Meat the moment with valor: Veteran cattle rancher deploys co-op model to save the Midwest cowboy

WESTON, Mo. — Almost a decade after launching KC Cattle Company — his veteran-owned and -operated wagyu beef company — Patrick Montgomery is forging a new path to help fellow ranchers and farmers survive.

He’s now digging his spurs into Valor Provisions, a direct-to-consumer online marketplace offering premium proteins from small, independent, veteran-owned ranches like his own. The goal: build a stronger financial future for America’s protein producers, while supporting transparency in the U.S. food system.

Pat Montgomery, Valor Provisions; photo courtesy of KC Cattle Company

“It really came out of desperation,” Montgomery explained, “and also the fact that I’m pissed that our entire meat market is controlled by four companies, two of which are located outside the United States.”

“I don’t see all these other farms as competition,” he added, referencing smaller operations dotting the American horizon. “How do we make sure they survive, so cowboys aren’t just something my kids read about in the history books?”

Helping fellow veterans has always been part of Montgomery’s mission. When he started KC Cattle Company in 2016 — which took off, thanks to its now-famous beef hot dogs, and has a retail location in Parkville — he decided to employ only veterans like himself who faced a crossroads in their post-military life.

From the archives: KC Cattle Company steaks its reputation on wagyu hot dogs; Why this rural MO business enlists veterans on its new mission

Now responding to that calling includes roping in other veteran protein producers.

As of now, Valor Provisions includes partnerships with Mac’s Farms — an Excelsior Springs, Missouri, farm that offers humanely-raised pork — and Little Belt Cattle Company from Montana. But Montgomery said he’s working to onboard two more farms in the near future to the membership-model co-op.

Independently-owned, generational ranches and farms have been in a slow, steady decline since the 1980s, Montgomery noted, with the pace worsening rapidly since 2022. 

“A lot of crazy stuff has happened in the ag world since the pandemic,” he continued. “At KC Cattle, from really ’22 until ’24, we got our butts kicked from a lot of stuff that was outside our control.”

Patrick Montgomery, KC Cattle Company, in front of his Parkville store in 2023; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

With Valor Provisions, Montgomery wanted to meaningfully meet the moment in the current agriculture and food industry, he shared.

“The goal of it is less monetary focused,” he explained. “It’s more so focused on being a speaker — a very, very loud speaker — about just some of the more nefarious things that happen in our food industry as a whole.”

Packaging for the Wagyu beef hot dogs at KC Cattle Company’s Parkville store; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Besides just providing a livable wage to the vendors to help secure their futures, Montgomery noted, he wants to provide transparency to consumers, who might not realize how loopholes written into policy from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) affect heir food selection at the grocery store.

“You don’t normally get what you actually think you’re getting,” Montgomery continued, “whether it’s cage-free chicken eggs or pasture-raised or grass-fed. All of the labeling is allowed to have loopholes.”

Surveys conducted by Montgomery have shown consumers want to support American protein producers but the price point matters, he said. Valor Provisions can provide fair pricing, he noted, because KC Cattle Company has figured out a good shipping model and sells more than just steaks.

“We’ve gotten really good at being efficient at shipping with KC Cattle, which is normally the barrier to entry for farms,” he explained. “It’s really tough to jump into the direct-to-consumer model with shipping.”

“The other problem we’ve gotten really good at solving: moving an entire animal in equal proportion,” Montgomery said. “Seventy percent of what you get off a meat cow is ground beef or the equivalent. It’s trim.”

Photos of fallen service members at KC Cattle Company’s Parkville store; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

With the new co-op, he hopes to insert a message of positivity into the current political atmosphere, Montgomery noted. He believes many people aren’t that optimistic about the future of the U.S. right now, but emphasizes Americans have been through tough times as a country before — and survived.

“This might be one of the few topics that — I hesitate to say this, but — the moderate left and moderate right can agree on: our food industry is pretty wrecked,” he said. “One of the things I’ve been saying a lot, especially the past five years: the American flag doesn’t belong to a political party, and that’s the biggest reason I started Valor Provisions. I wanted to find a purpose that was bigger than just a profit margin.”