Following the only case of mad cow disease that was discovered in the U.S. last December, US beef producer Creekstone Farms has said it is losing some $200,000 a day because Japan has stopped importing the Black Angus beef produced by the company.

Bill Fielding chief operating officer of Creekstone Farms in Arkansas City, Kansas, said it isn’t the loss of the filet mignon business that is upsetting him, it’s the loss of the tongue business that his premium cattle brings. Creekstone’s tongue was bringing in $17 in Japan, while American wholesalers pay $3.50. Additionally, Mexico purchased stomachs and Russia bought liver for 30¢, items that go for 8¢ domestically.

As a result of the losses, Fielding has had to lay off 45 of its 750 workers and reduce the plant's production time to one or two days a week. With assurances that Japanese buyers would become active in the market again if his beef was tested for mad cow disease, Fielding built a laboratory just five feet from the overhead chain that carries skinned animals through his plant. His staff was trained to test for mad cow disease using equipment that gives results in just seven hours while the carcasses are still in the cooler.

On April 9, however, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered Creekstone to stop testing young steers saying there was no “scientific justification” for testing such young animals. USDA said that such testing might confuse the U.S. consumer into believing that “untested” beef was not safe.

Fielding has threatened to sue the USDA stating that all he wants to do is satisfy customers in Japan that his meat is safe. He also accused the USDA of bending to the will of the major meat packers that control some 80% of the business. Fielding has spent 25 years running packing divisions of Cargill, ConAgra and Farmland Industries. He has also served as chairman of the American Meat Institute, the trade group for the American slaughterhouse industry. With this background, Fielding said he understood packers and claimed that they were exerting pressure on the USDA.

Fielding estimated Creekstone’s losses by noting that the company slaughtered 1,000 head per day, and that exporting the premium meat and other parts, such as tongue, liver and stomachs, brought in $220 per steer. He noted that because the company can do a test that costs $20 per animal, $200,000 is slipping away, and the company’s longevity is at risk. J. Patrick Boyle, current president of the American Meat Institute which represents large and small slaughterhouses, said in a written statement that the AMI did not urge the USDA to respond to Creekstone’s efforts either negatively or positively. Jan Lyons, president of the National Cattlemen’s Association, which represents some 27,000 cattle ranchers, strongly argued that Creekstone’s testing should be stopped, suggesting that testing of such animals can be compares to testing children in kindergarten for Alzheimer’s disease.

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