Leonard Meyer is a rancher, author, and historian on the Southern High Plains of Colorado. His working life in cattle and beef spans fifty-three years: ten in the feedyards of Haskell County, Kansas, starting at thirteen, then eighteen on Big Four kill floors at IBP, Cargill, and ConAgra, in harvest maintenance and refrigeration. He and his wife, Brenda, bought Luna Mesa Ranch in November 2010. They raise registered Dexter cattle on forty acres near Avondale. He writes from the same ground about the American System, the covenant life, and the working ranch.
The Beef Industry
I have worked in cattle and beef since 1973. It started in Haskell County, Kansas. I was thirteen, my father was the yard foreman, and the feedyard was where the days went. I spent ten years there and worked every job in the yard.
In 1983 I went into the packing plants and stayed eighteen years, all of it on Big Four kill floors, in harvest maintenance and refrigeration. I started at IBP in Finney County, Kansas, and came up to harvest maintenance supervisor. I ran harvest maintenance for Cargill at Friona, in the Texas Panhandle. I ran harvest maintenance and refrigeration for ConAgra at Garden City, and then refrigeration at Greeley, in the old Monfort plant.
After that I spent seven years with Quadna, an industrial pump company in Denver, doing repair work in the packing plants as a vendor. Then came a year as plant engineer at Caviness Beef in Hereford, Texas, an independent regional packer. My last job off the ranch was two years overseeing store maintenance for Safeway in Denver. That was grocery work, not beef.
What I learned in the yard and in the plants is under everything I do here and everything I write.
Luna Mesa Ranch
Brenda and I bought Luna Mesa Ranch in November 2010. It is forty acres of high prairie near Avondale, in Pueblo County, Colorado, on the Southern High Plains. It is windy country, and the grass tells you early what kind of year it will be.
We run a registered Dexter herd and finish the beef on blue grama and orchard grass. We keep laying hens for the family. The operation is small enough that we know every animal on the place. Everything we sell, we raise here.
The Writing
I write about the American System of political economy, the covenant life, and the working practice of raising cattle on forty acres. The books fall into these groups.
The Cattle Books: the cattle industry and the herd America made, with the Dexter books beside them: the breed’s history, raising Dexter cattle, the polled Dexter, and the Dexter genome.
The American Sovereignty Trilogy: the City of London, covenant economics, and the Monroe Doctrine.
The Republic Books: the American System tradition, from the New Deal to water.
Every book is published through Luna Mesa Ranch Press and sold on Amazon. The full catalog is on the Books page.na Mesa Ranch Press and sold on Amazon. The full catalog is on the Books page.
