We had the good fortune of connecting with Celsie Sussex and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Celsie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We stared selling bulk beef ( whole half and quarters of cattle) in 2019 as a side business to our ranch. Cattle prices were very low and all of the local ranchers were struggling to make ends meet. Fast forward to covid 19 and the lack of product on the shelves we were selling beef so fast we couldnt process enough to keep up. We were hauling our animals 300 plus miles to many different processors and decided at that point to build or own processing facility. We ( Mac & Celsie Sussex) started the planning phases in 2021 with the help of the Uthmann family in Colorado. They were facing similar issues, needing better access to USDA processing so that sales could be made across state lines legally. We began construction in June of 2021 and processed our first animal on December 2,2021. From there the meat sales business grew. We started a retail store in Torrington with our partner Boyd Evans who is Macs cousin. We have been able to supply our local community with retail cuts of quality Wyoming beef as well as bulk beef. All of our animals are raised by us or other local Wyoming producers and processed by us at Bear Mountain Beef Inc in Hawk Springs Wy. Our retail store then sells the cuts at 2007 Main in Torrington. We have recently opened a new location in Cheyenne WY 309 west Lincolnway where we also sell our beef plus much more! Our main goals in starting the business was to provide ourselves as well as other locals with quality processing and stabilize the food chain for our local residents.

What should our readers know about your business?
As I stated before we started this journey as ranchers with a small herd of commercial cattle in Eastern Wyoming. We then started educating ourselves on how to feed out cattle and sell meat. From little experience in processing we opened the plant where we have learned every aspect of processing cattle to the sales of our finished product. We recently expanded into processing sheep and goats as well. In planning our operation we went a little outside the box and purchased Friesla units to build our facility which are mobile and modular processing equipment that is prebuilt to USDA specifications. Their products are very high quality and saved us many steps in the building process. We are excited to be offering a butcher school as a part of our operation as well. Passing the art of skilled butchering on to others is a huge passion we hold as well as our amazing experienced staff. We couldn’t be as successful as we are without each and everyone of them! Of course it took some time to find a great staff as the job market is very difficult now days.

We also both hold Insurance license’s and sell many lines of insurance in addition to all the other things we do!
We would love for anyone searching for high quality processing and product to please come check out our set up and try our product!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The best part of our area is that it is wide open. We have beautiful scenery on all sides of us! You could go check out Laramie peak, just as beautiful as the mountains in Colorado but much less populated. Our area also boasts an amazing history with Fort Laramie being close by!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We would like to shout out to our business partners Roger, Vicki, Nikki & Chad Uthmann as well as Boyd Evans for jumping into these crazy businesses with us! Shout out to our families as well for all of the help and support during and after construction and continuing to help us make our business work and look for new opportunities!
We would also like to thank our communities for the tremendous support of both of our businesses!

Website: www.bearmountainbeef.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bearmountainbeef/

Image Credits
Reece Lodder with Friesla

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.