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147: The Family Butcher Shop Changing Local Agriculture with Cailie Williams · CattleUSA Daily

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  Welcome to another episode of the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
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  Today we are welcoming on Kaylee Williams to the podcast.
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  Kaylee is coming on to chat a little bit more about her
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  family's operation and what they are currently doing in Michigan.
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  Kaylee owns a butcher shop in Michigan that is a USDA approved
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  butcher shop that she bought and took over a few years ago.
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  And now her and her family operate in their rural small
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  town. And so Kaylee comes on, shares a
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  little bit more about her story and hits on the impact that
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  their community has had from her taking this over, some changes
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  that she's made and all of the things.
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  So before we hop into this episode with Kaylee, though, if
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  you guys could take just a second to like subscribe, rate
• 0:44
  and review this podcast, we would really appreciate it here
• 0:46
  at the team. And now without further ado,
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  let's go ahead and hop into this episode with Kaylee.
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  Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast, your go to source for
• 0:58
  the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the
• 1:01
  updates shaping agriculture today.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate for
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  agriculture, here to keep you informed and connected.
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  Now let's dive into today's episode.
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  Kaylee, welcome to the podcast. We are so excited to welcome you
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  on to share a little bit more about your life and your
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  business and everything. You have been around livestock
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  since you were really, really, really young.
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  What drew you to stay in agriculture and then not only
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  stay in it, but also eventually step into managing countryside
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  and what you guys are currently doing?
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  I've always loved being around animals.
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  I have little kids now who love being around the animals, so
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  it's really fun to see my kids, you know, out there bottle
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  feeding a day old calf and get to see the whole process.
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  And it really just drew me in when the opportunity came
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  available to purchase the slaughterhouse because I get to
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  see everything from start to finish.
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  I get to know where my meat comes from and how I nourish my
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  family and that is a big deal to me.
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  Yeah, 100%. What is that journey kind of
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  looked like for you guys purchasing your meat processing
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  facility? How did that even come about?
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  I would love to hear a little bit more of that background.
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  Yeah. So before I purchased the meat
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  processing facility, I had worked in live production with
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  poultry actually. And I enjoyed kind of the
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  freedom and just kind of getting to be with the animals and not
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  so much around people. Honestly, I enjoyed the animals
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  and the quiet that came with them.
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  You were just kind of there, you were in your own thoughts.
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  You didn't have to be bugged by people.
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  And then the opportunity came to manage this business that I
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  currently own and I took it. I was here for two years.
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  They offered to sell it and I took the opportunity and I've
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  been here for two years now as the owner.
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  And I absolutely love it. I love being able to have the
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  freedom it brings me to take care of my kids.
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  Or if my cows get out at home, I'm right down the road and can
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  go chase them, which is very convenient.
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  Like I said, I just enjoy knowing where my meat comes
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  from. I enjoy the customer base that
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  I've built. I network with a lot of
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  customers here. I raise bottle cows for a lot of
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  my customers and I get to see those cows come back to me at
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  the end and it's a great feeling.
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  Wow, that's so fun. And I think it's so fascinating
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  that you were like, hey, this opportunity just kind of came
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  about and I'm going to take it. I'm I'm going to take the leap.
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  I don't know what it's going to look like at the end of the day,
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  but we're going to take this leap and we are going to do the
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  best that we can with it. Talk a little bit more about the
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  journey from you saying like, Yep, I will buy it to the
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  business that you guys have had now.
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  What changes have you made? What evolutions have kind of
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  come about in that time? Yeah, So I was 26 when I bought
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  the business and I love telling people that because it'd be a
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  female and this young in this industry is awesome.
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  It is quite an accomplishment and I'm really proud of it from
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  start to finish. It took probably about a year,
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  year and a half with all of the inspections and the grant
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  getting transferred to mine in because we are USDA inspected
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  butcher shop. And so it did take a little bit
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  of time to get the grant switched over.
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  It was a while and it was quite lengthy.
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  We bought Countryside two years ago.
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  We have remodeled our entire retail.
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  When I first started, it was just chest freezers and you had
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  to dig for stuff. You never really knew what was
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  in stock. There wasn't much variety.
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  So one of the first things we did was we expanded our retail,
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  we added on to our building, remodeled everything and we had
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  a grand reopening with a roaster hog and welcome the community.
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  And, and that I think was a big changer for us.
