Riek’s Black Angus enjoying success with brick and motar store in Boyceville
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THE RIEK FAMILY is shown on their rural Wheeler farm. From left to right are: Josh, Angie, Madysn, Ashton and their dog Case. —photo submitted
By Renee Bettendorf
BOYCEVILLE- As of March 1 Boyceville has been home to Riek’s Black Angus (RBA) a family owned store specializing in locally raised meat. The Riek family opened their meat shop at 1104 Railroad Avenue in the former Cenex building after years of people asking them if they would sell their beef by the package instead of as quarters, halves and wholes.
The Tribune looked in on RBA last week and asked Angie Riek why her family decided to open a store, to which Angie replied that it was a “crazy idea”. However crazy the idea, it has gained them quite a few regular customers.
The store is stocked with a wide variety of frozen beef cuts including; roasts, steaks, ground beef, brats and even liver. They raise all the steers and then have them butchered at local butcher shops where the meat is cut, packaged and frozen. The Riek’s have been raising beef for quite some time.
Angie and her husband Josh started raising registered black angus cattle after they bought a farm east of Boyceville in 2004. Shortly after they moved to their farm they purchased a small herd of cattle.
“We started small, and have just slowly been growing,”said Angie of their cattle herd.
Angie is from the Eau Galle area originally and did not grow up farming. Josh is from rural Boyceville and his family has always raised some cattle as a hobby.
“He has a long history of it,” said Angie.
According to Angie, currently they have 75 cows. In addition to those 75 cow/calf pairs, they also have about 25 steers, roughly 20 heifers and a dozen bulls. Josh and Angie’s two kids Madysn, 25 and Ashton, 20 are involved with the farm and store too. In fact, it’s a joint side project between the four of them, with Josh’s dad also helping out.
And there is no shortage of work.
They raise the majority of their cattle at their farm with some over at Josh’s father’s farm. They all also work full time jobs. Angie works for Service Master, Josh works for Johnson Tractor in Baldwin, her daughter works for Antczak in Chetek and her son works for Stout Construction. In between all those jobs they find time to run the store, haul animals, pick up meat, bale hay and make silage.
During the summer the Riek’s cattle are on pasture. To keep up with the cattle’s appetites, the Rieks rent some pasture and as a result their cattle live in multiple locations when the grass is growing.
“In the summer our cattle are kinda everywhere,” said Angie. “Some at home, some across the road, some down the road”.
During the winter their cattle live on hay and corn silage which the Riek’s produce themselves. The steers are grain finished and the bulls and heifers also get a little grain. Once in a while they sell some heifers but most are kept for replacements or to build their herd. They do sell bulls and they still sell quarters, halves and whole beef.
In addition to beef, they sell pork and chicken at their store. The chicken and pork are raised by other local farmers. Additionally they carry local honey and maple syrup, eggs produced by their flock of laying hens, Burnett Dairy cheese, locally made seasonings and rubs, locally made personal care products, home decor and grilling supplies.
“We try to keep everything local,” said Angie of the inventory they carry at the store.
RBA is open Tuesdays 1pm to 6pm, Thursdays 2pm to 7pm and Sunday 11am to 2pm and some pop up hours.
