Every family farm has a turning point — a moment where the world shifts, and you realize that if you want to survive, you must evolve. For Ruth Family Farms, that moment came in 2020, during one of the most uncertain times in modern agriculture.
Before then, our family had quietly been producing some of the best Angus beef in the United States, supplying a top-tier beef gifting company that raved about our quality year after year. Our cattle program was strong. Our genetics were elite. Our marbling consistently matched (and often beat) the biggest names in the industry.
Everything was running smoothly — until it wasn’t.
🌪 When Covid Hit, the Beef Industry Broke Overnight
Like most specialty beef producers, we relied on large USDA packing plants to process our premium cattle. We raised the cattle — beautifully — but someone else controlled what happened after that.
And then, almost overnight, Covid shut down every major packing facility in the region.
The company who relied on our beef didn’t own a plant.
We didn’t either.
And suddenly, with nowhere to process cattle…
…we were stuck.
We had top-1% Prime-level Angus beef ready for market and nowhere to send it.
We had animals we couldn’t move.
We had animals die.
We had customers wanting product but no ability to supply it.
For a farmer, it’s hard to describe the sinking feeling. You work for years to raise healthy cattle. You feed them, care for them, monitor every detail — and then watch a broken system leave you with no way forward.
It was a wake-up call.
We realized:
✔ Quality matters.
✔ Transparency matters.
✔ Consistency matters.
✔ Integrity matters.
But none of that means anything if someone else controls the step that comes after the pasture.
We were tired of producing world-class beef only to have it mishandled, undervalued, or processed inconsistently — while middlemen made margins and we made pennies.
Our customers deserved better.
Our family deserved better.
Our cattle deserved better.
And so the conversation began.
🥩 “What if we processed our own beef?”
One day, Doug picked up the phone and called Breanna.
“We found a local meat facility for sale,” he said. “What do you think about running it?”
Her response was pure Ruth-family grit.
“Okay… sounds good.”
That’s the thing about our family — when someone needs help, we show up.
Every time.
No hesitation.
Breanna didn’t own cattle herself. Her husband did — but those were his babies, not hers. Still, she stepped up without blinking.
Because that’s what our family does.
🏭 Buying the Facility — And Rebuilding It From the Inside Out
The facility we purchased was in okay shape. Not fancy. Not modern. But it was enough to get started.
We didn’t buy it to impress anyone.
We bought it because we needed a future.
We made updates where they mattered:
✔ Modernized the entire butcher shop
✔ Expanded capacity for higher volume
✔ Added new cold storage
✔ Installed layout improvements for efficiency
✔ Implemented strict USDA processing standards
✔ Integrated technology the previous owner had never dreamed of
And the biggest leap?
We invested in the highest-tech beef grading camera on the market — the kind used by major packing plants to determine inner-muscular fat, marbling quality, and texture. It sees what the naked eye can’t, ensuring every cut we process meets the standards our family built its reputation on.
This technology became a cornerstone of our closed-loop beef system — where cattle are born, raised, finished, processed, butchered, and packaged right here on our North Missouri family farm.
👩🦰 Breanna Stepped In — And Then She Built a Team
Breanna was intimidated and overwhelmed at first. Who wouldn’t be? Running a full USDA processing facility is not for the faint of heart.
But she had something stronger than experience:
Grit.
Family loyalty.
And the Ruth work ethic.
With help from good friends, she learned quickly.
Then she brought in her sister-in-law, Khelcie, and together they now run retail, butchering, inventory, and the entire flow of the operation.
And on the days it gets crazy —
it’s all hands on deck.
The guys are in the fields and tending cattle.
The girls are in the plant making sure every steak, every roast, every Tomahawk Ribeye is cut with care and shipped with integrity.
It’s farming.
It’s family.
It’s teamwork.
And it’s who we are.
⭐️ The Moment We Knew We Made the Right Choice
It didn’t take long.
A chef tried our beef and said it had Wagyu-level marbling.
Another said it was the best beef he’d ever tasted.
Customers kept saying, “This tastes like what beef used to taste like.”
Those reactions validated every hard day, every learning moment, every dollar spent, every late night.
We realized:
We weren’t just processing our own beef…
We were creating something extraordinary.
And we were finally — finally — in control.
❤️ Today, Ruth Family Farms Is Stronger Than Ever
Because we process our own beef:
✔ Every steak is hand-cut
✔ Every cut is graded precisely
✔ Every package is consistent
✔ Every customer receives steakhouse-quality beef
✔ Every order reflects our family’s integrity
✔ Every animal is honored with the respect it deserves
We don’t rely on broken systems anymore.
We built our own.
And now we sell directly to families, restaurants, grocery stores, and chefs who want premium Missouri Angus beef raised with purpose and processed with pride.
🛒 From Our Family to Yours — Taste the Difference of True Farm-to-Table Beef
We didn’t choose this path because it was easy.
We chose it because it was right.
And now, every time someone opens a box of Ruth Family Farms beef, they’re tasting the result of:
✨ a crisis that forced change
✨ a family that refused to quit
✨ a farm that built its own future
