Three Charlotte real estate developers went down east to Lake Mattamuskeet hunting for ducks and returned with a plan to raise Angus cattle.
Grant Miller and Rob Speir, who work in Charlotte for Toronto-based Colliers International, and Tim Robertson with Charlotte-based Beacon Partners, weren’t daydreaming on that January 2021 trip to the state’s largest natural lake. They, along with Miller’s father, have put up about $85,000 and formed Harve Creek Cattle, named for the creek passing through the 120 acres of the Miller family farm in Stony Point, an unincorporated area of 1,500 residents that crosses over the Iredell and Alexander county line.
“We had to get the merchandise first. Got some shirts and some hats. Had to design a logo,” says Miller. By April 2021, the company had bought seven heifers and began looking for a bull.
“That’s always been my kind of outlet to go out there and get on the tractor and unplug,” says Miller, who has a farming background, unlike Robertson and Speir.
“We want to be a 50-cow operation, selling registered Angus to other commercial producers,” he says. “Slow and steady growth. We want it to be a product we can stand behind. Now, will it make us any money? I haven’t a clue.”
The industrial real estate developers’ venture into cattle comes at a critical time for agriculture in North Carolina. While the industry’s annual economic impact topped $100 billion for the first time, hitting $103.2 billion, state Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler repeatedly warns that the state is losing too much farmland to development. Operations like Harve Creek and many others need to thrive for the state to retain a leading ag economy, he says.
North Carolina ranks second in the nation in potential farmland loss, behind Texas, according to a report last year by American Farmland Trust. The report projects 1.1 million acres of farmland will be paved over based on current development numbers by 2040, but could increase to 1.6 million acres if growth accelerates. The hardest hit counties would be Johnston and Wake in the Triangle and Union in the Charlotte area.
North Carolina had 8.3 million acres of farmland and 45,100 farms in 2021, based on a survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That compares with 10.8 million acres in 2001, according to the Farmland Information Center..
Miller’s maternal grandfather, Glen Martin, started the family farm in the 1950s, at one time raising chicken and dairy cows along with tobacco, while operating a country store. Miller’s tobacco-farmer father, Terry, and mother, Debra, still live there. They are in their 70s.
“I was real close to my grandfather, and as I look back, this is what he really enjoyed doing,” Miller says. “It goes back to continuing to utilize the farm. You read and hear so much about farmland going away or no one staying on the farm.”
His 13-year-old son, West, works with him on Saturdays at the farm, although sometimes he prefers basketball or golfing. Miller’s brother, Noah, helps manage day-to-day operations.
Growing up, Miller says his family would sell a few heads of cattle, with little more than an ear tag for identification. Farming now involves data, genetics, and AI, but not the AI sending the stock market soaring. His version is artificial insemination.
“We’re like scientists, fine-tuning what we want to put on the ground,” says Miller.
“I want it to be something where people say, ‘Harve Creek puts a good product out on the ground.’ It’s like anything else in business,” he says.
He envisions rewarding the bulls who do a good job on his farm to a place at a bigger farm, with his group pocketing the profits.
On the purebred side of the business, a top-notch Angus bull can sell for $2,500 to tens of thousands, he says. One headed to slaughter fetches about $1,000.
Miller looks for cows that can produce offspring in the 60- to 75-pound range with natural ease.
“The last thing I want to be doing is chasing down a cow to help her deliver a calf,” he says.
“If the bulls are good bulls and meet criteria, those bulls are going to go to a commercial farmer who might have a big herd, but who just needs a good bull who can take care of everybody and a bull who can perform,” he says.
Bulls and cows that don’t work out become “banned,” aka steak. To stay off that list, the bulls and cows have to play nice.
“You’re looking for a calm demeanor and how they interact with others in the herd. A cow that does its work, doesn’t get in trouble. Doesn’t get out of the fence,” he says.
Either way, “there’s always going to be a demand for beef.” ■