Cordray Farms Beef
Naturally Raised Lowcountry Beef
Interested in sharing a side of beef?
You read in the papers that beef producers are considering implementing an identification system to track where cattle has come from. For me tracing where the cattle come from is tracing my history.
In approximately 1907 Joseph H. Cordray began raising
cattle in the Lowcountry, carefully choosing only the highest quality
animals to slaughter and prepare for sale. Each weekend he made the trip by
horse and wagon to bring his choicest
selections for sale at the end of the
trolley car route on Meeting Street. The family stories tell that he
arrived in the city late on Friday night, secured his horse and wagon, then
caught the trolley to stay overnight with his sister on Oak Street . Before
daybreak the next morning, on Saturday, he was ready to meet his customers.
Joe Cordray was my grandfather. I never knew him, but I feel a certain
kinship with him and vow to continue his legacy of providing top quality
beef for the families of the Lowcountry. I learned much of what I know
about cattle and beef production from my father, Lolace Virgil Cordray, who
learned it from his father, Joe. My father remembers being given a cow by
his dad at about 5 or 6 years old. When new calves were born, some were
sold for $1 a piece, and some were kept to start his fledgling cattle herd.
This continued until 1941 when my father left home to serve in the Army in
Germany in World War II. While he was gone, his small cattle herd was
watched over by his family as they waited for his return. That return took
longer than anyone expected. From 1942 to 1945, my father was held prisoner
of war in Germany. I know that he wrote asking for news of how the cattle
were doing from the few tattered letters I’ve seen from those days. When he
finally came home in 1945, my dad would tell stories of dreaming of the beef
roast Sunday dinners he looked forward to when he was so far from the
Lowcountry . For all my life, my mom has cooked the world’s best Lowcountry
beef roasts for Sunday dinner. The menu stays pretty much the same, just the
way my dad dreamed it would on all those cold German nights. When he
finally did come home, he continued the family business of raising cattle
and bringing his beef to Charleston for sale. Now he loaded meat into a
1939 Chevy and headed down the dirt road called Savannah Highway to a market
on Heriot Street downtown. My dad and his brothers butchered their own
cattle until 1965 when government regulations forced them into strictly
retail sales. After that they had their cattle slaughtered at a local
abattoir and hauled the meat in pickup trucks to the markets at Herriot
Street. From my earliest memories, my dad worked Thursdays, Fridays, and
Saturdays at the market and tended the cattle at home Mondays, Tuesdays and
Wednesdays. Sundays were strictly set aside for church. As fortune and love
would have it, my mom’s dad also had a meat market on Herriot Street.
Pappy, Hogan Grooms, had his market on Meeting street beginning in 1927.
He moved across the railroad to join my grandfather on Heriot Street in
1942. He raised his cattle in the Lebanon Community near Ridgeville,
butchered them at home, and brought them to Charleston in an A-Model Ford.
My two grandfathers had competing meat markets side by side for many years.
My parents first met each other at those markets. By the time I came along,
the youngest of 4 brothers, only my dad and 2 uncles continued the meat
markets on Heriot Street. I can remember that meat was kept cold my putting
a large block of ice in a tub and running a fan over it. Yes, there was
electricity! I’m not
that old!
Anyway, the years unfolded springtimes full of new calves, summers spent bailing hay, and winters spent feeding hungry cattle until the first faint green of grass in the pastures helped to fill their void. My family kept cattle on what is now Tea Farm County Park and rounded them up on horseback several times a year. We called this “cow hunting” and it is one of my fondest memories. My dad, my uncles, my brothers and finally me, when I was old enough, would leave before daybreak. I remember hanging tight around my Daddy’s waist on Traveler in the hot summer sun, as we thundered through the dark swamps, passing oaks dripping with Spanish moss and swimming our horses through the canals around long abandoned rice fields. The cattle dogs yelped and the men whistled and swore. It was a fine time. My dad continued as his dad had done, giving me a calf of my own from time to time. Some I kept to build my own herd and some I sold saving money for college. The small family beef ranchers were becoming a scarcity in the Lowcountry. When that day finally came for me to leave home for Clemson, I felt the tug of the cattle business for myself. I majored at Clemson University in Animal Science with my concentration in Meat Science. I worked for a few years after graduation in the Meat Laboratory doing research on tenderness and taste tests from cattle on different feeding formulations and different breeds. At the University, I was also introduced to the production of smoked meat products and worked on packaging research using vacuum sealing to extend product life. When we left Clemson to return home to the Lowcountry I love, my dad had faithfully tended my small herd of cattle and returned them to my care. Through the remaining years, I’ve continued the family tradition of giving a few calves to my kids. I think it has taught them responsibility and helped to keep them grounded in their roots.
Since 1994, when my dad shut the doors of his Herriot Street market for the last time, we’ve continued raising cattle, sometime butchering some for our own use, but selling most of the year’s calf crop at the stockyards in Walterboro. Since 1990, I’ve been processing venison for hunters with Cordray’s Venison Processing. For the first time, in nearly 100 years, no Cordray was providing beef for the Lowcountry. I’ve decided to change that. We are continuing to raise beef cattle naturally, as we always have. We never give them growth hormones or antibiotics. They graze on bahia grass and Bermuda grass from our pastures all through the lazy days of a Ravenel summer. In winter, we feed them hay baled on Selkirk Plantation on Wadmalaw Island. We fatten them up on a little corn raised by local farmers and then carry them to a small slaughter facility in Goose Creek. Our beef is then dry aged in our temperature controlled coolers until just the right stage of tenderness and taste is reached.
Oh, yes, and one other thing hasn’t changed. This July a new heifer calf was born. She’s tan with a black nose and she now belongs to Paul Alexander DiMaio, Joe and Hogan’s great- great grandson. I think they would approve.
Michael Cordray
August 2005
July 25, 2007 Update
Colleen Michaela DiMaio will be getting her new calf when next spring's calves come. Her brothers will have to show her how to call the cows!
Our steers are farm-raised by the Cordray family since their birth. The Cordray family has maintained small herds of cattle in Ravenel for four generations. We take pride in raising naturally healthy animals not influenced by the medications and hormones you may find in grocery store beef. We guarantee that no antibiotics or growth hormones have been used on our animals and thus, there are no residual chemicals left in the meat for your family to consume.
All of our beef is aged for optimum tenderness then cut and vacuum-sealed in convenient packages. The following beef cuts are now available in limited quantities. Please call 843-766-7922 and ask for Michael for further details.
Custom-cut beef sides are also available, please call for details.
Be sure to check out our Smoked Beef page as well.
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Beef Tenderloin Fillet NY Strip
Porter House steak Sirloin steak Top Round steak Cube steak Flat Iron steak
Flank steak
Roasts
Rump Roast
London Broil
Other Products
Beef Stir Fry
Beef Kabobs
Beef Liver
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