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October 30, 2009 by Robin Smith, Staff Writer, Caledonian Record
SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2009
Vermont Highland Cattle Company hosted a Steakhouse dinner 3,625 feet up atop Mt. Mansfield in Stowe Vermont at The Cliff House Restaurant.
Guests arriving at the sold out dinner were greeted with hot cider and a blanket for the ride in the gondola to the restaurant at the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful evening as a light snow fell throughout the dinner.
Chef Matthew Reeve incorporated local ingredients into the six course dinner which highlighted the beef from our farms. After the Steak Tartar Amuse and Tenderloin Carpaccio with Truffle Oil appetizer we were proud to host a fundraising raffle to benefit the Vermont Foodbank. The raffle raised $761.
Emily Shipman from the Vermont Foodbank was present and she said it was a "great fundraiser". Every dollar raised can pay for 2 1/2 meals or 3 lbs of food. The raffle donations will provide more than 2,100 lbs of food to Vermonters.
At the end of the evening guests boarded the gondola with a fleece blanket, full stomachs and fond memories of their Vermont Highland Cattle Company Cliff House dinner. Thank you General Manager Brian Clark for inviting us and we look forward to our next opportunity to host a dinner and help Vermonters in need.
Article from Vermont Foodbank's Website March 9, 2009
Dinner at Cliff House was huge success!
The Vermont Highland Cattle Co. dinner at the Cliff House at Stowe was a great success! Through a raffle and other generous donations, the Foodbank took home more than $700, which will provide more than 2,100 pounds of food to Vermonters in need.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 by Robin Smith, Staff Writer, Caledonian Record February 4, 2009 by Bethany M. Dunbar - The Chronicle
VERMONT HIGHLAND CATTLE COMPANY HOSTS GRASS-FED BEEF EXPERT NEWPORT — The Vermont Highland Cattle Company hosted an expert on grass-fed beef from western Canada last week.
Julius Ruechel of Vernon, British Columbia, has written a book on the subject called Grass-fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef. His company, called Woolly Rhino Enterprises, Ltd., offers consulting services to farmers interested in switching to raising grass-fed cattle. He told the owners of the cattle company, Fran and Melanie Azur, and Steve Mason and Trish Sears of Northeast Kingdom Tamarack, Incorporated, (NEKTI) Consulting, that there is growing demand for natural, grass-fed beef from cattle that graze all winter, even through the snow. He said the program could work in northern Vermont because it works in British Columbia and in the Yukon Territory. “I’ve had them grazing through three or four feet of snow,” he said. He added that a program in Vermont could make a transition by extending the grazing season through November at first, and then maybe December the following year.
Mr. Ruechel said the full transition is a long process and involves considerable planning. In a grass-fed herd, cows are bred to calve in the summer instead of springtime, which makes calving go more smoothly, and the calves and mother cows are healthier. In his own herds, Mr. Ruechel set up a grid system of pastures, using portable sections of electric fencing, so cattle are let into new small paddocks to eat fresh grass quite frequently.
As it gets colder, and snow falls, cattle will start pawing through the snow to reach the grass. The grass must be tall enough so that the tops of the plants are taller than the snow is deep. Otherwise, a crust of ice will keep the animals from getting to the grass.
Fran Azur mentioned that he has seen deer and other wild animals digging through the snow to get grass, so it seems possible cattle could learn to do it.
“The markets are so close, and yet you have absolutely natural conditions out here,” said Mr. Ruechel. He said he believes the Azurs are in a perfect position because of their location and the size of the company — large enough to employ staff to build the fences needed for grass-fed cattle and to move them from paddock to paddock.
“You’ve reached a critical mass as far as land and cattle,” he said, “and you have a good crew.”
By comparison, out in the west in places like Montana and Wyoming, the cattle are a long way from the markets. The Vermont Highland Cattle Company has six farms. It has bought a meat processing plant in Orleans and is working on renovations and getting permits for it.
Mr. Ruechel grew up on a 2,000-acre cattle ranch in British Columbia where his father raised Angus, Hereford, Simmental and other breeds on a conventional beef farm. Mr. Ruechel did not grow up with a plan to farm. “I was in Alaska studying geology,” he said. He graduated with a degree in economic geology. “I didn’t study agriculture, and it was an advantage.”
