Farm to table meat

Two family-owned farms have joined forces to deliver farm-to-table beef and pork directly to customers and to diversify their operations.

Their farms are less than a mile away from each other and they named this endeavor H&S Tasty Acres.

The H stands for the fifth-generation Hoewisch family farm, composed of Jake and Jennifer Hoewisch, their two daughters (and another on the way),

and the S stands for the third-generation Steinbach family farm made of Curt and Karen Steinbach and their three sons.

The Hoewisch farm started when Jake Hoewisch’s great grandfather from Germany homesteaded 80 acres and it was a dairy farm from the start.

After reading an article in Hoard’s Dairyman about producing milk for lactose-intolerant people, Hoewisch’s father thought this niche specialization might be the way of the future for a small dairy operation to prosper in a time when family dairy farms were struggling or selling out to larger operations.

Specialized dairy
In 2018, Hoewischs decided to register their herd. Up until then they were a grade herd meaning their bloodlines were not recorded. A registered herd is like a kennel club tracking the bloodlines of a purebred dog. They genomically tested their herd by taking tissue samples from their ears for DNA confirmation.

This was part of a long-term plan to achieve a herd that produces A2/A2 milk, a type of milk for people who are lactose intolerant. With the new genetic information coming in, they only bred A2/A2 gene-carrying bulls to cows of untested genetic makeup. However this produced some cows that did not have that desired gene.

What to do with them? Any cow born that did not have the A2/A2 gene would separated from the dairy herd and be bred into a line of Angus/Holstein beef cross.

“That was the byproduct of what started the meat business and it also accelerated getting to our A2/A2 herd status,” said Jake Hoewisch. “It took us up to about a year and half ago to have every single cow A2/A2. It takes awhile to get through the pipeline because when they hit the ground to the first time to have a calf is about four years.”

The farm does not produce milk for drinking. Instead, they ship the A2/A2 milk to a processor in Fond du Lac that specializes in A2/A2 cheese and it is shipped and marketed in Texas.

Tasty byproduct
“So with this Angus/Holstein beef cross you could market commercially but we decided to keep it and raise it and sell it as table beef. Then Covid hit. We had a little bit of a market established and people were coming out of the woodwork wanting beef. It was tenfold,” said Hoewisch.

They had spreadsheets of people wanting a quarter or a half of beef and they were grateful for the business but the demand was overwhelming.

“So we talked to Steinbachs and let’s giddy up and go. That’s when we formed the other business. It was really easy partnership. We knew the family very well and the trust was built already. It was just a matter of building a meat business,” said Hoewisch.

They had worked together before with Hoewisch helping with their crops of corn, wheat and soybeans. Steinbachs have a long history of raising and showing beef and swine at the county fair. Their contribution to H&S Tasty Acres is raising two or three batches of feeder pigs per year.

The livestock is taken to Beck’s Meats in Oshkosh for processing. Hoewisch is also adding chickens and he just built a chicken tractor that he moves around the farm yard.

The refurbished milk house on the Steinbach family farm serves as the retail shop with three freezers. H&S Tasty Acres also has a regular presence at the Waupaca Farmer’s Market.

H&S Tasty Acres sells about every cut imaginable, ranging from T-bones, soup bones, sirloin, ground beef, chuck roast, bacon, smoked ham, sausages, spare ribs, liver, heart, tongue and even marrow bones for dog treats. They also sell pork and beef wholesale in quarters, halves and whole.

Call ahead for pickup, Contact Jake Hoewisch at 910-810-5640 for questions or farm tours and Karen Steinbach for direct sales at 920-574-5950.

Hoewisch keeps his beef herd very well fed to avoid a sensory trigger that reduces the marbled fat content of the beef.

“The secret to beef is that you don’t ever want that animal getting hungry because if they are hungry for one hour, it takes 14 days for that animal to start marbling the meat again. The trick is to never let them get hungry. They always know food is there. There is never a hunger trigger in their brain. They would burn that fat instead of sticking it into the meat which is that intramuscular marbling that you look for in a steak. That’s our driving force, always making sure they have enough,” said Hoewisch.