Football's Back, Fall's Coming, and This Friday the McBees Are Whole Again
Football kicked off last night. Fall is two weeks out. And this Friday, September 11, our Dad walks back onto this farm & ranch - and for the first time in what feels like forever, every McBee is in the same place.
Football kicked off last night. Fall is a couple weeks out. And this Friday, my dad walks back onto this ranch. For the first time in a long time, every McBee is going to be standing in the same place. I don't have a better way to say it than this: the family is complete again.
The Best Week of the Year Is Here
There's a stretch every September when the whole year turns a corner. The mornings get a little bite to them. The calves are coming off their mommas and the hay is stacked. And football is back.
Last night the Patriots and Seahawks opened the NFL season out in Seattle. Saturday, Mizzou goes to Lawrence to play Kansas for the first time since 2005 — the Border War, on their turf. Then Monday night the Chiefs open at Arrowhead against Denver. Around here that's not a schedule. That's a holiday week.
I've always loved this time of year. But this one is different, and I'm not going to pretend it isn't.
Friday
This Friday, September 11, my dad comes home.
If you've followed this family for any amount of time — on the show, on social, or just buying beef from us — you know he's been away. And you know we've spent that time doing what he taught us to do. Show up. Do the work. Take care of the cows, the ground, and each other. Don't make excuses.
My brothers and I stepped up because there was no other option. We ran the ranch. We built the meat company. We launched products, hired people, made mistakes, fixed them, and kept going. We did it because that's what he'd expect. But I'll be honest with you: there was an empty seat at every table, every branding, every sale barn, every Sunday. You feel it every single day.
Friday, that seat gets filled.
"Everything we built while he was gone, we built so he'd have something to come home to."
What He's Coming Home To
It's not the same ranch he left. That's the part I keep thinking about. He's going to see the difference — and he's going to have opinions, because he's Dad.
We've added a wife, a granddaughter, and a whole lot of people who now call this place home. There are more boots at the door than when he left.
McBee beef ships nationwide now. Our own USDA-inspected processing. Meat sticks, jerky, franks, quarters, halves, and wholes — from this ranch to your freezer.
Calves weaned, hay counted, cows ready for winter. The fundamentals didn't change. We just kept doing them the way he showed us.
Jesse, Cole, Brayden, and me. We didn't always agree. But we didn't quit on each other, and we didn't quit on him.
Football, Family, and a Full Table
Here's the thing about football season in a ranch family. It's not really about the game. It's the one time a week everybody stops. Nobody's fixing fence at 7:15 on a Monday night. The chores are done, the grill is going, and the whole crew is in one room yelling at a TV.
For the last few seasons, that room was missing somebody. This Monday, when the Chiefs kick off, it won't be. Dad on the couch. Kids running around. A granddaughter he's getting to hold for the first time. Brothers arguing about the play call. Mom telling everybody to quiet down.
That's the whole reason we do this. Not the show. Not the business. A full table.
What's on the Game-Day Table at Our House
People ask what a cattle family actually eats on game day. Simple answer: the same beef we sell you. Burgers off the grill made from our own ground beef. All-beef franks for the kids. Summer sausage and beef jerky out on the counter for anybody walking through. A bag of meat sticks in the truck for the drive to Arrowhead.
Nothing fancy. Pasture-raised, single-sourced, and dry-aged the same way our quarters and halves are. If you want to eat like we eat on Sunday, it's all in the store.
Fall Is Around the Corner
The calendar says fall officially gets here on September 22. The cattle already know. The grass is slowing down, the nights are cooling off, and the whole operation is shifting from summer mode to winter mode — hay out, calves weaned, everything buttoned up before the first hard freeze.
Fall is my favorite season on this ranch. Fewer flies, better sunsets, and the kind of weather that makes you want to be outside from first light till dark. It's also freezer season — the time of year folks start thinking about filling a chest freezer with a quarter or half beef before the holidays. If that's you, this is the window. We ship within a week of your order, nationwide.
But this fall, the work can wait a day. Friday is for Dad.
What's Next
I'll share more about the homecoming when the time is right. Some things you keep for the family first. What I'll tell you now is this: we spent a long time saying "when Dad gets home." Friday, that stops being a sentence about the future.
Thank you to everybody who stuck with this family through it. Who bought beef, who watched the show, who sent a message, who prayed. You've been part of this the whole way, and I want you to know it mattered.
Football's back. Fall's coming. And this Friday, the McBees are whole again.
— Steven McBee, McBee Farm & Cattle Co.
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