North Dakota Natural Angus Beef

Kevin Foxwell, Vice President of Sales for North Dakota Natural Angus Beef, was in Monterey this week to discuss what makes NDNB a great program. Kevin came from Harris Ranch and has made a few changes to the NDNB program from the program that we saw on line.

Dakota Natural Angus Beef is opening a new processing facility in Fargo N.D. in November. Once this USDA inspected plant is open they will have the capacity to process 50,000 head of cattle a year. After the Fargo plant opens their current plant in New Rockford, N.D. will perform slaughter operations only.
Currently processing only 500 head of cattle a week, this is not a mass marketing program.

NDNB offers Select, Choice, and/or Prime graded products with a tenderness guarantee.

A quick overview is as follows:

This is a Never/Never program
Supplimental hormones of any kind in the feed or via implant have never been used.
Beta-agonists have never been used
Antibiotics including ionophores, either theraputic or subtherapeutic have never been used.

Feeding Regimen Specifications
Feedstuffs have not come into contact with any of the substances mentioned in the hormones and antibiotics section
Animal has been fed a grain ration for at least 100 days prior to harvest
Annimal has been fed 500IU Vitamin E daily for the last 100 days of the feeding period
Rendered protein meals of any kind (meat and bonoe meals, blood meals, feather meals, or other rendered protein products have never been used
No animal byproducts, vegetarian fed.

Age Specifications
Cattle are 24 months or younger at the time of harvest.

Breeding Specifications
Genetics of these animals contain no Bos indicus or dairy animal breeding
Angus Program
-Phenotype Criteria: 51% or more black hide
-Genotype Criteria 50% registered red or black angus parentage
Animals are sourced from North Dakota region

Source Verified Affidavits
NDNB requires that affidavits be signed by the cow-calf producer, stocker, backgrounder and feeder for the shipment of cattle to the harvest facility. NDNB has the ability to verify the source of an animal throughout the entire chain.

Humane Handling Statement
Animals graze freely upon the open spaces of North Dakota Region ranches for most of their lives.
Quality and care for the animals is of the utmost importance to the ranchers caring fo ranimals in the most humane manner possible.

Strategic Partnership
NDNB has a strategic partnership with the Educational and Research facility of North Dakota State University, making them the only beef company with on-site classrooms and laboratories for education, testing and research purposes created by the ND legislature's Beef Systems Center of Excellence program.
Two fulltime nationally acclaimed Meat Scientists dedicated to the research and implementation for a safer, more tender, better tasting and more nutritious All Natural, Never-Ever Angus Beef Program.

North Dakota ranks as the 13th state in the US for beef cow/calf production, but cattle raised in the North Central region of the US tend to produce more prime and choice cattle than those in the southern US.

Training Programs and POS available