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growing local<br />
“We have raised cattle for a<br />
long time. We understand<br />
how to feed them out and<br />
get them to grow quickly and<br />
efficiently, and from there we<br />
load them onto one of our<br />
semis and take them to be<br />
processed. We never spent<br />
a lot of time considering what<br />
happened after that step.”<br />
— Andrew Naeve<br />
The 15,000-square-foot plant will<br />
provide food for consumers, retailers,<br />
restaurants, grocery stores, and food<br />
distributors.<br />
Their first step was research.<br />
“We spent a lot of time just looking<br />
at things online and talking to people in<br />
the industry,” Andrew Naeve said. “One<br />
of our earliest conversations was with a<br />
professor from Cornell’s meat science<br />
program. We knew we had some serious<br />
gaps in our knowledge of what it would<br />
take to pull something like this off, and<br />
so we made sure to put in the time early<br />
on to answer those questions.”<br />
Those questions included things like<br />
how meat actually is processed inside<br />
a packing facility and what is needed<br />
to properly handle, store, and ship that<br />
meat.<br />
“We have raised cattle for a long<br />
time,” Naeve said. “We understand how<br />
to feed them out and get them to grow<br />
quickly and efficiently, and from there<br />
we load them onto one of our semis and<br />
take them to be processed. We never<br />
spent a lot of time considering what<br />
happened after that step.”<br />
Figuring out that next step took hours<br />
that included looking up consultants and<br />
considering how to design a business<br />
plan. The family was fortunate enough<br />
to find a consultant with the guts to tell<br />
them not only the parts of the plan he<br />
thought would work, but also the parts<br />
that would not.<br />
“The internet is really good at showing<br />
you professionals who will sugar coat<br />
things. We didn’t want that. We wanted<br />
someone who would tell us honestly if<br />
something was not going to work before<br />
we spent a lot of time and money on it,”<br />
Naeve said. “We knew this was crucial<br />
to our success and we were lucky<br />
enough to find someone who not only<br />
has been with us since the beginning,<br />
but who has agreed to stay with us for at<br />
least the first three to five years after we<br />
get up and running.”<br />
Making the process transparent to<br />
all the major parties involved was crucial<br />
in moving forward. Once an initial<br />
business plan was developed, the family<br />
took the proposal to its team of legal and<br />
2498 340th Ave.,<br />
DeWitt, IA 52742<br />
Planting • aPPlication • Harvest • Data ManageMent<br />
grain Bin Monitoring • Water ManageMent<br />
Pictured: Mike Hofer (left) and Michael Schaeffer (right)<br />
563-659-3040<br />
800-872-3040<br />
86 <strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> <strong>Farmer</strong> | <strong>Fall</strong> <strong>2021</strong> eifarmer.com<br />
<strong>Eastern</strong><strong>Iowa</strong><strong>Farmer</strong>_<strong>Fall</strong><strong>2021</strong>.indd 86<br />
9/15/21 10:25 am
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