Tradition has played a big role in the lives of Dan and Lynne Fleming, with raising a family in their 153-year-old house, continuing the farm his parents started and even with the original model of their beef business.
But as customer needs have changed, so has the Fleming Family Beef operation.
Fleming Family Beef specializes in raising Charolais cattle, which are typically white in color.Â
The Flemings started their business nearly 10 years ago while they were both still teaching in Bartholomew County schools.
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“We were kind of led into it when our sons were involved in 4-H activities,” Dan said, explaining that sons Travis, Clinton and Peter had all raised cattle for 4-H projects.
At the end of the annual 4-H fairs, when the cattle were auctioned, “so many people inquired about getting some of the beef, it was obvious there was a market at the family level,” Dan Fleming said. “Gradually, the idea came around to start supplying home-grown, high-quality beef to local families.”
With the motto, “You enjoy the beef and we’ll handle the pitchfork,” the Flemings started the business by raising cattle to maturity, having the beef processed, then delivering whole, halves and quarters to their customers.
As their part-time business progressed, the Flemings noticed there was less demand for the larger quantities of beef.
“Families are smaller now. They live in smaller homes and don’t always have room for the large freezers necessary to buy a side of beef. But, they still want good, locally raised beef,” Dan Fleming said.
The Flemings adapted their business model to customer demands and now sell small, customized-selections of beef directly to customers, although larger cuts of beef can be purchased, too.
“Now, if people prefer just to have a certain kind of steak, like rib-eyes or New York strips, they can order that instead of having to buy a whole bunch of meat they may not really want,” Dan Fleming said.
Farming life
Dan and Lynne Fleming operate their beef business on their small farm along the edge of the Driftwood River, near the Lowell Road bridge in northwest Bartholomew County.
The house they live in was built in 1865, and it once was a general store and boarding house in the Lowell Mills Settlement. Most of their 33-acre farm spans the land where the Lowell Mills settlement once stood in the early 1800s, as one of the earliest European settlements in Indiana.
Dan’s parents, Woodrow and Thelma Fleming, bought the farm 66 years ago. He, his two brothers and a sister were raised in the same house in which Dan and Lynne raised their family.
Dan graduated from Purdue University in 1974 with a degree in animal science and returned home to farm. He met Lynne during the long winter of 1977-1978, at the end of the blizzard that season.
“I had a case of cabin fever and just had to get out,” said Dan, as he described meeting Lynne for the first time in a Columbus restaurant.
Lynne came to Columbus to accept a teaching job.
“I didn’t know one single person when I came here. Then I met Dan and everything changed,” Lynne said.
Lynne was raised in a Louisville, Kentucky, suburb and knew nothing of farming life before meeting Dan.
Now she helps in every aspect of the family business and maintains her own greenhouse. She returns to Louisville weekly to visit her parents, Glen and Bettye Lewis.
“It was a very different world than what I was used to. It was interesting and maybe even exciting. Anyway, I think it was a wonderful way to raise our boys. It was kind of a fun way to live,” Lynne said.
In addition to learning about farming and raising three boys, Lynne taught blind and visually impaired students in Bartholomew County schools for 38 years.
Dan launched a teaching career after returning to school to earn teaching certification. He taught science at Hope Elementary for 20 years before retiring last year.
Hitting their stride
Using his animal science degree, experience in operating a feed-lot and time working with the Indiana Beef Cattle Association, Dan has established a regimen for raising beef.
“Consistency is very important in raising a high quality of beef product. Our cattle are grain-fed and they spend most of their time in the fresh air where they are the happiest,” Dan said. “We raise Charolais cattle because they have a ratio of meat to fat that produces good taste and tenderness in beef.
“Because we are a small farm, we usually keep a herd of only 10 cattle. When business demands more than 10 cattle can provide, I do buy from other farms, but I only buy from farms where I know how they raise their stock,” he added.
Ground beef is the best-selling item at Fleming Family Beef because the business uses most of the roast cuts to make the ground beef, Dan said.
“One of our routine customers just bought 50 pounds to take to Florida with him so he would always have our beef down there,” Dan said.
Dan takes great pride in Fleming steaks, too.
“All of our steaks are 1-inch thick except the filet, and I call the filet cut-beef candy,” he said.
Recently, Fleming Family Beef began providing New York strip steaks to the Hotel Indigo restaurant in downtown Columbus, and is hoping to expand to other area restaurants.
Fleming Family Beef products are sold at area farmers markets and directly from the farm.
“It’s going well so far,” Dan Fleming said of the business.
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For more information go online at flemingfamilybeef.com.
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