Meat + Poultry - October 2005 - 79

The Insider
Waterlogged beef

Working in the dark

While millions of residents in Alabama,
Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas have
been displaced by hurricanes this past
month, Hurricane Rita thrashed Louisiana's beef-cattle country, drowning thousands of head. Thousands more were forced inland, searching for forage and
surrounded by toxic water. Officials say drowned livestock
might be Louisiana's biggest agricultural losses from Rita.
"We're in a pretty serious crisis right now," said Paul
Coreil, director of the state's extension service, whose agents
are helping the Louisiana Dept. of Agriculture and the Louisiana Cattlemen's Association coordinate emergency deliveries of fresh water, baled hay, portable troughs and fencing
material to the marshy, low-lying coastal parishes of southwest Louisiana.
Ranchers throughout the region have encouraged residents
to coax cattle out of the water and to higher land. Those with
pickups and boats are asked to help drive cattle out of the
water to higher ground, where temporary pens are set up.
The region typically is occupied by more than 200,000
cattle, mainly Brahman crossbred cow-calf herds and some
stocker operations. The Louisiana Cattlemen's Association
has agreed to reimburse truckers for fuel costs if they volunteered to deliver hay and water for the stranded cattle.
Bob Felknor, executive officer of L.C.A., has warned that
allowing herds of animals to die has far-reaching implications. "If a lot of cattle die as a result and we have rotting
carcasses, this becomes a human health problem," he said.

About 50 people on the Missouri Association of Meat
Processors annual bus plant tour in early September saw
one of the cleanest meat processing facilities they had ever
seen, but what makes Hilty's Butchering so unique is that it
doesn't use electricity.
Hilty's is operated by an Amish family; thus explaining the lack of electrical energy. Located in rural Bowling
Green, Mo., the facility uses several diesel-powered motors
to assist with operations. But without coolers, the plant
only operates during the winter, when carcasses are kept
cool using ambient temperature.
Maybe it was because Hilty's operates in the winter and
they've had all summer to clean or the fact their were no
lights to see by, but several processors on the trip noted that
it was the cleanest facility they had ever visited.
Hilty's was the first of seven plants toured that Saturday.
The tour was hosted by Ed Wood of Wood's Smoked Meats
also in Bowling Green.
Other plants on this year's tour in northeast Missouri
included: Brown's Processing, Elsberry; Hannibal Custom
Processing; Country Meat Shoppe, Palmyra; Center Locker; and Four Quarters Processing, Perry.

Brought to you by
MEAT&POULTRY Magazine
Cartoon by Bob Bliss

Prime Ribbing

Over herd
"They all say they want to carry us,
but it is because they have to do it. I
haven't felt that there is a passion."
- Scott Sechler, president of Fredericksburg, Pa.-based
Farmers Pride, regarding inquiries from chain stores
about adding Farmers Pride's antibiotic-free Bell & Evans
brand chicken to their stores.

Head of the class
Smithfield Foods, Inc., Smithfield, Va., has pledged
$5 million to Christopher Newport University,
based in Newport News, Va. In return, the university has announced it will name its business school
the Joseph W. Luter III School of Business, after the
company's chairman and C.E.O. University
President Paul S. Trible Jr. said Smithfield's donation "will inspire the success of our students and
faculty, and encourage others to generously support
the university."
We're sure the donation will likely inspire future
graduates to be loyal to Smithfield's growing number of products for years to come.
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October 2005

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Meat + Poultry - October 2005

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