OUR STORY 

In 2009, my folks retired from the military. With a combined time in service of over 45 years, flying for the U.S. Army and being stationed in the Pentagon during 9/11. The events took an alter to my parents thinking and a realization to how precious life can be kicked in. It was on that day that my folks made the ultimate decision that when the time came, they would retire and relocate. 2009 rolls around and my parents find themselves looking for places to live following retirement. It had just happened to be that my father was from Nebraska, “The Good Life” as the slogan goes. My grandparents at the time lived there and as it turned out Nebraska is one of the safest places in the United States, located directly in the middle of our great country. So, where does the meat play into all of this?

When you think of Nebraska what do you think of? Football? Corn? And Cows? That’s right, Nebraska actually is the nation’s leading Beef product export according to the nda.nebraska.gov. Everyone in our community was either a farmer or a rancher. Small local family owned farms were competing against large corporations and packers and processors would typically only have one contract with big ranches and big feeding lots. With their experience in the military, traveling to numerous Third World Countries, their missions were revolved around rebuilding communities. With my mother being the first women commander of an Apache helicopter unit, conflicted communities were her experience. We noticed the importance of butchers and processors for local families so when the local preacher came knocking on their door with an opportunity to buy a 1970s meat processing locker opened, they jumped on it. Being in the military and focusing entirely on safety, American Butchers became certified as the smallest USDA facility in the country. Nebraska has a 4 cow to every 1 person ration so we needed to look at expanding our operation outside of Nebraska. We found location #2 in Dallas, Texas. Our retail operation allows us to sell beef, pork and lamb raised from FFA, 4-H kids, and local farmers and ranchers across the Midwest out of a central brick-and-mortar location downtown at the Dallas Farmers Market.