Grass-fed beef sticks are the newest niche for Grayson Natural Farms in Grayson County.

The sticks—and eventually other value-added meat products—will be created in the company’s brand-new, 7,000-square-foot facility and marketed under the name Landcrafted Food.

“We’re expanding because we loved growing up on farms and living a rural lifestyle, and we want future generations to have the ability to farm,” said managing partner Gary Mitchell. “The fresh meat market is limited, but the new facility will give us lots more opportunities to make value-added products that will help us increase our income.”

The driving force behind Grayson Natural has always been sustainability, explained Brantley Ivey, another of the farm’s partners. “We have to generate enough revenue to pass the farm on to the next generation while still taking care of the land.”

Mitchell started the business in 2008 to raise cattle and sell beef directly to consumers. Originally five farms were involved, but now it’s Mitchell’s farm and River Ridge Land and Cattle Co., which Ivey manages for Charlotte Hanes, their other partner. 

They buy calves from nearby farms and feed them on grass. When the cows are about 1,100 pounds, they are transported to a North Carolina processing facility. Large cuts of boneless meat will return to Grayson Natural for further processing and packaging.

“We want to bring the fresh meat products in-house as much as possible,” Ivey said. They also plan to make other products like jerky and smoked meats.

While most beef cattle in Virginia are grass-fed, not all of them are “finished” on grass before processing. “We found a market for grass-fed beef, so that’s what we developed,” Ivey explained. Grayson Natural sells to universities and grocery stores in and around Washington and Baltimore. 

The flavor profile for grass-fed beef is different from that of grain-finished animals, and it has a consumer following. “We get rave reviews of our ground beef,” Mitchell said proudly.

Ivey noted that one of the biggest misunderstandings about grass-fed beef is that the cattle receive no vaccinations or antibiotics. Grayson Natural vaccinates all of its calves for common illnesses like pinkeye. Antibiotics are used only to treat sick animals, which are later sold on the commercial market and are not part of the company’s grass-fed beef supply.