Local Beef Retailing Project
In Colorado Has Twin Purposes

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. —(AP)— Routt County shoppers soon will get a chance to buy locally produced beef while helping to preserve open space in the quickly growing area.

Starting in December, ranchers near Steamboat Springs will sell Yampa Valley Beef in area restaurants and a local meat market.

The program, similar to other efforts nationwide, is designed to boost profits for participating ranchers. But it has another, unique mission: protecting Routt County's landscapes by supporting open-space programs.

In a resort community where housing and commercial development are chief concerns, the goal is to save open lands and the area's ranching heritage.

"Our niche is the land-conservation angle and trying to have a wholesome, natural product," said C.J. Mucklow, program coordinator and agriculture agent in the Routt County office of the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension.

The project is backed by the Routt County Cattlemen's Association, the Steamboat Chamber Resort Association, Steamboat Springs Ski and Resort Corp., and the Steamboat Springs chapter of the Colorado Restaurant Association.

Meat with the Yampa Valley Beef brand must be from cattle raised in Routt County. Of the animals slaughtered each year, at least 25 percent must have grazed on land protected from development.

Some of the profits will be donated to local land trusts that preserve open space, Mucklow said.

No continual feeding of antibiotics will be allowed. Yampa Valley Beef will work to earn a federal "natural beef" label, which prohibits antibiotics and growth stimulants.

The meat will cost about 20 percent more wholesale than generic beef, a cost that will be passed on to consumers. That will mean an estimated increase in profits of two percent to 10 percent for ranchers, depending on sales.

Larry Monger, whose family has ranched along the Elk River for nearly a century, expects to make an extra $1500 for 25 cattle he will commit to the program during 1998-99. His cattle will be slaughtered for hamburger.

"It's not going to make me a wealthy man, but, on the other hand, it will help," said Monger.

According to a 1996 survey conducted by the Nature Conservancy, 75 percent of consumers polled said they are willing to pay 25 percent more for high-quality beef if the sale helps to protect land.

The conservation group, which owns a cattle ranch west of Steamboat Springs, agreed to raise 10 steers to be among the first animals slaughtered for the Yampa Valley Beef program.