EXCEL, CAPROCK TEAM UP WITH GENETICS FIRM ON $10 MILLION BEEF IMPROVEMENT PLAN

In a move that the principals are predicting could revolutionize beef  breeding and production, officials of Cargill Inc.'s Excel Corp. unit said they have formed a partnership with a major feedlot and the genetics research company holding patent rights to the cattle genome on a project aimed at improving beef quality, tenderness and consistency, the Meatingplace.com was told.The partnership is being formed between Excel's beef packing division; Caprock Cattle Feeders and MetaMorphix Inc., a privately held life sciences company focused on commercializing technologies to improve the meat and food supply. For the initial project, Caprock and Excel will provide $10 million to MetaMorphix to support development of innovative genetics tools for cattle production."This is all about improving the overall quality of beef for consumers," said Bill Buckner, Excel president. "We will have a better idea of cattle quality coming into the plant, so that we can direct them to right production lines."MetaMorphix holds the rights to Celera Genomics' cattle genome map, which offers the possibility of precise breeding and selection methods in both beef and dairy production. MetaMorphix's subsidiary MMI Genomics will host the livestock production initiatives."The initial goal of what will be a long-term project -- two or three years to develop a prototype -- is to focus on tenderness," said Mark Klein, a spokesman for Cargill. "We are starting with tenderness because it's an issue."Klein said that Caprock, which is a subsidiary division of Cargill, will help provide the representative cross section of cattle needed. "Eventually we hope to have a commercially viable tool that might be marketed to other beef companies," he said. "This [genome] technology is important because ultimately, the industry needs to improve overall beef quality, but we've still got to produce an everyday low price product for the typical family of four."Meeting those consumer expectations on price and quality is right in tune with what MetaMorphix's game plan is, as well."We're excited to be part of this ground breaking step forward for consumers and the beef industry," said Ed Quattlebaum, Ph.D., president and CEO of MetaMorphix. "As pioneers in animal genomics, we are happy to demonstrate how this unique technology ultimately could be applied for consumer benefit."The end user is the key, a Caprock executive concurred."The goal is to meet or exceed consumer expectations," said Zay Gilbreath, Caprock president. "This new tool will provide a road map for the quality and consistency of individual cattle and help ranchers, producers and feeders to make more accurate decisions. "Cargill is an international marketer, processor and distributor of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services, with 90,000 employees in 57 countries. Caprock Cattle Feeders is an Amarillo, Texas-based cattle feeding company with 220 employees feeding more than 600,000 head of cattle a year at four feedlots in Texas and Kansas.

                                                               by Dan Murphy on 6/12/02 for www.meatingplace.com