How One Family is Breaking the Mold to Carve Out New Path to Process Meat Without White House's Help

Just 65 miles south of Kansas City you’ll find a meat company shaking up status quo.

“We are standing in front of our beef processing facility near Butler, Missouri,” says Todd Hertzog of Hertzog Meat Company. “Not only do we actually process beef, we also process hogs and bison as well.”

The company sells their own Hertzog Farms private label, while also processing meat for others, and it’s a nice complement to the other side of their family cattle business. 

“We got into backgrounding and finishing cattle on grass. And there's such a need and inconsistent process and a processing facility,” says Hertzog. 

Local. Fresh. Quality. BEEF.

These carcasses came out of our hot box this morning & will now dry age here in our large cooler. Delicious beef will be making its way to local dinner plates in just a couple weeks! ? #hertzogmeatco #hertzogspremiumbeef #notliketheotherguys pic.twitter.com/rJ73SZy1xY — Hertzog Meat Co. (@HertzogMeatCo) May 26, 2021

The family business goes back five generations. More than 125 years ago, Jacob Hertzog relocated to Missouri from Pennsylvania and operated a cattle ranch. And while the family still raises cattle, the Hertzog family opened the doors to its new meat processing facility in May 2021.

“We're not trying to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, but what we're trying to do is iron out some inconsistencies that were flawed in the processing business,” he adds.

Seeing a void in local processing, the Hertzogs got to work. They toured other facilities and did research to create a state-of-the-art meat processing site.

As their newly opened processing facility finds footing, the processing portion of Hertzog Meat Company was built in just eight months. The timeline may seem quick, but the Hertzogs say no corners were cut.

“We wanted to add technology because we wanted to iron out the inconsistencies that are in the processing side of things,” says Hertzog. “And you cannot iron those out if you do cut corners.”

Look at how she shines! ?

Epoxy flooring this week. Next up—the placement of our brand new, top of the line equipment.

So close, we can almost taste the premium beef and pork. #hertzogmeatco #hertzogspremiumbeef #eatbeef #eatpork #supportlocal pic.twitter.com/YMdYeepNU3 — Hertzog Meat Co. (@HertzogMeatCo) April 21, 2021

With hundreds of thousands of dollars invested into just the technology of this new facility, he says it’s the technology that was a key part of the recipe in getting the quality right.

“If you want to be on a menu at a high-end restaurant in Kansas City or a menu somewhere else, you're not able to cut those corners, you have to do everything right. And you have to do the little things right every single time,” he explains.

Paying attention to every detail from start to finish is where Hertzogs have found a home, and that is why they’ve also been successful in producing a consistent cut of meat every time.

“If you have a consistent product with the genetics of your animals, and you harvest them the same way every single time, each time you take product to your restaurant or take it to the end user, you should have consistency,” he adds.

Our crew is hard at work this morning stocking our retail coolers! All of our meat is fresh, raised locally, 14 day dry-aged, and ready for your grill this weekend. Stop by and see us! You’ll be happy you did. ? #hertzogmeatco #hertzogspremiumbeef #notliketheotherguys pic.twitter.com/j7VNoph2Uj — Hertzog Meat Co. (@HertzogMeatCo) July 30, 2021

And while this family-owned business says they are investing the money to do it right, it’s challenging the norms of some of the larger meat processors today that could be the biggest breakthrough.

“First of all, we're cattle producers. And the fact that we are cattle producers kind of sets us apart from the next guy that's a processor, but not a producer,” he says.

Post after post on social media, what the Hertzogs produce comes with pride, even if carving out a new path isn’t always the easiest route.

“The toughest thing is just to build the relationships, to be able to move all your products throughout the building and out the back door and stay solvent that way. It's just throughput. If you don't have throughput, you might as well close the doors,” says Hertzog.

A announcement from the White House this week unveiled a detailed plan that will pour $1 billion to help beef up smaller processing plants across the country. That’s in addition to $500 million USDA outlined last year.

And while the funds could help create more processing plants in all areas of the country, the Hertzogs are proof that federal funds aren’t the only way to expand processing capacity in the U.S. The Hertzogs say their family-owned facility is up and running without any investors, or federal or state funds. And they are adamant that there’s even more room to grow.

“I think we'll continue to grow on a local level with local restaurants, local end users. I mean our goal is never to go into a huge chain grocery store or into a huge chain restaurant. There's enough demand locally, even within our proximity to Kansas City, there's enough demand right here to more than support a facility like this,” says Hertzog.