My car door swung wide and I stepped one foot outside. At that moment, a strangely familiar earthy scent washed over me, the scent of cows. Mixing with the warm dry air of this June day, it reached all the way past the ranch storefront where I’d parked my car.

While distinct, it’s a strangely comforting smell and it brought some catharsis to my ever-active nerves.

I was there, at Gonsoulin Ranch, to meet Dr. Shannon Gonsoulin. Emeril Lagasse invited Dr. Gonsoulin, a veterinary expert in food-animal health, onto his show “Emeril Cooks” to demonstrate the intersection between food-animal medicine and the commercial food industry.

Gonsoulin has nearly 30 years of experience as a veterinarian with a focus on food-animal health. Food-animal is the term used to describe production animals such as cattle, sheep, and pigs. Together with his wife, Dr. Toni Gonsoulin, they purchased the All Creatures Veterinary Hospital in 1997 and expanded it from two to five physicians since.

Gonsoulin also owns and operates Gonsoulin Ranch, which transitioned fully to grass-fed cattle production in 2006 following the resurging trend towards farmers’ markets and locally grown produce.

“In ‘05, we looked at trying to create a niche for ourselves, and that’s the point when everyone started talking about free-range and locally grown and a lot of farmers’ markets were resurging, Gonsoulin explained. “Organic was getting a big name, you know, farm fresh and pasture to plate. Everyone started using these monikers to delineate themselves.”

At the time, the flowering nature of the market limited the scope of regulation so many products claiming to be organic didn’t necessarily have merit. To prevent this, Gonsoulin utilized the American Grassfed Association third party verification system to ensure quality.

“They sent a vet down here for two days and they monitored everything we did to make sure we did what we said we were doing,” Gonsoulin said.

There’s only three rules in raising grass-fed animals, they said. First, they don’t use any hormones to influence cattle’s growth but they just let them grow on their genetic merit. Second, If a cow gets sick, they treat them, but they don’t use antibiotics in their feed. Finally, they can’t feed cattle processed feed. They still vaccinate for herd health, but they aren’t influencing or pushing the cattle to grow like in the standard commercial beef industry.

The primary difference in the meat is the fat content. Traditional grain-fed and hormone-influenced cattle produce meat with higher fat content, where grass-fed beef develops a more natural muscle-fat ratio.

Gonsoulin Ranch is a vertically integrated business, meaning it’s incorporated and is responsible for each stage of production and processing into the business. They raise their cattle, “process” the cattle, and sell it to their customers in their storefronts or online.

That means Gonsoulin Ranch assumes full responsibility over the quality of the final product, save the way you cook it. Although Gonsoulin does recommend a medium or medium rare preparation to ensure some tenderness.

Gonsoulin Ranch presently serves a few restaurants around Louisiana, including Emeril’s restaurant in New Orleans, but stock and demand limit the number of locations they can serve. Restaurants predominantly seek what they call the middle meats: the ribeye, the tenderloins, the different steak cuts everyone’s familiar with. Each cow only produces a limited amount of middle meats.

“We aren’t trying to be at every restaurant. We don’t have the capacity to do that. 16 ribeyes per cow, they want to order 300 a week. I can’t do it!” Gonsoulin said with a chuckle.

On the other hand, each cow produces a large quantity of ground meat which forms a major portion of individual consumer sales, but demand doesn’t match production. It takes significantly longer to sell an adequate portion of ground meat, yet commercial demand for the middle meats far exceeds the ground meats. You can’t, and shouldn’t, simply slaughter animals for their most valuable parts so it restricts production and sales of middle meats.

“It’s a juggle. Sometimes we are out of ribeyes, but we’ve got 100 lbs of ground beef left. Well we gotta get rid of that before we kill another cow,” Gonsoulin said.

Although it may seem like a production limitation on the surface, the true root of the problem lies in sales. This is an issue Gonsoulin attempted to address by partnering with a burger restaurant to sell a line of locally-grown grass-fed burgers.

If the ranch could sustainably sell a larger quantity of ground meat, it could expand production and either supply new restaurants or provide a more consistent product for restaurants it already serves.

Although none of the roughly 100 stores Gonsoulin contacted showed interest in the offer, Gonsoulin said he didn’t take it personally. Many stores have tight overhead windows, often in the 10-15% range and can’t necessarily afford to table other options.

“When I’m competing against a dollar a pound, and I’m 8, I understand that scenario,” Gonsoulin said solemnly. He took a moment in thought then continued, ”But in the same vein, the people who buy our product are not price sensitive. We aren’t catering to snobby, Mercedes-Benz people. People who really want local stuff don’t usually care about the price.

Unfortunately, catering to local tastes didn’t compel local burger restaurants enough for the price difference.

Interested in trying meat from Gonsoulin ranch? You can find it at the Lafayette and Baton Rouge farmers’ markets, at the Gonsoulin Ranch storefront or online at glcranch.com. Catch the episode of “Emeril Cooks” featuring Gonsoulin on Roku when it airs sometime in the Fall.