Kaitlyn Swope, director of marketing for Pennsylvania Beef Council, stands with her husband, Ezra, on the couple’s Creekside Beef Farm in Bakers Summit. A native of Honesdale, Swope has earned praise for her passion and work ethic in promoting the state’s beef industry. Courtesy photo

BAKERS SUMMIT — As the director of marketing for the Pennsylvania Beef Council/Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative, Kaitlyn Swope is passionate about connecting agriculture with consumers.

A native of Honesdale and 2011 graduate of the Honesdale High School, Swope attended Penn State University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science in 2015.

She didn’t intend to go into marketing, though.

“I thought I would like to be a large animal veterinarian,” she said, but while still at Penn State, she got involved with the state Beef Council as Millennial-to-Millennial Beef Ambassador.

That experience “exposed me to consumer events and interactions with customers who were not familiar with agriculture,” Swope said. While there, she ended up helping Nichole Hockenberry with program management. That experience would end up shaping her future.

At Penn State is where Swope also met her future husband, Ezra, whose family raised beef cattle in Bedford County.

After graduating from PSU, Swope worked for Certified Angus Beef in Ohio for a year before getting a call from Hockenberry saying there was an opening at the Beef Council.

She started full time in April 2016.

While the Council’s main office is in Bedford, staff work remotely and are scattered around the state and “do a decent amount of travel.”

“We have a national contract with Northern Beef Promotion Institute to do beef promotion work from Maine to Virginia,” Swope explained.

She also attends three national meetings a year and said seeing a “good slice of the country” is nice.

Swope’s passion and work ethic make her a good fit with the Beef Council, Hockenberry said.

“She is one that will go the extra mile to build the relationship and/or partnership if it means we are meeting our role with the Beef Checkoff to build awareness and increase beef demand with consumers of all ages,” Hockenberry said.

“As a colleague, leader of the organization and most importantly friend, Kaitlyn is a great asset and one we are thrilled to have as part of the team,” she said. “Her passion is deep and one that is recognizable to those around her.”

Marty Yahner, Beef Council chairman, said Swope is professional and highly motivated. Her work takes her all over the northeastern United States to promote and advocate for beef sales and consumption, Yahner said.

“The fact that the beef checkoff remains at $1 per head, the same as it has been since its beginning in 1985, means that checkoff dollars have to do more with less because of inflation. Kaitlyn and the rest of our team at the Pennsylvania Beef Council do a fantastic job,” Yahner said.

The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The Beef Council administers the program in Pennsylvania, which assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. Checkoff revenues may be used for promotion, education and research programs to improve the market climate for beef.

Scotty Miller, a beef council member, said Swope has been a huge asset to the Beef Council and all the beef farmers she represents.

“She is a team player, but also is a very motivated individual and self-starter. She is willing to dream up new things and branch out and try them, but (she is) also great at maintaining what programs are already in place,” Miller said, noting Swope “likes a challenge.”

“I really enjoy the diversity of the people I get to work with, the programs, the beef producers I engage with,” Swope said. “We are interacting with beef producers across the country. I don’t do the same thing every day. There is a lot of diversity, always something to do,” Swope said.

Swope is credited with starting the Council’s partnership with athletics through sharing information via targeted ads on social media to highlight beef among student athletes, coaches and athletic directors.

“Through these efforts, beef was named the Preferred Protein of both the Seton Hall Pirates and the University of Connecticut Huskies,” Swope said. “I network with beef producers from across the region and country and have had success in channeling national resources into the region to reach consumers with positive beef information to grow their trust in beef and the people who raise it.”

While working full time with the Beef Council, Swope finds time to help operate Creekside Beef Farm with her husband, who has a full time job with Huvepharma, a fast-growing global pharmaceutical company with a focus on developing, manufacturing and marketing human health and animal health and nutrition.

At Huvepharma, Ezra Swope is a strategic account manager covering the northeast, with a few accounts in other places like California and New Mexico.

A cow-calf operation, Creekside Beef has about 40 to 60 registered Angus cows and markets bulls to other producers for breeding purposes. The Swopes also ship finished cattle monthly through multiple local USDA inspected processing facilities. They focus on genetics and management to create a premium eating experience and market beef directly to consumers to fill their freezers.

The farm offers whole, halves, quarters and eighths, and supplies ground beef to local restaurants, such as the New Frontier Restaurant, Ezra Swope said.

As beef producers, the Swopes don’t raise crops. Instead, they are passionate about land management and using cows to graze on areas not good for food production, but good for grass.

“We enjoy managing the land and providing a high source of protein through our Creekside Beef brand,” Kaitlyn Swope said.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.

The Swope file

Name: Kaitlyn Swope

Age: 32

Position: Director of marketing for Pennsylvania Beef Council

Education: 2011 graduate of Honesdale High School; 2015 graduate of Penn State with a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science.

Family: Husband, Ezra; daughter, Laramie.

Quote: “Beef council is all things concerning promoting beef and educating consumers.”