This spring, Coyote Ridge Ranch hosted multiple groups of Colorado-based chefs, dietitians and Korean-based beef buyers to their operation in LaSalle, Colo.

“We were contacted by the Colorado Beef Council in April about a group of food service professionals from northern Colorado who wanted to visit a cattle ranch,” said Jane Evans Cornelius, partner in Coyote Ridge Ranch. “In general, the agricultural industry talks to each other about our practices, but we don’t talk to the general public enough. Our thought was, if the Colorado Beef Council is organizing the tours, we can be helpful in educating the general public about agriculture.”

The first tour included chefs from the Denver area for an innovative ‘farm to fork’ tour on April 25. The large group of culinary professionals asked many questions including the difference in pasture-raised and grass-fed beef.

“The chefs didn’t really understand the different segments of the cattle industry,” Cornelius said. “We described the role seedstock producers and commercial producers play. We also explained how we use scientific data to make breeding decisions and how our decisions filter down to cow-calf producers, then to the feed lot and the packing house and ultimately to the consumer.”

A week after the food service professionals’ visit, Coyote Ridge Ranch hosted a tour of dietitians from Denver and northern Colorado. The group included hospital, school district and nursing home dietitians whose interests included the nutritional value of beef. Cornelius said visitors asked questions about food safety and the difference between organic and natural products.

“We learned a lot about consumers’ interests and concerns while hosting the tours,” Cornelius said. “The dietitians were scientific and knowledgeable, where the chefs wanted a good steak. All seemed very receptive to our practices and were glad to receive fact-based information.”

The Colorado Beef Council referred Coyote Ridge Ranch to host a Korean team trip sponsored by the U.S. Meat Export Federation on June 16. The group of visitors were buyers involved with eCommerce grocery sales.

“They were here looking at the U.S. beef industry because they buy our U.S. beef,” Cornelius said. “One of the interesting things we learned about their culture and industry was that a large percentage of their grocery shopping is done on the internet.”

Cornelius learned that because the country is condensed and the population is centered in big cities, residents can conveniently place an order online to have their groceries delivered in two hours.

“The Korean visitors were young, delightful and had never been on a ranch,” she said. “They visited packing houses and feedlots earlier in their tour, but had not seen a ranch with cows and calves on grass. They seemed to really enjoy their visit. They especially liked seeing cows being moved by people on horseback. Several had their pictures taken on one of the ranch horses.”

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