Using butchery to bridge the gap between producers and consumers

“I hope the phone rings.”

It was a statement that had already run through Sierra Jepsen’s mind, but this time, it was voiced out loud by a parent who loved her. When her dad heard she was taking the leap to launch her company, Butcher Solutions LLC, he balanced parental pride with cautious concern.

“Dad, the phone’s been ringing,” she remembers telling him a few months later. Even better? She doesn’t think it’s going to stop ringing anytime soon.

“I know I’ve built something that somebody wants,” Jepsen said.  

She’s the lead butcher and meat scientist at Butcher Solutions—titles that are fun to list off, but not what Jepsen said matter most. Launched in December 2022, Butcher Solutions is a traveling butcher school that’s creating a more skilled and confident labor force in the meat science industry.

“It’s just myself, my brain and my knives,” she explained. “The three of us, we come to you.”

Without a brick-and-mortar location, Jepsen said she can train employees in their own workplace. A familiar space makes for a good learning environment, and Jepsen can train from one manager to upwards of 20 staff on the fabrication floor.

“The whole premise of me being this traveling butcher who can train you hands on is we can customize it to what folks need,” Jepsen said of the fully customizable coursework.

She describes meat science as a huge realm covering a variety of topics. With a need for workers in the industry to know everything from molecular chemistry to animal welfare, she’s made it her mission to remind butchers—and the rest of society—how vital they are to the success of the livestock industry.

“Butchers are the last line of defense to make sure that the meat product that the consumer sees is an accurate representation of what that livestock producer just spent two-plus years raising,” Jepsen said.

A good call

The respect for the work of an agriculturist, whether they were raising chickens and corn or cattle and grain, is ingrained deep into Jepsen’s family history.

Her grandfather had been a state vet for Ohio, and she said he had stories of both farm and packing plant to share. She herself was raised alongside her sister on an Ohio grain and cattle operation.

“Cattle, corn, wheat, soybeans: the whole Midwestern gambit,” Jepsen joked. “I knew I wanted to be involved in the beef community somehow in my career.”

She was shocked, however, when she started to realize that her calling wasn’t going to include checking calves out in the pasture.

While attending Ohio State University (OSU), Jepsen found the world of meat science.

“That was my way of connecting with the producer every day and the consumer,” she said. “The butcher is the middleman to help with both those groups. I want the butchers and the livestock producers to be on the same team, because they are on the same team.”

An undergraduate degree at OSU turned into a career at the University of Wyoming coaching meat judging teams and managing the Cowboy Branded Meat program. She fell in love with teaching and the enthusiasm that her students brought to her classroom.

“My wheels just started turning,” she recalled. “If I really enjoy training college students in the wonderful world of meat science, I could train other people in the wonderful world of meat science.”

With the idea of starting a butcher school in the back of her mind, Jepsen transitioned into a master’s program at the University of Idaho to focus further on meat science. She had one major goal: to become a better butcher herself.

An entrepreneurship class taken “just for fun” in her last semester first sparked the fire that would eventually turn into Butcher Solutions. Even as she was filling out job applications and completing interviews, nothing felt as right as starting her own company.

“There was never a job that excited me as much as my own idea,” Jepsen explains.

The week after her graduation ceremony, she launched Butcher Solutions. Two years later, Jepsen has trained nearly 50 butchers within eight butcher shops, provided meat science education and cutting demonstrations to eight community groups, and consulted with nine meat and livestock industry professional businesses.

“I don’t have to cater to what other people think Butcher Solutions should be,” she said. “It gives me the freedom to build this job into whatever I want it to be.”

She still thinks this is the perfect job to ensure she gets up each day eager for work, but Jepsen can admit it’s been an uphill climb.

Though being the sole set of hands behind Butcher Solutions means there’s never too many cooks in the kitchen, Jepsen said it also means there’s no other sharp minds to bounce ideas off of.

As the company has grown, so has the list of tasks. Jepsen knows she can’t be everything to everyone, and she has hopes to one day expand the payroll. The first step will be an intern to help manage the operation’s social media presence. One day she also hopes to have regional butchers set up around the country, so training is even more accessible on a national scale.

At first, Jepsen admits she was living from job to job. But in her mind, that’s part of being a new business owner—“living lean.”

“I bootstrapped myself through this entire process,” she said.

No investors meant she had to hustle, but Jepsen said her master’s degree has been able to help pay for her business. The knowledge is what people are after, and Jepsen said she loves to bring it with her to each job site.

While she remembers requiring an internal pep talk before her first few visits, she quickly learned she could expect a warm welcome from clients.

“You’re this young gal going out and training butchers … I’ve never encountered somebody who has questioned what I’m doing,” she explained.

When there’s common ground, she said conversation flows easily. Almost everyone has some sort of connection to butchers or local businesses, even if they’re new to meat science.

“It always leads into this business conversation about meat science,” Jepsen added. “It makes me excited that people care about that butchery piece.”

That excitement is key in her mind. She can teach skills, but she can’t teach the right attitude.

Jepsen hopes with every session she leads, she can encourage industry workers to adopt the same level of positivity she used to see in her meat science students.

At the end of that day, it’s her attitude that’s played a big role in the growth of Butcher Solutions.

“It’s fun,” Jepsen said simply. “I think that’s something that when I’m out on these jobs—it’s cold, wet concrete; it’s hard work. But I have a lot of fun training butchers.”

The business philosophy has stood true since the idea of a traveling butcher first came to Jepsen.

“I think back to undergrad Sierra,” Jepsen explained. “People would ask what job I wanted … and in my mind I would think, ‘I want a job that nobody’s ever heard of before.’”

She laughs and acknowledges she’s achieved that goal, but she’s never questioned her decision.

Animal protein continues to find a place on the dinner table, which she knows means a skilled labor force is needed in the meat industry.

“At the end of the day, people are eating animal protein. We need to be excited about that,” Jepsen said.

With that hunger for meat coming from the consumers, she said it’s more vital than ever that not only are quality livestock being produced, but that there’s people who can turn those harvested carcasses into top-notch cuts of meat.

And as the phone at Butcher Solutions LLC keeps ringing, it’s clear Jepsen isn’t the only one who feels that way.