No mystery in these meats

Couple leaves dairy farming to sell natural beef, chicken, lamb

By Ellen Crawford
The Forum - 12/08/2001

Even though Irene and Paul Petersen no longer have a herd of dairy cattle to care for, they’re still early risers.

But that’s by choice, not necessity.

Now the rural Fergus Falls, Minn., couple raise beef cattle and chickens the natural way, without growth hormones and steroids, antibiotics or other additives. They sell their chickens, steaks and other cuts of beef, plus lamb that friends raise, out of six commercial freezers in a trailer that they pull around the region with a pickup.

“After being dairy farmers, you’re crazy enough to do anything,” says Irene Peterson.

The Petersen's, fourth-generation farmers, sold their dairy herd last spring. A combination of reasons led them to that decision.

The younger of their two sons, Adam, 20, is attending Fergus Falls Community College and plans to switch to the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks to study aviation.

“He didn’t want anything to do with the dairy farm,” Paul Petersen says.

Their older son, Nathan, 23, is a junior at South Dakota State University, where he is studying animal science and agri-business. He wants to stay on the farm, but he’s much more interested in beef than dairy cattle.

They told their son that market prices for beef are good now, but they are subject to downturns, so anyone in the beef business needs a secondary source of income.

Irene Petersen said they also wanted to provide customers with a healthy choice.

Thus, the Petersen's direct-marketing business, Arrowwood Family Farm, was born.

It’s been very rewarding, according to Irene Petersen.

“As a farmer, you don’t get to hear direct feedback from people you produce the food for,” she said.

Giving up their dairy herd wasn’t easy, though, they said. They’d been dairy farmers for 20 years.

After they were married, they worked at her parents’ processing operation in Melrose, Minn., for five years. The business packed pickled eggs, gizzards, pork hocks and Polish sausage for wholesale distribution. Then they bought Paul Petersen’s grandmother’s farm, which was next to his parents’ dairy farm near Fergus Falls and they went into the dairy business with his father.

Running a dairy farm was nothing new for Paul Petersen since he grew up on the farm.

“That’s what I always wanted to do,” he said.

But it was a major transition for his wife.

She grew up in Minneapolis, and when she was 14, she and her family moved to Melrose.

“It’s a real story of city to country,” she said. “But it’s been good.”

The Petersen's launched their new venture in June. They raised about 300 chickens during their first season and have a herd of 75 to 80 Black Angus and Herefords, including some of the cattle Nathan raised when he was in the ninth grade. Dale and Nada Carter, who farm in the Starbuck, Minn., area, raise the lamb the Petersen's sell.

J & B Meats near Barnesville, Minn., processes the beef and lamb. The Petersen's take the chickens to Farmers Produce in Ashby, Minn., for processing. The meat and poultry is U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected.

The Petersen's were on the road with their trailer and freezers five days a week during the summer and fall. They plan to keep selling this winter, but they’ve cut back to four days a week. They set up in a business’s parking lot in a different location each day.

“The owners and managers of these businesses have been so kind to let us come in and use a patch of their parking lot,” Irene Petersen said.

“It’s been a real family journey here,” she said.

Their sons help out when they’re home from school, and Paul Petersen’s younger brother, John, designed the logo for Arrowwood Family Farm.

John Petersen, who works at Advertising Marketing in Fargo, got the family together for a creative learning session where everyone threw ideas on the table. The result: an oval depicting a pastoral scene.

Even the farm’s name was a family effort. The first half comes from the arrowhead Paul Petersen’s father found in the north pasture several years ago. The second half comes from the woods along the nearby Pelican River and a small grove of evergreens Petersen’s grandfather planted.

Irene Petersen said she sees that grove as symbolic of planning for the future, something they’ve tried to do with their new career.

Readers can reach Forum reporter

Ellen Crawford at (701) 241-5523