While attending the Oklahoma Best Beef Competition, held during the Stockyard’s Stampede, at Oklahoma Stockyard City. The three-judge panel named Blackjack Legacy Beef from Minco, Oklahoma the winner of the Best Beef award. Reserve Champion Best Beef was awarded to Cowgirl Beef from Fort Cobb and Piguet’s Prime Time from Vinita was named third best.
Oklahoma Farm Report’s Maci Carter got to talk with Katrina Avers, who founded Blackjack Legacy Beef, and Josh Bedell.
They were challenged by a processor to enter their beef in the competition and were glad they did after they earned the Oklahoma’s Best Beef title. Besed in Minco, Oklahoma, Blackjack Legacy is a coalition of small ranches joined by their common quality standards so they can compete on a larger scale while maintaining their small, manageable operations.
“We know that teamwork makes the dream work,” Avers said. “We saw that today with our grilling team. They did a phenomenal job, but it starts with our ranchers and includes our processors, and customers.”
As a mother of five always trying to support her kids’ fundraisers, Avers’s marketing mindset is a bit different from others. Her goal is to connect consumers in touch with their local producers to support families; therefore Blackjack Beef is a small, family-owned operation.
“Buy from your local kids that need to raise money for their band uniforms, cross country meet, or travel expenses,” she said. “Those kids need our help and this is a great way for us to come together as a community and have 100% re-investment. Let those kids take your orders, pack your groceries, and bring you farm fresh beef from Blackjack Legacy.”
The grilling team was comprised of two sets of brothers, none of which had ever experienced anything like Oklahoma’s Best Beef Competition. Bedell said, “We practiced a little bit this past week, well one of us did, but once we got here, we got a plan together and did our best. We maintained good temperature control, a good seasoning from Blackjack, and the steak really spoke for itself.”
According to Videl, the grilling team took a “no stone left unturned” approach to creating the winning steak. They practiced with a few inferior cuts first, to be sure that the oil was perfectly applied, the seasoning was uniform and without excess and cooked to the perfect doneness.
“We wanted everyone to have a true, good steak experience,” he stated. “It really just came down to cooking it right and letting the steak do the rest.”
Blackjack Legacy brands its own steak seasoning which was used on the steaks. For the Avers family, its creation was a family affair. From the youngest family members to the oldest, they all had a say in its blend.
“Winning this competition provides a lot of validation of the hard work that we put in from beginning to end,” Avers said. “Our brand is alpha omega. We know our beef from start to finish, and this has been such a rewarding experience to see other people value the hard work that we put in. It took two years to get to this point today with the beef that was eaten in the competition. We are excited, honored, and thankful for the opportunity and the votes. We look forward to competing again!”
More information can be found at blackjackbeef.com or email them here.
While at the Oklahoma Best Beef Competition, Stevie White caught up with Alex Morcom whose County Line Beef team won the People’s Choice Award.
County Line Beef is a family-run, cow calf operation located in the Comanche area of Stephens County, and has been producing beef and selling it direct to consumers for about five years. Just last year, they opened a mercantile store on the ranch.
Morcom and her husband, Stephen, are first-generation ranchers and are very involved with the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and Alex serves on the OCA Foundation’s Board. “We are super impressed with the event and the quality of beef served here,” Morcom said. “The people who come out are awesome, and it is just such a neat deal that they have going on.”
County Line Beef competed last year and were happy for the opportunity to try again. About earning the People’s Choice Award, Morcom said, “It means so much! It is an incredible honor, and it’s humbling. Everything we do is with the beef consumer in mind, so getting positive feedback is always wonderful. This is a unique event because we get to tell people our story about how we raise our animals. This is a huge honor for us.”
County Line Mercantile has a Facebook page to connect with consumers.
