Cattle Connections: North Carolina Local Beef

Photo credit: Eric Waters

How Two North Carolina Farm Families Started Selling Local Beef

Cattlewoman AJ Stanaland lives her childhood dream of raising cattle and selling farm-to-table, North Carolina local beef in a new, old-fashioned way.

“I have always had this desire to connect consumers with the farmers,” says Stanaland, who owns Northwest Land & Cattle with her husband, Wade. Both are fifth-generation farmers.

That connection accelerated during the pandemic. The population of beach-lined Brunswick County is growing rapidly, with new neighbors moving in almost daily. Stanaland enjoys introducing the local ways to new customers who seek out her locally raised beef and pork.

To meet demand, Northwest Land & Cattle opened an on-farm retail store this summer and she is remodeling her great-grandfather’s tobacco barn for a shipping and packing facility as well as farm pickups. The Stanalands also plan to open a small event center in a renovated old family mercantile on the farm.

See more: The Randleigh Dairy Heritage Museum Teaches How Milk Goes From Farm to Table

While the farm transitions, it remains deeply rooted in tradition. The family has raised cattle in Brunswick County since 1898. At age 93, Stanaland’s granddad still walks with her among the cows in the pasture, the same activity that inspired her love for cattle as a child.

“He has forgotten more about cattle than I’ll ever know,” Stanaland says. “I still try to soak up as much knowledge as I can from him.”

Quality Care, Quality Beef

Accentuated by the pandemic, the growing trend for local foods presents new opportunities for North Carolina cattle farms to improve farm profits while meeting consumer demand.

Karen Scalf’s family has raised and sold quality Hereford cattle breeding stock in Duplin County since 1949. That’s when her parents, Cecil and Jean Kornegay, started Kornegay Hereford Farms, a farm specializing in the Hereford breed of beef cattle known for their red bodies and striking white faces.

“As we started looking into alternatives to making the farm more profitable, I was reminded of statements my dad made to me in the pasture as a child,” says Scalf. She has run the farm together with her husband, Gary, and three children, Katlyn, Daniel and Taylor, since 1995. “There are many variables that affect beef flavor, quality, taste and juiciness. One of those variables is genetics. Herefords are known for their efficiency on grass.”

The farm transitioned its 100 acres of pasture to nutrient-dense grasses. They now sell grass-fed Hereford beef by single cuts and quantities up to the whole cow to customers within a 150-mile radius of its location in Mount Olive. An online store helps the farm reach a larger base of customers. An on-farm store, opened this summer in a renovated historic tobacco barn, offers the farm’s beef as well as pork and produce sourced from local farms.

See more: First-Generation Farmers Produce Fresh Pork Products

North Carolina Local Beef is Best

To improve its beef’s taste and nutritional value, the farm strategically grazes its cattle on a diversity of cool- and warm-season grasses. Grazing options include such as pearl millets, sorghums, small grains, clovers and vetches. Scalf rotates pasture use, reseeds grasses and focuses on herd genetics that express greater efficiency, longevity and fertility on grass diets.

She now shares pasture-management tips with North Carolina cattlemen. She also partners with local college interns from the University of Mount Olive and Wayne Community College to study soil health.

“By opening up our eyesight and looking into the soil, we realized that we had missed a lot of things about the way nature works,” says Scalf. She is also a director for the Duplin County Farm Bureau Board. “At the end of the day, the most important thing that I’m proud of is that I’m part of the 2% of the population that feeds the country.”

Farm Flair

Customers follow the animal care activities at Northwest Land & Cattle on social media. On multiple platforms, they see hogs in wooded lots and cattle raised on farm-grown grasses, hay and corn silage.

The farm’s new retail store, opened this summer, offers individual cuts of beef and pork. Otherwise, sales are by the box to encourage the use of the whole animal. In fact, Stanaland partnered with local chef Sarah Gore to offer bone broth, a slow-cooked beef broth made from marrow bone and vegetables.

Stanaland has a waiting list for subscriptions of beef boxes. These boxes are delivered to local front doors in homemade, insulated wood boxes stamped with “Northwest Land & Cattle” and customized with a cow ear tag bearing the customer’s name. For each box, Stanaland guarantees a certain quantity and variety of meat. She also ships meat bundles (minus the wood crate) up and down the East Coast.

By fall, customers and neighbors can rent the farm’s event center for small gatherings or attend farm events featuring barbecue and bluegrass. The farm’s online store lists the family’s current meat box availability. This often includes holiday specials like Labor Day grilling boxes. Customers can select shipping, farm pickup or front-door delivery. This is a nod to the fishman and milkman who visited the farm during her granddad’s childhood.

“I really wanted the old-school feel,” says Stanaland, a director on the Brunswick County Farm Board. “When I started thinking about connecting the consumer to the farmer, I wanted them to feel like they were part of our farm family.”

– Joanie Stiers