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  I now have freezers that are stocked with pork, beef,
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  chicken, lamb and goat. We always have fresh cut steaks
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  that come off of our beef every week, fresh ground beef, and I
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  really think that's been a big driving point for the community
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  because we're such a small town and having this here is a
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  necessity and it's nice to not have to go to the big box store
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  and not know where your meat comes from.
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  So it really helps us build customer relation here when
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  people can trust what they're feeding their family.
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  Yeah, you touched on a little bit ago how you love being
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  involved in every single step of the process, from raising the
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  livestock to butchering to serving your customers.
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  You you get a touch point at every single stop that that
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  animal makes. What does Farm to Fork really
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  mean for you and your family? So farm to fork for us is
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  getting the babies the same week that they're born.
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  We bottle feed them in our house.
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  Once they're about 8-9 weeks old, we pull them off milk, put
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  them out in pasture. We give them hay and green.
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  They stay there until they're about 1400 lbs and then we'll
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  bring them into the slaughter facility.
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  Once they're here, we process them.
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  They dry age in our carcass cooler for two weeks.
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  I fill out a cutting order on what cuts I want or what
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  specific cuts a customer's looking for.
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  I picked the thickness of the steaks, what roast I want, what
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  steaks I want, how much ground beef I want, if I want it in
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  patties, fat percentage and then we put it in our retail or we
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  fill customer orders with it for them to put in their own retail.
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  Wow, that's that's so fun. You you've mentioned how like
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  small towns and just like the closeness of the community that
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  you have is really important to your business model and how you
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  guys kind of function and just the local ingredients, the eco
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  friendly practices, all of those different things that show up in
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  your business. How do these values kind of show
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  up in your business in the day-to-day aspect?
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  And then just touch on the importance of like the butcher
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  shop in your small and rural community.
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  So for like a reward system for our customers, we have a loyalty
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  program. So for every $10 they spend
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  here, they earn a point. After they get those points,
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  they get 15% off their entire purchase, which is kind of a big
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  deal to people raising big families, especially with meat
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  prices nowadays. And so that kind of draws people
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  in and I think people knowing, you know, oh hey, this is
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  Kaylee. She lives 7 minutes up the road
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  and she raised this beef. This beef was loved its whole
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  life and now it's going to nourish my family.
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  I think that's kind of a drawing point for people.
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  And we do try and reward our loyal customers that come back.
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  And it's nice customers walk in here and I know I'm on a first
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  name basis. They asked me how my kids are,
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  asked me how school is going for my kids.
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  And I just love that. I love knowing my customers that
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  well. Yeah.
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  Can you talk a little bit about the importance of the locker
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  plant in the small and rural community that you have and just
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  the economic driver that you've kind of been able to continue to
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  maintain and stabilize there? Yeah.
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  So in the state of Michigan, there are not many USDA
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  inspected slaughterhouses nowadays.
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  I think there's just a handful of us and we actually have
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  customers that come from all over the state to us to be able
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  to resell their meat to their customers.
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  So that is a big driving point. I have customers from Ann Arbor,
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  Monroe, all over that come. I even have customers from Ohio
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  that drive up here with pigs weekly for processing.
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  It is so important that they are able to get that USDA inspection
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  on their package so that they know it's safe meat to put out
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  there in an industry. They sell them in their own farm
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  stores, at their own farmers market and that is a big point.
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  There are a lot of non USDA slaughterhouses that are custom
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  and those are just as important. I'm glad we have them, but there
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  there has to be that USDA mark of inspection for people to be
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  able to resell them and know that it's safe to put in the
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  food system. As far as USDA goes, we do a lot
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  of testing, make sure there's no antibiotics in it.
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  We test for E coli, listeria, all those things just to make
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  sure that your food is absolutely safe to be put on the
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  system. There's a lot of steps in place
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  with monitoring our coolers and freezers to make sure that
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  everything is absolutely safe. Wonderful, wonderful.
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  You've touched on your kids and how you love how you are kind of
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  making a family operation. Talk about the role that your
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  kids play in the operation. How do you hope that they'll
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  kind of continue to grow up within agriculture as well?
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  Yeah. So right now I have a six year
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  old daughter, a 5 year old daughter, a 15 month old son,
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  and we're actually expecting another one in April and they
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  love being out there. My son is always in a stroller
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  when we're out there bottle feeding because otherwise he
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  likes to get into the Malkin grain himself.
