Mark and Kathy Windsor learned the business side of buying, selling and marketing in their original enterprise, National TV Sales and Rental in Lebanon, Mo. This past January, they turned that business over to two of their grown children, son, Aaron Windsor and his wife, and daughter, Michelle Jackson and her husband. Now they are working on applying those same lessons to their cattle business in eastern Laclede County.
“All of our kids and their families live here,” Mark began by explaining the family-oriented dynamics of their farm while seated in his ample ranch house’s living room, with his wife, Kathy and their farm manager, Danny Long. “We have six families living on our land that is actually several farms, we’ve bought over the years. As a result, all of our kids and grandchildren are close by.” Son Anthony Windsor and his wife are running an aquaponics system on another part of the land, raising tilapia, tomatoes and mint inside of a large greenhouse.
“We have approximately 500 cows on various fields totaling 1,200 to 1,300 acres. We started our cattle business in 1993 with 35 cows, whatever breeds were selling at the auction at the time, mostly Simmental and black baldies. Most of our steers and a few of our heifers are sold through local auction barns. We have sold some hanging beef that was USDA certified and also have our own meat butchered locally.
“We’ve been keeping our heifers ever since turning everything black or black baldies, for the last few years. Those black baldies sell well. They tend to make good mommas and have more milk.”
Danny Long agreed, “We’ve just brought in some new bulls, the Limousin/Angus cross, Lim-Flex bulls.”
Kathy Windsor added, “We take care of the cattle, like we take care of the land. That means cattle with no hormones and the ones we sell, also have no antibiotics.”
Mark explained, “We don’t use antibiotics unless it’s absolutely necessary. If we have a calf that’s sick, then yes, we’re going to treat that calf rather than let it get worse but that’s one we’ll be keeping, too. We literally end up eating the orphans, the off colored ones, but they are still tasty.”
Turning to the economics of their current situation, Mark continued, “The real catch at the moment is to figure out just what to do about the marketing of our cows with cattle prices as high as they are, in comparison to butchering our own. For instance, an animal that is fat cattle, ready to butcher weighs 1,200 to 1,300 pounds. Once it’s butchered, you get 65 percent of it in the hanging weight so that’s 700 to 750 pounds. Then, depending on how you cut it up, you end up with 350 to 400 pounds in the freezer and half of that is hamburger.
“Meanwhile, let’s see, at the sale barn, it’s $1.53 a pound for a 1,200 pound animal so that’s $1,836 on the hoof. It costs 45 cents a pound to butcher it so now there’s $400 in the butchering, so that’s a total of $2,250 invested in a single steer, or $4.50 a pound before any money is made.
“We raise our own beef and it is a superior product. Our hamburger tastes better than most other people’s steaks. The question now is, do we work to build a market by selling at a loss to get people accustomed to paying more for a better product?”
While grappling with the current cattle market situation may be a new challenge, life on the farm is not new to Mark, who grew up on his parents’ dairy farm in Laclede County.
“His family has been here since the early 1800s,” Kathy concluded, “and of course, there have been lots of changes in farms and farm marketing over the years. We’re in our research stage right now. We want to do farm to table, something we’ve been doing around here for quite a few years. In the farm to table model, customers know exactly where their food is coming from, that it is of the highest quality, harvested at its prime and that there are no additives. It is of the same quality the owners are eating. We want others to be able to eat like our families do.”