If he had studied conventional methods of farming, he might not have thought of making such a drastic change on his family’s own farm, he said. “When you’re looking for ore deposits, you’re always trying to question the status quo,” he said. That way, you find a deposit that others have overlooked. When his father got a head injury, and he started helping his mother keep the beef farm going, he began to question the status quo on the home farm as well. I realized the whole model wasn’t working.”
Grain was a major expense. Spring calving is something the industry has developed to coincide with the calendar year, but it leads to health problems in the animals. “Once you start calving in the summer, all your health problems go away,” he said.
In the wild, animals’ metabolisms slow down in the fall so they don’t need to eat as much.
In an e-mail following up on the meeting, Mr. Ruechel said the public is waking up to the grass-fed revolution. “This is the future of the beef industry for both the conventional and the organic sector because it is such a cost-effective production system and it addresses all the health, environmental and ethical issues that surround the beef industry.”
He suggested to the Azurs that not only would there be a demand for the beef, but they could also develop genetics for grass-fed beef that are currently lacking. The best bulls for grass-fed cattle might not be the most winning bulls in the show ring. Instead, they would have a high conception rate, ease of calving, and would be easy keepers who thrive on less grain and hay. That way the animal is most efficient and the meat is the least expensive to produce in a natural manner.
“You wind up with an animal that’s most in tune with its environment,” he said.
January 13, 2009 by Kellie Speed, East Coast Restaurants Examiner, examiner.com - Philadelphia
NEW FOOD ATTITUDE AT TOPNOTCH RESORT IN STOWE
"Winter is shaping up as a season of renewal in the Green Mountains of Vermont, as Norma’s, the signature restaurant at Topnotch Resort and Spa, embraces a “new food attitude” based entirely on the finest local, organic provisions. Located in the village of Stowe, the patio-style restaurant recently revealed a new menu for the winter season by Executive Chef Mark Timms including a James Bond Martini appetizer ripe with molecular olives. With its focus on locally grown, organic produce and hormone-free, humanely raised meats, Norma’s offers wholesome, eco-conscious dining."
“We strive for excellence at Norma’s, both in what we serve and how we prepare it,” said Chef Timms, an award-winning chef who joined Topnotch from the Lodge at Woodloch Spa in late 2008. “Our raw ingredients are selected only under stringent conditions, such as produce grown locally and organically and meats that are farm-raised without hormones or inhumane practices. We also affiliate ourselves with local organizations committed to these philosophies, such as the Vermont Fresh Network, VT Highland Cattle Company, Misty Knoll Farm and Pete’s Greens, and seek to foster new relations with companies dedicated to it. We are committed to a ‘new food attitude,’ in other words, as well as to those who embrace it.”
October 8, 2008 By Bethany M. Dunbar - The Chronicle
VERMONT HIGHLAND CATTLE IS SERIOUS ABOUT BEEF
NEWPORT CENTER — Vermont Highland Cattle owners Melanie and Francis Azur have recently bought their sixth farm, a refrigerated truck, and the former Comstock plant in Orleans where they will be able to butcher beef. The plan is to set that up sometime next year. At this point the company has 14 employees in Vermont and 500 head of cattle. “Our goal is to get up to 1,000 or 2,000,” Ms. Azur said.
The company was started in 2005, and in 2006, as Ms. Azur puts it, “we got serious.” Vermont Highland Cattle is planning to get even more serious, and part of its plan is to be a good neighbor. The company is donating a ton of beef to local schools. Mr. Azur was born in Newport and met his wife, Melanie, in Pennsylvania. The two were working together in support services for real estate transactions. Eventually they started a company together, called ATM Corporation of America, which does appraisals, titles, and closing services. The two owned that company from 1993 until August of last year. Although they have spent a lot of their time in Pennsylvania, they are regularly in Vermont as well, and six years ago they built a house in Newport Center. They still have a place in Pennsylvania and divide their time between the two places.
