Jun 01, 2026
By Rylie Meinhardt
Rooted in agriculture from a young age, Amanda Schankie learned her love for animals from her father. Along with assisting him in caring for the cattle and hogs, Amanda was often found at the sale barn, riding in the tractor and joining him at the elevator. She says she always wanted to be just like her dad.
Amanda was active in 4-H and started her own farm when she met her husband, Phillip Schankie. This is when they started the foundation of Dirt Road Cattle Company, located east of Madison.
Dirt Road Cattle Company is a family-owned operation with a herd of registered Simmental-Angus, registered Texas Longhorns and crossbred commercial cows they sell directly to consumers.
In May 2020, Amanda vividly remembers going to the grocery store during COVID-19 and seeing the meat shelves completely empty. One night while scrolling Facebook, she found the Shop Kansas Farms Facebook group. The Schankie’s had just butchered two steers and had two freezers full of beef, so she made a post marketing their meat products and within three days everything had sold.
After meeting people in parking lots to deliver meat in Wichita, Topeka and Ottawa, her phone was flooded with text messages saying how much they loved the meat they received and wondered where they could get more. This is when Amanda and Phillip decided they would only sell directly to consumers.
“I purchased a small horse trailer and put freezers in it to deliver meat and opened a store on our ranch,” Amanda says. “Each year my business kept growing with more people wanting to buy farm-fresh beef, so we had to buy more freezers and a bigger trailer.”
Their growth means they’ve also expanded their offerings into pork, chicken, bison and occasionally turkey.
The Schankie’s have attended many Shop Kansas Farms Market of Farms where they sell individual cuts of meat along with quarters, halves and wholes. Their goal is to provide a product for everyone, not just selling in bulk because they know not everyone has a large freezer to store meat in.
Due to the remote location of Dirt Road Cattle Company, they deliver their orders once a month. Spending one day going to Wichita and the surrounding areas and then another day going to Emporia, Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City, Overland Park, Olathe and Ottawa.
Every delivery day they travel approximately 500 miles, but these are the days they look forward to the most because they can build relationships with their customers.
“Whether it’s at the farmers market or delivering to customers, we love talking to people and explaining how we raise our animals and why it’s important to know how the meat you purchase is raised,” Amanda says.
Doing it as a family is one of her favorite parts. Amanda’s family calls her the Crazy Chicken Lady because of the large number of chickens she has. This summer they plan to raise 1,000 meat birds — the most they have ever raised.
Amanda says last year they sold 1,488 dozen eggs, which is a total of 17,856 eggs. She jokes that her daughter encouraged her to imagine those 17,856 eggs stacked up in the living room.
Selling directly to consumers didn’t just change Dirt Road Cattle Company’s model, it also reframed the meaning of their work. They now get to know their consumer personally and understand what’s important to them. They love hearing how much customers love the taste of their product.
“Local food systems are more important now than ever before,” Amanda says. “COVID-19 was a wake-up call where people saw how important it is to have food close to home.”
You can learn more about Amanda and Dirt Road Cattle by visiting Dirt Road Cattle Company.