Ranchers want to take on the top beef sellers by starting their own meat plants

Just four companies dominate the beef processing market. That means higher prices for consumers and lower prices for ranchers, who — with cattle feeders — are trying to build their own meat plants.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Just four companies dominate about 85% of the beef processing market. That means higher prices for consumers and lower returns for the people raising the animals. So some ranchers and cattle feeders are organizing to build their own processing plants. Harvest Public Media’s Elizabeth Rembert reports on a rancher-led meatpacking project in Nebraska.

ELIZABETH REMBERT, BYLINE: Hundreds of cows crowd close to the edges of a pen to push their heads through a fence and get to the golden grains in a feed trough. Trey Wasserburger looks out at the cattle from his pickup. He works at this feed yard alongside his father-in-law outside of North Platte, Neb.

TREY WASSERBURGER: These will be probably ready to go here in the next 30 or 40 days, and they’ll go to a large packer. And they’ll be in the beef supply chain in 60 days, probably.

REMBERT: He says it takes three years of hard work to even get the cows to this point. And now the feed yard work starts. Cassie Lapaseotes runs another feed yard in western Nebraska and says it operates kind of like how you expect a clean bed at a hotel.

CASSIE LAPASEOTES: So when these cattle come into a feed yard, we want their pens to be clean, their water tanks to be clean, the feed to be freshly laid out in front of them.

REMBERT: Wasserburger and Lapaseotes are proud of how they take care of their animals to bring quality meat to the market. But right now their paychecks don’t reflect the sweat, science and money they’ve invested.

WASSERBURGER: Not yet. That’s where Sustainable Beef comes in.

REMBERT: Wasserburger and Lapaseotes are founders and board members of Sustainable Beef, a meatpacking plant owned and designed by ranchers and cattle feeders. Ranchers are working on…