgers on a takeout menu and burgers kind of seem to stay better when you're hauling them and your car to your house for 15 minutes or whatever compared to a steak or fillet of fish or you name it. And we've had a lot of good luck. So we kind of started his business off of our American Wagyu. We advertise it as locally sourced and humanely produced. And we got tied in there to the even start selling some of our steaks now. Not the rib yes, not the fillets but some of these lower end cuts like a Denver steak, flat iron steak, it really fit the profile pretty well, too.
Shaye Koester 11:17
Well, it's really neat that you've been able to make that connection, kinda take your problem and use it to help solve someone else's problem on a local level.
Logan Peters 11:26
Absolutely. And now we're trying to figure out how to make more hamburger.
Shaye Koester 11:31
Yes, that's a good problem. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you've touched on it a little bit. But and I know the Wagyu thing kinda fell in by accident when you bought those first few that were bred Wagyu. But why? Why have you continued to do this, now that you have this direct to consumer beef business, because in reality, you could switch to any other breed that you really wanted? So why do you? Why do you continue to stay with Wagyu,
Logan Peters 11:57
What I saw needed to happen when I was younger, was a shift needed to happen in our farming operation. So I've kind of built up my own cattle enterprise, but I started focusing on the Wagyus because I was failing selling conventional cattle and what I mean by that was fall rolls around, and you peel the calves off the cows, and you take them to town, and you have every different size. And you know, I only had 20 to 30 head they sort of eight different ways of the sale barn and I never was happy with what they brought, you know, you get your check. And I was upset and felt like I was failing and felt like I needed to shift and, and mitigate some of those risks that are taken. And I decided just to differentiate myself, you know, everyone in our whole county, our whole state, you know, has this big focus on you got to be big and you got to be have good Angus genetics, a lot of Angus focused genetics around. And the problem there is I couldn't get big. So my question myself was how was how could I add value to a limited budget and limited land size operation? And decided to, I wanted to specialize and be different? I mean, I've had a lot of neighbors call me crazy. A lot of family even called me pretty weird. But it's, it's how are you going to differ yourself in the marketplace to be able to compete with all these big dogs that have more size to you. And that's kind of what I focused on Shaye. And it started by selling these Wagyu calves at a premium. So all of a sudden, instead of getting all my calves sorted at the sale barn, I was selling a group of steers and a group of heifers and they were bringing a premium. And then it started, okay, I'm going to finish these cattle out. So I paid to get them custom fed. And they would help me market them. And then I'd add value to them at that stage. And then it's one step further. Now, because now I'm finishing them out in house, and then selling some of that meat direct. And so taking that one step further, of how are you going to add value to what used to be a commodity product, we have a like have these Angus, crossbred cows is just a commodity product everyone's got, how am I going to add value to that animal? So she pays off in a higher dollar production setting? I would say, does that make sense?
Shaye Koester 14:24
Yeah, it does make sense. I mean, differentiation in the marketplace is huge. I mean, it's talked about and all facets of business, whether you're big or small, but I think it's something that everyone needs to be reminded of. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah. So what was one of your learning curves when you started with the Wagyu or even just started with your business in general?
Logan Peters 14:47
Good question. Um, the biggest failure I think that would stand out in my head through this whole ordeal was the first year with my purebred cows, and I expanded my Angus cows as well. So I was brainwashed us on all these. So I had Angus wagyu cross, and then the purebred Wagyu. And the thought process was, we need them close to the barn, and we need to close to home when they are calving, so if there are problems, we can take them into the barn, you know, help them. This is northeast Nebraska, it rains a lot, it's muddy. And the reality is, these calves weigh 50 to 55 pounds, when they come out, those animals need no help, no assistance. And so the thought process of needing to be close to the barn was opposite of what actually needed to happen. And those cattle needed some space, they needed dry cornstalks to go out and calve and not be locked up in a confined five acre spot that was muddy. And what I ended up having happen is those 55 pound calves were born, got stuck down in the mud got wet, and I'd lose them. So I went from 15% death loss, that first big year to something more sustainable now comparable to the industry. But I was never used to it. You know, you you raised you grew up with these Angus calves and you have a 90 pound calf it gets up and even if it's wet, it just goes you know. So it just took a little different management. That and understanding that those cows don't hold condition through the winter as well either. And it just, it's just changed management. So a couple years, rough years, I feel like I got a lot to learn still. But going through failures definitely gets you humble. And you remember how to improve going forward?
Shaye Koester 16:43
Well, I guess failure is a part of any growth process. So there you go. Thank you for sharing that one. So kind of from a consumer perception standpoint, what have you noticed that consumers are concerned about in regard to beef production?
