Farmer fills niche in local meat market

Dorchester County farm beefing up its production to meet growing demand

TERESA TAYLOR
The Post and Courier

Claudia and Michael Cordray of Cordray Farms.

Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series about farmers and food producers in the Lowcountry.

The new, 6,000-square-foot barn, a former building at the Navy base that was deconstructed and reassembled, will come in handy at Cordray Farms if all goes as planned.

Besides hay storage, "I finally have a place to work on my equipment without laying on the rocks," Michael Cordray jokes. Broken machinery is making him take a break from harvesting hay on Wadmalaw Island this July morning, a job that normally would stretch from sunup to sundown.

The family business has come full circle at the farm, and Cordray is ready to bring more people into that sphere again — at least he hopes he is prepared.

The Dorchester County farm, primarily venison and wild hog processors since 1991, is stepping up its limited beef production to meet growing consumer interest in local foods.

While Cordray's always has maintained a small herd, selling a portion of its beef at the Walterboro stockyards and to those in the know, it has begun targeting a different niche by offering 1/8 shares of a steer. Shares average 50-55 pounds of packaged meat.

Customers will be able to purchase a share, thus reserving it until the cow is ready for butchering, for $250-$275. The meat will be cut into a variety of steaks, roasts and other products such as ground beef and back ribs.

"We've been taking baby steps with this, feeling our way," says Cordray, 51. He researched and talked with other local farmers about the community-supported agriculture, or CSA, concept before making the commitment. "We decided to increase it more so we can get to be more of a year-round supply," he says.

Cordray's will continue to sell sides and quarters of beef, as well as fresh or frozen individual packages of beef at the farm's meat market.

Tera Baird of McClellanville is a first-time customer. She and her husband purchased a share of beef earlier this summer, as well as a freezer for storing it.

A biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Baird became interested in the beef while doing research at the farm on swallow-tailed kites. She visits the farm's pastures twice a month, counting insects available for the birds.

"I was looking for local options for beef, and I knew that his cows were very healthy. It's an amazing product and I'm so glad to be eating locally," Baird says.

Already a consumer of organic or pasture-fed beef, Baird says the quality is comparable. "The flavor is more robust, meatier. It's a good steak."

The Cordrays' cattle-ranching roots run four generations deep. Joseph H. Cordray started raising cattle in the Lowcountry in 1907, traveling by wagon to Charleston on the weekends to sell his beef. His son and Cordray's father, Lolace Virgil Cordray, did likewise at the Heriot Street markets until shutting his doors in 1994.

The other side of the family also was in the beef business. For many years, beginning in the 1940s, Cordray's two grandfathers had competing, side-by-side meat markets in Charleston. Cordray's parents first met each other at the markets.

Now, the farm will need to support two families, Cordray says. His son, Kenneth, a junior majoring in animal science at Clemson University, is getting married next June and plans to come back to the business.

The goal is to double beef production within the year. Cordray will expand his own herd, which numbers about 100, and is talking to a few other farmers "who raise beef the right way" for supplemental supply.

That "way" for Cordray is all natural. The cows get no growth hormones, no antibiotics and are mostly grass- and hay-fed. The grain feed that helps fatten and "finish" them during the last few months is made on the farm from locally grown corn, soybean meal and molasses.

Additionally, the beef is hung in a cooler and dry-aged from 14-21 days, a process that increases flavor and tenderness, Cordray says.

"Our thing is unique. The cows are born on our farm and raised on our farm. We cut it, we take care of it, we raised it. The only thing we don't do is slaughter."

But the old-fashioned philosophy joins modern technology in the processing stages. Equipment in various rooms includes a computer-controlled smoker, efficient vacuum-packagers and a $46,000 state-of-the-art sausage stuffer. "I tell people this is my new truck," Cordray says.

Cordray refers to his wife, Claudia, as the brains of the business. She, on the other hand, says Cordray Farms supports her "phonics habit."

The former public school teacher and a business partner teach phonics to educators in the spring and summer. During deer season (Aug. 15-Jan. 1), she's busy taking orders and running the farm's Web site.

"I'm just thrilled about it," she says of the beef venture. Selling beef at the stockyards, "You didn't see it go from the farm to the table. When people call and say what a great dinner they had, you really do feel a part of people's lives."

Married 32 years with three children, Cordray says her husband used to tell her they were "raising a lifestyle" on the farm.

"It took me a long time to understand it," she says. "I've had a chance to see what real farming is."

Teresa Taylor is the food editor. Reach her at food@postandcourier.com or 937-4886.