When cattle prices were low and buyers were scarce in the mid-1990s, seven Oregon ranchers banded together and formed Painted Hills Natural Beef, headquartered in Fossil, to fill what they hoped would become a viable niche market for hormone- and antibiotic-free cattle raised on rangeland in Central and Eastern Oregon.

It took a few years of hard work to put all the pieces together necessary to turn their dream into a reality, but the popularity of Painted Hills Natural Beef is spreading across the country due to a growing demand for food that is grown naturally by farmers and ranchers who connect with consumers and buyers, according to Will Homer, manager of Painted Hills Natural Beef.

“Our niche is the people who don’t want to be exposed to hormones and antibiotics. You can make the first sale with that claim, but delivering a consistent, quality eating experience is what keeps people coming back again and again,” Homer said.

The co-op contracts with more than 150 ranchers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho to raise cattle the natural way. Homer said many of the ranchers, including his parents, Glenda and Painted Hills founder Mehrten Homer, and other members of the seven founding ranch families, visit the grocery stores, restaurants and other outlets where Painted Hills Natural Beef is sold.

The ranching families take the time to get out and meet customers and talk about their sustainable ranching practices and their family histories and connections to the land. Many of those stories also are featured on the co-op’s website, www.painted hillsnaturalbeef.com.

To meet the Painted Hills requirements, cattle must spend most of their lives at home on the range — the way cattle used to be raised — and eating grass until the final weeks spent in a feedlot, where they are fed a natural blend of corn, alfalfa and barley, but are not given hormones or antibiotic supplements to speed up their weight gain, Homer said.

“Those are expensive practices that we have asked the ranchers to follow,” Homer said.

He said it takes longer to fatten up cattle that haven’t been given antibiotics and hormones, but the payoff comes when the animal is killed and butchered.

Ranchers who follow the natural production practices and sell their cattle through the Painted Hills co-op receive a premium that amounts to 15 cents per pound on a hanging carcass or 9 cents per pound live weight, Homer said. However, he said most of that premium is eaten up in extra costs.

“Without hormones and antibiotics, you have to feed a steer about 30 extra days to get them up to the 1,250 pounds. It costs around $2.50 per day, more or less, depending on feed costs, so the extra cost is around $75 to $100, and the premium comes to around $118 a head,” Homer said.

“We do finish our cattle at around 1,250 pounds,” which Homer said is an ideal weight in terms of butchering, and getting the most prime cuts of steak and roasts, fat marbling and flavor.

That’s also the weight the Tyson slaughtering plant in Pasco, Wash., wants.

“There are 27 USDA meat inspectors on the floor at all times in the Tyson plant,” Homer said.

Paying off

The first year the Painted Hills co-op was founded, it was slaughtering about 10 head a week. Now, it’s slaughtering about 2,500 head a month to meet the growing demand, Homer said.

“I can tell you 10 head a week didn’t work for us. We were broke, but we believed in what we were doing,” Homer said. “We clawed and scratched our way through the lean years, and now we are finally doing pretty good.”

Demand soared to 250 head a week when Painted Hills signed to have its branded beef products processed at Washington Beef in Toppenish, but the program took another big leap in 2004 when the Tyson beef processing plant in Pasco contacted the Painted Hills co-op about processing its beef.

The Tyson plant is larger and provided the ability for Painted Hills to be packaged with its logo, which enhanced the co-op’s efforts to establish a branded identity.

“Now, when our product arrives in a store, the box and packages are marked with the Painted Hills Natural Beef logo,” said Will Homer. “That really enhanced our brand recognition, when we made that move.”

Mark Malott, of Powell Butte, has been raising cattle for Painted Hills Natural Beef for about nine years.

His first year, Malott sold 300 head to Painted Hills, but over the years that number has grown to more than 2,000 head.

“I am a huge proponent of branding anything,” Malott said. “Anything you can do to add value to your product is a good thing.”

Dan Domenighini, who ranches in Wheeler County, is one of the founding members of the Painted Hills co-op. While cattle prices in general tend to swing up and down, depending on supply and demand, he said getting the extra 9 cents per pound premium paid by Painted Hills can make the difference between making a profit and losing money.

“Painted Hills gives us a consistent product to sell to our customers,” Domenighini said, referring to the strictly vegetarian diets, hormone- and antibiotic-free requirements, and the custom processing, packaging and labeling the co-op has instituted for every pound of beef sold under the Painted Hills brand.

Homer said the co-op has found that by implementing consistent standards for how the cattle are raised and fed, it can deliver a consistent beef product people enjoy.

“What we have found is it creates a better flavor profile and a better eating experience,” Homer said. “The product you get today should be the same product you get tomorrow, a month from now or a year from now.”

Gaining a foothold

He said the Thriftway chain of grocery stores also helped the co-op gain a foothold in the fresh-beef market by carrying Painted Hills Natural Beef at many of its stores, including Erickson’s Thriftway on Greenwood Boulevard in Bend.

“It’s a great product,” said Justin Small, meat department manager at the Bend store. “It’s something I love selling, and it is something people love to buy.”

Small said his customers tell him Painted Hills Natural Beef is more flavorful and tender, which Homer attributes to the natural grazing practices, absence of hormone growth supplements, and the slower, more natural feedlot practices of fattening cattle raised the Painted Hills way.

“I’ve never had a complaint on it. It is all natural,” Small said. “There is definitely a taste difference. There is wonderful marbling in all of it.”

He said the green production practices of raising cattle the natural way, on grass rangeland without hormones or antibiotics, is something a growing number of consumers desire.

“Absolutely, that is one of the best selling points for Painted Hills Natural Beef,” Small said. “Anything they can get that is local or natural, that’s what they want. That sells really well.”

On top of those benefits, Small said, “It’s not astronomically priced, so people can afford it.”

Recently, Painted Hills Natural Beef was added to the meat counter at C.E. Lovejoy’s grocery in southwest Bend, and it’s also available at Riley’s Market in Bend and Wagner’s Price Slasher in Prineville, Homer said.

Painted Hills Natural Beef also is carried by the Roth’s grocery chain, based in Salem, the Metro Markets in Seattle and many others that feature natural, organic or locally grown foods, he said.

The brand is also catching on in upscale restaurants from Portland to New York City, San Francisco to Boston, Atlantic City, N.J., to Hawaii and other locales across the United States, Homer said.

Where to find it

In Central Oregon, Painted Hills Natural Beef is sold at Erickson’s Thriftway, Riley’s Market and C.E. Lovejoy’s grocery in Bend; at Erickson’s Thriftway and Wagner’s Price Slasher in Prineville; and at Erickson’s Thriftway in Madras.