Providing premium beef to the local community drives the success of Cornerstone Cattle Company
RUSSELLVILLE, ARK. – Rebecca and Rusty Davis have been ranching together for almost as long as they have been married. That is 30 years under their belt.
Yet, that pales in comparison to how long the Cornerstone Cattle Company has been going strong. For more than four generations, the owners of the ranch have been serving their community.
That job fell to the Davis’s in 2014 when they purchased the company from her family. Now, a decade in, as they look back, it has been an eventful journey.
“It has been a wild ride,” Rebecca said. “There’s been ups and downs, but overall, it’s great. I wouldn’t change anything. My husband and I have been married for 30 years and right about the time we got married, we bought our own little herd of cattle. So we’ve been together in the cattle business for 30 years, even before we took over my dad’s farm. We have had ups and downs and struggles, but it’s been good though.”
Located in Russellville (Ark.), the Cornerstone Cattle Company sits on more than 1,000 acres of land in Pope County. They own another 1,000 acres that they lease out.
“My dad and grandparents had started the farm back, I guess in the sixties, and as he got older, my husband and I, we just took over and restarted things and over the years we changed our herd around and we’ve got about close to 400 cows,” Rebecca said. “They’re commercial cattle. We do breed some back to Herford bulls, but this last week we bought a set of Angus cattle. If we make any more changes, I see us going more towards the Angus breed since we’re looking at selling to consumers. That’s something that’s driving that decision.”
During their three-decade tenure running and owning a cattle ranch, Rebecca says the biggest changes to the industry haven’t necessarily taken place with the cattle or even the land. It’s the actual cost of running and maintaining a ranch that keeps evolving.
“I’m going to say the business side of it, the details for record keeping, for financing, that sort of thing has changed a lot,” Rebecca said. “It’s become a lot more important over the last 10 years. You really must have your paperwork and financial stuff in good shape. If you can’t do that, you’re probably not going to be able to go out and purchase more land or something like that. Equipment has got a lot more expensive as well.”
The way capital is acquired to run and grow a business stands out to Rebecca.
“I think it’s the nature of the business. I can remember my dad, I’d tag along with him when he went to meet with the banker” Rebecca recalled. “And 30 years ago, I think you got loaned money a lot more on your credibility and as far as who you are and if they’ve known you and that sort of thing. And today, that’s just not the case. It’s credit scores and balance sheets, and there’s just a lot more things you have to have in place that I don’t think were even required 30 years ago.”
The Davis’s know that if their product isn’t up to par, customers have several other options to choose from. So their first priority is to make sure their cattle stay at a premium level.
“I think it’s more important now than it was,” Rebecca said. “I think that the consumer has more information available to them, so I think they’re more knowledgeable about the product now as far as beef and beef quality and where it came from and what has gone into it, I think there’s a lot more information out there now for the consumer and I think they’re more interested in it.”
For the Cornerstone Cattle Company, that means making sure their product stands apart.
“I have a lot of people that are interested in the local grown. That’s something that has kind of evolved in our area over the last probably five years,” Rebecca said. “There are a lot more people who are aware of it now and I feel like when they are interested in something like that and they try our product, that’s why they come back. We use breeding stock that has Angus genetics in it and I think that helps to produce a quality product as far as your steaks and your beef with flavor and marbling.”
As the Davis’s head into a fourth decade in the business, their priorities are not only to continue to see Cornerstone excel and possibly grow, but they are also looking at making sure they leave a legacy.
“One of the most important things that I think we’ve gotten out of it is being able to raise our kids around the farm life,” Rebecca said. “I think that when kids are raised around animals, they learn respect and I think they learn hard work. I just think there are lots of benefits to kids being raised around agriculture. I have two girls and I have two son-in-law’s, and we just got our fourth grandchild now. We are looking forward to raising them up the same way.”
