Cole Mannix @ Old Salt Co-Op

Montana’s Multi-Faceted Regenerative Meat Brand

On this episode, Anthony and Kyle speak with Cole Mannix, the Founder and President of Old Salt Co-Op. Old Salt Co-Op is supporting regenerative agriculture with a collection of vertically integrated businesses bringing regeneratively raised meat to consumers. Old Salt sells meat direct-to-consumers online, they operate two restaurants in Helena, Montana, and they’re also operating and acquiring meat processing facilities in the region. 

When Status Quo Is Riskier Than Innovation

Cole’s family has been raising livestock in western Montana since the late 1800s. In the 1970s and ‘80s, the family began adopting holistic management practices and biomimicry principles but continued to face the harsh realities of the commodity meat market - where margins were slim and stewardship was not valued. In the early 2000s, the Mannix family launched a small grass-finished beef brand, selling at local stores and direct-to-consumer. That business grew substantially during COVID, but eventually became too demanding to execute along with their core work of ranching. 

“We all looked around the table and said, do you think that the current market situation will allow us to be profitable twenty years from now? This trajectory of the industry is not good, and so the status quo is riskier than any kind of innovation we might make to try to create a new market, a new brand, and diversify.” – Cole

Faced with the challenge of scaling the brand or shutting it down, Cole initiated a meeting with his family and several other like-minded ranchers. All three ranches had long been regenerative and needed a new model that would return sufficient profits. Together, they created Old Salt: a single LLC that functions like a co-op, pooling resources and sharing profits amongst the ranches based on their contribution to sales. 

Land Is Kin & Business Is Complex

The foundation of Old Salt’s ranching philosophy is a deep commitment to land stewardship. Cole’s family took part in ranching courses from Holistic Management International as well as business courses and peer learning groups from Ranching For Profit. Much of their learning, however, came from direct experience on their own land, observing what worked best for the health of their ecosystem. For example, as wolves and grizzly bears returned to their Montana valley, they adapted — changing grazing patterns to avoid denning areas, bunching cattle more closely, and employing drones and guard dogs to monitor herds. Cole explains how they and partner ranchers see their role not just as producers, but as stewards of open, intact landscapes where biodiversity can thrive. 

“[Ranching alongside wolves and bears] can be frustrating. But on the other hand, it is a more beautiful version of the world to live in, if these large carnivores can thrive and we can still do okay. I'd rather that than a landscape in which my kids don't know the grizzly bear or the wolf.” – Cole

Just as regenerative ranching can be complex, so is Old Salt’s web of businesses. In addition to DTC meat sales, Old Salt moves its ground beef through its own smashburger restaurant, The Outpost, and more recently opened The Union, a butcher shop and wood-fired grill in downtown Helena, which was nominated for a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. Recognizing a lack of regional meat infrastructure, they started a processing operation, purchasing a wild game facility where they cut and wrap meat. While they have faced numerous regulatory battles in opening a full USDA-certified processing facility, it looks like they will be able to acquire and operate one soon. 

Experiential Marketing & The Old Salt Festival

When it comes to marketing, Cole doesn’t believe in leaning on certifications. He wants people to understand the complexity of meat production and truly get to know the ranches of Old Salt. 

While he initially considered hosting small ranch tours, it became clear that scale and impact would be limited. Instead, he created the Old Salt Festival — a vibrant, three-day gathering designed to bring thousands of people together to share food, music, ideas, and community. In Cole’s mind, it serves as an outdoor version of a regenerative conference, offering a setting to go deeper into conversations around food systems, conservation, and collective care. Beyond celebrating Old Salt’s work, the festival also supports other regenerative brands like Cairnspring Mills and Range Revolution. Cole hopes that the festival can inspire other regional meat brands and bring future business partners or investors together to grow the movement. 

Growing With Grain-Finished Beef

Realizing that consumers still demand more marbled, fatty beef, Cole has dreams of creating a

grain-finished beef that is beneficial for the land and the cow. His model draws inspiration from a Montana rancher who raises cattle on pasture with access to feed made from byproducts like wheat mids and feed-grade barley sourced from nearby grain processors. Ideally, this model would be applied on degraded land, such as a dried-out wheat farm, and over time the rotating cattle would rehabilitate the soil. Both the animals and the grains would be fully traceable back to regenerative sources, ensuring integrity across the entire supply chain. 

Breaking Down Power Structures & Building a Regional Supply Chain

“What I think Old Salt can do is within ten years, I can triple producers' net margin just based on sending their animals through a regional supply chain connected regionally to customers.” – Cole

Cole believes that better production practices alone won’t fix our broken food system. He argues that even if every producer suddenly became the most ecologically wise and responsible land steward, the current system — designed to consolidate wealth and power at the end of the supply chain — would still starve the producers out. To truly support regenerative agriculture, Cole believes we need to distribute power by increasing the number of processors, distributors, and retailers. He also believes that founders need to implement business models that create equity for all producers, not just the founder. In addition to structuring Old Salt like a co-op, Cole's goal is to build a regional supply chain that supports producers more directly and opens doors to long-term financial and ecological gains, including opportunities to aggregate ecological monitoring, sell carbon or biodiversity credits, and reinvest in the land.

“The best analogy is if you starve a landscape of water for very long, it begins to desertify and the plants that remain are conservative and often prickly. We need to turn the faucet back on to allow water to return to that landscape, which feeds life and feeds businesses. If you got a thousand distributors and a thousand packers and thousands more retailers, that by itself distributes power in a way that allows more money to return to production.” – Cole 

Old Salt’s next steps to build out the supply chain include securing a USDA-approved processing center and building out exclusivity or partial ownership with a local distributor to ensure quality services and control. In terms of products and business lines, they hope to develop the finishing system to launch grain-finished beef and open more smashburger locations across Montana, so the brand can continue to move ground beef while also sharing their brand story. Rather than chasing grocery channels, their focus is on regional food service like restaurants, universities, and national parks. 

50% Market Share For Regen

Cole believes that achieving 50% market share for regenerative brands requires a cultural and structural shift — from customers acting as passive consumers to becoming active citizens who see themselves as participants in agriculture. That shift in mindset can spark greater engagement, even in shaping policy. To support this transformation, Cole emphasizes the need to break up market consolidation by enforcing antitrust laws, reform the Farm Bill to stop propping up monoculture, and rethink unnecessarily restrictive food safety regulations. He also calls on investors to fund models that return power to producers.

This ReGen Recap was written by Katey Finnegan

You can check out the full episode with Will & Jenni Harris at White Oak Pastures HERE

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