The story begins with a young family who left Boulder, CO in the early 2000’s to try their hand at running a ranch in western Colorado. Kathryn was a large animal veterinarian who ran her own practice and Chris ran a menswear company. They had two young daughters, Maddy and Jenny. With almost no experience running a large ranch, the family quickly learned how to hay and irrigate pastures, deal with visiting wildlife such as elk, bears, and the occasional mountain lion, and keep miles of fencing in good shape.
Kathryn, before starting her own practice, toured several beef processing facilities across the country, exploring the possibility of working for one as a veterinarian. What she saw appalled her, unhappy animals raised in mud lots, fattened on feed that often consisted of corn mixed with expired Hostess products like Twinkies ground up with the wrappers still on, newspaper and other completely inedible things. Not only did she decline the job but also swore to never feed her family beef that was raised this way. With the purchase of the ranch she could finally fulfill her dream of raising her own herd of cattle. The family purchased 10 Belted Buelingo beef cows and a bull to start the herd.
After a few years the herd had grown to about 50 head of cows and Kathryn was marketing and selling grassfed and finished beef at local farmers markets and to several restaurants with the help of the two girls. She was an early adopter of rotational grazing practices and regenerative grazing plans. Every day the family would saddle up horses and ride out to the cows to move their electric fence to new grass.
In the summer the cattle were moved to BLM grazing permits on the plateaus above the ranch which entailed driving them up the county road 7 miles and then 2000 vertical feet up a steep and narrow trail to the flattops. The grazing permits allowed for a certain number of cows as determined by the BLM to prevent over grazing, however Kathryn was careful to do her own monitoring of this public land and ran fewer cattle to ensure a healthy ecosystem.
The family owned the ranch for about 15 years before moving on. The girls went off to college but Kathryn still raises cattle, she now has a smaller property in the Grand Junction area and continues to raise beef cattle, mostly for friends and family. Chris moved to Santa Fe where he is working on starting a company called Powerpup that makes hiking bars for dogs (there’s a link to his website at the end!)
In 2022 Kathryn met the Fitchs, who run a cattle ranch near Steamboat, a small local grocery store, a restaurant, and recently purchased a meat processing facility in Craig, CO. Their forwarding thinking and aspirations for a more sustainable and healthy local food system led Kathryn to get involved.
Today the Fitch processing facility is able to process about 30 head of cattle per day, which is about average for a small, local processor but Kathryn and the Fitch’s knew the demand was there for a much larger operation. In the wake of the Covid pandemic the USDA was looking to fund the diversification of the food system and specifically was looking to help smaller processing facilities. To do this they put together a grant offering up to 10 million dollars for facilities to expand. With the help of Kathryn and her daughter Maddy, the Fitch Ranch Artisan Meat facility applied and was awarded funding for their expansion. The new facility will break ground in the coming year and increase their processing capacity by more than 10 fold.
As the grant was being written, letters of support being collected, and proformas were created it became clear that one of the most important advantages large processing facilities had was a market for their offal, which includes trimmings, organs and the hide. The lack of this market has plagued the smaller operations for years. While small processing plants are forced to pay to dispose of offal in landfills the large plants produce enough to sell, often to dog food companies and other big users. These purchasers of the offal are not interested in the smaller quantities that local facilities produce.
To keep margins profitable for the Fitch facility and allow them to keep processing costs low for local ranchers, they needed a sales channel for their offal. The obvious answer to them was pet food, but with both the ranch, the processing facility and their own beef sales starting a new company to produce this wasn’t something they had time for. Enter again Kathryn and her daughters, all lifelong dog lovers and entrepreneurs. Momo’s Mountain Chow was born, named after Maddy’s dog Momo with a goal of increasing the value of each beef processed to help local ranchers thrive and support the local food system.
Kathryn and the girls were very familiar with the plight of the local ranchers, 44% of each beef processed ends in the landfill. It’s heart breaking to put blood, sweat, and tears into an animal, with the goal of treating it right and feeding people, only for nearly half to be discarded, at a cost to you no less. These ranchers are the backbone of Western Colorado and work in one of the most challenging industries to make a living in. They put food on our tables and are the stewards of the land we all love. If there was a chance Momo’s Mountain Chow could make a business out of feeding beloved family pets the best food available while also creating value for ranchers and the local community they knew they had to try.
In January of 2025 Momo’s Mountain Chow was awarded $10,000 from a business plan competition put together by CSU Spur and the Ag Innovation Center aimed specifically at businesses using offal for their products. This funding has been used to create a website and social media presence, design packaging and labels, hire a pet food formulator, and produce test batches of various treats and bones. The goal is to begin producing dog bones and dehydrated treats made from things such as heart and liver in the next couple of months. The chow will come later as the formulation is complete and the proper equipment is purchased.
Momo’s Mountain Chow will sell through their website and several local pet and grocery stores have agreed to carry it when it becomes available. The company hopes to be able to make use of all offal produced by the Fitch facility as they grow. Kathryn, Jenny and Maddy are thrilled to be working on a project so close to their hearts and Momo and the other dogs couldn’t be happier their family is going into the dog treat business.
FITCH RANCH ARTISAN MEATS
Locally sourced, high quality meat. Eat like you own the ranch!