From pasture to local restaurant plates

MEAT THE OWNER: Patrick Beck, co-owner of New England Grass Fed, got his start in the protein business by selling rabbits he grazed locally. His company expects to sell $100,000 worth of animal products in 2012. / PBN PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE
MEAT THE OWNER: Patrick Beck, co-owner of New England Grass Fed, got his start in the protein business by selling rabbits he grazed locally. His company expects to sell $100,000 worth of animal products in 2012. / PBN PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE

It all started with rabbits. When Patrick Beck, a grass-fed-beef salesman for a local farm, decided he wanted a personal stake in the local protein business, he and a few friends bought silver-fox rabbits. Beck grazed them in a field near his home and sold them to local chefs, who were “very excited to have a superior. all-natural pastured rabbit,” he said.
From there, Beck started to dream big, 1,100-pound big. He co-founded New England Grass Fed LLC in March 2011. As director of sales and marketing, Beck has expanded his local protein operation to include beef, pork and lamb. The company received its sales permit in August and made more than $20,000 in sales by the end of the year. Beck expects to sell $100,000 worth of protein in 2012.
New England Grass Fed raised eight cattle for slaughter last fall and plans for four more to finish grazing this spring. Beck just purchased five cows and hopes to add between 30 and 40 cows to the grazing program this year.
Beck buys yearlings that weigh about 500 pounds from grass-fed herds throughout the Northeast for an average of $1,200 each, he said. He currently has contracts with two grazing pastures and hopes to add more this year. The cows are grazed rotationally, to allow the pastures time to replenish, until they weigh approximately 1,100 pounds, which can take up to a year. At that weight, the cattle have enough fat to allow the meat to be dry-aged in a cooler for two weeks, which Beck said is “the key” to the beef’s quality.
“We have a wonderful, natural product, but then it needs to be moist and flavorful. That flavor comes from fat, and the tenderness comes from aging,” he said.
With purchase price, grazing, trucking, slaughtering and packing expenses, a 1,100-pound cow will typically cost approximately $2,400 to bring up to 450 pounds of meat to market, where the meat is sold for an estimated $3,600 per animal.
The cattle are taken to the U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved Rhode Island Beef and Veal plant in Johnston for slaughtering, then aged at Westerly Meat Packing Company. New England Grass Fed sells its meat to Rhode Island restaurants and at the South Kingstown Farmers Market. With help from college students, the business will begin selling at the Cross Mills Farmers Market in Charlestown in May.
High-quality steaks, including ribeye, T-Bone and Porterhouse, sell for $18.50 per pound on average, Beck said. Customers can also purchase 20-pound, mixed-pasture packs for $200. Beck plans to expand inventory and sales in Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York and he hopes to hire employees as operations continue to grow.
New England Grass Fed’s wholesale customers include restaurants Local 121 and New Rivers in Providence and the Newport Harbor Corp., which oversees restaurants, including the Waterman Grille, Boathouse in Tiverton and the Castle Hill Inn. Ocean House in Westerly and Thames Street Kitchen in Newport purchase from Beck’s rabbit supply.
Though New England Grass Fed does not currently raise pigs or lamb, the company sells grass-fed pork and lamb on behalf of other farms that “don’t choose to end-market their products,” Beck said.
“We have had a wonderful response” from chefs and customers, Beck said. “We’re pleased to be able to provide families with an option away from the industrially raised, feed-lot beef” that is often found in supermarkets, he said.
Grass-fed beef is healthier, because it lacks the antibiotics that starch-fed beef receive and it contains nutritious fats, Beck said. “Our company slogan is ‘respecting the protein,’ so our animals are raised with respect, in accordance with their natural design,” Beck said.
Beck founded New England Grass Fed with his friend Greg Lynch, who also works for construction company J.H. Lynch & Sons. Lynch said he thought partnering with Beck “sounded like a good idea,” but admitted his role in the company’s day-to-day operations is “very limited.”
The son of a veterinarian and nephew of a dairy farmer, Beck sees his business as an opportunity to educate communities about pastured protein.
He is planning a program to help Rhode Island 4-H members raise grass-fed rabbits. Once the rabbits reach full weight, Beck will purchase them back from the students and lead a field trip to a local restaurant to watch a chef prepare the meat.
New England Grass Fed is a year-round operation, because northern breeds of cattle are hardy enough to withstand winters in the outdoors. “We do not feed them corn in the winter the way a lot of people do,” Beck said, explaining that the cattle eat dried or baled hay instead.
“We’re sort of the new, old farmers,” Beck said. He uses traditional grazing methods and does not chemically treat the animals, but he rents pasture space instead of raising cattle on his own land.
“A feed-lot and corn-based system is not sustainable in America,” Beck said. “Ours really just requires sunshine and good soil.” •COMPANY PROFILE
New England Grass Fed LLC
OWNERS: Patrick Beck and Greg Lynch
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Grass-fed beef farmer
LOCATION: 248 Spring St., South Kingstown
EMPLOYEES: 2
YEAR FOUNDED: 2011
ANNUAL REVENUE: WND

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