-487 0 .398 4Ss `21: -95 -53s o tn .340 0 -53s o 21, -540 o 22 .885--o4 -920 o -97s o 21 -92s 0 24 14th year no. 18 445 0 July 2, 1968 19 1345 0 1 1345 0 1030 0 1 1300 1 155 0 K. C. Mirror To Big Packer Woes 11 -977 o The meat packing industry is ductivity. The old-line meat line packing plant in Salt Lake -935 o City and reduced operations in 12 celebrating its centennial in 'packers awoke one day to find 1000 0 17 Kansas City, Kansas, by dying athemselves outclassedin Omaha. It will concentrate on -920 o the 17, little more. the more profitable areas of 1155(@ field they had dominated for 1/ It's just one more turn of the the business and expand such -915 o so long. 11, wheel in a quiet revolution with- nonmeat operations as salt min- -945 0 In 1950, the four largest meat 16, in one of the nation's largest ing, animal feeds and pharma- -770 0 4 packers accounted for more and most volatile businesses. than 51 per cent of the nation's ceuticals. -765 0 The sprawling old meat pack- George A. Hormel & Co. plans -815 0 I federally inspected cattle slaugh- ing plants, once virtual trade- ter and 38 per cent of total com- to spend 15 million for capital @2 marks of Kansas City and othermercial slaughter. By 1962 theiradditions and improvements @ 2 Mid -Western rail centers, have share of the business had drop- this year. almost vanished. Battling sharp George A. Hormel & Co. plans Fence Work ped to 29 and 23 per cent, re- co spend 15 million for capital 1420 @ new competition and saddled spectively. An inch and a quarter of rain last week got R. J. with outmoded facilities, the additions and improvements 1315 @ 2 Cleverdon of Brookville out of the fields last week and But eventually all packers big packers are moving to smallcame to the same conclusion: this year. 1375 @ 2 onto some repair work on fences around his 80 acres Unlike some of the other pack- [205 @ 2 towns and modern, specialized scrap the outmoded packing west of Brookville. plants close to livestock sup- ers, Hormel says it plans to 1490 @ plants and decentralize - stick to the meat business. But 1050 a plies. spread out in smaller, more spe- cialized facilities away from it is concentrating on the more Irrigation Ditch Scheme On Swift & Co. has announced it profitable products like wieners, isio ;Early will sharply reduce operationsmetropolitan areas. sausages, bacon and canned at its Kansas City plant, which Swift, largest of the packers meats and meals. Arkansas River A Spectacular Failure has been losing money for sev-and listed among the top 15 U.S. ;Meat packing, however, is a industrial corporations, closed GREAT BEND - Schemes to ands of acres in the area. en years. The work force will risky business at best. be slashed from 1400 to only 259 plants and opened 260 new The American Meat Institute irrigate Kansas farmland with He organized the Grand Lake ones in the 10 years ended Octo- water from the Arkansas River Reservoir Company in 1897 andabout half that number. says 18 of 113 packers survey- The first meat -packing plant ber, 1966. ed lost money in 1966. The in- ave met a notable lack of suc- brought men, horses and equip- Between 1958 and 1967 Swift sim-opened here in 1868, and before dustry's earnings -to -sales ratio cess. ment from Colorado, where long others were built along thecut its work force from 64,300 Some plans failed because of ilar projects were under way. averaged only 0.7 per cent that banks of the Kaw River to pro -to 48,300. During approximate-year, compared with an average a lack of careful planning, while ly the same period its annual Ka others were plagued with natur- Using a crew of about 60 menVide thousands of jobs. ratio of 5.58 per cent for all the and over 200 horses and mules, dollar sales per employee rose nation's manufacturers. ,Al disasters or legal problems. But Cudahy company neverfrom $35,400 to nearly $60,000 For some, it seemed nothinghe began work on the Koen re -opened its doors after a mas- While meat production has Ditch. through automation and impro- risensteadily, the number of went right. sive flood in 1951, and Armour ved processing methods. The Barton County Irrigation The Koen Ditch ran from the& Co. shut down its huge opera- employees required in U.S. Company was organized in ear- Arkansas River northeast thrution in 1965. Wilson & Co., the At the same time, Swift spread packing plants has dropped. lingly spring, 1895. Its organizers the present city of Great Bendother member of the old "biginto other