Quality: It’s defined by Merriam-Webster as “degree of excellence” or “superiority in kind.” One Kansas entrepreneur set out to achieve and share high quality with meat, and that has led to a unique retail store for Kansas products. Russ Fulmer and wife Roxey are the owners of Fulmer’s Kansas Premium Meats and Eatery near Belvue. Russ is a third-generation farmer and cattle feeder in Pottawatomie County, so he knows first-hand the importance of feeding and handling cattle properly in order to achieve the best results. When a farmer- owned cooperative named U.S. Premium Beef devised a system for providing compensation for higher-quality product, it helped beef quality to advance.
Russ Fulmer was custom-feeding cattle for producers who were involved with U.S. Premium Beef, and he was excited to see higher quality production be rewarded. “When you start with excellent genetics and the cattle are fed right and cared for right, you get a better cut of meat,” Russ said. He liked the process of continually improving the quality of the product. His friends and family liked the higher quality production too. They started buying beef directly from him.
“We were selling quarters and halves of beef,” Russ said. “We realized there was demand for high quality meat. We even got licensed and built a little building so we could do that out on the farm, but we were out in the country.” In 2013, he had the opportunity to buy land in a more visible location right on Highway 24. “We built a larger building and added an eatery,” Russ said. He named the business Fulmer’s Kansas Premium Meats and Eatery.
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