Champion Steaks exemplifies Naig’s ‘choose Iowa’ philosophy

A staple for local fresh meat, Creston’s Champion Steaks had a visit from Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig last Friday. Naig met with owners Chad Rieck and Kyle Weaver to see how a previously awarded grant had helped their business.

In May 2024, Champion Steaks was one of 26 Iowa businesses to receive a Choose Iowa Value-Added grant. The Champion Steaks project was to add on-site cold storage to their shop on Highway 34. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship awarded Rieck and Weaver $25,000 to go toward their addition, something Rieck said has been instrumental in their sales.

“As part of the Choose Iowa grant, we’ve been able to sell fresh steaks out of here now. We’re very thankful for that; it’s been great,” Reick said. “Kyle will cut them and packages them; we can bring them over here and keep them in our refrigerating space for 10 days. And at that point, if they’re not sold - which rarely happens, we’ve been selling out steaks like crazy - then they’ll get frozen and then we sell them as frozen, just like a regular meat counter would be.”

Along with fresh cuts of meat, Champion Steaks sells various other local products out of their storefront, including LT Farms snack mix and various sauces and pickled items.

Seeing that some of the other products sold in store, like cheese, was from a wholesaler, Naig said it was his mission to find an Iowa dairy to partner with Champion Steaks.

This is also part of the general mission of the Choose Iowa program.

“We launched Choose Iowa about two and a half years ago at the Iowa State Fair. Actually, we doubled the membership just in 2025, so we have over 300 members,” Naig said at an event earlier this year. “There’s a directory on our website that would have, if you’re looking for beef, looking for apples, you could do that by map, you could search.”

Producers, distributors and stores can all be Choose Iowa members. The only stipulation is that they have products that are grown, raised or made within Iowa. Though Champion Steaks is not yet a Choose Iowa member, Weaver Meats, the Afton meat locker owned by Weaver which processes all of Champion Steaks’ meat, is a member.

Naig explained he is able to both improve the program and speak confidently with legislators thanks to the visits he does to local businesses.

“It always helps to be able to tie it back to a visit I made or to find an expert to speak on the ground. That can be powerful as we’re trying to make these policy changes,” Naig said.

Naig made multiple visits in the area last Friday, including Nichols Farms in Adair County and the Hungry Canyons Alliance meeting in Audubon County.