The feedlot’s former operation was to raise cattle for purchase and slaughter. Now the facility, newly named S.T. The Ohio Feedlot, will raise and breed heifers to be sent to foreign countries, owner Maurice Rosenstein said. The breeding process will involve about 5,000 heifers at a time, which after 60 days will be shipped overseas to countries such as Turkey, Russia and India.
“We have contracts for 20,000 (head) in the next 12 months,” Rosenstein said. “This brings many dollars of foreign money into our country.”
With cattle transport quarantines lifting, demand for heifers overseas is high, he said. “These developing countries have a lot of money and want to build their milk base — it’s a cheap way of bringing protein to their people.”
The transfer of the business permit, once approved by the state, will be good news for area farmers who will continue to supply the operations, said Kevin Elder, executive director of livestock permitting program at the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The market value of cattle breeding versus cattle raised for slaughter is also higher, he said.
The feedlot will purchase as many Ohio cattle as it can before it purchases from surrounding states, Rosenstein said. That, too, will benefit local dairy farms.
Rosenstein expects annual revenue to exceed $30 million.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0347 or kmori@coxohio.com.
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