Little Belt Cattle Company works toward sustainable agriculture Greg Putnam, a Navy Seal of 10 years, wanted to ranch after returning to Montana from military service. He and his partners, who are also military Veterans, started Little Belt Cattle Company, a ranch at the base of the Little Belt Mountains between White Sulphur Springs, Mont. and Harlowton, Mont. “We were naïve about what this was going to entail when we started. Our goal was to not only ranch, but to help other Veterans transition into ranching after their military service,” said Putnam. Getting started “We started the ranch in 2020 right before COVID19, and the pandemic highlighted some of the cracks in the food system,” Putnam shared. The food chain from producer to consumer was already broken, but people didn’t realize it until they couldn’t get food at grocery stores. This was a very scary thing for most Americans because they had taken food availability for granted. “There was a high level of complacency in this country. We have all of these things we are fortunate to have but often take for granted,” he added. “We started to look at the food system. My partners and I came up with the idea of building a sustainable local supply chain of 100 percent Montana beef to put beef back into our community and into our state, but we didn’t know what it was going to take to do this.” Putnam and his partners started the business as a standard cow/calf operation, then added yearlings and eventually partnered with a multi-generational Montana ranch on a feedyard east of Billings, Mont. which acts as a grow yard and a commercial finishing yard. “We are now finishing cattle for some large national programs as well as for our own beef program,” he said. Vertically-integrated supply chain Little Belt Cattle Company has become a vertically-integrated sustainable supply chain of 100 percent Montana beef. Putnam explained the operation is a true startto-finish model, where they oversee calves hitting the ground, all the way to wholesale purchases. Little Belt Cattle Company also provides some of the top restaurants in Bozeman, Mont.; Big Sky, Mont. and other areas around the state with their high-quality, local beef products. “We also have a plan to buy outside cattle from other local producers who we feel do a fantastic job of raising their animals. We can source-verify those cattle and buy them at a premium to reward the cooper-
“The benefits of good grazing practices are undeniable.” – Greg Putnam, Little Belt Cattle Company ating producers who do all of the hard work in the system, yet generally get the least reward,” Putnam said. Regenerative agriculture and cow performance Another part of the program is an effort at regenerative agriculture through grazing management. “Some folks in the industry are doing regenerative-type projects and grazing programs highly focused on soil health and forage production, but maybe not as much focus on overall cow performance
as it relates to carcass,” Putnam noted. “On the other side of the line, there are folks who are extremely focused on cattle performance and production, sometimes to the detriment of the land. So, I wanted to overlap those circles and be in the middle area,” he added. Putnam shared Little Belt Cattle Company’s cow herd program is based on Black Angus genetics, and the operation is focused on managing their cattle in a Continued on next page
Always serving – Greg Putnam, a Navy Seal of 10 years, and his Veteran partners returned from serving the nation in the military to serving the local beef industry of Montana. Courtesy photo
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