Logan Peters 17:03
Yeah, um, what always comes back to my mind is, people want to know where their food comes from. You know, it's not that the fifth of steaks come from the grocery store anymore. It's where did it originate from? All of our cattle are sourced in age verified, so I can track each individual animal and harvest back to the day I was born, and was born to and what it was bred to. And I think there's opportunity for people to do that, too, even on a much larger scale than than where we're at. But, you know, when we think about ranchers and feeders and everyone involved in the beef industry across the nation, it's how do we educate our consumers where our meat is coming from, Where's our food coming from? Farm visits can be powerful. But also, these branded beef companies got a unique opportunity to tell their story of, hey, everything with this label on it is under this direction, this background. And it's coming from this place, I think that can help fill some of these voids.
Shaye Koester 18:15
Absolutely. And the traceability topic is something that I guess I've always been really interested in. But I'm really interested to see how that comes in on that larger scale. Yeah. But no, that's that's a good point, I would say consumers are very concerned about where it comes from. And even just coming down to that simple story of who raised it.
Logan Peters 18:34
Like, exactly, you call this casual cattle conversation. So I'll ask back to you is, a gentleman asked me about these QR codes that you could put on labels on the steaks. Now, what do you think the future is on? On on a large scale, providing QR codes on all these individual cuts of meat at the grocery store level, and at the restaurant level, that someone can scan with their smartphone? And it says, Oh, that was raised at ABC ranch in Valentine, Nebraska, and track it all the way back to where the animals from? What do you think the future is on that?
Shaye Koester 19:10
I really don't think it's that far away. I mean, maybe not for everything, just because it's going to depend on packing plant design and how those animals move through the system. Yeah, with the smaller, moderate sized plants coming up with some of that in mind, or even some more local shops, if they can build those connections with local grocery stores. I don't think that's that far off.
Logan Peters 19:34
And do you think the consumer can value from it or instead of it coming from ABC ranch? Is it is it oh, this steak is originating from a group of animals from Nebraska, or from Kansas or from Kentucky? You know, is it much larger?
Shaye Koester 19:48
I think, I think there could be like, you'd have to look at the privacy standpoint of does ABC ranch want people to know, but I think even the ability of oh, this came from this region in Nebraska or this region in this state, I still think that would be pretty valuable.
Logan Peters 20:04
I agree. I think it provides an opportunity to, for these cattle producers, like you and me is can we provide a third party verify program like that to the consumer that they're willing to pay a premium for? And I don't know the details behind it. But it's a thought. It's a thought.
Shaye Koester 20:25
I think. I think it's something I'd be excited for to see. I think be cool. I'd be excited to make that connection with people if, you know, they got something out of a calf that Grandpa and I sell or something like that. That'd be pretty neat.
Logan Peters 20:39
Yeah. That traceability and explaining the sustainability behind your operation. Yeah. Those words are what the consumer wants to hear, right.
Shaye Koester 20:49
Yeah, I think so. So they asked for, I guess, but So you've talked about it a little bit already. But how is you know, being in that niche market really allowed you to expand your business overall?
Logan Peters 21:03
Hmm. Good question. Um, I would say maybe not as much competition, as in the commodity market. And all that means is there's more narrow opportunity to so any any cattle that I finished that are over the the number I need for our North 40 Premium beef business, get sold and other beef companies, branded beef companies in Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, and, and so we partner together, but we're also pretty spread out. Part of what I do as well is sell and lease out purebred Wagyu bulls and sell semen and buy those calves back and offer a buyback opportunity. And sometimes there's other genetics out there. Say I'm looking to fill a pen of cattle and I don't have enough of my own sired calves out there, I'll go and buy some other Wagyu calf crops. In order to supply some of these other beef companies, kind of on the side, they don't go through our North 40 program. But it we got to be pretty spread out. I bought calves all the way from Kentucky to Montana, Idaho. And they go all the way down to Texas and I bought him all the way up north, the Minnesota so it's a pretty spread out business. Um, I view it as an opportunity, though, because not everyone and their dog is doing it in my backyard. It sets myself apart, go into the restaurants, it's something different. Wagyu are you starting to become more of a popular word, but 15 years ago, a lot of people didn't know what it what it was. And it was almost referred to as American style Kobe beef. And people were resonate with the Kobe name more than the Wagyu name. But as the popularity grows, I think it also provides this opportunity. It's just the balance of I don't think you'll ever get as big as the Angus breed, for example. But right now, I think it sets us apart just because how small of a of a breed within the industry, I guess. Right?
Shaye Koester 23:15
Right. Well, awesome. So kind of looking back at your journey with this business. What would you say is the number one thing you wish you would have done differently?
Logan Peters 23:26
Hmm. Got a lot of things Shaye. It's a good question. Um, there's a lot of different decisions people make every day that have a long term effect or a delayed effect that you don't see till later. Mmm hmm. One thing I'd probably choose is one thing I've tried to use is getting getting into the purebred business faster. Just so I had some control over the genetics. Before buying the purebred wagyu bulls I was putting on my cows and they were just they were both sired bulls. Now I've introduced AI, and using some of the leading semen around from some top notch producers, including BarR Cattle Company, Pullman, Washington, they're pretty well renowned. And trying to improve my genetics, obviously, it's years down the road. So that's some different with the Wagyus is it basically takes an extra year to finish those animals. So by the time you breed a bull and raise him up to where he can breed at say two years of age. And then you put him on a cow and then she has a calf and you feed that calf for two and a half years. Then you get that butcher and then you send the steak so I mean, it's just it's this long timeline and this delayed effect. So if I could redo some history, I would have tried to improve my purebred genetic base with better genetics sooner probably.
