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MSGA "Follow the Cattle Tour" travels to Colorado and NebraskaMontana The Montana Stockgrowers Association's Follow the Cattle Tour--an intensive four-day educational tour of various segments of the beef industry--was a great success this year. The tour, held every other year, is designed to expand the knowledge of participants in the beef industry beyond the fences of Montana ranches. This year's tour stopped in Colorado and Nebraska, and focused on the effects of ethanol production on the cattle industry from the feedyard to the processing plant. Participants toured several feedyards, one processing plant, an ethanol plant and a brewery. Fifty people, ranging from high school and college students to ranchers and agri-business representatives, gathered in Billings Aug. 20. They traveled first to Fort Collins, Colo. where they toured the Anheuser-Busch Brewery and learned that Montana barley is used in the brewing process and the spent grain by-product from the 12 breweries in the U.S. feeds four percent of our country's dairy herd. The group enjoyed a beef dinner in Greeley, Colo. , where they spent the night. Aug. 21, the group toured the JBS Swift & Company processing plant in Greeley. They spent an hour talking with Mark Gustufson, Vice President of International Sales, and asked many questions about the plant's operations and the acquisition of Swift and Company by JBS of Brazil in July of 2007. JBS Swift and Co., is the largest beef processor in the world, processing more than 52,000 cattle per day globally. The group then toured two feedlots, the Gilcrest Feedlot of Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, LLC in La Salle, Colo. and Dinklage Feedyards in Proctor. The next stop was Paxton, Neb. where Mark Spurgin of the Nebraska Beef Council guided the bus through a quick tour of his feedlot and farm, and then into town to Ole's Big Game Steakhouse, where the group dined on delicious bone-in rib eye steaks. During dinner, John Holzfaster of the Nebraska Corn Board and Steve Hanson of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, discussed the connections between beef, ethanol and corn. The tour spent the night in Kearney, Neb. On Aug. 22, the group toured Kaapa Ethanol near Minden, Neb. Kaapa Ethanol was founded in 2002 and was one of the first ethanol projects in Nebraska. Today it is the largest farmer-owned ethanol plant in the state, shipping more than 50 million gallons of product annually. The next stop was the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, Neb., administered by the Agricultural Research Service within USDA. USMARC works to develop scientific information and new technology to solve high priority problems for the U.S. beef, sheep, and swine industries. Scott Opbroek, Program Support Assistant, and John Nienaber, Acting Center Director of USMARC, gave us an overview of the center and discussed some of the work its scientists have been doing. Galen Erickson, professor and researcher at the University of Nebraska, discussed some of the recent research pertaining to cattle and distillers grains. The group finished the day at T&E Cattle Company in Grand Island, Neb. where Greg Baxter and his daughter, Miranda, led the tour through their feedlot. Everyone got off the bus to touch and taste wet distillers grains for themselves. The Baxter family prepared a wonderful steak dinner for the group in their backyard overlooking a cornfield. The tour spent the night in Grand Island and drove back to Billings the next day. Participants only had to pay $100 to go on this year's Follow the Cattle Tour thanks to generous support from our sponsors: The Montana Department of Agriculture's Growth Through Agriculture Program; the Montana Beef Council; Agri-Best Feeds; MSGA's Research, Education, & Endowment Foundation; Eaton Charolais; and Galusha, Higgins & Galusha. The tour would not be possible without this support or the support of the Nebraska Cattlemen and others along the way. 9/8/08 Date: 9/3/08 Advertisement
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