The Designer Beef Difference

 

Room To Roam

At a typical feedlot, up to 100 animals are packed into a one-acre pen, creating crowding, high levels of stress, and a mess when rain and bad weather comes.

Your cattle will get nearly half an acre per head of clean growing grass, allowing them to spread out and keep stress levels very low.

Room to Eat

An average feedlot only provides 9 to 12 inches of space per head, forcing cattle to crowd together or give up and wait to eat.

When it’s time to eat, your cow will get 24 to 30 inches of bunk space per head, allowing them to comfortably eat where they choose.

Locally Sourced

Usually, cattle from a feedlot will travel hundreds, if not thousands, of miles and change locations 3 to 4 times throughout their life.

Your animal will be bought locally and delivered to our facility, where they will stay until harvested.

Our Ranch to Your Home

Typical feedlot beef are penned up, loaded on a truck, and driven several hundred miles to the packing plant where they are unloaded and held for a short time before being slaughtered. The stress involved right before slaughter has many negative results on meat quality.

Your beef cow will be gently and quietly brought to harvest on site, creating low stress which results in top-quality meat.

 

About Our Facility

The two main factors that control the healthy growth of cattle are feed quality and their environment.

Why Us?

At Designer Beef, we provide your beef cow with an extremely low-stress environment for optimum animal health and growth. 

Our facility was a state-of-the-art dairy at one time that we have converted into a small beef grow facility. The large barn where we feed your cattle each day has over 25 fans and misters to keep your cow cool in the heat of summer. This barn also provides protection from the rain and harsh winter weather. 

Another excellent feature we can provide your cow is the highest quality feed. We have a large, covered storage area and the right equipment to mix and deliver the feed directly to your animal. The facility is fenced with large, 20-acre pens for your beef cow to spread out and graze. These pens include mature trees for shade in the summer and windbreaks in the winter. 

There is also a well-designed area to care for and weigh your animal, which is also covered and has multiple fans to help keep stress levels low. On site, in the old dairy parlor, we have a place to harvest, age, and package your beef. The overall efficiency of our facility allows us to keep meticulous records of your animals’ well-being and weight gain to ensure your cow is in good health multiple times a day throughout their entire lives!

 

Nutritionist Bio

Jay Branum, Ph.D.

Consulting Nutritionist, Professional Livestock Service, Inc.

Has provided nutrition and management consulting for feeding and care for over 20 years in the U.S. and internationally.

B.S. Animal Science - M.S. Physiology - Ph.D. Ruminant Nutrition

 

Ranch Manager Bio

Sean began honing his agricultural skills as a young boy while visiting and helping on his grandparent’s dairy farm. This led him to get his first job at 15 years old, taking care of the neighbor’s calves. He was responsible for caring for and feeding them twice a day. He then developed a passion for cattle and spent the last 17 years fine-tuning his skills. 

He went to work for a local creamery and was responsible for their calves and cows. While there, he noticed the importance of feeding calves at a young age to optimize their health and performance as adult milking cows. From there, he moved to work for a large dairy where his day-to-day responsibilities involved feeding thousands of cows. Soon, he was promoted to overseeing the crop harvesting operation on the dairy farm and realized the importance of harvesting crops at the right times to optimize the nutritional value of the cow’s feed. 

While learning this, he became passionate about the gut health and overall health of cattle, leading him to work for a dairy nutritionist for several years. While visiting multiple dairy facilities each week, he saw the importance nutrition had on an animal’s health. He also realized that the environment and handling of the animals also contributed to their overall health. Sean soon learned ways to optimize the animal's overall health through nutrition and their environment. 

Over the last five years, Sean has been working hands-on in the beef industry. He soon realized that he enjoyed being in the beef industry and had a passion for raising quality beef. He now uses all the knowledge from his past job experiences to help produce and care for his cattle. 

Sean lives on a ranch in Detroit, Texas, with his wife and four kids. Here they have a cow/calf operation where they bottle feed orphaned calves. Their greatest desire for cattle is to raise them in a natural, low-stress environment to optimize overall health and provide a quality product.