JBS USA has opened a 12,000 square-foot buying station in Denver, Pa. According to LancasterOnline.com, the company is leasing space where Goods Livestock buys hogs and operates a livestock truck wash.
"This opens up the door to smaller and medium-size operations to work directly with the plant," said Curtis McFadden, the main buyer for JBS.
Previously, working directly with the packer was an option only for larger farms that could send the packer a full semitrailer load of cattle at a time. Most farms in Lancaster County have an average herd size of 60 to 75 animals, and many dairy farms produce only a few slaughter cattle at a time.
McFadden said he believes the facility is one of the first packer-run buying stations in the region, though JBS has opened other buying stations near its processors in the Midwest.
The buying station will take finished Holstein and beef steers, bulls and cull cows. The cattle will then be sent to the JBS slaughterhouse in Sauderton, Pa.
