For most ranchers, the hardest part isn\u2019t raising the cattle, but what happens after they leave the farm. Once they\u2019re loaded onto someone else\u2019s truck,\u00a0so is most of the control.\u00a0Processing, distribution and, too often, the biggest share of the profit all belong to somebody else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steven McBee Jr. looked at that system years ago and decided he wasn\u2019t going to keep playing by its rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So while Washington is now\u00a0investing up to $500 million to strengthen small and midsize meat processors<\/u><\/a>, the 33-year-old rancher has spent the better part of a decade building his own way around the bottleneck.<\/p>\n Credit: Steven McBee Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cEverybody in this industry gets told to raise your cattle, sell them into the commodity system and take the price you\u2019re given,\u201d McBee said. \u201cWe looked at that and thought, Why stop there?<\/em>\u00a0If\u00a0we wanted more control over our future, we had to own more of what came\u00a0next.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the mindset that built\u00a0McBee Farm & Cattle Co.<\/u><\/a>\u00a0on a first-generation family farm in Gallatin, Missouri, where McBee works alongside his father, Steve Sr., and brothers Jesse, Cole and Brayden. There was no inherited land, no inherited cattle, no generations-old banking relationships. What the McBees did have, they put on camera.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since\u00a0The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys<\/em>\u00a0premiered in 2024, viewers have watched the family build the business in real time, setbacks and all. \u201cWe never wanted the polished version,\u201d McBee explained. \u201cThe equipment failures and the expensive lessons made the cut right alongside the wins, and that\u2019s the point. It\u2019s the same fight every farmer and rancher in America is in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n The numbers behind that fight are brutal. The four largest beef packers controlled about a quarter of the U.S. market in the early 1970s. Today, they\u00a0handle roughly 85 percent of U.S. beef processing<\/u><\/a>, leaving independent producers with few options once their cattle are ready for market. Add rising input costs and unpredictable weather on top, and the margins go from thin to gone.<\/p>\n The way out, McBee figured, was hiding in plain sight. Americans were buying more protein, meat snacks were taking off, and very little of that value was making its way back to the producers themselves. \u201cAt some point, we quit asking how to get a better price for our cattle,\u00a0and we\u00a0started asking how to build something people could actually buy from us.\u201d<\/p>\n Credit:\u00a0<\/strong>Steven McBee Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n That \u201csomething\u201d was a snack stick. McBee had been circling the idea since 2017, but selling a branded, shelf-stable product meant taking on parts of the business most ranch families never touch. \u201cWe had to become beginners over and over,\u201d he said. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a shortcut. Every new part of the business came with a learning curve of its own.\u201d<\/p>\n The first brand launched in 2020, and once demand proved real, a production facility followed two years later. The biggest leap came in 2023 with the purchase of the company\u2019s own meat processing plant. After months of upgrades, it earned federal inspection and SQF certification, a top-tier food safety standard. A fulfillment center came next, built right on the farm so every order now ships from the same place the cattle are raised.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe built the ladder one rung at a time, and each step was funded by the one before\u00a0it.\u00a0Farm, facility, fulfillment. One family, zero middlemen, and we can stand behind exactly what\u2019s in the package and how it got there,\u201d McBee said.<\/p>\n The timing couldn\u2019t have been much better. Meat snack sales have\u00a0climbed more than 45% over the past four years<\/u><\/a>\u00a0to a $4.4 billion category, and McBee says demand for the company\u2019s snack sticks is already outpacing what the current facility can produce. Today, the products ship directly to customers through\u00a0McBeeFarms.com<\/u><\/a>\u00a0and sit on shelves in more than a dozen states.<\/p>\n Growth hasn\u2019t pulled the business away from Gallatin, either. The next facility is going up in the same rural Missouri community, built with local labor and expected to create 25 full-time jobs on top of the more than 30 the company already supports.<\/p>\n That local focus extends beyond the business, too. Along with donating snack sticks to nearby schools, the company brings children from underserved Kansas City neighborhoods to the farm through its\u00a0Kids in the Outdoors<\/u><\/a>\u00a0program for horseback riding, fishing and a firsthand look at where their food comes from.<\/p>\n McBee\u2019s next project is a little different. He\u2019s building a men\u2019s retreat program on the farm that combines the outdoors with conversations around emotional regulation and mental health.<\/p>\n For him, all of it comes back to the same goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI want McBee to be proof that the American family farm isn\u2019t dying. It just needs a different business model,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever big this gets, the rhythm won\u2019t change. My brothers and I work side by side every day, and we still all sit down to dinner together every night. If we do this right, the next generation of farmers won\u2019t have to invent a thing. They\u2019ll just copy us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n For most ranchers, the hardest part isn\u2019t raising the cattle, but what happens after they leave the farm. Once they\u2019re loaded onto someone else\u2019s truck,\u00a0so is most of the control.\u00a0Processing, distribution and, too often, the biggest share of the profit all belong to somebody else.\u00a0<\/p>\n Steven McBee Jr. looked at that system years ago and decided he wasn\u2019t going to keep playing by its rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n So while Washington is now\u00a0investing up to $500 million to strengthen small and midsize meat processors<\/u><\/a>, the 33-year-old rancher has spent the better part of a decade building his own way around the bottleneck.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/image-7.png?w=819\")
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