Livestock Processing and Marketing in the US

The term meat packing originated in colonial times from the practice of salting and packing pork in wooden barrels for storage or shipment to Europe. Colonial meat shops were the first retail meat markets. As cities grew, small packing plants were established. Animals were often driven on hoof from the production areas to railroad heads, often moved by rail to large terminal livestock markets.

Transportation and refrigeration contributed to the development of the market industry. Packing plants were built in large cities so that the highly perishable meat products could be moved quickly to the consumer. Before the advent of mechanical refrigeration, slaughter and processing were limited to the winter season, except in areas where ice was available for storage in the summer months. In the United States the first mechanical refrigeration system was installed in a meatpacking plant in 1880, and the first refrigerated rail car was placed in service in the 1870s.

By the early 1900s large meat-packing plants were established in all the major cities of the United States. Chicago, with its geographic location in the centre of the corn belt and livestock production, was immortalised by the American poet Carl Sandburg as the “hog butcher for the world”. Livestock were collected and sold through large central markets, usually located adjacent to packing plants. The meat industry reached its peak in the early 1950s. Automation of the slaughter and processing operations replaced the need for a large labour force. Newly developed interstate highways and refrigerated truck and rail transportation enabled the long-distance transfer of perishable meat. In the 1960s irrigation changed the livestock industry in the Southwest, and large cattle feedlots were established in grain-growing areas. Consequently, the finishing of cattle is no longer concentrated in the Midwest but has spread over a much wider area of both the Southwest and Midwest.

Modern meat-packing plants are now located closer to the areas of livestock production because it is more economical and feasible to ship meat rather than to transport live animals. Often located in open country, most of these plants are highly specialised. Some produce only dressed carcasses from one type of animal. With the relocation of packing plants near the source of livestock production, most livestock are now sold by the producer directly to the packing plant rather than to brokers.

The retail meat business has also moved from the local butcher shop to modern self-service supermarkets. Many retail chain facilities receive packaged meats from processing plants for distribution to local supermarkets, but many supermarkets still have butchers who do cutting and packaging.