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  He thinks it's delicious, can't keep him out of it.
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  My oldest loves to help feed the cows.
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  She's really a go getter. She likes to get on the trailer
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  and help get them off the trailer.
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  When we first get them, she's out there telling me that
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  they're her best friends and petting them daily.
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  My middle daughter is a little more on the wild side.
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  She likes to go out there and chase them, get a reaction out
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  of them and you know when they chase her back she giggles.
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  And it is. It is definitely fun to see.
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  I do hope that someday my kids will learn the butcher process.
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  I mean, they're no stranger to coming down here and seeing the
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  process and knowing where their meat comes from, and they don't
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  shy away from that. And I think that's pretty
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  awesome for a little kid to know where their food comes from.
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  Yeah, absolutely. I love the openness that you
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  have in your family and how you are really able to show your
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  kids from a very young age, the entire life cycle of an animal
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  and the importance of the entire life cycle of an animal.
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  Yeah. As you look forward into the
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  future of your business, what excites you about the future of
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  Countryside and your role in supporting local community
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  agriculture? It excites me to be able to
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  think about the future and how we could expand this business,
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  how we can process more animals. We've even gone as far as
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  processing yaks for people, which is not something I ever
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  dreamed I would do. They're a little on the crazy
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  side, but I'm up for it. I think that my kids taking over
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  this business someday is my dream.
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  I love that I was able to create this for them and I hope that it
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  is still going and successful when they are old enough to take
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  over. And I hope that I built
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  something for them. Wow, yes, that is, that's the
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  goal I think so many of us have too, is that raising kids in
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  this industry and being able to hand something really meaningful
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  down to them. I have to touch on the yaks
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  though. How different are yaks than cows
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  to process? Like what do you did you have to
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  like go through some custom training or anything to like
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  figure out how to process these suckers or like I, I need to
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  know a little bit about the. Yaks, the yaks they're, they're
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  a little on the crazy side. They have big horns, so you have
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  to be quick on your feet when you're around them.
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  They are definitely on the older side of cattle.
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  Usually we see them about three to five years old and it's just
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  because they have such small frames.
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  They look like they're huge because the amount of hair they
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  have, but they're actually very petite framed.
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  Most of the time. The customer we were doing them
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  for would grind them into burger.
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  They would sometimes take New York strips off of them.
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  A lot of people like what's called an ancestral blend,
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  especially with yaks where they put some of the liver and what
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  the ground beef to make a more nutritious blend.
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  So we did that with the yaks. But the main thing with them is
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  just staying out of their way because they are little, but
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  they are mighty and they know how to use those horns.
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  That is, that is fascinating. I, I can honestly say that our
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  local butcher shop, I don't think that they have ever had a
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  yak walk through their doors. But you never know what the
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  future's gonna hold, I guess. And all power to you first.
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  Like looking at that and being like, you know what?
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  That seems like a challenge, but a challenge that we are willing
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  to accept. And yeah, they called and I.
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  Take on. I had to get a special exotic
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  USDA license just to process them, but we were up for the
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  challenge, so we process that. You can like now you can do
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  zebras and yaks and everything else under the sun, apparently.
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  How fun. How fun.
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  Well, Kelly, as we round out this podcast, is there anything
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  else that you would like to leave with our listeners today
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  as we close out? I think the main thing that I'd
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  like to drive home to people is just support your local cattle
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  farmers, your local hog farmers, know where your food comes from,
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  know what you're feeding your family, and just trust your
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  local butcher shop with your beef.
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  I mean, we see them and they're raised right?
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  And we want to finish that. We want to finish that process
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  for you, right? We want to give you a beautiful
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  product. Wonderful, wonderful.
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  Well, Kaylee, so much, thank you so, so much for your time today
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  for coming on and just sharing a little bit more about your story
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  and all of the things. This was such a fun episode for
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  us to do a nice little change. And hey, I learned about
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  processing yaks today. So the I learned something new
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  everyday on this podcast. So, Kaylee, thank you so much
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  for your time and to all of you listeners out there.
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  I have Kaylee's links link down below if you are intrigued about
• 13:16
  Kaylee's story and just more about their processing and
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  everything that they are doing. I have that link down below so
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  that you guys can go check that out.
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  And as always, thank you so much for listening and we'll see you
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  all tomorrow on another episode. Have a good one y'all.