Creek Stone Farms and the Collegiate Cattleman's Club Industry Tour

Last Thursday at 4.30am I travelled down to Arkansas City, KS to Creek Stone Farms with my Beef Systems Management class to tour the abattoir. It was a big deal on Dr Nicholls and Dr Corrah’s behalf, from what I understand getting this accomplished but I sure appreciated the opportunity! We were very lucky to get in, but this particular company is supposedly quite good for touring people through their business and explaining each process from point of slaughter through to the sale of packaged beef products, only backwards.

It makes sense from a food safety standpoint that the tour would be given from the end of the production line (the finished meat products) to the start (the pens) as this enabled minimal opportunity for contamination into the end products. I found the tour very interesting and well worth the early start. There were a few things I noticed that were different to some of the abbys’ I have seen in Australia, but they carried out the same idea and used a lot of very similar, if not the same equipment. It was very cool to watch and get a little insight into how this type of business runs in the US. Creek Stone Farms was one of the absolute first packing places in the world to have implemented the Temple Grandin style holding yards and facility design for humane slaughter. I sure did enjoy seeing that for the first time in real life that day!

The pens out back were so quiet, the cattle were kept cool with an indoor sprinkler and water troughs were full and clean, sight of dispatch was blocked off from all cattle waiting in pens and in the race and the air flow was designed to move from the pens towards the race rather than the other way around. This meant the cattle could not see or smell the production line, which in itself plays a great role in minimizing stress.

Ground beef is a HUGE deal here in America, which is a little strange for Australians who would just about rather choose any other cut unless a specific recipe required it be used. (It’s also a little strange to me, having been raised on it, that some people have never eaten lamb! One man I met was near on 55 and had never in his whole life had lamb before, but that’s another story.)

Anyway, I didn’t know a great deal about the processes and regulations that coincide with the production of ground beef prior to this visit and my exposure to it in Dr Travis O’Quinn’s Meat Science class, so it was great to see the theory about it that i had learned, put into perspective through observing the practical side at the packer.

When we got home that afternoon, I had a half hour to get organized for the Collegiate Cattleman’s Club's 2017 industry tour up in Nebraska. We stayed in a hotel in McCook, Nebraska. Friday morning we visited with the wonderful people at the Nebraska Bull Service where we were given a tour through the bull pens and the collection shed, then we were given a very extensive tour through the lab, which was very valuable to each of us. It was absolutely excellent! They were very kind to go above and beyond teaching our group about their company the way they did.

That afternoon we met with the brilliant Dr Tom Noffsinger at his ranch where we visited with him and his lovely wife Dianne a while before heading out to the pens. Dr Tom explained the facility design of his yards, which were based around his own and Bud Williams’s philosophies for cattle behaviour and low stress stock handing. He explained the idea of the Bud box to the group and how it works well in coherence with cattle phycology to achieve smooth and quiet cattle flow through the race when used correctly. And after his demonstration, we were all coached through it. Some of us had already been exposed to this way of thinking and this type of facility design however it was extremely beneficial all the same! every little bit counts and there's always room for improvement.

What I absolutely love about understanding livestock behaviour is that you can always, always learn something new and it’s a real ‘get out there and get a feel for it’ type of learning as they cant tell you exactly what they are thinking. Cattle are just incredible animals and it is so rewarding for me to understand their little behavioural quirks in order to better my own stockmanship. There are so many benefits involved in improving your stockmanship this way. Be it with the economics of the business, the health of animals, the stress on employees during processing/ handling, general productivity per head. I could go on all day, there are so many more! I found the tour to Dr Tom’s place very beneficial and I enjoyed it a lot. We all went out for dinner at the Steakhouse in Benkelman that night and Dr Tom said “It’s my shout for dinner tonight if you don’t order chicken!” haha

Saturday, we visited with the owner and general manager of Heartland Cattle Co, the lovely Dr. Patsy Houghton, who also has ties to K-State. This is a very interesting and unique business. At Heartland they grow out replacement heifers for commercial and seed stock businesses from all over America and prepare them for their first breeding season. It is a drylot setting and one of the cleanest I have seen.

We visited a while in the office and Patsy asked all about what we were all doing and where we’d like to be headed in the future, then she gave us a complete rundown on the company. After that, we were given a tour of the facilities and the heifer pens. I really enjoyed how organised and clean everything was, especially in the hospital, the processing barn and the AI shed as these are high traffic areas and pose more threat to biosecurity if not maintained properly.

But it was also nice to drive in and see there was no feed spilled out on the road from the bunks and even after all the rain they had received, pens were clean and relatively dry. The cattle looked really good in the pens and were allocated in a very uniform manner according to size and weight. It was pretty cool to drive around the back of the pens at feeding time and see everyone eating at the bunk, they could have just about been clones of each other in many of the pens. The overall presentation of the yard was very impressive and well kept.

I was quite interested in this business as it was set out like a feedlot and all heifers were on fed diets however, the focus being on preparation for and achievement of first conception rather than ADG, many of the company goals and processes were different. So that was pretty cool to learn about.

I am really enjoying my time touring around the American beef industry. This week is my last at K-State, it will be extremely sad to leave, but the week following, I will start my ‘touring/work experience’ with businesses all over and that is very exciting.