fields. Although meatMeat production shot up from planned to provide river water to the bottoms, a distance of 13four," already has cut back to aand meat -related products still 27 billion pounds in 1956 to 32 account for 70 per cent of its billion pounds last year, while for irrigation on land west of miles. comparatively small plant. the present city of Great Bend. When Swift reduces its work $2,800,000,000 annualsales, packing plant forces dropped Water flowed through the force in August, the meat -pack-Swift now also deals in insur- from 238,000 to about 190,000. The organization hoped to ditch to the Bottoms, butonly raise potatoes, alfalfa, wheat, ing industry in Kansas City ance, chemicals, fertilizer, artifi- The United Packinghouse, reached a depth of two feet, not cial fireplace logs and two dozenFood and Ailed Workers union barley, melons and fruit. They nearly enough to supportthe will employ only about 2000 per- .m. CO also hoped to supply cane to the sons - fewer than worked in other businesses. reports its membership declin- re emelt lake steamers Koen envisioned any of the big plants in the' old Cudahy company in the lasted from 71,532 in 1963 to about cane mill located at that time at using his canal and thelake. Dundee, a community some days. five years has closed its full - 65,000 at last count. eight miles southwest of Great Then other disasters struck. What's happening here is Bend. In 1898, the area received merely a repetition of what has 8@ 20.4 A board of directors was or- plentiful rainfall, and farmerstaken place in Chicago, St. Lou- 6p 20,4: ganized and authorization for lost interest in irrigation. is, Omaha, Des Moines and oth- 2p 14.4 capital stock of $300,000 made. And in the upper Arkansas er traditional MidWestern meat- 4@ 20.0 But the company faced trou- River region of Colorado, ditch-packing centers. 16.1 It's not that meat is going out 2@ ble from the start. es and diversion structures sP 20.0 At the time, there were no were siphoning water from theof style. But the days of the 12.4 sprawling, multi -storied packing op laws in Kansas regarding the river. 3@ 20. acqUisition of rights -of -way, no plants are gone. 5@ 20. special legislation was required Had the canal system reach- Until about 15 years ago, 2@ 23. before construction on the ditch ed completion, it might have most packers operated much as 0@ 11.8 to transport water could begin. failed, for land in the area wasthey had for a century. Ranch- 5@ 11.r: The ditch ranged in width not leveled for irrigation and aters shipped their cattle, hogs 5@ 16.1 one time there were some50 and sheep by train to rail hubs. 20 from 50 to 100 feet, with land- 3@ owners paying as much as $20 law suits pending in the courts, There the animals were sold 7@ 19.0 as farmers tried tocollect for to packers who ran "full -line 20.4 an acre for land along the right- 3@ of-way. damages caused by water heldplants in which all types of 14.! But when the right-of-way on farms by the ditch. livestock were slaughtered, pro- 12.1 was secured, another problem The ditch was abandoned, butcessed and shipped to metropoli- traces of the Koen Ditch that tan areas - once again by rail. 20.1: arose. Men, horses and equip- ment were so scarce that the originally connected CheyenneWork at the plants was season- 17.E Bottoms with the Arkansas Ri-al. 13.0 company could not construct its ver can still be seen. But after World War II things 19.§ canal, and the Barton County Ir- 19,g rigation Company withered. gradually changed. Ranchers learned to spread production 17,r' Two years after the Barton County Irrigation Company VLIETS CO-OP GROSS year-round to bring more stable began, a Colorado promoter, F. HITS $888,901 prices, experts licked this prob- B. Koen, developed a plan to ir- VLIETS - The Farmers Un-lemofrefrigeratedtrucks, iI rigate land northeast of Great ion CooperativeAssociation highways were improved and Bend. here had sales of $888,901 in thepopulations shifted. His plan was to divert waterpast year, with a savings of Soon new names appeared on co. from the river to a holding bas-$55,959. At the annual meetingmeat -packer labels. Streamlined, in in the then -dry Cheyenne members reelected Gerald Back-one-story plants were built in g; 40 Bottoms. He estimated that a man and Walter Surdez and el-the Mid -West and West. Operat- lake 7 feet deep would be form-ected Wendell Vandorn to the ing close to the source of live- Helps Brother 6 ed in the bottoms, and water board.