Local processing capacity already hitting limits

By DAN WHEAT

Capital Press

MOSES LAKE, Wash. -- Cattle Producers of Washington's new livestock processing cooperative will have to focus on quality and distribution and tap the potentially huge school market, experts say.

That's what panel speakers told co-op organizers at the group's annual meeting Oct. 21 at Pillar Rock Grill in Moses Lake.

Seeking greater control of sales and greater return to producers, the group earlier this year launched the Cattle Producers of Washington's Livestock Processors Co-op Association. The co-op is raising funding and plans to open a processing facility for USDA-certified beef, lamb, goat and pork in Odessa next spring.

The few such processors in the state are at capacity, so ranchers sell live finished animals to processors in Nebraska and do some custom cut-and-wrap processing that's not USDA certified, said Sue Lani Madsen, co-op president and an Edwall goat producer.

A 1,500-pound steer normally sells for $1,600 on the hoof but fetches twice that after processing, Craig Vejraska, the group's president, has said. Ranchers hope to gain a portion of the markup by owning and operating the co-op with a plant designed to process 5,000 cattle annually.

The co-op recently received a six-month extension of a Sept. 15 deadline to raise $400,000 to match a $1.2 million, no-interest, 20-year loan from the state for construction.

The co-op is selling common stock memberships to voting producer members and has 32 interested producers, Madsen said. The co-op is looking for members from Eastern Washington and border counties of Idaho and Oregon.

Co-op organizers are looking at various business models including matching member ranchers with meat buyers. Less likely is the co-op buying livestock and selling processed meat, she said.

On the panel, Jeff Saint Aubyn, a Seattle meat packer, said distribution is the hardest part. Retailers want vacuum-packaged meat year-round, he said.

Tom French is a chef and director of Experience Food Project in Seattle, a nonprofit organization trying to get more made-from-scratch cooking and more healthful foods into schools.

"School food is a huge market. The distribution component is a big deal," he said. "I would encourage you to look at direct distribution. Quality and where it's raised is what sells."

Locally grown foods should be mandated in schools and the co-op could ask school boards to write specifications that meet what the co-op will produce, French said.

Justin Leavenworth, a Walla Walla marketer, said the processing plant will give owners an opportunity to improve genetics for quality and taste. Leavenworth is willing to help the co-op with marketing, said Willard Wolfe, co-op vice president.