June 8, 2004

 

 

US Beef Industry Plan To Revive Foreign Exports
 

Beef producers in the United States have suffered since the discovery of a solitary mad cow disease case in Washington State last December. In a conference with cattle producers around the country, Tyson Fresh Meats executive Gene Leman outlined the need to revive foreign beef exports.

 

Tyson's overseas sales have plummeted since Japan and some other countries banned imports of U.S. beef in December, following the discovery in Washington state of the first domestic case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease.

 

Meatpackers and cattle producers share the goal of reopening those markets.

 

"It's costing all of us millions of dollars," Leman, senior group vice president, told 42 cattle industry officials who stopped by Tyson's Dakota Dunes offices as part of the Young Cattlemen's Conference nationwide tour.

 

The challenge is to convince leaders in those countries that U.S. beef is safe, said Leman and Jan Lyons, president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which coordinates the annual young cattlemen's tour.

 

Tyson, which operates 12 beef plants, including several in Siouxland, has stringent guidelines for the handling of BSE-risk materials that go beyond U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations.

 

All Tyson plants typically slaughter beef animals that are less than 24 months old, which normally are not at risk to contract the disease. Since Jan. 12, Tyson plants have verified ages by checking bovine teeth. Cattle older than 30 months are identified and segregated to the inedible rendering stream.

 

On June 1, the Agriculture Department expanded its national testing for the brain-wasting condition to include as many as 220,000 animals over the next year, up from just around 20,000 in 2003.

 

Both Tyson and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which represents 250,000 farmers and ranches, oppose universal testing. In addition, they object to efforts by some meatpackers to do such testing on their own. Japan, for instance, will allow beef imports if every single animal has been tested.

 

Lyons said testing should be based on scientific grounds, not on simply satisfying the political demands of a trading partner.

 

"If we can re-establish trade, all companies can export to these countries," the Kansas woman said. "We fear you can interfere with the negotiations if (individual) companies try to get involved in this."

 

The weeklong Young Cattlemen's Conference, designed to expose future industry leaders to various aspects of the profession, began last Thursday in Denver. After a trip to a large feedlot in western Kansas, the delegation arrived Sunday in metro Sioux City. They spent Monday morning touring Tyson's flagship beef slaughter and processing plant in Dakota City, and the afternoon meeting with Leman and other executives at the Dakota Dunes offices.

 

The group now heads to Chicago, where it will tour the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Bruss Co., a Tyson-owned plant that cuts portion-controlled steaks and chops for distributors and restaurant chains. The trip will conclude with a visit to Washington, D.C.

 

Tyson, which merged with IBP in 2001, has been a regular sponsor and stop for the tour, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. In addition to cattle producers from more than 20 states, from Georgia to Hawaii, the delegation included representatives of industry groups, large feedlots and restaurant chains.

 

For Scott Kelty, who manages a 130,000-head feedlot south of Phoenix, the tour was his first visit to the Midwest. Kelty and Randy Faber, who owns a 120-cow-half herd in northern Illinois, said they were impressed with the Dakota City plant.

 

"They run a first-class operation," Faber said. "They opened the doors and let us see pretty much all they had to offer."