TORRINGTON – “And all of this wouldn’t be possible without these guys,” Celsie Sussex of Bear Mountain Beef explained as she pointed to a room full of the employees at the butcher shop located south of Hawk Springs.   

Celsie and her husband, Michael, were born with agriculture in their blood, which led them to marketing and selling beef to consumers. With extensive knowledge in all areas of beef production, the Sussex’s quickly began raising and supplying their own beef products to consumers throughout the area.  

About five years later, when the COVID-19 pandemic appeared, the Sussex’s struggled to find available appointment slots for slaughter of their beef animals.  

Most meat processing appointments were filling up quickly, which made it nearly impossible to schedule a date for slaughter, unless it was made months in advance.   

Prior to the pandemic, the Sussex’s utilized local facilities for the processing component of their meat sales. 

“Most of our previous processing was done at 307 Meats in Laramie; they do a wonderful job,” Sussex explained. 

Clearly, without being able to process their beef animals, the Sussex’s needed to make a change, and quickly.   

The Sussex’s joined together with Roger and Vicki Uthmann in Virginia Dale, Colorado. The Uthmann’s have been in cattle production for over half a century. They have extensive knowledge in cow/calf production, dairy feedlot and beef cattle feedlot experience.  

Like the Sussexs, the Uthmanns had been raising and supplying beef products for the consumers until 2020 when the pandemic caused shutdowns in the meatpacking and processing industry.  

Both families felt compelled to continue to supply the community with their beef products.  

The Uthmanns, along with their son, Chad, his wife, Nichole, and their children, developed Mountain View Feeders Inc. (MVF), in Wellington, Colorado.  

“Our connection with MVF happened shortly after COVID-19, they were looking into selling more bulk beef and we were as well. We met through a local friend who owns a convenience store and MVF stopped in one day and started chatting with him and the rest is history,” Sussex explained.

Shortly thereafter, Bear Mountain Beef was born. 

Neatly nestled inside a barbwire fence off Wyoming Highway 313 sits a 60 by 90-square-foot red and brown metal building with a handful of over-sized garage doors.  

Inside the customer door, with smiling faces, the crew at BMB is busy answering phones, taking temperature records and performing inventory.   

BMB, a completely USDA inspected facility, currently processes cattle, goats and sheep. They have the capacity to hold 20 head of cattle per week and have yet to reach their maximum capacity for goats and lambs, Their cooler unit will hold 60 head of animals. 

They process both privately owned animals as well as beef animals from local producers and feedlot’s like MVF.  

BMB doesn’t currently process swine due to the meat curing time required. However, it is something they might add to the list of products available at some point.  

Since December 2021, BMB has processed 1,000 head of cattle at their facility.  

“We are very proud of the work we do here, 1,000 head is a huge accomplishment for us and we would like to attribute that accomplishment to our staff who are truly top notch. We may have thought of the concept and built the business, but our staff is what makes us the quality establishment we are today,” Sussex explains.

Along with their facility in Hawk Springs, BMB also shares a space in The Town Square, located on Main Street in Torrington, in collaboration with a few other local businesses.  

The store front is neatly decorated with holiday items and rustic farmhouse décor and inside the doors are coolers of meat products and the option of ordering meat from the Hawk Springs factory in bulk.  

“Having the store really helps with foot traffic and reminding people we (BMB) are here,” Celsie explained.  

The facility itself is a collection of neatly organized, designated spaces for each step of the butchering process.  

The “kill-floor” starts the butchering process. This is where the animal enters the facility, and it is weighed and humanely butchered.  

Once the carcass is ready to be cleaned, it is moved into a cargo-style trailer where it is “field-dressed.”

This process is where the hide, hooves, entrails and internal organs are removed from the carcass in an effort to cool the meat down as quickly as possible. All of the disposable items are placed in a trough to be disposed of by a loader and the carcass is weighed, yet again.   

Next the carcass is traditionally split and moved into the refrigerated units where it is left to “age” for 14 days. Carcasses with a lower amount of fat surrounding them require a shorter aging period whereas carcasses with a thick fatty layer typically require a longer aging time. Aging a carcass is one of the most crucial and important steps because it improves the overall texture and flavor of the meat. During the aging process, the meat goes though many changes associated with the chemical breakdown of certain muscle and fat constituents which results in a more intense flavor and aroma.  

Once the carcass has aged for a specific amount of time, it is then moved to yet another zone where the customer requested cuts of meat are cut, packaged and labeled.  

Construction on BMB began in June of 2021 and they were in operation in December. 

By purchasing pre-built trailers that arrived completely USDA inspected, BMB was able to shorten their construction times.  

“It would have taken us three times longer to get up and going if we built everything,” Celsie explained. 

BMB offers customers a processing charge of $1.30 per pound of hanging weight. The hanging weight is determined after the carcass is field dressed. Additional processing fees may apply depending on the types of products the customer is requesting. Normally, the final product is about 50-60% of the hanging weight of the animal.  This loss is attributed to the inedible parts of the carcass. There is also no extra charge for the disposal of the inedible parts.  

BMB sells beef in 1/4, 1/2 and whole packages and their website www.bearmountainbeef.com provides consumers a “cut list” where the consumer can select how they would like their beef processed.   

In addition to their packing facility and store space, BMB is also offering classes on butchering. The classes will run two to four weeks long during regular plant operations 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. These classes will be open to the public, hunters, producers or anyone looking to start a career and they will cover everything from the safe and gentle handling of animals, moving cattle and processing.

“I love BMB,” David Husted, BMB administrative coordinator, explained.
Husted, who has been working with BMB, explains, “Coming to work feels more like I’m getting paid to hang out with my friends; we all just have the same goals.”