<br>VFDs made serendipitous saving for beef processor
Beef Products Inc.'s five plants produce more than seven million pounds per week of boneless lean beef, much of it in fast-frozen 60-lb. blocks with fat and moisture content controlled.
"Despite today's prices, our energy costs are still less than 5 percent of our operating cost," reports Ron Yockey, president of Beef Products. "We are really focused on expanding our capacity, but we often are driven to address energy issues as a result of production capacity limits that we are working on, like a local limit to steam or water."