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Nestled in the foothills of the Wichita Mountains, Joe Maranto has created the perfect niche market for himself. Maranto raises his own beef, feeds it in his own feedlot, and then serves the beef to the patrons of his restaurant.
His venture began in 1983 when he purchased the Meers Store and Restaurant in Meers, Okla, just northwest of Lawton, Okla. "The store had a reputation for its hamburgers. We continued that tradition, but noticed a drop in sales in the mid 80s," says Maranto. "I attributed it to doctors telling people to cut down on fat. So we started barbequing chicken and so forth. But people love a good hamburger, they just didn't want the fat." In 1988, Maranto found a way to serve a tasty hamburger with less fat. The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station published a study on Texas Longhorn beef that found that longhorns produced carcasses with similar marbling to Hereford and longhorn/ Hereford crosses, but had less muscle fat and less saturated fat. In fact, longhorn beef is lower in fat, calories and cholesterol than turkey or chicken. "I decided to try it just as a gimmick. I purchased some longhorns and had them slaughtered," says Maranto. "The ground meat was so lean, we had to add some fat just to keep the burgers together and to prevent them from sticking to the grill!" Soon Maranto was buying 50 to 55 longhorns a year to serve in his restaurant.
In time Maranto started buying young bulls, then banding and growing them on his own land. In 1991 he started his own feedyard, and he currently raises and feeds about half of his yearly beef supply. All of Maranto's longhorns are naturally aged. "I don't implant anything. I let Mother Nature take care of it all." He doesn't band the bulls until they reach 700 pounds in order for their natural hormones to grow a larger frame. The cattle are between two and three years old at slaughter, and most feed for about 120 days.
Although longhorns don't gain as fast as British breeds and they produce a smaller brisket and hamburger-yielding rump, Maranto says the breed has definite benefits. Generally there are very few health problems to deal with. "Texas Longhorns are naturally immune to most diseases. They don't get pinkeye and, in general, they just don't get sick." Flies don't bother longhorns either. Maranto's never sprayed or treated an animal for flies, and not more than one or two flies can be found on the back of any steer. Occasionally he has a problem with one steer goring another. "We might treat three head a year," he says. But goring is minor compared to the premiums Maranto receives for the longhorn skulls. "We can get between $250 and $300 for a good skull," he says. "That more than makes up for the few problems we have." Bruising has also not been an issue. "We've never had any trim from bruising."
Currently, Maranto buys bulls and cows to fulfill his hamburger orders and raises most of the cattle he feeds for steaks. One day he hopes to raise all the beef served in the restaurant. He would also like to raise his own feed in order to control the quality of feed and the additives in it. He is also experimenting with crossbreeding his Texas Longhorns with a Piedmont bull. Piedmonts are double-muscled, and Maranto hopes it will add muscling to his Longhorn calf crop. "I think a steer that's 5/8 Longhorn and 3/8 Piedmont could be the ideal cross, providing extra meat from the Piedmont and the hardiness of the Longhorn." Maranto serves over 100,000 Texas Longhorn hamburgers a year, plus numerous ribeyes, tenderloins, T-bones, sirloins and briskets. He also sells hamburger and steaks to the public. |
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