U.S. AGRICULTURE REVOLUTIONARY METHODS TO MEET DEMANDS FOR BEEF

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31062, 18 May 1966, Page 16

U.S. AGRICULTURE REVOLUTIONARY METHODS TO MEET DEMANDS FOR BEEF

(By

WILLIAM M. BLAIR,

writing to the “New York Times." from Greeley, Colorado )

(Copyright 1966. "The New York Times’’ New Service.l Sweeping changes in the cattle industry from range to market are visible across the West and Middle West.

Feed lots, giant finishing schools for consumer beef, are expanding. Modern automated packing plants, sponsored by cattle producers and by communities, are springing up on the prairies and the plains, near the source of supply, and putting the pinch on big packers with outmoded plants.

Small farmers and ranchers are banding together to acquire scarce grazing land with Federal loans in their fight to keep from being squeezed out of business by bigger operators. Market patterns are changing.

In brief, the industry is in ferment as the revolution in all of agriculture continues at a rapid pace. The big terminal markets, such as Denver Union Stock Yard, have lost their appeal, being replaced by auction barns. Producers Auction in Greeley, Colorado, is one that has been growing. Denver Union is converting to an auction market to meet the competition. Terminal Markets The traditional terminal market such as the defunct Chicago yards, operated on a commission basis. Producers consigned their cattle. The yard collected a fee for holding and feeding the cattle until they were sold. The agent collected a fee for his service. In an auction barn, the producer sells to the highest bidder often on the same day he trucks in his livestock, thus saving fees and the long haul to a terminal market such as Denver.

pounds of 1960 and the 57.2 pounds of 1951. Industry sources estimate that by 1970 the country will need at least 117 million head of cattle to enable Americans to continue to enjoy 100 pounds of beef for each person because of the population growth and high incomes. The growth of feed lots is a phenomenon of the last 10 years. Here, on the edge of town, the Montfort Feed Lots sprawl over nearly 300 acres. In this collection of cattle pens, more than 60,000 cattle are on feed. An expansion programme will bring the total number to 85,000, more than triple the 25,000-head capacity of six years ago. These cattle go into the five-year-old Montfort Packing Company plant. Kenneth Montfort, who grew up on the lots his father, Warren H. Montfort, started as a small operation near the family farm years ago, heads the operations. Mr Montfort is a state representative. Typical of the modern feed lots, Montfort employs feeding specialists, veterinarians and cattle buyers. They buy feed in large volume. Computers and other electronic devices are used to speed feeding and the keeping of accurate records. Feed Formulas The specialists work out food formulas that will put the most gain on cattle in the shortest time and provide choice meat. These formulas are transferred to punch cards. The cards are fed into a large electronic machine. The machine with a panel of switches and lights, reminiscent of a control board at the Cape Kennedy missile site, clicks and clatters away, feeding the formula to a nearby elevator. The 300-foot-high elevator holds the feed ingredients in separate bins. As machines in the elevator read the card formulas, the bins open and dump the mixed feed into waiting trucks. The trucks roar away to the dirt roadways between the pens, kicking up dust in dry weather and mud after rain. The trucks, equipped with hydraulic machinery, dump the feed into troughs for the cattle at the press of a button by the driver. The trucks move at a speed of 15 to 20 miles an hour. The only touch of the Old West is the sight of the veterinarians and other employees on horseback, checking the condition of cattle and pens. An elaborate underground water system provides fresh water to automatic fountains that the cattle trip with their noses. The cattle are bought over a wide area of the Great Plains and as far east as Ar-

kansas and Mississippi at about 800 pounds from farmers and ranchers. Known as feeders, the cattle, mostly steers, have been mainly grass fed. The lot puts on the finish of about 200 pounds and imparts the flavour of the meat through the special feeds. The feed has corn and other grains, mineral supplements, and some roughage such as hay.

The Monfort Packing plant is one of the country’s most modern automated meat factories. The Monfort plant processes about 130,000 animals a year from the lots. It buys 160,000 more throughout the area. Other new packing plants on the Great Plains, built either as co-operative ventures by farmers and ranchers near feed lots or as corporate enterprises, are at Sterling and Fort Morgan. Colorado, and Garden City and Pratt, Kansas. New plants also have sprung up at Gooding, Idaho, and Tarkio, Montana.

Omaha’s packing house industry, with the biggest terminal yards in the country, suffered a 17 per cent decline in receipts last year. The huge feed lots, operating with automated equipment and volume output, can produce beef cheaper than farmers and ranchers with traditional methods at homesteads. The rising cost of production, from land to feed, contributes in part to the continual search for new ways. Chain stores and other buyers demand and get choice graded meat, the Government grade that has become the standard for merchandising meat in the industry. They want the best at the lowest price to meet demand. Chain stores have been accused of setting the price of beef cattle at the expense of producers who have little choice in the market. Such chains as Safeway Stores, Inc., buy on specification, detailing to prospective sellers what they want in weight and grade. The continuing upgrading of cattle gives the consumer better quality although consumers complain of high prices. Population growth and high incomes have pushed the price of beef up in recent years. Commercial beef production in 1965 was nearly double that of 1951. Cattle numbers have soared to more than 106 million, well past the 100 m mark that was believed unattainable 15 years ago. 991 b A Head Each American consumed an estimated 99.3 pounds of beef last year, down slightly from the peak of 100.4 in 1964 but up sharply from 82.2