America’s Big Beef: An Industry In Transition

From small ranchers to large packers to U.S. dinner tables, the beef industry is a gigantic multi-billion dollar business. Whether you eat it or you don’t, beef is what’s for dinner, what’s for lunch and what’s for breakfast on thousands of Americans’ plates daily.

Harvest Public Media takes a look at America’s beef industry, examining what goes in to our meat. We’re looking at the safety of the meat in our grocery stores and who funds the scientific research on the industry. We’re diving into what goes in to breeding the highest-quality beef, the potential environmental impact of the way conventional cattle are raised, and what might happen if the beef industry continues to consolidate.

You can view and hear more on Big Beef on Harvest Public Media's website.

America's Big Beef

7:42 pm

Thu December 13, 2012

Beef Checkoff Feud Exposes Divide Within Cattle Industry

Credit Peggy Lowe / Harvest Public Media

Allen Berry co-owns a cow-calf operation with his wife near Trenton, Mo. Like all other cow-calf operators, Berry pays into a fund that benefits the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board for each animal sold.

By Frank Morris and Peggy Lowe

When Allen Berry brought his 11 yearlings to the Green City Livestock Market in central Missouri last month, he paid into a fund that at first blush, seems a bargain.

7:36 pm

Wed December 12, 2012

Beef Feedlots Grapple With Endless Waste

Credit Jeremy Bernfeld / Harvest Public Media

Allan Sents co-owns McPherson County Feeders, a beef feedlot in central Kansas, with his wife Deanna. His 11,000 cattle produce a lot of waste.

By Jeremy Bernfeld

You think you deal with a lot of bull crap? Allan Sents needs a front-end loader and a dump truck to deal with all the cattle manure he’s up against. Literally.

5:12 pm

Tue December 11, 2012

Judging A Cow By More Than Its Cover

Credit Frank Morris / Harvest Public Media

Owner Rhett Lowderman and his team gather around his prize-winning Hereford, LCC Patton Kiwi 116 ET, which won the Reserve Grand and Champion Intermediate Female Award at the American Royal.

By Frank Morris

Backstage behind the cattle pens at the giant livestock show at the American Royal in Kansas City, Mo., “cow fitter” Maddee Moore was awash in glamour goods.

2:15 pm

Tue December 11, 2012

Public Research For Private Interests

Credit Peggy Lowe / Harvest Public Media

Dr. Dan Thomson, a Kansas State veterinary professor and director of the Beef Cattle Institute, holds a "Beef Quality Assurance" training at the Beef Fest in Emporia, Kan., in August.

By Peggy Lowe

Agricultural colleges in the top five beef-producing states have become quasi-arms of the cattle industry, selling science to corporate bidders who set the research agenda with their dollars.

10:03 am

Mon December 10, 2012