Utility’s Annual Survey Shows
Plains Feedlots At Record High

AMARILLO — Almost seven million cattle were fed in Eastern New Mexico, the Oklahoma Panhandle and the Texas Panhandle and South Plains in 1997, according to the annual survey of a West Texas utility company.

"It looks like a record year," said Dave Krupnick with Southwestern Public Service Company.

The electric utility company released its annual fed cattle survey this summer. The 1998 survey, for calendar year 1997, covers feedyards and starter lots in the Southwestern Public Service area from Eastern New Mexico through West Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle into Southwestern Kansas.

The company serves 46 counties in parts of four states.

Broken down by county, the report shows 122 lots with a one-time capacity of 3,330,700 head of cattle in their service area. They fed 6,794,801 head in 1997. Some 107 feedyards had a one-time capapcity of 5000 head or more. There were 14 feedyards or starter lots with capacity under 5000 head.

The report shows yards with a total of 66,200 capacity in their New Mexico service area fed 102,000 head in 1997. Oklahoma feedyards in their service area had a total capacity of 362,000 head and fed 773,230 head. Texas feedyards with a total of 2,902,500 capacity fed 5,919,571 head of cattle in 1997.

Two 85,000 head feedyards were listed on the survey, Bar-G Feedyard in Castro County, Texas, and Stratford Feedyard in Sherman County, Texas.

Cactus Feeders in Moore County was listed as having a one-time capacity of 77,000 head. XIT Feeders in Hartley County reported a one-time capacity of 75,000 head. West Plains Feedyard in Parmer County had a one-time capacity of 70,000 head.

According to the SPS survey, the largest number of cattle were fed in Deaf Smith County, with a total of 1,019545 in 1997, followed by neighboring Parmer County with 589,124, Castro County with 669,477 head, and Hartley County with 413,000 head.

SPS showed 13 packing plants in the region with a total capacity of 5,476,000.

Four of the plants had an annual capacity of a million or more head. Iowa Beef Processors at Amarillo showed an annual capacity of 1,760,000 head. The Monfort Inc. plant in Moore County showed a capacity of 1,200,000. Excel Corporation's packing plant at Plainview showed a capacity of 1,100,000, and their plant at Friona showed a capacity of 1,000,000.

The Southwestern Public Service Survey shows 95 feedyards with 5000 head or more in their service area in Texas, three in New Mexico and 10 in Oklahoma. They also show 14 feedyards with less than 5000 head capacity, including starter lots.

The survey shows a steady increase in capacity over the last 10 years, from a one-time capacity of 2.76 million head in 1988 to 3.34 million in 1997.

The increased capacity is reflected in the number of cattle fed. There were 5.3 million fed in the region in 1988 compared to 6.27 million in 1993. There was a slight dip in 1994 to 6.24 million head of cattle fed, and in 1995, it dropped slightly again to 6.2 million, but in 1996 it bounced back up to a then-record 6.31 million head of cattle fed, which in turn was topped by 1997's 6.73 million head.