Isle ranchers team with Oregon co-op

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer

Some Hawai'i ranchers have joined an Oregon program to produce beef cattle that are free of hormones and antibiotics and are fed a vegetarian diet, and they hope to develop a similar program for Hawai'i.

Donn "Curly" Carswell, president of the Hawai'i Cattle Producers Cooperative Association, said the effort is not the direct result of worries over mad cow disease, but he said consumer concerns seemed to make the Oregon Country Beef deal "a good idea that just got better."

Oregon Country Beef sells its Country Natural Beef to natural food stores, restaurants and markets throughout the Pacific Northwest and northern California, Carswell said.

The cooperative represents 48 ranches throughout the state, although not all of them are participating in the country beef effort.

About a quarter of the roughly 40,000 calves shipped from Hawai'i to the Mainland each year are sent through the cooperative. Carswell said 2,700 of those animals will be supplied to Oregon Country Beef in 2004, and the number is expected to rise next year.

While mad cow disease has been linked to cattle feed with animal byproducts, Hawai'i-born calves that enter the program spend 18 months eating only grass.

They are finished for 90 days on a high-fiber, low-grain diet, which he said creates "a tender product with high health benefits to the consumer."

The cattle producers association has been discussing with the Oregon group the idea of developing a natural beef product for the Islands modeled after the Oregon Country Beef program.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.