Tech middlemen helping small US ranchers sell their beef

Lopez Island, Washington

ON A blustery afternoon in December, Scott Meyers mingled in a pasture with a herd of black cattle, sweet-talking them as if they were family dogs with a weakness for flattery. He scratched their backs, hugged them and rattled off their names: Chocolate, Fudge, Honey.

From these pampered creatures, Mr Meyers produces grass-fed agyu beef, celebrated for a buttery flavour that comes from the Japanese breed's intense fat marbling.