Jessica Garcia, Owner of Balcones Land and Meat Company, raises south poll cattle.

Most of the cattle processed by Veterans Liberty Ranch are longhorn steers.

Jessica Garcia, Owner of Balcones Land and Meat Company, raises south poll cattle.

Most of the cattle processed by Veterans Liberty Ranch are longhorn steers.

It ain’t no bull—beef is considered a diet staple for most Texans. And while many people enjoy a juicy burger on a hot summer day or a Sunday roast at grandma’s house, most don’t ever think past the meal on their plate. But there’s a lot more to beef than meets the eye.

At one ranch in Liberty Hill, local Julie Green raises longhorn cattle to show and for beef. She started Veterans Liberty Ranch about three years ago with fellow rancher Michelle Smith after having a couple of cows that didn’t make the cut to be show animals. Since then, their operation has grown, and together the two owners raise cattle on three different ranches in Decatur, Zephyr and Liberty Hill. Between all three ranches, Veterans Liberty Ranch has about 100 head at any given time, with calves constantly being born.

“We have about 100 ready-to-go cows at all times,” Green said. “We started with a small base herd that included show mothers that had calves, and then we’d show them until they were aged out, and then we’d beef them. We started small, but we have grown quite a bit.”

The herd in Zephyr has a bull full time to father the offspring, but in Liberty Hill and Decatur they prefer to use artificial insemination.

“Most of the cattle we process are steers; very rarely do we process a mama cow, unless she’s not a good mom,” Green said. “That’s not common in longhorns though—they are known for being excellent mothers. We raise the cows to be mamas and the steers to be processed. At six months, they are castrated, branded, tagged and vaccinated.”

The calves also nurse from their mothers until about six months old, and then they are weaned and put on a grass diet until they are sent to the butcher. 

“It takes a little longer to grow a grass-fed cow,” Green said. “If they are eating corn, they’ll grow faster.”

Green said raising and selling longhorn beef was appealing because the breed is good at self-managing. They aren’t picky about the type of grass they eat, and they are disease resistant. Determining which cows are show cows and which are beef cows all depends on bloodlines, Green said, adding that show cows are bred to have the best coloring and body confirmation. 

“If they are born solid red, white or black, or if they have an odd horn shape or things like that, then they don’t make the cut,” she said. “We ween them and put them with the beef cows. Most of the show cows are bred and planned for.”

Jessica Garcia, owner of Balcones Land and Meat Company, has been raising livestock including chickens, sheep and cows for years in what started as a way for her family specifically to eat quality meats and know exactly where their food was coming from. Friends and family began to show interest in the meat as well, and the company was born.

For now, Garcia does most of the ranch work on her own, as her husband works full-time in the military. Once he retires, they plan to expand their operations, but for now, she keeps a small herd of six to 12 cows. 

Garcia raises south poll cattle, which are a hybrid breed created by country musician Teddy Gentry of the band Alabama, just a few decades ago. The cows are a cross between the hereford, red angus, barzona and senepol breeds. The breed is known for having slicker hair than other breeds, larger bodies that can easily carry and birth offspring, and heat tolerant and parasite resistant traits. 

South poll cows are known for being good mothers, Garcia said, and they nurse their babies until they are about a year old. 

“They are very gentle animals,” Garcia said. “They are easy to move from one pasture to another—you just have to open the gate and maybe pat them on their backside to get them to move.”

Garcia uses rotational grazing for her cattle, which means she moves them about every other day to a new pasture.

“They are grass fed,” she said. “They get whatever nutrients they need from their forage. We don’t give them treats or corn or feed them out before we take them to slaughter. We use the animals to nourish the ground and replenish it. Part of our animal management is also land management.”

Similarly to Green, Garcia’s cattle don’t get as big as corn-fed cows, but they still get up to about 1,000 pounds by the time they are ready for slaughter. 

“We rotate them from pasture to pasture, so they have fresh grass every day,” Garcia said. “The idea is that they break it down, add carbon to the soil and then they move on. That area has time to replenish and then eventually they loop back around. It’s amazing to watch the pastures come back to life after they’ve been grazed.”

