John Scharbauer, owner of Midland Meat Company, said his great-grandfather inherited the family business at a very young age and dropped out of college to take over the operations. Scharbauer joined the Best of Midland podcast to talk about his company and his family’s legacy.
“My granddad took over obviously when he was at a young age of 17 he became owner and manager of Scharbauer Cattle Company,” said Scharbauer on a recent edition of the Best of Midland Podcast. “His mom had half interest, but he was kind of in charge, him and my great-grandmother.”
“So he left college early, came back to run, at that time, the hotel, the bank, the radio station, the other ranches. At that time we had 11 ranches put together,” Scharbauer said. “My family had put together a little over half a million acres at that time so he was running, 20-30 thousand head of cows and about half a million acres, and he was doing it at 17.”
John Scharbauer is a part of the Scharbauer family, which has deep roots in Midland’s history, with their cattle ranch dating back to the 1880s. The family has also helped to develop much of Midland’s infrastructure, including a hotel, a radio station, and a butcher shop in town. Scharbauer started the Midland Meat Company in 2015 as an extension of the ranching business.
Best of Midland Podcast is hosted by Ryan Shewchuk and Terra Avery. It is an extension of the broader Best of Midland program, which aims to support small, local businesses by showcasing them and the people behind them. Their website lists top business and upcoming live events happening in the area.
The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.