Visit to Brandt Beef’s Processor

By
Jay Porter
– Tuesday, 24 October 2006Posted in: All Posts

Today Michael and I drove up to Pico Rivera (near downtown Los Angeles), to watch Brandt cattle become Brandt beef.

First, a little background. Through our friends at Hamilton Meats, we were introduced to the folks at Brandt, who now provide all of the beef we sell at the Linkery (except for special one-time items we might bring in). Brandt is local (from Brawley, CA), and at a basic level, distinguishes itself from the majority of beef producers by producing “true natural” beef where the cows are never given any antibiotics or hormones.

After spending the day with our hosts, Eric Brandt and Brian McCready, we learned that what Brandt is doing is actually really new and pretty exciting. Most exciting, we found that, like us, they’re exploring a whole new model of food production and service by, pretty much, making stuff up as they go along.

As I understand it, the basic proposition of Brandt Beef is this: raising natural cattle is a lot more expensive than following the standard methods of beef production. But, while natural beef producers can charge a premium in the market, they still have to be somewhat close in price to mainstream beef. In order to make these economics work, Brandt uses their creativity and flexibility to develop novel markets for their beef; and uses their intelligence and hard work to raise better-eating beef and to reduce the cost of doing so.

Some examples:

  • Their whole herd is Holstein breed, typically used for dairy. Brandt began using Holsteins because the bulls were inexpensive, being useless for milking and of little interest to cattlemen.
  • Over the last couple decades, Brandt developed a specific feed to capitalize on the unique characteristics of the Holstein breed to make very high quality meat. Around 20% of the Brandt herd grades out at USDA Prime, the industry average is 2%.
  • They use a relatively small processing plant: Manning Beef, where we were today, which processes about 1200 animals a week. (It’s still huge compared to the plant I visited in North Carolina, where we brought six pigs from Cane Creek Farms). This allows them flexibility to cut animals differently depending on what their customers want to buy. The flexibility in cutting, in turn, gives Brandt the potential to sell a much greater percentage of the animal as a non-commodity.
  • Brandt continues to experiment with cutting beef in non-traditional ways, to get as many useful cuts of the animal as possible. This is, to them, a way to advance sustainability: creating the most value from the energy and work put into raising the animal.
  • Brandt uses bar codes and an enterprise software system to track each steer from birth (actually, one day old) to plate, including where the animal was born, what it ate, its genetic background, and more. Right now, this is only implemented for a few cuts of each steer, but Brandt is in the midst of deploying this for all their beef. Within a few months we at the Linkery should be able to tell you, when we serve you a steak or brisket, the exact history of the animal from which it came.
  • I don’t know whether this is the case with larger producers (I’m guessing it is), but it was interesting to see how practically every part of the animal is used in some way. The most fascinating — and I wish I had taken a picture — was the heart sac, which is separated out immediately and stored at specific temperatures, to be used in making (if I recall correctly) heart valves for humans. Cool beans.

After touring the plant, we discussed at length some possible cuts of these animals we could use at the Linkery and some preparations we had in mind. We brought back some non-traditional cuts of meat that we think will work out really well with our cuisine. If we’re right about that, we could have some pretty interesting and novel dishes to feature in the next couple months.

Additionally, we plan to go visit the Brandt feedlot in Brawley in the next few months. We’re told that Mr. Brandt (Eric’s dad) is a great guy, and we intend to entreat him to visit the Linkery and meet and chat with our wonderful community of guests.

Thanks to Eric and Brian for all their time today, for their dedication to making great tasting beef, and for taking us to an absolutely decadent lunch at Dal Rae in Pico Rivera.

I did take a couple pictures.

Endnote: I find it difficult to capture it in writing, but by far the wildest and most compelling experience of the day was being on the kill floor as operations restarted from the workers’ lunch break. When we walked onto the floor, it was empty. Then, two people showed up and killed one steer and brought it onto the floor. Then a couple more people showed up and another steer came onto the floor. Eric walked us from station to station, showing us how each part of the process worked.

After about twenty minutes, Michael pointed out to me that every worker’s break had been staggered so that each worker came back to his station right before the first animal arrived there. About the time when Michael pointed this out, I realized that we were standing in the middle of this very complex, highly kinetic choreography of people and cattle/beef…and there was really no good place to stand that wasn’t in the way, or, more importantly, likely to get me either kicked in the head by a hoof or cut with an air saw.

I’m not a fan of theatrical dance, so this was the first time I was really moved by choreography. It was a hell of an operation. I’d describe it as watching an orchestra, where one section at a time joins in, and suddenly you realize you’re listening to a symphony. But, you know, with steaks.