Patrick Montgomery says one food-magazine honor changed the scale of his Wagyu beef business almost overnight. After Food & Wine named Kansas City Cattle Company’s Wagyu hot dogs “Best Beef Hot Dogs” in 2020, he recalls orders jumping from about 20 a week to 12,000 in 12 hours. Then, he says, pandemic-era grocery shortages sent more shoppers online looking for protein. The story is also about what he built beyond a product: a first-generation ranch, a direct-to-consumer business, and a co-op marketplace aimed at helping other producers reach customers.
From Army Ranger to first-generation rancher
Montgomery joined the military after the September 11 attacks and served as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan. After leaving the service, he studied animal science at the University of Missouri. He considered veterinary medicine, according to his interview with Successful Farming, before deciding to start a business.
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He went on to build Kansas City Cattle Company (KC Cattle Company), a Wagyu beef operation near Weston, Missouri. The company sells directly to consumers, linking ranch production with its own online sales. Montgomery’s approach was to manage the chain from raising cattle through selling beef, a model that can give a rancher more direct control over the product and customer relationship while also adding the work of processing, marketing, and e-commerce.
How a hot dog brought a sudden wave of orders
Successful Farming reported that Food & Wine named KC Cattle Company’s Wagyu hot dogs “Best Beef Hot Dogs” in 2020. Montgomery said the recognition brought a striking rush of business: the company went from shipping about 20 orders per week to receiving 12,000 orders in 12 hours. Those are his recollections in the interview, not audited company figures.
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He says the demand continued into the pandemic, when some shoppers had difficulty finding protein in grocery stores and turned to online sellers. That describes Montgomery’s account of his customers and the timing of his business growth; it is not a measure of the scale of shortages or online meat purchasing nationwide.
Two businesses with different roles
KC Cattle Company sells its own Wagyu beef
KC Cattle Company is Montgomery’s ranch and direct-to-consumer beef business. The interview describes the appeal of connecting production and sales, alongside the challenge: a rancher pursuing this route must handle or coordinate not just cattle, but also meat processing, customer service, promotion, and online commerce.
Valor Provisions brings multiple producers together
Montgomery later created Valor Provisions, a co-op marketplace intended to help smaller American producers—particularly veterans—sell to consumers. Rather than asking each producer to build every part of a direct-to-consumer operation alone, the marketplace was described as a way to bring products from multiple suppliers together and take on some of the customer-service and marketing burden.
The two models answer different needs. A ranch selling directly can center its own products and customer relationship; a co-op can offer shoppers products from multiple producers and share parts of the route to market. The interview does not independently establish comparative costs, producer margins, or business outcomes. It described a one-time $100 consumer membership fee and an average product discount of about 45% as terms at the time of the interview; those historical figures should not be treated as current offers.
Purpose beyond the sales figures
Montgomery described the work as more than a commercial project. He said he missed the purpose and camaraderie of military service, and that Valor Provisions helped restore some of that sense of shared mission. In the interview, he also discussed the strains of adapting to business setbacks and the difficulty of integrating ranching, processing, marketing, and e-commerce. Those are his views and experience, not universal conclusions about veterans or farmers.
At the time of the interview, he described the ranch as having about 200 cow-calf pairs. That is a historical snapshot, not a current herd count. The Successful Farming profile, updated May 9, 2025, presents his military experience, family, faith, fitness, and community aims as parts of how he approached the transition from service to ranching.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the story shows about selling farm products directly
Montgomery’s path illustrates both the opportunity and the operational load of selling food straight to consumers. Direct sales can connect a producer’s story and product to a customer, but success also depends on the work behind the sale: reliable fulfillment, customer support, and finding an audience. A co-op marketplace offers another route by pooling products and some sales functions, though the interview does not provide independent evidence that it reduces costs or improves returns for participating ranchers.
The hot-dog award supplied visibility, and Montgomery says pandemic-era shopping behavior added demand. His account is a specific business story rather than a guarantee that awards or online sales will produce the same result for other farms.
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