BUSINESS
PELICAN SEAFOOD
Adams Ranch natural beef, grown locally, meets
natural certifications from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Cattle are pasture-raised and do not
receive growth hormones, antibiotics or steroids.
TCBusiness.com 17
Recently, the ranch purchased its own
refrigerated truck to expand direct-tothe
public sales. The ranch has a regular
booth at the Fort Pierce Farmers Market
and also offers door-to-door service to
private homes in St. Lucie and Indian
River counties. It plans on expanding into
Martin County, too, Simmons said.
GOING ONLINE
Eventually, Simmons hopes to be able
to ship beef all over Florida using a new
website now under development to track
orders.
“WE HAVE NO MINIMUM
QUANTITIES REQUIRED
HERE. LOCAL DELIVERY
IS $20, FREE FOR ORDERS
OVER $200.”
Simmons said the calf-raising process
at the ranch has pivoted away from
raising whole cattle to a more nuanced
system. Calves born on the Orange
Avenue and Osceola County ranches are
raised there until they are between 6
and 9 months old. Then they are sent to
Quincey Cattle Co. in Chiefland for fattening
before being shipped to FM Meat
Products in nearby Fort McCoy for final
processing and packaging.
This process has the advantage of allowing
direct quality control of the meat and
also boosts ranch profits by eliminating
the middleman, Simmons explained.
The latest wrinkle in this established
pattern is for Mike Adams’ son, Caleb, to
drive the new refrigerated truck to the
processing plant once a week to load
up with beef for local deliveries on the
Treasure Coast.
For a while in recent years, the ranch
supplied beef directly to the Braford
Steakhouse in downtown Fort Pierce, a
restaurant owned by the Adams family.
However, that arrangement no longer exists.
The Braford was taken over by another
operator who does not use Adams beef,
Simmons said. The business is now known
as The Fort Steakhouse.
“First there was COVID and we felt very
uncomfortable,” Simmons said in explaining
the decision to sever ties with the
steakhouse. “Owning a restaurant was
not the right fit for us,” she said. “It was
stretching our resources and we preferred
to concentrate on our cattle-raising
operations. We want to primarily improve
our product.”
RETAIL STORE PLANNED
Simmons sees the next step in the
evolution of Adams Ranch Natural Beef
in selling direct to consumers using the
new truck and by establishing a dedicated
retail store at the Orange Avenue ranch.
For a while, Simmons said, they used
wholesale food distributer Cheney Brothers
to handle their deliveries. Simmons is
married to Cheney Brothers’ executive vice
president, Cheney Simmons.
But, she said, they realized that deliveries
of their small quantities of meat were
being delayed using large delivery trucks
servicing larger clients.
“It was quicker for us to use our own
truck,” Simmons said. “There were too
many stops. This way our meat is delivered
super-fresh.”
The natural beef program contributes
one-third of ranch revenues, she confirmed.
“We still breed bulls and heifers, but the
majority of calves go into this program,”
which is running very smoothly, she said.
The ranch maintains 26 Whole Foods
stores in Florida as a major customer,
Simmons said. They have worked together
seamlessly for six years now.
“They are the easiest company to do
business with,” she said. “They are very
understanding with us and we have very
few complaints.”
MEETING DEMANDS
Simmons noted that many of their
seasonal customers on the Treasure
Coast have been clamoring to get home
deliveries of meat to their homes up north.
“These are people who visit and enjoy
the ranch,” Simmons explained. “We have
no minimum quantities required here. Local
delivery is $20, free for orders over $200.”
Simmons is actively working on setting
up out-of-state shipping for the natural
beef products.
Considering the crème-de-la-crème
quality of their beef, prices are relatively
affordable. Best sellers include 8-ounce
filet mignons for $21 and 14-ounce rib eye
steaks at $17.33, before the delivery charge.
Simmons said she tries to accommodate
customers’ special requests, even for unfamiliar
cuts of meat, such as the teres major
a beef tenderloin product that comes only
in a single one-pound portion per cow
or picanha, a cut that is very popular with
Brazilian customers. She said they have
also been selling large quantities of beef
bones for broth-making and for dogs.
The natural beef program cannot be
described as organic because cattle may
receive small amounts of antibiotics if they
become sick, Simmons explained.
GRANDFATHER’S IDEA
The program originated with her grandfather.
“We were talking about it 10 to 15 years
ago,” she recalled. “My dad had a contact
with a pork producer up in Madison County
and he put us in touch with Whole Foods.
“We have very strict animal welfare
rules. Every step of the calf-raising
process is documented and we’re audited
every 15 months. There’s a lot of recordkeeping,
especially for how we medically
treat the animals.
“After Bud’s death, his sons pushed the
natural beef programs further along. It’s
definitely a more sustainable operation
nowadays with the lack of travel and gas
costs. And there are plenty of potential
new customers for us in Florida — 22
million of them!”
Even though Adams Ranch Natural Beef
is not a huge operation, Simmons said
they sell about 2,000 head of cattle a year,
which equates to almost 1 million pounds
of meat.
Simmons and her family are managing
to make the sustainable farming practices
pioneered by her grandfather still relevant
today, while also extending an iconic
brand into new areas over time.
The future for Adams Ranch looks very
bright indeed. v
— LeeAnn Simmons
/TCBusiness.com