To capture more of the dollar when producing beef, the Staab family knew that they had to make a change on the marketing side of their business. Amber Staab, a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, went right to work putting together a business model with her brother to start direct-marketing beef.

“Growing up, we sold our beef to the packer,” Staab says. “We would always lose more money than we would make.”

Coming into college, she had an idea of skipping the meatpacker and going straight to customers to capture more profit. “I also wanted to start closing the gap between consumers and producers,” Staab says. “A lot of my customers come from the Lincoln and Omaha area and don’t know how their steak gets on their plate.”

With the help of the UNL Engler Entrepreneurship program, Staab started to see a future where she could do just that. As a way to improve agricultural literacy, add more revenue to the beef operation and return to the family farm, she created County 47 Beef.

Business growth takes time

In the Engler 101 class, Staab was told to just start and that she would learn along the way. That is exactly what she did.

With the help of Engler Entrepreneurship, she found the right resources to jump-start this new business venture. In December 2020, she was on the lookout for her first customer.

FAMILY BUSINESS: Coming back to the family farm has always been a dream of Amber Staab’s, and now with County 47 Beef, this is possible. Here she is pictured with her family, Luke (from left), Amber, Brad, Sue, Russell, Elizabeth and Dusty.

Between posting on Facebook groups to word-of-mouth marketing, Staab became discouraged. No one showed interest in buying her family’s beef.

Fast forward four months, and she still had no customers. “I sent out one last post on Facebook thinking that if I didn’t get any response to this then I am going to quit,” Staab says. “Later that day, I had someone call me wanting a quarter of beef.”

Sticking to the plan

For now, Staab considers County 47 Beef as a side business while she is in college. After graduation, she wants to make this more of a full-time position. She plans to expand County 47 Beef by offering subscription boxes.

“I have a lot of customers that reach out and say they just want some steaks or some hamburger,” Staab says. “I want to be able to offer that, but it is much easier to have four customers per beef with boxes rather than about 20 with single-product orders.”

FARM TO FORK: From the Ord locker to Amber Staab’s truck to the plate of consumers, the UNL student is playing a huge role from farm to fork. By being able to have direct contact with the consumer, Staab tells the ag story through beef delivery.

Staab’s advice for anyone looking to direct-market beef is to know your basics with USDA regulations and keep that in mind when you choose who processes your beef. She also passes down the same advice that got her business off the ground — to just get started.

“And don’t get discouraged if it takes four months to sell your first beef,” she adds, “because that might happen.”

To learn more, you can find County 47 Beef on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.