DUBLIN, Ohio — Bill and Bev Roe, owners of Pedro’s Angus, were a natural selection for the Ohio Cattlemen Assoc. (OCA) Excellence in Industry Award, said Elizabeth Harsh, OCA executive director. The Roes received the award at the OCA’s recent annual meeting.

“Their track record for all their efforts to further the beef industry is fairly well unmatched, so they were an easy, natural choice to receive the Industry Excellence Award,” she said.

Bev completed a term on the OCA board of directors and at the first of this year, was appointed as a member of the Ohio Beef Council, which oversees checkoff investments, Harsh said. Bev has been in the beef industry all of her life – her grandfather had beef cattle. Then she married Bill, who was in the restaurant business.

“When we started the farm here in 1993 we expanded the restaurants to include the Certified Angus beef steak,” Bev said. “We did that because it was such an excellent program and had name recognition, and when you’re a small, independent restaurant, that’s really important.”

So at the same time they were raising and breeding cattle, the Roes began to understand the importance of a quality steak that was consistent for restaurants and for an eating experience.

Other things they have contributed to the industry include accompanying then-Gov. Robert Taft to South America about 10 years ago to represent Ohio’s cattle industry. Another popular event of which the Roes were proud was a Steak Challenge; it was the OCA District’s 10 annual meeting, which they organized.

“We invited cattlemen, whoever wanted to, to bring their steaks,” Bev said. “They were graded for marbling and then they were cooked on a grill. Then representatives from a local Meijer store and a local cattleman tasted and scored the steaks, and then everyone had a chance to sample them and see how much difference there is in steak.

“Everybody was amazed.”

The Roes realized early in their business that maybe 30 percent of their effort needed to go toward helping their customers make money, since if they didn’t make money they would not come back.

“We would do that by trying to help them merchandise their product, by trying to keep their animals healthier,” Bill said. “We would have calving seminars here, animal health seminars here.”

Besides events for cattlemen, the Roes have hosted farm/city tours and other events for the general public, “to show them where that protein that they have on their table starts,” Bill said.

Bev said they also wanted to show the public animal health is important to cattlemen. “We take care of our animals – that is our income. It makes no sense not to,” she explained.

To learn more about how the Roes care for their animals by ensuring on-farm biosecurity, check out the article in the March Marketplace magazine, included with this issue of Farm World.