Hopcott Premium Meats

Bob Hopcott is the grandson of the Hopcotts that farmed in Delta; Hopcott road is named after his family.  Bob Hopcott was born in a small shack in Pitt Meadows, a 125-acre parcel in Pitt Meadows that was purchased by his father in 1932.  At that time, Dewdney Trunk road was a gravel road and Bob’s dad knew almost everyone personally who drove by the farm.  They had the first telephone and water well, both of which the neighbours used.  It was here that Bob grew up. In the early years, from 1934 to 1960, the farm was a dairy farm. However, Bob’s father always had a love for beef cattle, so in 1961 he started to fatten beef.  When finishing school in 1964, Bob too became involved in the beef cattle operation and formed a partnership with his dad that formed Meadows Feedlot in 1971

For decades the Hopcott feedlots raised approximately 4,000 animals per year, selling their beef to local packinghouses. But in the early ’90s things changed. Huge feedlots in Alberta, raising tens of thousands of cattle and blessed with an endless supply of inexpensive grain, proved to be an almost insurmountable competitor. Many of the meat packers in B.C. began to disappear, leaving the Hopcotts with no market and limited options.

Thinking that, if they couldn’t do it cheaper than Alberta they could do it better, Bob and his wife Debbie began researching the emerging trend of raising all-natural, hormone-free beef.  With the Mad Cow scare consumers were more concerned than ever about where their beef was coming from.  With the help of the entire family, Bob and Debbie broke ground in the fall of 2005 and opened Hopcott Premium Meats in September 2006.  They decided to finish fewer beef on the farm and to direct market the meat they did raised.  They built a towering 6,000-square-foot retail space using the traditional post-and-beam style (not a single nail was used). And no expense was spared. “It was important to us to have an impressive building,” says Bob, “that was as unique as our product.” 

Other changes also happened on the farm. They turned 80 acres of the 105 acre farm into cranberries doing contract growing, like most cranberry farms, for Ocean Spray.  Also, in 2000, they purchased an additional 20 acres across the road and started the Meadows Maze, a corn maze that attracts about 20,000 people a season.  Bob’s dad passed on in 2003 and even at his advanced age he helped Bob out and supported all the changes Bob was making to the farm. 
Family-run Hopcott Premium Meats, managed by son-in-law Lance, is the only retail store in B.C. to feature all-natural, C.F.I.A. (Canadian Food Inspection Agency)-certified, hormone- and additive-free beef. Customers rave that it is the best meat they’ve ever eaten. That exquisite flavour comes partly from how the cattle are reared. Purchased as calves from certified ranches in B.C., the animals are finished on a strict 100-percent vegetarian diet utilizing no antibiotics or growth hormones.

But what really sets Hopcott beef apart is the focus on quality rather than the bottom line. Conventional meat packers slaughter, cryovac and ship their meat within two or three days. This practice is efficient and economical but results in a vastly inferior flavour of meat. The Hopcotts dry age their beef for 21 days in large coolers for maximum tenderness, an extremely time-consuming and costly process (they lose over 10 percent of the meat due to shrinkage)—but the end result is beef of the highest quality.  They have had thousands of great testimonials that it’s the best meat their customers have ever eaten.  They have even managed to convert a few vegetarians. 

They say it takes a village; in the Hopcott’s case it takes an entire family. Bob is still involved in raising the cattle and working the farm with help from sons Travis and Brad. Lance oversees every aspect of the retail store maintaining a showroom so immaculate it looks more like a laboratory than a butcher shop. Wife Debbie and daughter Jennifer handle the marketing while daughter Audrey balances the books. Bob now strolls through his bustling new store confident in the knowledge that continued success will sustain the family farm for years to come.

Hopcott Premium Meats, 18385 Dewdney Trunk Rd., Pitt Meadows, 604-465-7799.