Meat Marketing in the Digital Age [Video]

Travis and Kendra Paulton have always held back for their own freezer a few steers from their commercial Angus cow-calf operation. When friends in town asked if the Paultons would consider selling their beef, the couple began feeding out one or two more steers. 

First, they sold halves and quarters to friends, then friends of friends. About five years ago, they started selling individual cuts at the local farmers market. Soon came the next step: shipping beef nationwide. 

Dakota Canyon Ranch, just outside the southwest corner of the Black Hills National Forest, in Dewey, South Dakota, is about an hour and a half from a UPS drop-off location. But that has not deterred the Paultons. The couple’s fourth-generation ranch also supports Travis’ parents and his sister’s family. Millie, the oldest of the Paultons’ seven children, owns her own cow and chose to keep its calf to raise as a show …