Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
ST. ANTHONY – Last week, the Indianapolis Colts played their season opener with a new coach, new quarterback and a new partner from Dubois County.
Fischer Farms has joined the Colts providing all-natural meats that will be served to the team and staff of the Colts.
The partnership was announced in August. Since the summer, the team has been dining on Fischer Farms products at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center.
Joseph Fischer, business development manager for Fischer Farms, said the Colts organization wanted to source its meat from an Indiana farm known for raising quality products as well as work with a farm that practices sustainable agriculture.
“The Colts made the change to Fischer Farms because top quality, clean meat is what our players need to practice, perform, and recover at the highest level. It was important to the Irsay family and the nutrition staff not only how we were feeding the team, but what we were feeding them,” said Leigh Hullett, Indianapolis Colts Team Dietitian. “That’s why it was really exciting to find a family-owned, Indiana farm to supply our team with sustainably raised meat. Now we feel much better about what they’re putting in their bodies and that will continue to enhance how they perform on the field.”
Indiana is a top meat producer, ranked No. 5 in hog production and No. 4 in turkey production. However, most of the meat that Indiana produces is sent to national processors. Fischer Farms processes its meat locally at Sander Processing in St. Anthony and then distributes it to customers that includes 125 restaurants and retailers from South Bend to Cincinnati.
“We, at Fischer Farms, are a little more unique,” said Joseph. “We process it here. And directly sell it in our local markets. The Colts were buying from the conventional market and decided they wanted to improve nutrition and the quality of meat that they were feeding their team.”
A longtime Colts fan, Fischer said it’s very rewarding knowing that his family’s farm is fueling the likes of Michael Pittman Jr., DeForest Buckner, Anthony Richardson and Quenton Nelson.
A dietitian and the team chef work together on menus and then submit their order to Fischer Farms.
Feeding the Indianapolis Colts might be their most famous customer but by no means is it Fischer Farms’ largest.
The family farm led by Joseph’s parents Dave and Diana Fischer also supplies meat to the Indiana University Residence Halls. Joseph said the IU partnership started with the Indiana Memorial Union and IMU catering services. IU increased its business with Fischer Farms to better line up with its sustainability goals. The Indianapolis Zoo is another new customer that chose Fischer Farms for its sustainability practices.
Fischer Farms has been integrating sustainable ag practices at their farm for several years. As awareness of its importance grows, it is bringing more business to the Dubois County farm.
“It is definitely growing our business,” he added. “For some customers it’s about sustainability, others it’s quality. We are both. We don’t want to be sustainable and not taste good.”
With some of the top chefs in Indiana buying meat from Fischer Farms, Joseph said his dad keeps a sharp focus on quality indicators to ensure the cattle are in the top 25% for marbling and tenderness within the Angus breed. To prevent excessive Angus inbreeding, shorthorn genetics are integrated into the herd.
“We can track a calf and the quality of meat and make any adjustments so that we’re consistently top quality,” he said.
Sustainability practices
Practicing regenerative agriculture to rebuild soil health and adding kelp to the cattle’s feed which can reduce methane emissions by 82% are some of the ways Fischer Farms prioritizes the environment.
The farm’s climate smart practices recently were recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture with the Climate Smart Commodities Project Award through an extensive application process. Their proposal was selected as one of 70 projects out of over 450 applications for demonstrating practical and innovative climate-smart methods with identified market channels for distribution.
Some of the top researchers are coming to Fischer Farms to study their production system and show how those climate smart practices can be applied to farms all over the US.
The Fischers plant deep rooted grasses that pull carbon into the ground and act similarly to native prairie grasses that built the lush top soil of the western plains. Through the Climate Smart Commodities project the Fischers are teaming with Geospherics in Bloomington, IN and Indiana University to research and measure the carbon captured with this approach to raising cattle. Fischer Farms will continue to host farmer field days to demonstrate the soil building aspects of these methods and through the USDA offer incentives to get farmers started down this path.
Upcoming for Fischer Farms
- The Farm Aid concert in Indianapolis Sept. 23 will serve meat from Fischer Farms and the Fischers will be one of the featured farms during the concert. Joseph said a film crew visited the farm a few weeks ago to hear more about the farm’s sustainability practices.
- Fischer Farms is also a pilot farm for certifying the responsible use of antibiotics in beef cattle. The Fischers helped write a manual for how to use antibiotics responsibly and document that usage. There is an overuse of routine antibiotics in the conventional cattle industry but farms that adopt the practices can become Certified Responsible Antibiotic Use.