The Cattle Express?

Got to thinking about how the railroads could be used to get huge quantities of livestock to the remaining open meat factories. Of course, to my knowledge, stock cars bit the dust a while back. So, what railroad cars could be used to transport herds to these plants? How about unused autorack cars? They're open, have ways to ramp the stock into them. Probably wouldn't be able to get directly there.

Could we see the resurgence of livestock trains? The Bacon Express?

Funny you mention this. I just ran the "Armour Run" session of Philskene's Rivercide Railroad Co Route. The session is by lewiscc65 and a cattle run to Armour meats is a part of the session. Had to chuckle when the cattle cars were unloaded.

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Plants are closing because of covid-19. Which leaves a lot of local farms no other choice but to euthanize if they can't make room. I suppose they could have large convoys of livestock trucks moving to the next nearest slaughtering plant, but just thought railroads might be used for longer distances.

Autoracks were the first thought. And just think what a bigger boon for the pickup market it would be if they smelled like they just came off the cattle drive! (When things start picking back up again, of course.)

crazytrain said:

Plants are closing because of covid-19. Which leaves a lot of local farms no other choice but to euthanize if they can't make room. I suppose they could have large convoys of livestock trucks moving to the next nearest slaughtering plant, but just thought railroads might be used for longer distances.

Autoracks were the first thought. And just think what a bigger boon for the pickup market it would be if they smelled like they just came off the cattle drive! (When things start picking back up again, of course.)

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Yeah, and THAT is a BullSkeet excuse by "farmers"... It's not a matter of having room for the animals, it's about spending money to keep feeding an animal that is aging beyond its "prime" slaughter age .. (no one wants to eat an old moo-cow) .. Lets do the numbers, but we must start at the end.

Beef cattle sell for X dollars per "head", lets say for ease that X=$1,000.00 .. For the "farmer" to make $50.00 profit per "head" at sale time, they can spend NO MORE than $950.00 for Feed, Water, Medication, Insecticide, cost of Barn, cost of Land, cost of Employee wages, Taxes, etc., per "head" ...
...once that 950 is spent, we enter a "loss" situation. Killing the animal, and selling it off for other use, ie Pet Food, or simply disposing of the carcus is LESS of a "loss" (only X=$1,000.00), but if the animal is kept alive until slaughter/processing capacity is available (an "unknown" at this time) the "loss" begins to grow, and could potentially double ... only to provide then, an inferior meat product, that consumers will not want to buy, because no one wants to spend $35.00 for an "old, tough" Sirloin or PorterHouse steak ...
...The solution is for we the consumer, to re-learn what previous generations knew, and begin to "process" our own meat, groceries, etc. .. Instead of going to market and buying a "pan-ready" T-bone, go to the local butcher's shop and buy a Quarter or Half-steer and learn to cut the cuts one's self...which leads to the bigger issue at hand, which is that the general population has become lazy and entitled, just expecting to have someone else provide for their needs and have available for immediate consumption their every want. Imagine how many would complain if the only option was to buy dirty raw carrots and green beans, and have to wash them, and cut the ends off, then cook and season, rather than pop the top off a tin can and nuke them in the microwave.

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Yeah, don't get me wrong, I like meat, no matter how old the animal was, or for that matter, WHAT the animal was, I just have a real issue with the "farmer's" excuses for wasting a perfectly edible animal for the sake of reduced profit loss. I have no issue with mass production, or "factory farms", I get they have their need, to be able to feed 350 million Americans .. I just think it's sad that we, as humans, have gone so far down the path of being "consumers without having any skin in the game", so to speak, that we have created a situation that demands the waste of so much edible food-product ... I mean, I don't have the answer, but there has to be a better solution than just wasting all those lives to feed no-one.

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MP242 said:

There is a tremendous amount of livestock euthanized each day, as the USDA goes around taking blood samples from each and every farm monthly. Once confirmed in a lab, as being infected, the Sheriff (unannounced) shows up with a warrant, with a team of workers, with a backhoe, and fuel. And the entire herds are quickly euthanized, burried in an open pit on the property, and set on fire, and covered up after burning. Especially in Hogs, (but also chicken, beef, lamb etc, etc) the many airborne highly contagious farm diseases are always running completely rampad throughout the many centuries, throughout all time.

There have been over 20 human contagious pandemics in the last 200 years time, where millions of people have perished, it is nothing new, but this one is uncontrollable !

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Apples to Oranges... A diseased animal is not fit to eat, and should be culled ...our current situation is quite the opposite. These animals are completely edible, and just being killed and wasted because "profit margin".

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Sorry to inform you of this but cattle at the time of purchase by the packing companies is sold by what is termed a Hundredweight. Meaning that it is sold at so much for 100 pounds (cwt). a check of the price today (Jan 30,2021) Shows a closing price of $115 per cwt or in other words $1.15 per pound. And How does the farmer make a profit on that? Remember this I grew up on the Farm and I know well the difficulities of making a living on the land.

Stockcars in the US must have wood walls inside, cars must be washed and cows fed every 24hr. Most stockcars stopped being used in 1970.