Reban Farms Homestead has been around since 1908, and we are proud of our Saskatchewan roots. We enjoy the cattle lifestyle and the wholesome food it allows us to produce. We are grateful to have a farm out by Petrofka Bridge along the North Saskatchewan River south of Blaine Lake.
About This Series
Welcome to “Ask Aubrey,” a Q&A series with Aubrey Reban, cattle rancher and head of the Reban Farm family in Petrofka, Saskatchewan. Each post features one of the most common questions Aubrey is asked about ranching, farming practices, and cattle care. His goal is to give you a transparent, straightforward look into how Reban Farms raises its animals and cares for the land.
What “Locally Raised Beef ” Actually Means and Why the Distance Matters
Sometimes people ask: Is “local” just a marketing word, or does it actually mean something?
“Local” has become one of the most overused words in food marketing. You will see it on packaging for products that were processed on the other side of the country, from animals raised in another province entirely, or in some cases, imported and simply packaged domestically. The word has been stretched so far that it has nearly lost its meaning. So let’s be specific about what it actually looks like when a farm takes it seriously.
At Reban Farms, local means our cattle are born and raised on our land near Petrofka Bridge, along the North Saskatchewan River. They graze our pastures in the summer. They eat forages and grains we grew ourselves. When it is time, they travel to a provincially inspected slaughter facility nearby. The beef is cut and wrapped by a local butcher, J and R Meats, who have over 30 years experience in the business. James and Rose Grypiuk are the owners, and Mike and Paula are their two long-time, highly trusted employees. James and Mike do the majority of the cutting, Paula wraps, and Rose does little bits of everything to keep the place running. And we personally deliver it to your door in Saskatoon and the surrounding communities along our route.
Compare that to the journey a typical supermarket steer makes. Born in one province, transferred to a feedlot in another, slaughtered at a large-scale processing facility that may be hundreds of kilometres away, broken down into primals, shipped to a distribution centre, portioned and packaged, and finally transported to a store near you. That animal and the beef from it may travel thousands of kilometres before it reaches the shelf.
Distance matters for freshness. The fewer hands a product passes through and the less time it spends in transit, the better the end result. Dry-aging our beef for a minimum of 14 days at the local facility is about deliberate quality improvement, not compensating for a long, complicated supply chain.
Distance also matters for your local economy. When you buy from Reban Farms, your money stays in Saskatchewan. It supports our family, our local butcher, our employees and the broader agricultural community that makes this region what it is. Every dollar spent on local food recirculates in the community rather than disappearing into a corporate supply chain that has no roots here.
Local should mean something. At Reban Farms, it does.
Have a question about our farm, our cattle, or how we raise our beef? Send it our way, and Aubrey may answer it in a future post.
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Reban Farms – Wholesome, Local Beef. Order Yours Today
