The Beef Industry

The Beef Industry

Beef Products

• What products can you think of?

Beef Products

• Beef (Roast, Steak, Hamburger, etc.)
• Bi-products
• bone china leather sporting goods luggage
• bone meal biscuits
• boots and shoes paint
• candles pet foods
• cosmetics photographic film
• crayons plastics
• deodorants shampoo/cream rinses
• detergents shaving cream
• doggie chews soaps
• fabric softeners textiles
• floor wax toothpaste
• glue upholstery
• insecticides violin strings

Types of BEEF Producers

• Seed Stock - Produce close to “perfect” animals, sell their semen or embryos.
• Elite Breeders/Pure Bred Breeder- Try to breed the “perfect” animal. They also show these animals to build a better reputation as a breeder.

Commercial Cow Calf Producer

• Means that they aren’t registered to a specific breed
• Often crossbred
• Breed cows annually
• Keep heifer calves to breed
• Castrate bull calves, raise as steers for meat

KY is the largest cattle producer East of the Mississippi

Feedlots

• Cow calf producers ship loads of cattle to them.
• Typical load is 40,000lbs.
• They feed and keep the animal’s health up for a very low price for the cow calf producer.
• They each get part of the profit after the animal sells for slaughter.

Slaughterhouses or Packing Plants

• Large scale operations that, as humanely as possible slaughter animals on a large scale for human consumption.

Wholesaler

• Sell large portions of meat to companies for them to make their own products with.
• Example  Packing Plants Sell to Kroger

Retailer

• Sell meat to the public.

Consumer

• That’s YOU!

The Beef Industry INFO.

• The average person in this country consumes 48 lbs of beef a year
• Meat is among the most nutritionally complete foods that humans consume
• The average beef herd size is 100 animals
• Most slaughter animals are crossbreds
• When animals are slaughtered they are around 18-24 months and weigh 800-1500 lbs

Kentucky BEEF Facts

• Kentucky is home to over 1.1 million beef cows and ranks 5th nationally in total number of farms
• Kentucky’s Leading Beef Producing County’s
• 1. Barren 4. Madison
• 2. Pulaski 5. Breckinridge
• 3. Warren

BEEF Facts

• THE United States Top Producing States
• 1.Texas
• 2. Missouri
• 3. Oklahoma
• 4. Nebraska
• 5. South Dakota
• US BEEF INDUSTRY WAS WORTH
• $73 BILLION DOLLARS IN 2009

Discussion Questions

• From an agriculturalists mindset, how much do you think the average person knows about the beef industry?
• When things like recalls take place, is it important to be educated?