Who says the Dem brand won’t sell in South Dakota? Not New Angus, which is ready to reopen the notorious Northern Beef Packers slaughterhouse next month:
A beef kill plant in Aberdeen, S.D., plans to reopen in early November and will market its products under a new name —- DemKota Ranch Beef.
Doug Cooper, CEO of New Angus LLC, and Keith DeHaan, the company’s president, confirmed to Agweek they are actively buying cattle in a 250-mile radius — South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota and northwest Nebraska [Mikkel Pates, “Aberdeen, S.D., Beef Plant to Open in Early November,” AgWeek, 2015.10.16].
DemKota Ranch Beef—that sounds like a good name for a progressive cowboy blog. But New Angus had lawyer Troy Leonard of Woods Fuller Shultz and Smith register DemKota as a trademark 86771165 on September 28 and DemKota Ranch Beef as trademark 86772558 on September 29.
New Angus CEO Doug Cooper says New Angus will start slowly:
Cooper says the company will start slaughter at a rate to make sure they can “do it well, and repeated.” He says the plant will start at 25 head per week, and advance to 500 within several weeks. They expect to be at more than 750 per day by the second quarter of 2016. The capacity of the plant is 1,500 head per day [Pates, 2015.10.16].
Come on, Coop! The election is coming up! We need that Dem brand out there in front of every consumer by next November! Let’s run those cattle through the grinder and get that label out there!
(Unless of course this is all just a clever ruse by the Republicans behind the GOED/EB-5 scandal to restart the plant, crank out rotten beef, go bankrupt again, and make people associate their failed beef plant with the Dem brand….)
Update 08:30 CDT: Right under its New Angus headline, Aberdeen American News front-pages the news that cattle prices are slumping:
“It’s been a tough fall (in the cattle market), but we’re looking for prices to rebound,” Steve Hellwig of Hub City Livestock in Aberdeen said. “The market has been brutal, and there has been a lot of loss.”
…Hellwig said the low price for fat cattle last week was around $1.20 a pound. For yearlings, a 900-pound steer would bring in the range of $1.75 to $1.80 per pound, he said. Last year at this time, a 925-pound steer brought $2.44 a pound. In other words, cattle producers are getting $500 to $600 less per head [Connie Sieh Groop, “Ranchers Wary of Slumping Market,” Aberdeen American News, 2015.10.17].
Steve Hellwig is a son of Dennis Hellwig, who was the prime mover of Northern Beef Packers back in 2006, before NBP became the great EB-5 twinkle in Joop Bollen’s eyes.
Dem-Kota Ranch Beef sounds like a photo spread in BlueBoy Magazine. (think She Bop by Cyndi Lauper) At least the song was fun. :)
Nearly 40 years ago when I first started feeding cattle with FIL,a 1200 pound steer was lucky to get a 60 cent/lb offer. When I had to quit feeding cattle after 31 years,we had never received more than a dollar/lb offer on even heavier steers or heifers,for that matter.
I guess the plant in Windom could see the writing on the wall. Demkota, will kill 25 head in a $250 gazzillion dollar plant, not that much different than your small town locker plants will do. We Grow would be a perfect setting for this albatross to land on that would steadily employ more workers and maintain a much higher profit for those who get going with it. The State of South Dakota could and should tax the place and that would bring a relief to our shitty roads and infrastructure. Teachers would be paid as the professionals they are, the standard of living would rise, cannabis is the tide that raises all boats.
Sounds like a really mediocre name to me. Too much like “dem damn Kotans”.
Even something prosaic like “Yum…Kota” would be better.
And, the obvious question for me is, how much in state and federal low interests loans, grants, subsidies etc. will this new plant be receiving?
“Dems. It’s what’s for dinner.”
I bet PP, TJ buy it by the freezer full. LOL
^^^ to clarify: TJ= Troy Jones, not Tim Johnson :-)
Their math is questionable when they can’t get the mileage right. 250 to northwest Nebraska? If they can’t buy at home it doesn’t stand a chance competing with big packers and the feedlots they own and private feedlot concentrations nearby.
Depends on how they position the brand in the market, Les. Maybe they could recycle a couple of my L&S friends’ ideas and call it “MarsMeat” and “Drivin’Jerkey.” LOL
Mr. Fleming has a dandy slick marketing plan just waiting for the right moment for the Capitalist in him to put down the salad fork. I’m just sayin…
Roger, Ag Sec. Lucas Lentsch pointed out in the article that New Angus has received no state support. I would say that the state should take the position that it has already sunk far more than enough state and EB-5 assistance into creating this alleged asset and should never again sink tax dollars into the plant. No more Future Fund investments, no workforce training reimbursements, no sales tax refunds, no TIFs, nothing. New Angus/DemKota should now sink or swim on its own merits.
Bill, have you ever created a brand name? Can you think of any root words or associated sounds from which New Angus might have drawn the “Dem” syllable for their brand? What does “Dem” add to the message/feelings that this brand name is supposed to convey?
The name conveys that the Democrat party tanked the beef plant and is responsible for E-B5.
very odd. is that a word(s)?
perhaps DEMKOTA is a blatant stick in the eye at rounds and daugaard for their “assistance” (joop and his merry band) getting NBP up and running into bankruptcy the first time? perhaps they could be interviewed about the new operation?
I have worked there, n tell u honestly a lot of people are “come n go”. Management on the floor is poor, they will work u like a machine. Like a freakin army..