Angus producer Lindsay Hall had a rough draft of a dream when she and her family launched their direct-to-consumer beef marketing business: maybe by year 10 they’d have a storefront.  

That was 2020, and in 2021 they opened Maplecrest Meats — a retail storefront in Hillsboro, Ohio. She; her husband, Adam; their children and her extended family market beef from animals not kept as seedstock on their own farm, along with animals purchased from their bull buyers.  

“My five-to-10-year plan was to get to the storefront, and now I'm there. So, it's like, how can we continue to diversify and keep growing, but yet for it also to still be sustainable?” she asks. “We're going to do it, figure it out, and the one thing that's been so amazing in this whole learning curve, there's other folks out there that do similar things.” 

Hall and Ashley Bruner, Dakota Beef, near Drake, N.D., joined The Angus Conversation, with special guest co-host Kara Lee, Certified Angus Beef, to talk about the joys and struggles of marketing their own beef. 

“We’ve had big hurdles, and there are hurdles that some people would’ve just stopped for sure. That goes back to our stubbornness. We're committed to making this work,” Bruner says. She and her family’s Bruner Angus Ranch are in partnership with Wendel Livestock at LaMoure, N.D., to market beef under the Dakota Angus brand. 

Both Hall and Bruner talk of logistical challenges, the learning curve and the feeling of support when they enrolled in the Certified Angus Beef Ranch to Table™ program.  

“Even though it’s unknown and we’re all growing together, all of us have the same goal and all of us are passionate,” Hall says, noting that CAB caters the program to each individual.  

Both women say the customer interaction is fun, but their “why” is even deeper. “Looking down the future, how can we keep our kids to want to come back, and what opportunities can we give them, and how can we get them even more involved with what we're doing today?” Bruner says.  

The kids don’t see it as work, but they’re learning, she says.  

“I just love that my kids get to grow up the same way I did, but have even more experiences to grow,” Hall adds.  

To listen to the full conversation, download “‘We’ll Figure It Out’ — Bruner, Hall Jump Headfirst Into Direct-to-Consumer Beef Marketing” anywhere you get your podcasts, or by following this direct link: https://www.angusjournal.net/episodes/episode/766d0c99/well-figure-it-out-bruner-hall-jump-headfirst-into-direct-to-consumer-beef-marketing