Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Cattle producers who follow the heritage and raising of their cattle closely can guaranteed the meat is free of Bovine Spongiform Encephelopathy, or what is commonly called mad cow disease.
Such is the case with beef products with the Eagle Creek Farms All-Natural Beef or Eagle Creek Cattle Co. logo, according to Carolyn Stoll, CEO of the Warsaw-based distributor.
"They're raised without growth-promoting hormones, steroids, feed antibiotics or animal byproducts," she said.
The recent diagnosis of BCE in Washington sent the beef market plunging. Eagle Creek Farms stays above the fray.
"Those of us in the all-natural market stay out of the ebb and flow of pricing," Stoll said.
"Our niche is health food stores and co-ops. Our customers are not normal shoppers. They're educated, read the labels and are concerned about what labels say. These are the people we cater to."
In addition to the health/natural food grocers in Warsaw, the company also distributes to outlets in Goshen, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Bloomington and Indianapolis.
Roger Smoker, president of Eagle Creek Cattle Co. and Eagle Creek Farms, said he's never used any animal byproducts in feed, a practice banned in 1997 by the Food and Drug Administration because of its link to BSE.
Smoker, who said he is "just a cowboy," has raised natural beef since 1995.
"We control the process from birth to plate. We believe Americans want their food unadulterated by technology and biochemistry. We wish to support those Americans who want straight-from-the-farm natural goodness back on their tables again."
Eagle Creek cattle are a cross between Highlands and red Angus. The Highlands are slow- growing and offer fine fat marbling throughout the meat. The Highland breed hasn't been tinkered with by humans.
Angus reach maturity faster and produce larger calves.
When you start domestically changing animals, the first two traits to go are resistance to disease and mothering ability, Smoker said.
"A lot of producers don't want horns or hair, but their strengths are very useful, I think."
Free-range, grass-fed and grain-finished, Eagle Creek produces animals without using growth-stimulating hormones or steroids.
Eagle Creek calves, some born in Kosciusko County and others brought from Montana, are guaranteed BCE-free.
"We know who the mothers and grandmothers are and how they've been raised," Smoker said.
They have been vaccinated against respiratory lung conditions because deer cross fences and carry diseases.
"The regular practice now is to antibiotic-laced feed the whole way through. We've found out people are getting sick and antibiotics don't work because people develop immunities to the low-grade antibiotics."
Eagle Creek processes 150 to 200 animals a year with a state-inspected federally licensed facility in Shipshewana, one Smoker said was the cleanest processing plant he's ever seen.
"A hamburger from a fast food restaurant may have parts of 100 cows, much of that may have come from Argentina because they do so much volume. A pound of our hamburger is all from one animal."
Smoker grew up on a Kosciusko County dairy farm and worked on others. He was a DHAI supervisor out of Purdue University for 12 years and worked with Hand Industries Highland cattle for several years.
He went on his own in 1995, bringing in investors in 1998 and has been "with the same folks for the last six years."
Eagle Creek Farms is on Fox Farm Road, across from Explorer Van, on land leased from Creighton Brothers.
Members of the Kosciusko County Cattlemen's Association, like Eagle Creek Farms, have locally raised animals available as freezer beef. Individuals can buy in quarters, halves or whole orders.
For more information about locally raised cattle, call association president Bob Bishop, Leesburg, 453-3040, or the county Extension office, 371-2340, for more information. For more information about Eagle Creek Farms, call 269-2708.
