As partner Cliff Swaim showed a visitor around the Marksbury Farm Market processing facility, he talked familiarly with employees as they carefully hand-butchered beef ribs and cut perfectly measured portions of steak with a high-tech piece of equipment. Maybe the most unusual thing about the recent visit to Marksbury was the willingness—eagerness even—of Swaim to give a tour. Meat-processing plants are notorious for their lack of transparency, but these partners are proud of the business they have created in the last 14 years.
Since the farm’s 2010 opening, the Marksbury Farm partners have prioritized healthy food, animal welfare and environmental stewardship. The Marksbury name is a hallmark for a product raised with integrity, and the Garrard County business has established a solid reputation as a processing partner in the regional sustainable-agriculture community.
Farmer Preston Correll originally envisioned Marksbury filling a pressing need in Kentucky’s local food economy. Correll hoped to expand meat sales from his family’s St. Asaph Farm but was nearing the legal limit of on-farm poultry processing and was frustrated driving his cattle long distances to a USDA-inspected facility. He joined with some other farmers, and together, they researched comparable facilities across the country and constructed Marksbury’s 12,000-square-foot USDA-approved humane harvesting and meat processing facility. The business is now managed by six partners with varied backgrounds and diverse talents: Preston Correll, Greg Correll, John-Mark Hack, Richard McAlister, Leonard Harrison and Swaim.
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Healthy Land, Healthy Animals, Healthy People
The foundational principles of the Marksbury business model, where farmers cooperate with natural systems, create a virtuous cycle that benefits the animals, the people and the land. The industrial food system’s intensive farming practices trace back only to the 1940s, making them a modern and radical way for humans to feed themselves, historically speaking.
“This is not cutting edge but a more traditional method of farming,” said Swaim during the tour. “There is a long history of this type of agriculture.”
Kentucky’s famed bluegrass is at the root of these beneficial practices and a key to the farm’s success. Marksbury meat is 100 percent grass fed, and all animals have continuous access to quality pasture throughout their lives. In the central part of the Commonwealth, according to Marksbury’s website, “high-quality pasture is very productive, renewable and ubiquitous.”
This rich resource, in turn, benefits from its relationship to the animals. Grass loves cows. Properly managed by a knowledgeable farmer, the process of grazing restores and regenerates the soil. It helps the grassland stay healthy; waste becomes fertilizer, and hooves stimulate growth.
Living on pasture is more fulfilling for the livestock, too. They have lower stress, stronger immune systems and more often express their natural habits, such as rooting, foraging, rolling and normal social behavior, than their confinement-raised counterparts. That natural lifestyle creates higher quality meat. When purchasing Marksbury’s locally raised, 100-percent grass-fed meats, free of antibiotics, steroids and hormones, consumers get a healthy, nutrient-dense food.
The type of agriculture that Marksbury supports helps small family farms become more sustainable. The company works with a broad network of farmers, raising between 10 and 200 head of cattle each, all of whom follow these practices.
Fayette County farmer Todd Clark has worked with Marksbury for 13 of its 14 years, and his meat currently appears on the shelves at Whole Foods Market. “It’s appealing to have this option because I enjoy raising animals in a way that aligns with what Marksbury is all about,” Clark said. “I can get the product into the hands of people that is important to also and capture a financial benefit.”
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Integrity and Viability
Marksbury honors the work of these farmers through intentionality in its processing facility. The work of Temple Grandin, a national consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, guides the animal’s path. Beyond the moral argument for treating animals well, studies have shown animal stress has a direct impact on the quality of meat.
As a USDA-approved facility, Marksbury follows strict guidelines requiring experienced employees in butchering, sanitation and logistics. A required inspector, on-site during all operations, ensures compliance with regulations. “To be a viable processing business, we had to learn to speak the language of the larger meat industry,” Swaim said. “There was a heck of a learning curve to follow regulations, master compliance and systematize traceability.”
Each night, production stops, and the cleaners go to work. Every machine and surface, all the floors and tools, are sanitized nightly. The facility must be spic and span to pass a pre-operation inspection before production can begin the following morning.
Processing around 70 cattle a day, four days a week, and pigs and lambs on the fifth day, Marksbury is small enough to carefully handle each animal and provide artisan-level butchering quality, while large enough to meet the volume requirements of major clients. Lot sizes are small, consisting of 12-50 animals, and a designated ID number used throughout the process provides traceability.
Marksbury’s values guide their relationships with their processing clients. The day of the tour, the staff was packaging for Hickory Nut Gap Meats from North Carolina and Grayson Natural Farms in Virginia. The business works with similarly focused brands from Georgia and Tennessee. Many clients are mail-order companies, which have seen tremendous growth in the last four years.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath moved the needle for many local food businesses. When centrally located processing facilities and long supply chains faltered, people realized the precariousness of the industrial food system. With its nearby location and short supply chain, Marksbury was able to fill some of the gaps in Central Kentucky. For example, Kroger was already selling Marksbury products in the natural food section. When the grocery store chain had a shortage from its other suppliers, it reached out to Marksbury for a much larger order of ground beef. Working with its cadre of local farmers, the company delivered the order within the week.
“When the big system broke down, people realized our business was actually legitimate,” Swaim said. “The crisis validated the viability and necessity of small-scale food systems, and much of that new business has stuck around.”
A Taste of the Bluegrass
Marksbury meats can be enjoyed in area restaurants or purchased for cooking at home. A small fast-casual lunch restaurant named Pasture serves up its high-quality meat on site. The limited menu includes a hamburger, chorizo burger, brisket sandwich, pulled chicken sandwich and a lettuce salad. Daily specials—such as beef quesadillas, chorizo mac and cheese, and pork tenderloin with garlic cheese mashed potatoes—are posted weekly on social media.
The industrial-feel Pasture is open Monday-Friday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Diners often rub shoulders with Marksbury staff members enjoying a meal break. A retail section sells frozen meats and other local, artisanal products such as milk and honey.
In nearby Stanford, two restaurants serve Marksbury meat exclusively. Mama DeVechio’s Pizzeria tops its pies with the local Italian sausage, ground beef and ham. The Bluebird serves seven types of burgers, a creamy Cajun pasta with Andouille sausage, and steak and pork chop entrées.
For wholesale orders, Marksbury works with distributor What Chefs Want (formerly Creation Gardens), which reaches food businesses from Indianapolis to Birmingham and from St. Louis to Asheville. Consumers can find Marksbury products at Lexington’s Good Foods Co-op and many area Kroger stores and Whole Foods Markets.
While Marksbury is primarily a processing and wholesale company, it also offers a small online shop for nationwide shipping or local 24-hour pickup. Shoppers can choose from packages and cases, pre-selected boxes or the option of a monthly subscription.