Shaye Koester 25:07
Well, absolutely. And I think that sometimes that can be said with all cattle operation sometimes. I mean that genetic advancement and being able to AI or even get into some of that at work is huge.
Logan Peters 25:18
Yeah, yeah. And you know, it's a big upfront cost. But look at the look at the dividends that pays later on. I had a discussion with someone and you probably have talks all the time with folks. But I had a discussion with someone about, you know, a $50, straw of semen compared to $100 draw semen. And there's no guarantee that that first AI is going to take, but if you're only an extra 50 bucks on that bull when he's born, and he breeds 25 cows for the next five years, I mean, that's pennies on the dollar for each genetic advancement you're going to make on those 125 calves that that he could breed. So thinking long term could help, not only me and you, but the whole industry, our decisions now are going to affect us for years to come.
Shaye Koester 26:06
Especially when you look at how long that beef cycle is.
Logan Peters 26:10
Exactly. You know, if we're if we're in the chicken business, we could we could switch the whole model in six months and have a whole different set of genetics in there.
Shaye Koester 26:22
I don't like chickens. So I was not gonna think about that. Well, Logan are there any other experiences that have really helped you advance your business that you would like to share or talk about a little bit?
Logan Peters 26:38
You know, it's funny, you say that, when I was in the Engler Program there was an evening that we had a brainstorming session, and everyone was around whiteboards, and everyone would go up the whiteboards, and they'd write different words on the board. And if you connected with these words, you could draw arrows and then connect with different words. And pretty soon you'd form these thoughts, and then you'd start talking about as a small group, and then you're in you know, you're trying to solve problems together and figure out who had the same interest as you. And I have a picture that I found, that's from that night, and I'm up at the whiteboard, and I have Wagyu beef, or something written on their cattle, and it's got another arrow and someone was writing, selling direct to consumer. And in that picture is, Alex Heini, my current business partner, back then, we had no clue we would end up being in business together and talking every day and, you know, working towards a financial outcome on a direct to consumer business. So what I what I learned from that is, you don't want to burn bridges anywhere at any time, because the people you think you have no connection with now could in the future lead to your business partner, or your landlord, or a banker or an equipment dealer, you never know where those people are gonna end up. So it's pretty cool to look back thinking how we connected and, and how we shared interest and started talking and, and here we are now and our our logo and names on three restaurants. One in West Point, one in Yankton, and one in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. So we're hoping to continue growing from there, Shaye.
Shaye Koester 28:30
That's awesome. Anything else you want to add? Before we wrap up today?
Logan Peters 28:35
I did go to work for another beef company, with the goal to learn and figure out what I can do better on my own operation, how they're doing well, and how I can apply that to further my business. And I saw a lot of different operations. I've seen a lot of different operations through that experience. And something I continue seeing over is you run into these family operations, and they're doing what grandpa did, and they're doing what great-grandpa did. And it's worked because they paid off the ranch. But are they capturing the most value they can off of those given acres and those given cows? And so, you know, the one challenge I'd maybe having an industry is just as just because it's one thing you've done forever. How could you add value to your operation? Is it changing breeds? Is it changing the calving date? Is it changing management date? Is it changing your health protocol? Is it changing where you sell your cattle? So a lot of those questions go through my head every day, you know, how can someone add value to their operation and basically pay for themselves?
Shaye Koester 29:40
Awesome. And that's a wrap on that one. If you have questions for Logan. Feel free to message me on social media by following @cattleconvos or be sure to message Logan by following North 40 beef on Instagram. Thank you for listening and thank you Logan for being a guest on my show. Now, remember to share this podcast with your friends or on your social media, be sure to tag me if you share something. Another way to help other individuals find this show and help me out as well, is to give me a rating and review on whatever app you listen to, or on my social media pages. This bumps me up in the algorithm for more people to find the show faster. Now, what I'm really excited for are these meetings of rancher minds that I have put together. So if you want to be a part of the meeting of the minds with ranchers from around the country that I'm hosting, that allow you to connect with other ranchers and help solve some of the problems and issues on your operation. Please be sure to go to my social media pages and learn how you can register. There will also be an area on my website to do that as well. But you'll find more information on my socials. With that. Remember, if you want the newsletter, to go to casualcattleconversations.com/newsletter and sign up for that so that you can have new episodes, blog posts and market reports sent straight to your inbox every Wednesday. Thank you again. Have a great day. And I appreciate your support so far. Take care
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