Long before they could fathom becoming meat industry entrepreneurs, Justin and Missy Crocker were each pursuing their own careers even after becoming husband and wife. Ever since he was old enough to wear boots, Justin spent most of each day in the saddle, carrying on the multi-generational tradition of working on the family’s feed yard with his dad, Ron. Missy’s background was in teaching and working in the banking industry, but she also had an entrepreneur’s spirit.
“We kind of had decided in the beginning that we wouldn’t commingle our professional lives because we wanted to stay married for quite some time,” Missy joked, admitting that her understanding of the cattle industry and operating a feed lot was pretty limited even after 2017, when Missy and Justin had the opportunity to purchase Mason County Feeders.
Even after the purchase, she continued operating a boutique jewelry and rock shop in Mason, Texas, which was successful until the pandemic-induced lockdown forced it to close. It was then that she realized her passion as a business owner was for serving people. That mentality would prove to serve her well in her next venture.
Hefty hurdle
About three years after purchasing the feed yard operation, the husband-wife owners found themselves challenged by an unforeseeable global pandemic. And, while diversifying the business to include a beef processing operation was never part of the couple’s strategy before, reality forced the owners’ hand.
“MTXBeef really started by accident,” Missy said, adding that prior to 2020, the company’s feed yard operation was thriving and destined for continued, long-term success.
“And then COVID hit, and obviously our size of feed yard was not the first to be considered with moving fat cattle,” she said.
The dynamics of the beef industry shifted and forced them to find a new way forward given the changing mindset of many beef producers.
“It was easier, and many thought safer at the time, to only work with the large cattle operations,” she said. “Unfortunately, a lot of people that were the smaller raisers or mid-size feed yards like ours were put on hold.”
It was then she began to learn the dynamics of the beef industry, realizing that being on hold also meant enduring much higher input costs. Because there were limited outlets available for beef processing, cattle were in a holding pattern at the feedlot, requiring more feed to keep them on the farm longer .
“You’re not moving things,” Missy said. “There’s no cash flow, and there were a lot of people that got into a sticky situation.”
Not unlike when her retail boutique shop was forced to close, Missy’s thoughts went to the local people in the community and region.
“There we were in the middle of rural Texas and the uncertainty of groceries getting here was a real concern,” she said. “We had never thought about the food on the plate. We have food on the hoof all over the place. And I realized, ‘we’ve got to get food to the people.’”
The Crockers came together and agreed to focus on serving their community by addressing the food supply shortage and dramatically shifting their business.
“We said, ‘we’ve got to do something,’” Justin said. “We didn’t have a contract with the majors; we were at their mercy,” he said of the industry’s biggest processors.
Knowing costs for production and processing for the industry’s juggernauts were a small fraction of what the Crockers were facing, they found themselves at a crossroads.
“We can’t come close to competing with that,” Justin said. “We’ve got to do it on a different level and that means selling a bigger story and getting more for our beef.”
“My mission was to serve the people and help with the food supply,” Missy said. “Justin’s perspective was, ‘let’s offer a food supply resolution and let’s move our fat cattle,’ until the world gets back on track.”
Once that process began, the Crockers would be able to reignite the feed yard side of the business by keeping the supply funnel full and moving.
“Honestly, I didn’t learn that until probably a year later when the light bulbs went off,” Missy said. “It wasn’t only about serving the people, it was also about sustaining this business.”
One of the modular units of MTXBeef is designated as the production floor. (Source: Sosland Publishing Co. / Joel Crews)Starting small
With the area processors maxed out for up to 1½ years, the Crockers went to their local family processor/butcher and asked him to help them start moving their fat cattle. He graciously agreed to process two head of cattle. It was a start. It also was a reason for the couple to think about the potential for expanding their network of processors. The idea for diversifying the family’s feedlot and ranching business to include processing and selling beef was first hatched when the couple was sitting around a campfire, talking about possible solutions and all the pros and cons.
“Eventually we just said, ‘Screw it, let’s do it,’” Missy said.
That was the beginning of Missy’s indoctrination to feed yard operations and the beef industry. The learning curve was steep.
“Yes, I knew what a steak was,” she said. “Yes, I knew what some ground beef was, but when they gave me my first cut sheet, it was like German to me. I had no clue how to do it.”
To get the business through the early stage, the Crockers bought a secondhand walk-in freezer and installed it at Missy’s former boutique. That makeshift set-up, which included a drive-thru for Covid-era, contact-free beef sales was the beginning of MTXBeef’s business.
“I created a website, a texting system and a drive-thru where people could text me their orders or place orders on the website.”
When customers arrived at MTXBeef in those early days, order pick-ups were focused on Covid awareness.
“We’d chuck it in their window, and they’d drive off,” Missy recalled, adding that the simple business model caught on quickly in the community. “People recognized the safety in it, plus they knew the beef was from here and it solved their problems.”
But soon, those regularly scheduled two head wasn’t enough to keep up with demand and they began soliciting other processors in the region to slaughter and process their beef.
The network of processor partners grew to three and later to six as local demand increased for MTXBeef’s products.
Products at that time were whole and half cattle and expanded offerings to include cuts, ground beef and boxes of combinations of cuts. As lockdowns began lifting, MTX was able to start delivering online orders directly to customers’ homes.
“I was basically a beef dealer out of the back of my Suburban for a little bit,” Missy said.
The following year, in late 2023, the Crocker’s business grew to the point that processing slots were limited. Realizing the need to diversify their customer base to ensure future growth, a back-up plan was essential.
The company processes a variety of beef products for foodservice and e-commerce customers. (Source: MTXBeef)Growing pains
Compounding the challenge of keeping up with demand was the fact that more customers in the region’s foodservice sector were requesting products from MTX.
