-Submitted photo
Chad Tentinger, principal developer for the Cattlemen's Beef Heritage project, poses for a photo. Growing up in Cherokee County, Tentinger learned the cattle industry from the ground up.

Too many cattle are leaving the state of Iowa. Perhaps a million head every year, shipped out of state from Iowa farms and feedlots to be processed elsewhere. Taking with them, millions more in value-added beef, let alone the millions more in payroll dollars that could be cashed by Iowans working in a processing plant right here where the cattle is grown and fed.

Chad Tentinger, principal developer of the Cattlemen’s Beef Heritage project, doesn’t believe it has to be this way.

Growing up in Cherokee County, Tentinger learned the cattle industry from the ground up. A fourth generation Iowa farmer, Tentinger would go on to found TenCorp., putting construction expertise to work to help raise cattle in safe and healthy modern barns.

Through the Cattlemen’s Heritage Beef project in Mills County, Tentinger is seeking to bring the production cycle full circle here in Iowa, processing some 2,000 head per day.

Farm News recently invited Tentinger to participate in a question-and-answer format to help readers learn more about the more than $500 million-dollar project.

What is your

construction timeline?

Right now, we’re waiting for an environmental assessment to be done. When that is done, it triggers our USDA grant, any state participation and money and USDA-backed loans, which tally up to a good sum. But until that’s done, we can’t touch it. The best-case scenario is about 60 to 90 days before we can break ground.

A new investor has joined the project. What impact will Karis Capital in Naples, Florida, have on the project?

Well, it’s a great partnership. They’re in cold storage and that complements what we’re doing perfectly. They are building directly on our site attached to our building. They’re over-building by about three times the capacity that we will actually have, so they will add needed extra cold storage into the Omaha-Council Bluffs market. Having this large investor really put us in the driver’s seat to finish the project. Having one large participating partner versus multiple is always a better scenario. It makes it easier and cleaner but it certainly is a partnership that benefits both of us mutually and will help complete the project in a timely manner.

Will there still be an opportunity for independent livestock producers to invest in the project?

Yes. We’ve started a company called Legacy Beef Co-op. It’s a great opportunity for individual family farm producers to buy into a co-op model that has a delivery obligation. That co-op will buy roughly 20 percent of Cattlemen’s Heritage, LLC, so as the plant makes money, the producers will receive a dividend through the co-op. There are 300,000 units for sale, so there’s a great opportunity, but it will be ending when it’s full. When it’s done, it’s done, and we anticipate that will be 30 days.

The 132-acre site is located on Iowa’s western border in Mills County. What is the strategic advantage of this site with its existing infrastructure near Interstate 29?

Obviously, it’s sitting dead center in the middle of the country with great shipping lanes. When we talk about shipping prime beef and high-quality cuts, especially to restaurant groups, you’re hitting Kansas City, Chicago, Colorado, the Twin Cities and everything in between. That’s a pretty big, important strategic reason. Supply side also is huge. We’re sitting in the heart of the best country, cattle in the world, sitting right in the Midwest … also supplies of materials. You know, there’s a thriving packing industry in the Midwest, that the supply for raw goods going into the plant dry storage goods are all readily available. And we have a great partner across the river in Darling Ingredients to handle all of our rendering. That was very strategic. But probably most important, there’s one million people in our plant’s vicinity for an employee base in a world where the No. 1 issue for any business is getting and retaining high-quality employees. We’re sitting in an area that has and accepts this business model and a labor force that would be very comfortable with this kind of a production and a large depth of possibilities there.

What benefit will there be to producers in terms of capturing more revenue for their livestock?

Well, that’s a great question, because the advantages there will be by being part of the co-op. They will share in profits from the plant – direct dividend shares of the plant. The plant makes money; they make more money. On top of that, the way we are going to deliver cattle is going to be a pricing mechanism tied to the boxed beef cut-out index, which is what the consumer is paying or certainly what the retailers are paying to sell, versus the Chicago Board of Trade.

The Chicago Board of Trade is a very volatile system these days. It ebbs and flows very drastically, it does not always represent the market and, to be honest, and more times than not, it doesn’t represent the market at all. Go back to COVID. We had a great supply of beef but we had problems getting it through the plant.

Boxed beef cut-out was at all-time highs, but what the producer was being paid on a margin basis was probably the largest disparity we’ve ever seen as a percentage. So, the CME doesn’t represent the value. It represents volatility in the market, and it’s a gambling hall. We’re going to get away from that. We’re going to really try and create a level playing field for the producer to sell cattle consistently in a profitable way. That’s all. Take the violent swings out of it.

Is there a sufficient supply in Iowa for a plant of this capacity?

Iowa ships 1.1 million head of cattle out of state every year to be processed across the border. All we’re going to try to do is capture half of those. So, the answer is yes; there is a large amount of cattle. But our business model is also to increase the amount of cattle fed in Iowa and the upper Midwest. Look at where feedstuffs are grown, where there’s enough natural rainfall to raise the feedstuffs, where our feedstuffs on average come from within 10 miles where the cattle are being fed versus a model in drier areas that 30 or 40 years ago worked well through differences in rainfall and things like that. Now they’re railing grain across the country to feed cattle in spots where they can’t grow it. That’s not a sustainable model. We’re going to work very hard to bring a million head of more cattle back up into the upper Midwest where the feedstuffs are grown.

The whole goal is to create opportunities for the family farm. A lot of people have heard me talk about young men and women that want to stay on the farm. In a world where there is a good profitability made in the product throughout the entire system, there’s no reason why we’re telling these young men and women, “You have to go to town and get a job because there’s no future here.” There are all kinds of future in cattle and in this industry. We just have to do a better job as an industry to make sure that we keep these young men and women on the farm.

Traceability is a primary goal. In this project, what does that mean for consumers?

For consumers, it means safety and food security in their meat. They’re guaranteed where it came from. They know animal welfare was a high regard. They can track all of that. They know they’re getting the best quality meat. They know every single vaccine, shot or treatment an animal has ever had in its life. They know the supplement packages. And, at the end of the day, they know that the best people on the planet to take care of cattle are farmers. The family farm has invested everything they have into their livestock. There is nobody doing a better job to make sure — because if they fail in animal welfare and making sure it’s the best, they lose everything. There is no better model to guarantee getting the best product.

Anything else you’d like to emphasize as we wrap up?

I think the No. 1 thing would still be that the Legacy Beef Co-op is a great opportunity for producers to expand their operation today, to get involved in the producer-owned packing industry. This model has worked in the pork industry and it’s tried and true. It has been proven out. I think, to date, eight separate companies are doing this in the pork industry where producers have partial ownership in a plant and share in the profits. It is wildly successful. All we’re simply doing is trying to borrow the best of that industry and incorporate it into what the best of our industry is, and work together with producers.