down. we knew that to succeed in highly competitive low-margin business we had to develop a business model differ from that of our larger competitors. our vision was to create a unique alliance with cattle producers and link them with our customers who wanted a consistent supply of high-quality beef. at the time cattle were bought and sold in the cash market and brought the same price regardless of quality. there was an economic incentive for cattle producers to invest in genetics or to improve their feeding regimen to enhance the taste and tenderness of beef. we developed a pricing grid that pay premiums to cattle producers who could deliver higher quality animal than what we could buy in the cash market. our business model works. although we were a smaller company with high operating costs we could compete effectively with the larger hacker spirit in 1987 we were approached by by the u.s. pr, a group that today represents a network of 2400 cattle ranchers, ranchers, farmers
is over five hours. welcome everyone, i want to thank all of you for joining today s hearing. the committee will now come to order. after a brief opening remarks, members will receive testimony from our witnesses and then the hearing will be open to questions. good morning. i d like to make my opening statement and first i want to thank our house agriculture committee staff for pulling together this important and historic hearing. i want to thank each of my committee members and, of course, our witnesses. for appearing today before the committee. now, we are holding this very critical hearing to discuss cattle markets, concentration and the meatpacking industry. may i also remind everyone to mute yourselves and so we don t have noise interference. we are holding this critical hearing, very important, to discuss cattle markets, concentration in the meatpacking industry and allegations that the big four meatpackers have partaken in on practices that have driven down prices fo