Meat + Poultry - January 2004 - 66

FOOD SYSTEM IN ACTION

Knowledge helps improve communication
and quality in beef chain

■

Producing cattle that
fit into today's specific
premium and branded beef
programs requires more
than the traditional information exchange between
feeders and ranchers. Recognizing that success for a
modern feedyard is much
more than low cost-of-gain
and efficient feed conversions, the team at Decatur
County Feed Yard of Oberlin, Kan., works to improve
communication up and
down the chain.
That objective played
an important role during
planning of a customerappreciation event held
this past summer. The feedyard sought to create a
unique opportunity that
would provide more than
just beans, barbecue and a
thank you. What developed was an educational
event that fostered communication throughout the
beef chain, from rancher to
feeder to packer to retailer.

Such an event, it was reasoned, would say "thank
you" in the best way possible - by helping to improve rancher knowledge
and profits.
"We don't take any
pride in just feeding cattle,"
says Decatur County Feed
Yard co-owner, manager
Warren Weibert. "We're
more goal-oriented. We
want to improve the quality of beef we put into the
food system, and we want
our customers - both
ranchers and packers - to
do so profitably."
Since 1981, the team
at Decatur County Feed
Yard has specialized in
building a program for
ranchers who retain ownership of their calves and
yearlings. They are quick to
utilize new technology and
management practices to
help improve beef quality
and give their customers an
edge. The feedyard was
among the first to sort cat-

Decatur County Feed Yard's rancher customers evaluated
carcasses during a one-day beef short course at Kansas State
University.

14 FSI

FOOD SYSTEMS

ınsıder

JANUARY 2004

tle using ultrasound in
1987, and today, electronic
cattle management is used
to market cattle individually so they effectively hit a
grid target, maximizing net
income.
But Decatur County
Feed Yard's unique, and
very successful, customerappreciation day took its
customers back in time -
back to the classroom. The
feedyard contracted with
the meat-science department at Kansas State
University to present a oneday beef short-course for
its customers - complete
with professor-led sessions
on the beef grading system
and in-lab study of carcasses. Other sessions included
beef safety, case-ready and
pre-cooked convenience
products, branded beef
programs, new product
development presented by
a representative of Excel
packing company, and the
future of value-added
products, presented by a
University of Missouri
economist.
But the stars of the
short-course were four
steers that provided carcasses for evaluation.
Attendees were shown a
video of each steer on the
hoof and given basic information such as weight and
days on feed. The class was
then asked to make grade
and yield predictions based
on that visual appraisal.
Following a session on
calculating quality grade,

Warren Weibert, co-owner
and manager of Decatur
County Feed Yard, says his
goal is to improve the
quality of beef going into
the food system.
yield grade and other carcass characteristics, the class
was led into the cooler to
evaluate the carcasses from
the cattle they had seen on
the video earlier. Later, the
class would view the fabricated cuts from those animals and the fat trim and
bone from those carcasses.
Such hands-on evaluation proved to be quite
enlightening for most of
the ranchers in the class.
The exercise revealed that
many assumptions made in
a visual appraisal are untrustworthy, and that can
wrongly influence rancher
management practices
such as genetic selection.
"When (the class) saw
the amount of waste fat
from the individual steers
piled on the table, and they
Meat + Poultry - January 2004

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