AMERICAN ANGUS ASSOCIATION - THE BUSINESS BREED

Natural Disasters Cause the Beef Blues

When disaster strikes, an on-farm meat enterprise can add a whole list of its own complications.

By Becky Mills, Field Editor

February 20, 2025

When Daphne Kincaid, manager of the Nashville, Ga., farmers’ market, called Parrish Akins and told him to come pick up his beef, it was most certainly not an overreaction.

“I had been tracking it for two days and knew it was going to be bad,” says the self-described meteorologist wannabe of the storm rolling in.

Bad is an understatement. When Hurricane Helene hit Sept. 28, it all but decimated the small south Georgia town. The farmers’ market, like almost all the other local businesses, was closed for two weeks because there was no power.

Thankfully, Akins was able to squeeze the beef in his four on-farm freezers, powered by generators for the five days he and his family were out of power. That was just one of the challenges the hurricane blew in.

On the farm, 80 mature pecan trees acted as shade for his finishing cattle pre-Helene. After? Forty. Thankfully the self-feeder was spared and no cattle got out, even though the fence was damaged.

Manager of the farmers’ market in Nashville, Ga., Daphne Kincaid warned area residents that Hurricane Helene was going to be bad.

Parrish Akins says Hurricane Helene created complications for managing both livestock and beef enterprises.

Cleaning up

Akins estimates around 5 miles of fences were damaged on Bar A, the family cow-calf operation that supplies his ACE Beef. Angus-based Bar A is owned and managed by his son, Chandler; Chandler’s wife, Jessica; and their daughter, Margo — along with an assist from Chandler’s sister, Callie. Parrish and his wife, Sara, pitch in whenever possible.

The family hauled water, repaired and/or replaced fences, and worked on the damaged working facilities and sale barn, badly needed for “The Source” seedstock sale they host the first Saturday in December.

“We divided and conquered,” remarks Parrish.

Market opens

Back at the farmers’ market, Akins welcomed the reopening. That’s the main outlet for his high-value cuts. He sells around $1,000 a month of his grain-finished products, while another local producer supplies the market with grass-fed beef.

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The closed farmers’ market was by no means the only hit Helene delivered to ACE Beef and its customers. Right down the road, Justen Mathis, owner of Brooks Steakhouse, buys around 50 pounds (lb.) of hamburger meat a week, as well as smaller amounts of steaks, roasts and short ribs from Akins.

“I work with farmers as much as I can,” says Mathis.

His average weekly sales are around $9,000 at the farm-to-table restaurant, so he was out $18,000 for the two weeks he was closed, plus he estimates he lost another $8,000 on food in his freezer.

Brooks Steakhouse owner Justen Mathis likes sourcing beef from local cattle producers like Parrish Akins.

Akins also supplies hamburger meat to the local school system, which was closed for a week.

In addition, a local hunting plantation had to shut down because of hurricane damage and was only open on a limited basis by late fall. The hunters typically come from cities where steak houses are plentiful, but they crave the home-cooked meals at the plantation and were a welcome market for Akins’ middle cuts.

“We got backed up on chuck roasts and cube steaks, and had to readjust our inventory,” he notes.

Long-term look

There’s also the worry of long-term demand. Like many producers-turned-beef marketers, Akins started ACE Beef six years ago by selling half and whole carcasses, then expanded into the farmers’ market, steak-house and online sales. Then the hurricane hit.

“The whole economy was shut down,” he says. “People weren’t trying to buy beef, they just wanted a meal. There are a lot of people here who live paycheck to paycheck, and it really put them in a bind. They get hesitant to buy beef. They can’t pay $2,400 and have the power go out and it all get ruined.”

At the farmers’ market, in mid-November, Kincaid reported, “This is the hardest we’ve ever been hit. We have one customer that still doesn’t have an operable kitchen.”

In her own home, she had a huge pine tree still lying in the middle of her home office.

There are signs of optimism, though. After the farmers’ market reopened, she said, “We had a slowdown for a couple of weeks, then the pendulum swung.”

Herbie Griffin is one of the more fortunate customers. He usually comes in the market every week or 10 days to stock up on ACE Beef for himself, his 91-year-old mom and his married daughter. Retired from UPS, he says his income wasn’t affected, and he was able to save the T-bone steaks, stew beef and hamburger meat already in his freezer.

“When the electricity went out,” Griffin says, “I took the beef out of the freezer and put it in a cooler, and went to Tifton for ice. I didn’t lose any of my beef.”

Herbie Griffin enjoys coming to the Nashville, Ga., farmers’ market to stock up on ACE Beef.

Silver linings

Akins says the hurricane actually helped part of his business. When the local firemen started cooking meals for first responders and EMTs, Akins donated 100 lb. of hamburger meat. “They made spaghetti, and it brought people to us. Business mushroomed. You can’t outgive God.”

His beef processor turned into another market. When his cooler lost power and the hanging carcasses were ruined, he bought 10 finished cattle from Akins when he reopened.

Overall, Akins says he, his family and ACE Beef were blessed. No cattle were lost and their homes were damaged, but spared. “A lot of others have it so much worse.”

It isn’t an experience he wants to go through again, though.

“A hurricane is a mind-changer,” he says. “We never will get back to straight normal.”

Editor’s note: Becky Mills is a freelance writer and cattlewoman from Cuthbert, Ga.

Be prepared

While there is nothing you can do to prevent a natural disaster, there are steps you can take to minimize the damage, especially with a meat enterprise.

Parrish Akins, Nashville, Ga., says plenty of reliable cold storage space is vital. He’s up to four coolers at home, one at the farmers’ market and a walk-in cooler on his list to buy.

After Hurricane Helene cut off power for 11 days, he kept the home freezers working with a generator, another must-have. There is also fuel for the generators, often almost impossible to find after some disasters.

“Fortunately, we had stockpiled gas before the hurricane hit,” says Akins. “We had to fill the 10-gallon generator twice a day.”

In Oreana, Idaho, Elizabeth Thomas and her family have a booming local and online beef business in addition to their cow-calf operation, which also stretches into Oregon.

“We’re fortunate and don’t have many natural disasters in this part of Idaho,” she reports. However, their grazing land in Oregon was hit by the Durkee Fire, which started in July, followed by the Cow Valley Fire in August, which was suspected to have been started by an arsonist. “We’ve had to really hustle and work hard to find more pasture for our cows, and we’re starting to work on rebuilding the fences. It was a rough summer.”

As far as disasters that directly disrupt their meat business, power outages and closed roads due to ice and snowstorms are the most common.

“We have a 48-foot freezer truck where we store all of our products and a backup diesel generator,” Thomas says. For mechanical problems with the truck, she keeps a list of names and phone numbers of available mechanics in Boise, about an hour away.

Dean Pringle, director and animal scientist at the North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC), recommends those in the meat business have temperature-monitoring devices in their freezers to show the product didn’t get above 40° F.

“If your product does thaw out, you can safely refreeze it as long as it doesn’t get above the 40-degree mark,” Pringle says. “Document the temperature for food safety purposes, and keep an accurate inventory so you can report it to your insurance company if needed.”

He also recommends including your processor in your emergency action plan.

“In a lot of cases, small retailers have part of their product stored at the processor,” he explains. “Find out how they monitor the temperature in their freezers and coolers to ensure it meets USDA and/or state regulations.”

Most of all, he stresses, “Think through your emergency action plan before disaster strikes and your adrenaline is running at the max.”

For more information visit ACE Beef at https://www.acebeef.net/ and/or Thomas Cattle Co. at https://thomascattlecompany.com/.