Family affair: Fifth generation running Frazee Farms LTD

EMERSON — The owners of a fifth generation, local family farm are involved in a much farther reaching operation than first appearances would reveal.

Will and Deb Frazee own Frazee Farms LTD, a corporation that feeds and finishes about 600 cattle a year.

Located west of Emerson, the farm consists of one well constructed hoop barn filled with cattle, a hay barn, some cement corrals for food and run off containment, a landscape of acres where they plant corn, soy beans and some hay, some grain bins, their house and a very welcoming dog.

“We are the typical farmer feeders,” Will said. “This place here is where my grandparents and great-grandparents were, so Curt is actually the fifth generation.”

Curt Frazee is Will’s son and they are the main operators of the farm, but when they are gone, Deb runs the farm. Krista, Will and Deb’s daughter, often comes home from Ames to help.

“All four of us drive tractors and play in the mud,” Deb said smiling. “We will be a century farm in 2015.”

But feeding cattle is not their only pastime. The entire family, in one way or another, is involved in the promotion of beef as a nutritious food source.

“Its important to me to do some of this industry involvement,” Will explained. “It takes a lot of days away from home sometimes, but there are advantages you get back too.”

Will has served as chairman of the Iowa Beef Council, as a board member in the local Cattleman’s Association and on the Cattleman’s Beef Board, which is a national organization.

“With Curt and Deb involved, it gives me time to give back to the industry,” Will said. “The Iowa Beef Industry Council is the organization here in Iowa that oversees the check off. Every time you sell a beef animal they deduct a dollar per head out of your check. The Council keeps 50 cents of that and sends 50 cents on to The Cattleman’s Beef Board, the organization that oversees the check off on a national basis. The check off is involved in various things. The most obvious one is the promotion, ‘Beef, it’s what’s for dinner.’ We do radio commercials and print ads.”

The check off also invests in beef safety research, trying to eliminate the e. coli bacteria out of the food system. There has been $28 million invested into beef safety research in the past 15 to 20 years.

“Thats an important thing,” Will said.

Another program the check off invests in is doing research on new ways to cut beef.

“They did a muscle profiling study and some of the new cuts have been directly from the check off investment that we producers have done,” Will explained. “Research like a flat iron steak, petite tender, shoulder tenders, some of those new picks. They have developed new ways to display meat in a meat case and have recipes right there. They did a lot of nutrition research. Years ago beef had an image of being fat. Well, the USDA has guidelines they use on what is considered lean meat and beef has 29 cuts that are considered lean. People just don’t realize how lean the beef is.”

Other programs the check off is investing in include nutrition research, getting the information out to consumers, researching foreign markets and technology.

“One thing in agriculture you hear a lot about is the new technology, whether the GMO crops are good or bad, or the new technology for livestock production,” Will explained. “Well, for one thing, we need to remember the US is the biggest agriculture producing country and 95 percent of our consumers are in other countries. We are in a global market, so we have to produce for the world. By the year 2050 we have to double our food production. So it’s going to take new technology.”

Because of Will’s involvement in various organizations, the Frazees have the opportunity to travel to other states and countries and witness the impact that Iowa agriculture is making on a national and international basis.

“It’s very different in Hawaii,” Deb said. “They don’t have corn. They don’t have grass. They buy everything in little cubes.”

“Its been really interesting to meet people from all over,” Will added. “The producers... they have different types of operations.”

As part of his travels, Will has been presented with the opportunity to sample the food systems of other countries.

“The only thing I could never bring myself to try is what they call a thousand year egg, where they bring this egg through some process and it ends up looking like green jello,”  Will said smiling. “I just couldn’t bring myself to try one. I have been to seven or eight other countries and we don’t realize how good we have it here.”

Visiting foreign nations during organization meetings has also provided the Frazees with an economical understanding that can be easy to overlook on local levels.

“I think it would be really interesting if people would sit down for just a moment and really think about how much agriculture is a part of our local, our state, our national and our international economy,” Deb explained. “We had the opportunity to travel to Panama in early February. We got to go through the canal. We talked with the folks there about the grain market, the exports, how much grain goes through the Panama Canal and what those dollars are involved in. So we are not just a little operation in little Montgomery County, Iowa. We are a part of a much larger global process.”

In Panama, the Frazees learned that the ships there are scheduled over a year in advance. Therefore, the buyers are buying and the manufacturers are making on the same time frame in order to get the grain barges through.

Panama is apparently becoming a huge international banking economy because of exports. There are 148 international banks for the purposes of paying crossing fees and getting the ships through the canal, many of which are carrying agricultural products from Iowa.

“Its a huge business,” Deb said. “The visitors on that trip were all people from Iowa and its agricultural communities. It was really, really interesting.”

Besides being a support system for her husband and son on the farm and in their organizations, Deb takes the business with her to work.

“I work for a large insurance company in Omaha,” Deb explained. “I am a masters level counselor and I do services for people all over the United States. In my cube (office) I have the ‘Beef, its whats for dinner’ posters. Will has brought me the little card board display to put brochures in and I have set those out on my counter. That’s how I decorate.”

Deb even invited some co-workers to their farm recently. They had expressed some concern about beef consumption. They spent the day with Deb and Krista learning about production livestock, viewing the facilities and operation processes, witnessing veterinary procedures, and ate steak for lunch.

“You have to have the open mindedness to sit down with a person and explain... there is a lot more than just the food that comes out of this,” Deb said. “There are the cattle hides that get used in purses and clothing and baseball gloves, and women’s makeup. I mean there’s just no part of a steer thats not used. And people don’t realize that.”

Curt is also involved in cattleman organizations and activities.

“In the Young Cattleman’s Leadership Program we go through the Iowa Cattleman’s Association,” Curt explained. “My group met in Ames, at the Cattleman’s Headquarters, three or four different times. In one of our sessions we did a lot with the fundamentals of the Cattleman’s Association, how it works, the chain of command, and got a good background. We also had speakers about animal nutrition and some of the new studies they’ve been doing using ethanol co-products. In one of our sessions, we actually went to the state capitol and had a legislative date where we talked with our representatives and senators from our selective areas. We did a big overview of how the legislature works. It was a really good experience. At the state level, I’ve sat on a legislative committee and helped develop a bill we submitted through a senator to congress. I’ve been involved on the board of directors at the county level for five years, now. So its been a good experience.”

Krista is also advocating for the betterment of Iowa Beef. She works for the Iowa Beef Industry Council and the Iowa Cattleman’s Foundation.

“The foundation is part of the Cattleman’s side,” Deb explained. “It is largely involved with scholarship programs. They sponsor a number of activities for FFA chapters, 4H kids, educational activities and chances to win and raise scholarship money by participation. They do the extravaganza in the spring, which is for community college and high school kids. They sponsor a scholarship on an individual senior high school level for those going into agriculture.”

Whether its farming or advocating, "cattleman" is in the Frazee blood and they take it with them everywhere.

“There’s no going home from it,” Will said. “There’s no weekends, either. I think whatever business you’re in or whatever aspect of production you’re in, it’s important that you stay involved  in your industry and promote what your doing and try to make it better. Instead of sitting back and just letting things happen, try to keep involved.”