Stockyards

Why are only dairy cows in the St. Paul, MN stockyard? What was the building in the background used for?

Answers:

• St. Paul stockyards, like so many other Midwestern ones, have largely stopped being important meat packing centers.
  Slaughter houses have moved to the West, where many very large feedlots are found. Today, dairy farmers bring their calves here to be sold to farmers who will raise them for veal or milk cows.
• The meat packing company (such as Swift and Armor) would buy livestock and then herd them up ramps to the slaughterhouse, shown in the background.

	While beef cattle production and slaughter has moved West, hog producers and slaughter has remained in Iowa with its relatively small farms.   The map uses unacceptable shading! Human geography students know better.
	The largest hog farms had 500 or more hogs. Source: http://www.ag.auburn.edu/agec/agec-archive-20050705/faculty/molnardir/agind.htm
Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 30 April 1996; last revised on 07 Dec 2010.