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.

It used to be that to get beef from Mr Meyers' Sweet Grass Farm, customers had to order it directly fr…