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Brian Stevens, Hormel Foods |
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Carcass uniformity – a key benefit of using
automatic sorting technology – leads to more than added premiums
for individual producers or efficient processing for packers. Uniformity
opens doors for improving pork’s overall status in consumer
food choices, according to Brian Stevens, corporate manager of
pork procurement at Hormel Foods. Stevens says uniform raw materials
are critical to the success of the company’s consumerfriendly
innovations, such as exact weight product lines.
“We have to promote these new technologies
and new types of products to promote pork for the good of the industry,” says
Stevens. Stevens admits he is often bombarded by comments that
his company’s premium target is too narrow. But without raw
material uniformity, Stevens says it is difficult to compete with
other protein sources, such as chicken. When someone looks to purchase
chicken breasts, Stevens explains, they know they’ll get “roughly
the same size, color and taste” every time they purchase.
Achieving uniformity with pork allows retailers to create “a
very attractive destination” for consumers looking to select
the next meal.
 Hormel
Foods recently started a big push to market an exact weight product
line of pork chops, loin filets and center loins. Exact weight
products are not only attractive for consumers, but also for retailers.
Stevens says pork products that are packaged, priced and ready
to go on the shelf eliminate the need for back room handling and
allow retailers swift, “just in time” filling of expensive
retail space. “In the pork industry, keeping that case full
is important,” says Stevens.
“How can you afford not to use FAST?” – Brian
Stevens
Stevens makes the case that automatic sorting
could change what he sees when he visits Hormel Foods’ Exec
Makes the Case for Uniformity Hormel Foods’ loin line, processed
from pigs that are today mostly raised without auto sort technology.
Variation in loin eye size, from four to ten square inches, is
not uncommon, according to Stevens. He tells of a recent visit
to the loin line that took just two minutes to find samples from
each end of the size spectrum. Those swings in raw materials are
extremely inefficient because chops have to be cut at different
thicknesses to create exact weight products, according to Stevens.
That’s why Hormel Foods waves a 17 percent incentive before
producers for hitting their ideal weight window or “Red Box.” Pigs
that hit the Red Box earn an average of 105.01 percent of the base
price, compared with 88.01 percent for pigs out of the box. That
17 percent is worth over $12 per hundredweight, according to Stevens.
Stevens says automatic sorting technology helps
producers deliver more uniform loads of pigs. He cites a Minnesota
producer who puts nearly 11 percent more pigs in the Red Box in
barns with sorting equipment versus traditional barns. That translates
to $5.70 more earned per pig in automatic sorting facilities. With
results like that, Stevens asks, “How can you afford not
to use FAST?”
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here to learn more about Farmweld Automatic Sorting Technology
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