Green River Cattle Company, owned and managed by central Kentucky farmers, envisions connecting local beef producers with discriminating grocery and restaurant customers that desire gourmet-quality premium beef.

For years, Kentucky cow-calf producers have sought to add value to their livestock. The struggle has been to capture the added value. With the formation of a small-scale vertical alliance that coordinates cow-calf production, weaning/backgrounding, feeding to finish, local processing and direct distribution, we hope to provide ourselves and other farmers a marketing option that captures this added value.

Green River Cattle Company maintains that a community-based food system offering source-verified beef has advantages for all participants. Traceability back to the farm of origin and forward through the growing, harvesting and distribution process insures that we meet our promises every step of the way. Local control focusing on quality over quantity results in products responsive to market demands while adding enhanced food safety. Providing additional returns to small Kentucky beef cattle farmers builds on already existing production systems. Revenues associated with feeding, processing, marketing and distribution return to the local economy. Finally, we see substantial social, cultural and economic benefit in once again linking consumers to the farm.