Viktorija Ratner
Carl Ratner believes there’s a story behind every cut of meat. He learned those stories at an early age, working as a ranch hand when he was 10 years old. It was those same childhood experiences, coupled with a lifelong love of a good steak, that inspired him to launch his own direct-to-consumer company in Southlake earlier this year.
Rancher’s Prime is a new meat delivery service that mails its products directly from the farm to customers’ tables. Each day finds Carl collaborating with 1,100 ranches across six states to make the mission he cares so deeply about a reality. Whether it’s ribeye steaks or porterhouse chops, shoppers only get the best cuts of meat from Carl. That’s why his business’ name has the word “prime” in it.
FARM LIFE IN FLINT HILLS
Born in one of the biggest agricultural states in the nation, Carl grew up in the Flint Hills of Kansas. His family was one of lawyers and doctors, and his grandfather Payne was even the 28th governor of Kansas.
This leaves some wondering how in the world Carl found his way to ranching.
“I was a little more fortunate growing up,” Carl remarks. “I wasn’t originally the big rancher type.”
That all changed when a friend needed an extra field hand to help with his 30,000 head of cattle. He mainly worked summers, cleaning stalls, plowing fields and baling hay.
“When I got a little older, I started rounding up the cattle on horseback,” Carl recalls fondly. “They’ll use four-wheelers nowadays, but back then, there was nothing like bringing them in on a horse.”
Carl fell in love with the open, carefree life on the farm, roaming the pastures on horseback and quail hunting with his golden retriever when he wasn’t working. Carl says he loved working on the ranches so much, he did it for free.
“I never got paid for it one time,” Carl says. “They might buy me lunch once in a while, but it wasn’t about that. It was mainly just about getting out there on the open range, getting on the horses, working the cattle, throwing the hay up and helping out wherever it was needed. It was never about the money. It was all just fun for me.”
Carl kept working in the field for the next 10 years of his young life, juggling his responsibilities as both a student and ranch hand through high school and college. After pursuing business administration at Wichita State University, Carl decided to make his next big move to Dallas, Texas in 1980.
“When I first moved out here, I can remember driving from Dallas to Fort Worth, and the only thing you’d see was empty land, a few buildings here and there and Six Flags in Arlington,” Carl recalls. “Now, it’s just one solid city.”
Carl began working in the sales industry and grew his clientele for the next 30 years. Development came and changed Texas before his eyes, but Carl never forgot where he came from.
“I’ll always remember Flint Hills fondly,” Carl says. “My greatest memories came from there.”
CREATING RANCHER’S PRIME
For the past 12 years, Carl has been working as a business development director for a lighting company, selling over $70 million in assets to multifamily developers across the nation. Because his work takes him all over the nation, Carl often entertains clients at some of the country’s best steakhouses.
Unfortunately, Carl often found himself unimpressed.
“Sometimes your customer might have a great steak,” Carl says. “Sometimes they would need a chainsaw just to cut that leather-textured steak you paid $60 for. I got so dad-gum fed up, because I’m from Kansas. We were meat connoisseurs. We had the best of the best beef out there. To go from that to this was just frustrating.”
Eventually, Carl threw caution to the wind and decided to explore cow-sharing because he knew how to get better beef cuts than most high-end restaurateurs. But as he began reconnecting with his old life on the ranch, his idea expanded into something even bigger.
“I could just butcher some cattle and share it with someone else, but I thought I could make a business out of this — because I believe there’s a market for it,” Carl says.
With other leading meat delivery companies serving as many as 3 million people, Carl began thinking about launching his own enterprise that could deliver its own prime-grade meat from the ranch to the customer. He started by building his network, connecting to ranches in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and of course, Texas. After establishing those connections, he created a strict process that his ranchers would need to follow in order to preserve the quality of the meat. Not only would Rancher’s Prime cattle be fed a clean diet without any artificial hormones, but they also needed to be kept separate from other herds to avoid cross-contamination.
“We know 100% our steaks are going to be good day after day, month after month and year after year — because we’re not mixing in other cattle going into processing,” Carl says.
Once the cows and pigs are fully grown, they’ll be sent to Atlanta to be butchered, then shipped to Ohio for packaging before the meat is mailed directly to customers.
In 2020, Carl launched a Kickstarter campaign to generate interest and support for his passion project, reaching out to family and friends to see if they would support his endeavor. The campaign ended up exceeding his original goal, raising more than $23,000.
“My wife and I are steak snobs,” says Brad Beuke, one of Carl’s earliest backers. “The steaks we had from Rancher’s Prime were so tender and juicy, it almost melts in your mouth.”
The key behind Carl’s beef lies in how it’s aged. While other butchers may age their beef 15-20 days, Carl ages his beef 30 days or more, resulting in an even richer flavor and texture.
“I think the great marbling leads to the tenderness we enjoyed,” customer Steve Swanston says. “Rancher’s Prime steaks are unlike any other.”
After seeing the success from his Kickstarter campaign, Carl purchased a 2,000-square-foot office in Southlake Town Square, where he and a small support staff tracks website orders and manages the supply chain between the 1,100 other ranches, his butcher, fulfillment center and customers. The fact that Carl manages this massive undertaking alongside his day job makes his operation even more impressive.
“It’s probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever been involved in,” Carl chuckles.
PRIME MENTALITY
Beginning a new meat company in 2020 didn’t come without its challenges. For one thing, the COVID-19 pandemic affected Rancher’s Prime’s delivery process, straining supply chains and increasing wait times between orders. The price of beef also increased at around the same time, jumping by 25% in 2020, then again by 10% in 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“The cost it takes to deliver meat is extraordinary,” Carl says. “From fulfillment to shipping to keeping the prices competitive to where people don’t feel like they’re getting hammered, you just don’t have the margins when trying to compete with other steak providers. We’ve never seen prime meat this high before. It’s crazy.”
Even with these challenges, Carl says Rancher’s Prime has seen a lot of growth over the past year. When Rancher’s Prime initially launched its website, Carl says they would be lucky if they saw a couple of sales a day. Now they’re filling over 400 orders a month, with a goal to increase sales by 30% every year.
“It’s really picking up quite nicely,” Carl says. “We plan to continue growing Rancher’s Prime and see how big it can get.”
And Carl is working hard to improve his operations however he can. Not only is he opening his own fulfillment center in the Metroplex to reduce shipping time, but he also started offering chicken and seafood selections just in time for the fall. He also offers exclusive deals and discounts through Rancher’s Prime’s club memberships, plus other highgrade meat options such as Wagyu beef strips, sausage and barbecue.
Five years from now, Carl hopes to see Rancher’s Prime compete with other major meat delivery retailers around the country. But like working on the ranches in Kansas during his childhood, Rancher’s Prime means more to Carl than just a profit — it also means showing people that there’s a better, more natural way to get their beef directly from the source.
“I’m a meat lover more than anything else,” Carl says. “I started this thing because I knew the meat industry could be better, that people deserved better. We’re giving it to them because it isn’t coming from us — it’s coming from the ranchers.”