Japanese team inspects Swift’s Greeley plant

Japanese team inspects Swift’s Greeley plant

Bill Jackson bjackson@greeleytribune.com
July 4, 2006
Greeley Tribune

A Japanese audit team spent Monday in the Greeley beef packing plant of Swift & Co.

The plant inspection was part of the process to re-open the Japanese market to U.S. beef. Last week, a team was in the Cactus, Texas, Swift plant and teams are scheduled to inspect Swift plants in Hyrum, Utah, and Grand Island, Neb., later this month, said Sean McHugh, Swift spokesman. The tour was closed to the media.

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Appeals court sets dates in Canada-cattle case

Appeals court sets dates in Canada-cattle case

BY PHYLLIS JACOBS GRIEKSPOOR
The Wichita Eagle

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Billings, Mont., has set a schedule for hearing the appeal of R-Calf USA’s lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction to prevent the import of cattle under the age of 30 months from Canada. The Kansas Cattlemen’s Association is affiliated with R-Calf.

The grassroots cattlemen’s group has long opposed the import of Canadian cattle for market reasons, and especially since the discovery of mad cow disease in Canada in May 2003.

The much larger mainstream Kansas Livestock Association has supported Canadian imports, a position also taken by its national affiliate, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

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From Meat Case to M-m-m-m!

From Meat Case to M-m-m-m!
Crack the Code for Great Grilling

Beatrice Daily Sun (NE)

Love a great steak, but mystified how to serve it up at home? “Most beef shoppers admit they’re in the dark when it comes to knowing how to choose the right cut of beef for dinner,” says Herb Meischen, beef industry consultant.

“Confidence in buying meat can be boosted by knowing what you’re looking for. Knowledge is power: Understanding what you’re looking for and finding a beef brand you can trust for consistent quality is the secret to success.”

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Producers anxious to make hay

Producers anxious to make hay

But no go-ahead yet from D.C. to use land enrolled in CRP

By Russ Keen
Aberdeen American (SD) News Writer

Area cattle producers suffering from drought, mainly west of Aberdeen, are frustrated that the government won’t let them make hay now on land enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program.

“Believe you me, that is all we hear from morning to night,” said Gloria Huber, a program technician at the federal Farm Service Agency’s Campbell County office in Mound City. “They are desperate to cut that CRP hay now.”

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Japan and U.S. work on details for beef trade

Japan and U.S. work on details for beef trade

KZIM Radio (MO)

This month Japan agreed to start buying U.S. beef again, but Missouri Department of Agriculture Director Fred Ferrell says that doesn’t guarantee the purchase of Missouri beef. Japan halted imports in 2003 after shipments failed to meet inspection standards, but Ferrell says hopefully opinions were changed after buyers from both Japan and Taiwan toured cattle farms in both Cape and Audrain County in May.

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Kansas mapping livestock disposal sites

Kansas mapping livestock disposal sites

UPI

MANHATTAN, Kan., July 3 (UPI) — Kansas officials are using high-tech to map out appropriate sites for the mass disposal of livestock in the event of bioterrorism or other disease outbreak.

Kansas State University said Monday that its researchers and various state agencies were mapping out disposal sites statewide using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to correlate large amounts of data.

“We’re acquiring the necessary information in digital form … and building a model that can help find a suitable site for burying a large number of livestock,” said Geography Professor Shawn Hutchinson. “Given the type and size of the animals, we can determine the size of the burial pit, then use Geographic Information Systems to automatically search for the best place to dig.”

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Why is Efficiency so Important to the Beef Industry?

Why is Efficiency so Important to the Beef Industry?

Harlan Ritchie
Heterosis.com

Introduction

An up-front answer to the question posed in the title of this paper would be the following: “Efficiency impacts unit cost of production, thereby having the potential to increase beef’s competitiveness in both the domestic and global marketplace, to improve industry profitability, and to enhance long-term sustainability of the industry.”

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Rx for Animal Health

Rx for Animal Health

by Kindra Gordon
Angus Journal

How can you get the most from your annual herd vaccination program? How can you prime calves’immunity to prepare them to perform once in the feedlot? Test your herd health knowledge with these quick questions and answers. …

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Verified Trust

Verified Trust

By Wes Ishmael Contributing Editor
Beef Magazine

Say what you will about demands from beef-export customers that U.S. beef be age-verified. At least one domestic packer has harvested more age- and source-verified cattle in the past six months than ever before simply due to growing domestic demand for natural beef.
Primedia Business – Beef Magazine, Click Here!

“Natural is the umbrella process verification for us,” says Steve Williams, Swift and Company director of procurement. He explains demand for other verifications, such as age and source, fall beneath this umbrella. In fact, Swift’s natural beef comes from cattle source- and age-verified to be 30 months of age or younger.

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eMerge announces CattleLog Verification Services

eMerge announces CattleLog Verification Services

Drovers news source

eMerge recently announced the release of CattleLog Verification Services, a comprehensive program designed for cattle producers to verify their production claims and qualify their animals for many popular value-added and branded programs including natural, non-hormone, and export marketing programs.

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