Desert Mountain Grass-Fed Beef Cooperative, Inc.

Desert Mountain Grass-Fed Beef Cooperative, Inc. operates exclusively as a federal grant sub-recipient, delivering conservation-practice implementation and producer-engagement work under U.S. Department of Agriculture programs routed through the University of Idaho as prime grantee. The cooperative is a small agricultural cooperative and self-certified small disadvantaged business headquartered in Hammett, Idaho.

Desert Mountain Grass-Fed Beef Cooperative has received three federal grant sub-awards totaling $5.7 million in combined obligation, all from USDA commodity and conservation programs between 2023 and 2026. The cooperative's substantive work centers on climate-smart commodities adoption and producer contracting. Under a May 2023 sub-award for the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, the cooperative contracted with producers across years one through five to increase adoption of specified conservation practices; work included developing contract templates with incentive-payment structures, recruiting producers including underserved operators (women, American Indian, Black, Hispanic, veteran, small, and first-generation farmers with a target of 25% participation from underserved groups), securing signed contracts, tracking and maximizing participation, processing incentive payments, and providing technical and educational support to contracting producers. The cooperative also conducted measurement, monitoring, and verification through annual farm site visits, assisted with soil sampling, coordinated with the University of Idaho laboratory, and reported activities and outcomes to the project manager and director for incorporation into annual reports to the funder. A July 2024 sub-award under the same University of Idaho prime continued conservation-commodities work. A June 2026 sub-award for the Advancing Markets to Producers (AMP) Initiative represents the most recent engagement. All three sub-awards route through the USDA Farm Service Agency Kansas City Commodity Office as the funding federal agency; the cooperative has received no prime contract vehicles, no direct prime contract awards, and no direct prime grant awards. Activity has been sparse and sporadic — one award in 2023, one in 2024, one in 2026 — with no discernible trajectory.