The Covid 19 pandemic showed us that food security could easily become an issue in the United States.   With layoffs and shutdowns, we rapidly saw the grocery store shelves become bare.  This was increasingly true at the meat counter.  More often than not when approaching the meat counter at your local grocer you would find empty shelves.  This led to an increased demand for local meat products.  The result of the heightened demand for local meat products has led to more and more producers offering farm fresh meats.   As more producers offered farm fresh meats, we saw an increased demand for educational opportunities related to the production of farm fresh meats.

In the September 2024 the Christian, Todd, and Logan County extension offices partnered to offer a program called Raising the Steaks.  The Raising the Steaks program was a two-hour educational class each Thursday in September where the participants learned more about feeding and finishing livestock.   The first week included livestock facilities and feeding.  The second week taught producers about food preparation and economics.  The third week was about marketing and a producer panel.  The final class they were able to tour Hampton’s Meats and learn about the meat cutting process.  The average nightly attendance was 13 producers over the 4-week period.  The surveys show 12 out of 13 producers learned more about animal nutrition and feeding and indicated they would change their feeding program.  All participants stated they had an increased knowledge of feeding and finishing livestock and they would make changes to their farm fresh meat program.

Since the Covid 19 pandemic we have seen the demand for farm fresh meats to stay strong.  All that attended the Raising the Steaks program will have a great opportunity to support their local community through healthy local foods.  Not only do the consumers have the opportunity to locate local fresh meats, but it allows the producers to have an added value product that increases their bottom line.  All producers that attended enjoy “Raising the Steaks.”