ABOUT US
Photo feature: Custom harvesting done by Saehr Farms
OUR STORY
In 1998, Tom and Jenni Smude purchased the farm, just outside of Pierz, Minnesota. We’ve been raising Black Angus beef cattle since the beginning! We raise all our own feed, planting crops on 200 owned and 563 rented acres.
In 2005, we built a feedlot to finish our cattle for the market and have sold farm direct since. After two straight years of crop devastation and extensive research into drought-tolerant crops, we took a gamble and planted 60 acres of sunflowers in 2009. In 2010, we built a small oil crush plant on the farm so we could press sunflower seeds into sunflower oil and “byproduct” sunflower meal. We sell our sunflower oil on the retail market as Smude's Sunflower Oil, and the sunflower meal is a high-quality source of protein and good fats for our cattle.
Building relationships with our customers and delivering great-tasting, Minnesota-grown beef is our top priority. We ensure the highest quality meat by feeding our cattle non-GMO corn, non-GMO sunflower meal, and alfalfa/grass. Our family hopes you enjoy eating our beef as much as we enjoy raising it! Many thanks to all of our past and present customers - your faith in our farm is greatly appreciated!
Never strangers to hard work and committed supporters of our local economy, we’re proud to own and operate three other businesses in the Pierz community. The demand for high volumes of bulk sunflower oil grew into Midwest Processors. Midwest Sales & Construction sells livestock equipment, grain bins, & other grain handling equipment. We also service most grain bins and dryers, as well as constructing grain bins and hoop buildings. Rich Prairie Custom Woods offers quality woodworking solutions, such as CNC machining and custom molding, for a wide variety of customers and industries.
When not working, we’re active members of the Pierz Commercial Club and proud supporters of the Pierz Pioneers. Our children, Katelyn and Mitchell, are following in our footsteps! A graduate of Minnesota State - Moorhead, Katelyn is the Marketing Manager for the family businesses. When not in school or helping on the farm, Mitchell is hard at work on the grain bin crew.
