Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 9, 1994                   TAG: 9410180013
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BIRDS STOMP STATE'S STEERS AS TOP DOGS

Angus, Herefords, Charolais and mongrel beef cattle still rule the farmlands of Southwest Virginia, but broilers, grown mainly in the Shenandoah Valley, have replaced beef as Virginia's top cash-generating farm product.

To understand how significant an event this is, one must be aware that for the entire 38 years that state sales records have been kept, beef cattle held the top spot.

Somewhere along the line, before record keeping began, tobacco probably generated the most cash; but when and if that was ever the case cannot be documented, says Robert Bass, state statistician with the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service.

The production of beef cattle is a cyclical business. After several years of prosperity, the marketing of cattle dropped last year and so did the price. According to Bass, 654,000 head of cattle were sold in Virginia in 1993, compared with 716,000 head the year before.

By comparison, Virginia broiler production increased roughly 3 percent between 1992 and 1993 from 238.2 million birds to 244.4 million. That's a lot of chicken -1 billion pounds in 1992, jumping to 1.12 billion pounds last year.

As chicken numbers increased so did prices, from 31.5 cents per pound to 33 cents, according to Bass.

So with cattle numbers and prices dropping at the same time that chicken numbers and prices were rising, the flight by broilers to the top of the Virginia agriculture pecking order is not so surprising.

Broilers accounted for 17.9 percent of the $2.11 billion in Virginia farm cash receipts last year. Cattle were second at 16.1 percent, milk third at 13.4 percent and tobacco fourth at 8.7 percent.

This past spring and summer, in a development that may ensure the continued decline of beef in Virginia vis-a-vis chickens, beef cattle prices stampeded over a cliff and fell to their lowest levels in years. The price of steers is down about 15 cents a pound this year compared with last, and the price of heifers is down roughly 20 cents per pound.

For example, a 450-pound steer that was selling for around $1.15 a pound in 1993 is bringing only 90 cents a pound today.

Clarence Tardy, a producer of registered Angus cattle in Rockbridge County, took 233 calves to market last week and found the price an average of 14 cents a pound less than he received last year.

Tardy doesn't see the rise of chickens as a threat to the cattle industry, however. The fall of beef prices is just a matter of supply and demand, he said. He does worry that younger farmers may find it harder to stay in business with the lower prices.

"Beef is still the premier meat; there are a lot of steak houses around," Tardy said.

However, as a sign of the growing importance of the poultry industry in the state, WLR Foods Inc. has opened six large turkey houses in Rockbridge County during the past two years, in cooperation with local farmers who also raise beef cattle.

Rockbridge Extension Agent John Repair observes that raising poultry is a good complementary business for beef producers as the turkey manure can be used for cattle feed as well as fertilizer. The turkeys have provided a source of income that has allowed one farmer to bring his son into the business and another part-time cattle farmer to comfortably retire from his day job, Repair said.

Jim Johnson, a fieldman for the Virginia Cattlemen's Association in Daleville, said it will take a year or two for the cattle now in the production pipeline to be sold. As cattlemen cut back on production in reaction to lower prices, the prices should eventually begin to rise.

It not clear if chicken's climb to the top of the state's farm commodity groups is due, at least in part, to a public perception that chicken is a more healthful food than beef. Johnson notes that both chicken and beef producers contribute a certain amount from their sales to promote the wholesomeness of their products.

"People are still eating a lot of beef," Johnson said. "We're just producing a whole lot more of it."