Green keeps standing appointments with two butcher houses: M&M Butcher Block in Lampasas and Hamilton Wholesale Meats in Weatherford. 

“We take in about six to eight cattle per month to the butcher,” Green said. “All of our cattle are trained to follow feed bags, even though they don’t ever get grain. We have them trained so they are easy to work in the pens. The biggest goal is that you don’t want the cattle stressed before you take them in to the butcher. That can make the meat tough.”

When they sell beef to a customer, the customer chooses the cuts they want. 

“Our butcher will walk our customers through every cut, because some people don’t want certain kinds of meat, and I don’t want to make the decision for them, so we let them decide what they want out of that cow,” Green said.

After a cow is slaughtered, it is hung for a certain amount of time to drain fluids from the meat and allow it to age and become more tender. Green said with their cows, she prefers a hang time of 14 days.

“Our charge for the customer is the final weight, which is dependent on what the customer wants,” she said. “If people don’t want bones, they don’t pay for bones. We charge a flat fee of $8 a pound no matter the cut of meat. Usually an entire beef weighs around 360 pounds. A lot of people divide up a half a beef or a whole beef between family and friends.” 

At 15 days, Green goes to the butcher to pick up the cuts of meat to deliver to the customer. 

Green’s schedule for taking cows to the butcher are based on customer demand, which she said is steadily growing because her company has started to participate in area farmers markets.

“Our business is increasing. I can’t keep burgers in stock,” she said. “I try to guess what people will want based on the season. In the winter it’s roasts and stew meat and in the summer its burgers and briskets. I really enjoy doing farmers markets because it lets people see all the options we can provide, and if we don’t have something they want, I’m just up the road.”

Customers can also order directly from the Veterans Liberty Ranch website or coordinate with Green and Smith to purchase a half or whole cow. 

Green said the goal is to utilize the entire cow, not just the beef. With longhorns, their hides can be used to make everything from rugs to purses, and their skulls can be preserved through taxidermy for home décor. 

Garcia uses I O Ranch Processing in Evant to do custom butchering for her customers. They also allow customers to choose the cuts of beef they would like. Garcia said choosing a butcher is important to ranchers, because they want to find a facility that will make things as easy on the cattle as possible.

“We like I O because it’s calm and dark and there’s not a lot of cows mooing or running around and getting stressed,” she said. “It’s a very quick process—the cow doesn’t even know it’s happening. After that, they are hung for 14 days to age the meat.”

The meat ages through natural bacteria and enzymes that grow as the cattle hang for those two weeks, Garcia said, which are ultimately what tenderizes the beef and gives it good flavor.Garcia charges $8.75 a pound for her beef, which is also a flat rate no matter the cut. 

Everything from weather to the economy can affect the prices of beef, particularly when there is a drought. Because Texas is currently in a drought, Green is having to supplement her herd with hay for feeding, which is very expensive and causes the cost of the meat to rise for the customer. However, she said they try to stay lower in price than mainstream grocery stores, and their longhorn beef is ultimately better quality than what grocery stores sell.

“When people think of steak, they want angus,” Green said. “That’s what restaurants use as their big advertisement or what H-E-B uses as its prime beef, but flavor wise and nutrition wise, longhorn beef is healthier. It has the same health benefits and a lower fat ratio than venison. It’s also healthier cholesterol wise and calorie wise. It’s the healthiest beef you can eat.”

Green added that it takes less time to cook because it’s leaner, and a lot of people prefer it because it doesn’t contain gristle.

When it comes to south poll cows, they are a very tender meat, Garcia said, adding that a lot of people can taste the difference between a store-bought steak and a south poll steak. 

“Because they are so gentle, they create a tender beef,” she said. “Black angus are high strung, which is why they have more of a tough, fibrous meat.”

Garcia said that ultimately, raising healthy and happy animals is the number one goal for ranchers, while also providing their customers with a quality product.

“We want them to be healthy, because if they’re healthy, then we are healthy eating them,” she said.

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