A drive along the rural roads of Goodhue County, Minn., showcases cattle dotting the countryside and corn growing tall on any given summer evening. The sky burns bright with stars after the sun sets.
Miles from the glowing skyline of the Twin Cities, a Goodhue County farm connects urban to rural with its direct-to-consumer protein products through the Grass Fed Cattle Co.
Valerie (Earley) Luhman served as the central region FFA vice president in 2016-17. Today, she and her husband, Jared, farm in Goodhue County where they raise grass-fed beef and pasture-raised poultry, which they distribute through their Grass Fed Cattle Co. They also work with other farmers from Minnesota and Wisconsin to provide high-quality beef, pork and chicken to customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul and surrounding areas.
The Luhmans bought the distribution business from another family in 2018 and worked hard to make it their own.
“We were new to all of this and had to learn how to make this business fit our farm and our customers,” Valerie said. “It has taken a lot of work, and we’re still working on that every day.”
Valerie provides support from a distance to customers on a daily basis, answering their questions about the products their farm provides. Twice a week, she makes the trip to Minneapolis-St. Paul to meet with customers at the pickup point.
“Getting the chance to talk to customers for a couple minutes in the parking lot is so rewarding,” Valerie said. “I didn’t realize the following we have and how interested people are in learning about where their food comes from. It brings me so much joy meeting the people who eat the meat we raise on our farm.”
While she manages the customer service duties, she said her favorite thing is to share on-farm duties with her husband.
“It’s a blessing that we get to farm and work together,” Valerie said. “We work hard every day with the goal of leaving the land better than we found it, and we get to do that as a team.”
As the Luhmans continue to grow their business, Valerie recalls what she learned through FFA.
“Above all else, FFA taught me how to simply try everything, even if I didn’t have all the skills I needed at the time to be successful,” she said. “My experiences in FFA forced me out of my comfort zone. I did not always know how to run a successful business when we acquired Grass Fed Cattle Co. The foundation FFA provided me with, to know there’s always something to learn, is what got us where we are today.”