The Azurs have always had animals. In Pennsylvania they have 30 Paso Fino horses that they show, plus standardbred racehorses they raise and race, plus a couple of Icelandic horses they bought during a trip to Iceland. The Scottish Highland beef cattle breed appealed to the Azurs for a lot of reasons. The animals are hardy, their meat is low in fat, they do well in the Vermont climate, they are smart and have a nice temperament, and they are quite beautiful. At first the Azurs bought ten show animals. Those animals seemed to do very well, and the Azurs decided to make their interest into something more than a hobby. They started raising meat animals and found selling the beef was easy. They still sell halves and mixed quarters from the farm, and some goes to area stores and restaurants, including the Craftsbury General Store. “Our intent is to get into some of the restaurants in Stowe,” Ms. Azur said. Then they will advance to selling the meat to restaurants around New England. The general manager of the company is Josh Mason. Ray Edwards is in charge of sales, and he is finding that the local beef sells very well. Some of the chefs are very excited to hear about it. One of the problems is that some want exclusively grass-fed beef, and others want beef finished by feeding them some grain. “We’re kind of in a transition phase,” Mr. Edwards said. “Right now they are grain finished.”
They are working on a system to have some animals fed each way so they can fill both markets. “We know that a lot of the restaurants just want consistency,” said Ms. Azur, meaning a company that can supply beef year-round, which the Azurs can do. “Everybody is more and more concerned with where the animals are grown,” Mr. Edwards said, including how they are treated. Although the Vermont Highland Cattle are not organic, they are not given grain with antibiotics in it or growth hormones. Some of the large cattle dealers out west regularly feed cattle antibiotics to increase their appetites in hot weather, Ms. Azur said. The only reason for using antibiotics on the Vermont Highland Cattle would be if an animal became sick. The majority of the animals don’t ever get treated, according to herd master Derek Williams. “They’re on pasture as long as they possibly can be,” he said. The company just bought the former Bob Judd farm in order to have enough pasture acres for all their animals. Ms. Azur said they have about 500 acres of pasture, and each animal needs about an acre.
In the winter they get silage bales made on the Azurs’ farms. They have 800 acres of crop land. Young animals are kept with their mothers for five or six months. “They learn how to graze and how to be a cow,” she said. The animals are taken to local slaughterhouses — St. Johnsbury and Troy — so they don’t have to travel great distances packed tightly into huge trailers. Mr. Edwards said he sees a lot of similarities between the beef industry right now and the organic movement a number of years ago.
Mr. Edwards came to this job from New Haven, Connecticut, where he worked in the produce department of an organic market. His wife is a vegan chef, and they still have a place in Connecticut where she works. He said he sees the local food movement as being about more than just geography. It’s about knowing your farmer and meeting with that person directly. In other words, a chef in Boston might consider Vermont Highland Cattle as local beef because the chef can ask questions of the people who raised the animal and even make requests (such as to finish the animal with grain or not).
The Azurs are clearly quite proud of their cows. All of the bulls but one have won national championships in shows. They are all in the same paddock together and seem to get along just fine. They don’t mind visitors coming into the paddock and seem to enjoy having their pictures taken and a nice scratch on the neck. “They love to be brushed and spoiled,” Ms. Azur said.
Mr. Williams just graduated from the University of Vermont and has been showing Highland cattle since he was nine years old. He and the Azurs know the Shatneys of Greensboro, who have raised and shown Highland cattle for years.
Another main interest of the Azurs is hunting, and their home is a showcase of huge impressive trophies — full body mounts of deer, bear, and a head and the front shoulders of a bison are seen in the main entrance. Mr. Azur has hunted all over the globe, including alligators in Lousiana and bears in Alaska. “It took us two times to Alaska to get the brown bear you wanted,” Ms. Azur said to her husband. Ms. Azur fishes. She doesn’t hunt but often accompanies her husband on his hunting trips. Another hobby of theirs is helping others who are less fortunate. “Fran and I are pretty active in philanthropic ideas,” Ms. Azur said. The two started a foundation, the Bartko Foundation, using Ms.Azur’s maiden name. Its mission is to help single minority women get education, transportation, and housing in Pittsburgh.
Monthly beef donations to the local schools were scheduled to begin on Monday, September 29, with 60 pounds apiece to schools in Newport Center, Troy, Jay-Westfield, Lowell, and Coventry. Azurs ~ Melanie and Francis Azur on their Newport Center farm, home base of Vermont Highland Cattle. Some of the animals are in the background. (See photo at bottom of page) Derek ~ Derek Williams, herd master, scratches a bull named Magnum on his neck.
Highland truck ~ The Vermont Highland Cattle Company just got this refrigerated truck. The graphics were done by a friend of the Azurs in Pennsylvania. Left to right are Ray Edwards, Melanie Azur, and Derek Williams.
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