32 The Business of Prairie Agriculture Better Farming | September 2024 INTEGRATING FROM CONCEPTION TO RETAIL ‘What we are creating will be good for other ranchers & farmers.’ By Emily McKinlay UP CLOSE Pristine Prairie Organics is building a new market for their beef through vertical integration. As the third generation on the farm near Pipestone, Man., Bryce Lobreau established Pristine Prairie Organics in 2012. Along with his family and his farm manager, Brendan Murphy, Bryce focuses on producing organic beef using strategies that are both economically and environmentally sustainable. “We do all organic production, so we plant a lot of cover crops and mixed grains like peas, oats, millet, and fall rye,” says Murphy. “We chop those crops for silage and let them grow back so we can graze it with our all-organic beef cattle in the fall. We have a cow-calf-to-finish herd and purchase more backgrounding cattle.” Lobreau and Murphy feed all the cattle born on the farm-to-finish, which are then marketed as part of Lobreau’s other business, 8 Acres Beef. The vertical integration of the cowcalf, backgrounding, feeding, and marketing stages of the business allows the farm to set its own prices and protect its margins. “We have our farm, and four years ago we started another business,” says Lobreau. “All of our cattle are marketed though 8 Acres Beef. It’s vertically integrated from conception to the retail shelf. If you go to a meat counter in Canada, there’s no branded beef. There’s no excitement – it’s just beef. We are trying to change that, and we are having good success doing it as Brendan Murphy and Bryce Lobreau produce organic beef and crops in Pipestone, Man. Pristine Prairie Organics photo
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