“We didn’t plan it that way, but they just started seeking us out,” Missy said. “The importance of consistent cuts could be a deal breaker. And and you can’t use multiple processors to achieve that.”
While the couple was contemplating their next move, a conversation with close family friends and business partners, Sam and Kristyn Abell sparked the idea of starting up a processing plant. Coincidentally, they had recently heard about a plant in Marfa, Texas, that was available. The plant was comprised of multiple modular buildings manufactured by Everson, Wash.-based Friesla, to facilitate meat processing, from slaughter to packaging.
“What we were trying to decide at that point was do we want to do it,” Missy said of the decision to build a plant. “And if we do, do we want to stick build, or do we want to do something that’s less permanent, because we’re just taking a gamble really.”
The couple began leaning toward the modular system, based in part because they knew they could be up and running quicker than the alternative. And after meeting with officials from Friesla to learn more about their systems and the options for purchasing the used plant, they took the leap in December 2023 and moved forward with plans to add an on-site, federally inspected processing plant to the feed yard operation. The Crockers agreed that the decision was made easier because they had seen the actual system they were buying successfully operate during a visit to Marfa before making the investment.
“We knew we wanted to put it on the same land as the feed yard because of logistics,” she said, adding that having the system on site, adjacent to the feedlot eliminated the cumbersome step of transporting cattle to a plant for slaughtering and processing.
Bringing cattle into the plant right from the feedyard, which has a capacity of about 8,000 head, not only enhanced yields on the processing side but it caused less stress on the cattle.
“Those are two things that highly impact your business,” Missy said.
Compared to a traditional plant construction project, which would have easily taken two years to complete, the Crocker’s timeline was a matter of months, and they were only required to lay a crushed granite gravel foundation for the relocation of the three modular buildings, comprised of a harvest floor, drip cooler, carcass cooler and the production floor. They also ensured there was adequate electricity and water hookups on the site prior to delivery. Friesla’s team disassembled and shipped the units from West Texas to Mason.
“It was in February of ‘23 that they actually brought it here and erected it,” Missy said.
Friesla’s team used cranes to position the units onto the foundation and connected them together, making a few modifications to the set-up to fit the needs of MTXBeef.
“We opened our doors to the processing plant in May of 2023,” she recalled.
Justin still oversees the flow of cattle in the feedyard leading up to the plant, coordinating with Missy to ensure the plant is supplied with the right type and amount of cattle.
“Once they cross the road, they’re mine, and then they go into the plant, and that’s kind of where I pick up,” she said, tracking the fabrication and end products to the growing number of direct-to-consumer and foodservice customers.
As production increases, the Crockers have the option to expand as needed in an easier and more affordable way than with a traditional plant.
“It’s like a big Lego set,” Missy said. “If you want to make it bigger you just add another Lego,” with additional pieces ranging from cold storage modules to smoking modules. Looking back, I think it’s the most intelligent way to purchase a slaughter facility because you don’t know until you’re in operation exactly what’s going to work.”
By vertically integrating its operations, MTX has been able to more aggressively expand its distribution into restaurants in the Texas Hill Country, while still providing slaughter and processing services for local ranchers relying on them for processing slots. MTX’s e-commerce business continues to grow too, with an increasing number of meat lovers visiting www.mtxbeef.com to shop for their cuts of choice.
Now that the business is scaling, Missy has learned plenty about the complexities of the beef industry, from farm to fork and what it means to maintain a consistent product flow to customers in the foodservice sector.
“I learned that you have to build every piece of the puzzle, and you can’t over promise and underdeliver,” she said. “If you’re not moving your ground beef, you can’t produce more and store ground beef just because you want to sell more steaks. At the end of the day, a million dollars’ worth of ground beef in your cooler is a million-dollar loss.”
MTX has dialed back their target cattle weights from upwards of 2,000 lbs before targeting restaurants, to about 1,400 lbs, to ensure consistent cuts, for ribeyes, for example.
The company’s current capacity is about 15 head per day, but the production volumes are seasonal, and the first quarter is typically a slower time. In mid-March the plant was slaughtering between six and eight head per day, but Missy’s team was planning ahead for busier times because each carcass at MTX ages 14 days, which requires Justin to adjust the pace of animals in the feed yard. Sixteen workers in the plant typically work six days per week, producing USDA-inspected products Monday through Friday and they do custom processing and specialty products, including pet food after hours or on weekends. This helps the company utilize as much of each animal as possible, including organ meats and other by-products.
MTX works with other Texas-based processing partners to produce some of its value-added products, including meat snacks produced by area processors like1845 Meat Co. and sausage from J-Bar Meat Co.
MTXBeef ages all of its beef for 14 days in a modular chiller manufactured by Friesla. (Source: Sosland Publishing Co. / Joel Crews)Eyes on growth
“Our goals have shifted from being big-volume producers to dialing in on higher quality and better efficiency.” Missy said.
“Of course, we’d love to grow more, but it all has to be at the tempo of the market,” she said. “We have to make sure that we’re buying cattle or raising cattle at the correct price points.”
The couple agrees that ensuring the safety and happiness of their two sons always comes first in their lives.
“ Justin and I always say that we’re not going to sacrifice our family for our business. So, we’re going to grow as much as we think we need to grow. And I don’t know if we know what that end number is yet,” Missy said. “As of right now, if we got to 60 head per week, I think that we would be happy and profitable. But at the end of the day, we still want to have family time.”
Justin added that the operation has the capability to ramp up production significantly, but the market conditions make that a challenge currently.
“It’d be pretty easy to increase our volume, but the biggest thing that is hurting everybody now is the cost of cattle,” he said. “The capital that it takes to purchase one head right now is double what it was 10 years ago.”
