Rendezvous City Beef Roundup: Riverton hosts annual gathering to celebrate beef

Meat enthusiasts and industry stakeholders from across the nation and overseas traveled far and wide to gather in Riverton for the Fifth Annual Rendezvous City Beef Roundup (RCBR) where they celebrated their love for one of the best protein sources on Earth – beef. 

Held at the new Rustler Ag and Equine Center on the Central Wyoming College (CWC) Campus, the event hosted 45 vendors, offering everything from homemade jams and jellies, leatherwork and tack, handmade jewelry, Western photography, hand-crafted crochet work and local beef, among many other things. 

Attendees also had the opportunity to try tasty eats from several food trucks and enjoy live music by Barcode 307. 

Event highlights

To kick off the Aug. 24 activities, CWC’s Robert A. Peck Center hosted a panel discussion and question and answer session with eight high-profile personalities from the carnivore community including Dr. Sean O’Mara, a leading health and performance physician and founder of the innovative medical startup Lantu in Minnepolis; Dr. Anthony Chaffee, also known as the Plant Free MD, a medical doctor and neurosurgical registrar; Dr. Lisa Wiedeman, an optometric physician and carnivore-based life coach known as the Carnivore Doctor and Dr. Robert Kiltz, a board-certified OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinologist and the founder, director and head physician at CNY Fertility.

Also sitting on the panel were Jake Thomas, founder of the mindset training program Life Like Jake; Angelo Lerro, a holistic health practitioner known as the Meat-Based Medium; Bella Ma, a popular social media presence known as Steak and Butter Gal and Courtney Luna, a former yacht chef who shares carnivore and keto-friendly recipes on her website and social media platforms.

During the discussion, each individual shared their unique journey to carnivorism and explained how the diet – which includes only meat, fish, eggs and certain dairy products – has changed their lives for the better. 

Later in the day, the event’s signature VIP Steak-Tasting Dinner showcased high-quality beef from producers across the U.S., where winners are crowned as the Best Beef in Wyoming, Best Beef in the West and Best Regenerative Beef.

At this year’s dinner, the top four steaks were recognized across these three divisions.

The first-place finisher for Best Beef in Wyoming was Bighorn Mountain Farms of Buffalo, followed by Flying E Meats of Greybull in second place, Circle H Ranch of Afton in third place and Carter Country Meats of Ten Sleep in fourth place. 

A steak prepared by Mountain View Meats of Fort Collins, Colo. was crowned Best Beef in the West.

Vorfreude Dairy Beef of Estacada, Ore. claimed second place in the division, while Christiansen Ranch of Weldona, Colo. finished third and Kain Meats of Kersey, Colo. was fourth. 

First-place honors in the Best Regenerative Beef category were given to Billydoe Meats of Hoffman Estates, Ill., followed by Diamond I Cattle Company of Crane, Mo. in second, Circle H Ranch in third and LMAC Ranch of Midvale, Idaho in fourth. 

Circle H Ranch is the only ranch to ever win an award in two separate divisions.

The Roundup

According to the event’s website, the RCBR was born out of the desire to showcase the best beef in Wyoming, while recognizing local producers.

From its humble beginnings, the RCBR has become the only nationwide event focused on high-quality craft beef and brings together producers from all across the country. 

RCBR Founder Tyler McCann, who owns and operates Hancock Ranch east of Riverton with his wife Angela, said this year’s event was a raging success, drawing a large crowd from coast to coast and everywhere in between, as well as international guests from Canada, England, Australia and China.

He noted nearly all of the 45 vendors had a day of productive sales and each one of the event’s highly-esteemed guests agreed to return for next year’s RCBR, which will move to a two-day format. 

“Educate, eat, enjoy is the motto we came up with this year, so we want to do some more educational programming on the first day and more enjoying on the second day,” McCann said. 

He explained event organizers would like to add a concert or rodeo on the second day of the RCBR next year to offer something “really Wyoming” for out-of-state guests. 

“We are really poised to grow again next year,” McCann stated. 

Keep an eye out for more on the RCBR Carnivore Panel discussion in future editions of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. 

Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.