Low Hills Cattle Company

As of 12/14/15: NOTE FROM MARKET MANAGER: As I told you all a few weeks ago, Jim Kuntzelmann of Sunset Ranch has sold his business to Matt Grisham of Low Hills Cattle Company. With plans to rename the business in January 2016, Matt has plans to raise pork. Says Matt: “We are getting our first load of pigs to raise here in a couple weeks. Until we get these raised, the pastured pork is all the same great stuff you are used to getting from Jim.” As a result, I am selling pork cuts coming through Matt. These pigs are processed in a USDA inspected facility, cryo-vaked and frozen. Up to now, Sunset Ranch sausage was the only product we purchased because it was the only pork being USDA inspected. With Matt taking over the business AND Jim’s pork, we now have a full range of USDA inspected pork cuts available from pastured pigs.

INTRODUCING MATT GRISHAM
We are a small cattle farm in Zephyrhills raising hormone and antibiotic free beef. We are a small husband and wife operation unlike most farms you think of. I grew up in the suburbs of Brandon, Florida and my wife, Lorraine grew up in rural Ohio active in 4-H, but not on a big farm.

This whole venture started beginning to take interest in how our food was grown/raised and where it came from. After doing much research we decided that we would buy a house on a small piece of land and raise some of our own food. We then fenced off a pasture in our back lot and with the help of a neighbor bought some cows. We learned on the fly how to care for animals and what it took to raise a calf from a yearling to a steer ready for processing. In no time we went from our small lot to leasing land from a neighbor, where we now have a small cattle herd.

My original plan was to just raise out a steer every year for ourselves and then take a few others to market to maybe make a few dollars. After having friends try our product and getting feedback that the steaks or burgers they had at our house were the best they had ever had, we began to raise out every steer we had for processing. The feedback for our beef has been great so we started to look for other farmers doing the same thing as us to help keep up with the demands of our customers. This is what lead us to meeting Jim and where we are today.

As for Pork. We are also excited to start are own small pastured pork operation here on the farm. We are going to start off with just doing a few but hopefully it will grow quickly. You will have to excuse my ignorance on pigs because I am still kind of new to them but as everything they will be raised in a clean and healthy environment. Fortunately I have a wonderful wife with some experience with raising pork.

AND LIKE SUNSET RANCH…
Matt plans to raise them on pasture and under oak trees where they are able to root and dig for the next several months until they are ready for processing. Their diet will consist of what they get from the earth (grubs, worms, acorns, roots, etc.). They will also have access to a high quality ration to balance out their nutritional needs, which includes plant protein products, processed grain byproducts, molasses products, calcium, zinc, and salt.