About JerkyNet

Hi, my name is Dave Taylor. I have been in the meat business for over 40 years. Few in the industry haven’t heard of me. I figured out early in life that I was good at my trade, but I wasn’t cut out too be an employee. After 10yrs working in the trade, I opened my first business. It was an over the counter old fashioned meat shop, you know, the kind your grandma talks about “back in the day..........”. Here we not only offered a full line of fresh red meat, pork and poultry, we also smoked over 45 different items right there in the store. We made our own hams, bacon, sausages, pepperoni sticks, jerky, and much more.

All the recipes were designed by Dave, since nothing the spice companies could supply was quite right, but more importantly, those spice formulations were what all the other products on the market were made with, and I don't like being a follower. So it all began right there in the corner meat market. You see, it was here that I learned to compete didn't mean you had to be the biggest store in town......it was all about quality. If you don't cut corners, and pay attention first to making a quality product....the business will follow. And it did...

To make a long story short, we made some great pepperoni sticks and jerky, that all the local stores wanted to buy. We quickly applied for and were granted a USDA inspection (to make us legal to sell outside the store) and started manufacturing our shelf stable products for distribution. After the first few months, we found ourselves with more business that we could handle in the little shop we had started in. It was about this time the callss starated coming in from outside the state from folks that had been told about us, and our product line. Some of these were from as far away as California all the way to Oklahoma! We needed more space! We found a facility not too far down the road that originally was used as a slaughter house. After much renovation and remodeling, a few months later, we moved in, bought some large smokehouses, and we were set. The name of this company was Taylor Country Farms.

Most that knew me, thought I was off my rocker, you see....in the early 1980s, the jerky business was just getting started, and there were a few heavy hitters already involved, but very few newcomer/startups. Everyone was asking why I would jump into the processed business, with all the "big boys".... my answer was simple: “Nobody had done it right yet!” By the mid to late 80’s we were employing over 100 people, running 4 huge smokehouses, 10 drying rooms, and semi trucks were leaving every day bound for as far away as the east coast, and even some business to Japan!

Like most startups, especially those with a great product line, we became a target for buyout. I resisted through 1998, when a NW company approached me, the time seemed right, the money was right, so we sold. At that point, I thought I was done with the meat business. And with a few years of noncompete agreement was in place to keep me from changing my mind, it looked like I was done. In 2002 the company that bought us, was bought up by the largest meat snack company in on the planet. Initially, that made me feel pretty good as well........I had been a fierce competitor (on our level) to this big guy for years..........he always wanted our formulations, and loved our line. But, as many big companies today do, a few months after the acquisition, they killed the Taylor line. And that was it! The end of an era...................One of the original pioneers and all the great products, gone forever.....or was it to be???

I am old enough now that I would rather be tuna fishing than run a meat plant. But I decided to jump back in anyway.....This time, rather than manufacturing our own products in our own facility, I have contacted a few of my old buddies that are still in business. JerkyNet will be offering only the best and freshest product we can find, and who knows......don't be surprised if you start seeing some of those great Taylor products that many of you grew up with start showing up once again!

All JerkyNet products are factory fresh, picked up at the plant every week. The only items you will find at JerkyNet are meat snacks, because meat snacks are our business. This is not another site carrying anything we can “make a buck on. We carry nothing but USDA inspected products.

It is all about the quality..........