PASSAIC, MO (KCTV) -- Despite rising beef prices in the grocery store, cattle ranchers have struggled to turn profits over the past year.
Jim Hertzog sees it firsthand at the Mo-Kan livestock market in Bates County. He and his family have owned it for nearly 30 years.
"What's happening to producers today is the worst I've ever seen it," Hertzog said.
Hertzog and the producers who buy and sell cattle at Mo-Kan have been frustrated by a widening gap between the prices farmers receive for their animals, and the price of beef at the grocery store.
On Thursday, for example, boxed beef cleared $340/cwt, reflecting a high consumer price. Live cattle, which have been priced low during the pandemic, were down slightly.
"My producers are making $75 a head," Hertzog said. "The packers are making $1200 a head."
One of the packers he is referring to is JBS, the largest meat processing company in the world. This week it was the target of a cyberattack that shut down production, causing severe supply disruption and exacerbating the price gap.
Hertzog and other farmers are concerned that a single company carries so much weight in the industry.
"It could have been totally devastating to the industry if it had lasted a week," Hertzog said.
Hertzog and his family found a way to compete with large food companies on a local level.
This week they opened a processing plant just down the street from the sale barn.
His son, Todd, runs the facility, which specializes in locally produced beef and quality cuts priced to compete with grocery stores.
They hope it will help relieve another problem in the industry.
"There's a bottle neck in the industry right now where cattle producers can't get their beef to market because of a lack of processing facilities," Todd explained.
The facility is small, designed to handle around 2500 steers a year.
"That's not much," Hertzog said. "But that's 2500 they [JBS] won't get."
The Link LonkJune 04, 2021 at 06:50AM
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Small town beef processing plant finds niche in cattle industry - KCTV Kansas City
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