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Pasture to Plate Part 1

History
To provide some perspective, it might be helpful to review a little history. Years ago, when you wanted a steak, you simply went to the butcher shop or neighborhood grocery and purchased a steak. In the case of the butcher shop, you placed your order and the butcher carved your steak to order. In the case of the grocery store, you went to the refrigerated meat case, surveyed the daily offerings, selected a package, and placed it in the shopping cart.

What Happened?
As population centers grew, and people moved out to the suburbs, by and large, the neighborhood butcher has gone by way of the modern grocery store. Certainly, there are still some very highly successful butcher shops remaining in the United States and throughout North America. They offer choice, variety, and culinary pleasure to their customer base. Typically, customers who routinely shop at butcher shops are not looking solely for the lowest price. On the other hand, with the introduction of grocery stores, those consumers with limited time found vast selection and the efficiency of “one stop shopping” all under one roof. And, at a competitive price.

In a grocery store, trained butchers normally process wet foods right on the premises in refrigerated back rooms. Products are tray packed, weighed, labeled and over wrapped for your protection and visualization.

Then, as with many occupations in the United States, butchers became a specialized trade. Some butchers unionized. Due to the cold and damp conditions prevalent in a refrigerated back room, hand and wrist injuries associated with repetitive motion were common. In the old days, most grocery stores had an overhead track scale to weigh whole carcasses or sides. Butchers used knives, meat saws and other specialized equipment to break down the product. Later, boxed beef was introduced for efficiency and speed. Less cuts and less waste on the grocer. As labor and group health costs continued to spiral in the back room, grocers’ looked at ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies in their wet food processing operations.

Large meat packing operations predominantly located in the central U.S. sensed an opportunity. This began the transition to centralized “case-ready” operations. In case-ready operations, animals are slaughtered and further processed in highly efficient, centralized operations. Advancements in controlled atmosphere have improved the shelf life of products. Wet foods are then shipped via refrigerated trucks to centralized grocer distribution facilities. Today, Wal-Mart and its customer base are the single biggest benefactors of case-ready operations. Consumers benefit with cheaper prices. The trade-off is that special cuts aren’t typically available in a Wal-Mart store. Wal-Mart benefits with more efficient, cost-effective operations and source of supply.

Not If, But When
Some people have called the presence of e-coli, joint threats of both Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (so called “BSE” or mad-cow) and terrorism the “perfect storm” in the wet food industry. Any of these phenomena individually are a matter of intense concern to both the industry and consumers alike. Together, or in any combination, and the permutations are simply mind-boggling.

Sadly, sickness in the community is usually the catalyst that marks one of these events. In the old days, if this occurred, it was relatively easy to isolate the occurrence at the local level. With the advent of case-ready operations, huge quantities of wet foods can be sent regionally in a matter of days. Thus, introduction of e-coli or BSE can occur over a wide area in a matter of hours. Statistically, only .001% of animals are tested in slaughterhouse operations in the United States. Due to the reams of paperwork maintained by both breeders and meatpackers, it can take the U.S. Department of Agriculture weeks to detect and recall beef that may have been exposed to tissue from the infected cow.

For example, it took U.S. government authorities almost two weeks to confirm the Alberta, Canada birthplace of a Washington state cow that was infected with mad-cow disease. Prices promptly dropped 15% to $0.80/pound the week of the discovery. 450 Holstein offspring of the infected cow had to be destroyed. As a result, 30 countries banned imports of American beef. According to Chris Hunt at the University of Purdue, costs to the U.S. economy are estimated to be 4 billion dollars in 2004. Some industry-insiders feel that we have been extremely fortunate in the U.S. Statistics show such issues are no longer a matter of if, but when.

That said, most experts in the field agree that traceability is coming to the U.S. in a big way. Traceability from birth to butcher has been done in Europe for several years. A national tracking system for wet foods is being discussed to help avert and/or quickly isolate the causes of any of these dramatic outcomes. Where does it start? The logical place is in the beginning, in the pasture at birth.

The Pasture
Introduction of a simple metal or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag attached on the ear at birth is making its way into the beef industry. Metal has its detractors. Trying to read a metal tag in freezing temperatures while running an animal across a chute or scale plays havoc with breeders and farmers. Writing the captured data onto a paper attached to a clipboard is certainly spontaneous, but introduces the possibilities of data transcription errors.

Identification data stored on a round plastic tag (transponder), attached to the animal at birth, and read with a RF reader has introduced some interesting possibilities. No loss of metal tags. No more reading in the dark, damp and cold. And simple, electronic data capture. As animals transfer from farm to farm, their origin stays with them. Think of RFID tag as an electronic license plate. However, since tags are difficult to attach on some species or have the potential to be tampered with, implantables and retinal scans are being seriously considered as back-ups in this rapidly changing environment.

Traceability in farming and throughout the production chain is a matter of great expense. It is expected to cost the industry in excess of $600 million dollars. Who will pay for all of this has yet to be determined. In all likelihood, a per animal use tax similar to the airport taxes created to fund the airport security (TSA) will be utilized.

Many farmers and breeders have already investigated the merits of the Rice Lake RoughDeck ™ SLV (Single Livestock Scale). The SLV has a diamond treadplate floor and rigid structural steel frame for durability and ease of cleaning. The SLV comes in standard pen dimension sizes of 3’ X 8’ and 4’ X 8’ or can be customized to meet specific requirements. The SLV is also available with gate and chute options.

Herd management database software is being developed for the farmer/breeder to integrate RFID and scale weighments. Further, the database easily maintains diet, immunization, diseases, temperatures, and general health and weight trend information from birth to eventual auction. Not to mention animal traceability at inception.

For weighing multiple livestock in an auction type setting or processing plant, the SURVIVOR® LV is an excellent choice. Many livestock auctions have been recently upgraded in the U.S. processing plants are also incorporating this type of scale to weigh their own incoming cattle before processing. To meet these numerous application opportunities and to suit retrofit specifications, each LV is manufactured to meet your customer’s exact requirements.

Auction database software with integrated RFID is being developed for auction and cooperative operators in the U.S. At a minimum, the database provides source info, auction date, animal breed and other important identification characteristics. A permanent electronic transaction record of auction weight and price per pound is created and stored for future reference and traceability.