Most larger packing plants on the Front Range rely on high volumes, which may not be possible from a regional approach. But it's an idea that is working in the Yampa Valley near the resort town of Steamboat Springs, where local ranchers sell their beef to a processing plant in Craig, which then sells it to restaurants in Steamboat. The fledgling Rocky Mountain Beef cooperative in Delta and Montrose uses a processing and packing plant in Fruita, but is also still struggling to develop a local market. It is also looking at the feasibility of ranchers processing their own meat on-site, rather than relying on a larger processing plant, Club 20's Broome said. Its main potential here is for environmental remediation to improve soil that is high in selenium.
Selenium is a naturally occurring heavy metal that is common in the dry soils of western Colorado.
The focus of the study is whether kenaf could be rotated with other crops to cut down on the selenium level, which could make the soil more productive and reduce selenium runoff into streams, which is a problem for downstream water users. Pearson will present the findings of his three-year study at the Third Annual Kenaf Society meeting in Fruita in late February. Again, it's an iffy proposition for Western Slope farmers because of market needs. As a research agronomist, I was asked whether it could be grown here, but there are marketing, transportation and processing considerations. The same is true for sugar beets, for which Pearson sees more potential in this region.