‘Beef is in my blood’
Lyons Bridge Farm Beef is booming
Talk to partners Wes Walraven and Brian Moore about how their Lyons Bridge Farm Beef business got started and you’ll get a couple of different stories. The bottom line, though, is that the business has taken off faster than either of the entrepreneurs had imagined.
Walraven said that he and Moore were living in an apartment in New York, and while most of their friends were going to the Hamptons on Long Island for the weekend, they were coming to Cave Spring.
“For Brian it was kind of like Green Acres (the old TV show),” Walraven said.
Moore tells it slightly differently. He had studied at Le Cordon Bleu in London to become a chef and wanted to open a restaurant on Broad Street. Walraven said “no” to that idea. Then he wanted to open a butcher shop in Rome and Walraven again said no.
“I said fine, I’m going to open a meat market in our barn at the farm because we already own it and he said ‘Go ahead,’” Moore said. “When I was a boy growing up, I worked at a butcher shop in the Chicago area. Guess beef is in my blood!”
They bought the farm property in Cave Spring almost five years ago and decided that cattle farming would be the best use of the property. Since then they’ve purchased several additional parcels to expand the farm, which now includes close to 1,100 acres.
The property has about a mile and a half of frontage on
Cedar Creek, and they have installed about
10 wells, so there is plenty of good grass for the cattle to fill out on. However, Walraven said they don’t market their meat as grassfed beef. Moore explained that the last month before cattle are taken to a slaughterhouse in Alabama, they are grain fed to enhance marbling and improve the taste.
The farm primarily features registered Angus cattle with some registered Polled Hereford. Farm manager Micah Studdard, a Roman who graduated from Berry, said all of the Angus cattle in the Lyons Bridge Farm herd originated from Berry College. The Herefords came from a farm in Chatsworth.
Right now, the herd is up to about 400 “momma” cows.
“Up until recently we’ve focused on growing the herd and have not been selling many of the cattle,” Walraven said.
Moore explained that they started out taking a couple of cattle at a time to the slaughterhouse, then it became three at a time and now they’re about ready to take four on each trip.
The cattle that are chosen for slaughter are picked out of the herd several months in advance.
“You can look at a live animal and tell how they’re finished out,” Studdard said. “The steers that are going to slaughter next month I started to look at back in April.”
Moore made a point to explain that Lyons Bridge Farm beef is 100 percent antibiotic and steroid free. All of the beef products come from the registered Angus herd. The Polled Herefords are used primarily to sell off as breeding stock for other ranchers in the region.
Both Walraven and Moore say the biggest challenge they are facing right now is keeping up with demand. “We do a lot of steaks, a lot of roasts and short-ribs,” Moore said. They were completely sold out this past Thursday but are expecting another shipment from the slaughterhouse Monday.
Studdard said one of the most difficult challenges he’s faced has been the conversion of approximately 600 acres on the farm from timber to pasture land while trying to grow the herd at the same time. Climate conditions have also been a challenge.
“In 2015 we had the drought so we had to recover from that,” Studdard said.
Lisa Landry at Living & Giving has allowed Moore to set up a pop-up store for the Lyons Bridge Farm Beef products. The pop-up shop is located across the hall in her building at 401 Broad St. Another one is scheduled for June 30.
Another tailgating-themed event is scheduled for Aug. 16 at Lodge 210, owned by Hal Richards, on Second Avenue. Moore will be offering barbecue pulled beef.
“I’d like to continue to do many partnership events with other businesses in Rome. It’s a nice synergy for us both,” Moore said.
Lowrey Farms recently purchased 200 pounds of the Lyons Bridge Farm ground beef to sell from their market on Ga. 140 between Shannon and Armuchee.
Harvest Moon Cafe is now using Lyons Bridge Farm ground beef as well. Walraven said he thought that might be because he and Moore were good friends with Doc and Ginny Kibler, but it turns out Ginny Kibler did a blind taste test for ground beef.
“They tested several different potential suppliers and ours won, so that’s kind of cool,” Walraven said.
People can visit the farm itself and buy beef direct from Moore’s store. The farm also offers free delivery to customers in Floyd, Polk, Bartow and Gordon counties. Moore custom designed a website, www. lyonsbridgebeef.com, which details the different cuts of beef that are available with a full price list.