On a recent “Feeder Flash,” a daily video on cattle markets produced for a Nebraska auction house, commentator Corbitt Wall noted that the major meatpackers were bidding on very few cattle across Kansas that week.
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Take a look at the major players in the beef industry and how the beef on your table got from pasture to plate.
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ILLUSTRATION BY CHARLOTTE HIGGINS, THE WORLD-HERALD AND MATT HANEY, LEE ENTERPRISES
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Federal prosecutors say sanitation supervisors in a Grand Island plant knew that minors were hired to work dangerous jobs, often overnight, cleaning hazardous equipment in hot steam and standing in meat-filled water on the killing room floor.
WORLD-HERALD FILE PHOTO
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ILLUSTRATION BY MATT HANEY
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The JBS Foods beef plant in Grand Island.
KENNETH FERRIERA/THE WORLD-HERALD
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What does Nebraska sell? The state's biggest exports by value
1 - Beef
Beef Nebraska regularly leads the nation in beef exports. The state's cattle ranchers send more than $1 billion in beef overseas each year.
BRENDAN SULLIVAN/THE WORLD-HERALD
2 - Combine harvester-threshers
Combines Exports of combines edged out corn in 2017, with the state sending $431 million worth of combine harvesters overseas that year.
WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE
3 - Corn
Corn It should be no surprise that the Cornhusker state sells a lot of corn. In 2017, Nebraska exported $430 million worth of corn.
JON LEMONS/THE WORLD-HERALD
4 - Soybeans
Soybeans Along with corn, soybeans are the state's big crop. Altogether, Nebraska exported about half a billion dollars' worth of soybeans and soybean products in 2017.
WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE
5 - Natural gas
Natural gas Nebraska's natural gas exports fluctuate year to year, but it's consistently among the state's top exports. In 2017, the state exported $211 million worth of gas.
6 - pork
Pork Cattle is king in Nebraska, but producers like this family farm in Osmond, Nebraska, still export more than $350 million of pork products each year.
BRENDAN SULLIVAN/THE WORLD-HERALD
7 - Syringes
Syringes They may not seem like a Nebraska product, but the state exports more than $100 million in syringes each year. One reason? Medical technology company Becton Dickinson has multiple plants in Nebraska and employs about 2,500 people in the state.
KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD
4 - nuclear components
Nuclear parts Nebraska's main non-agriculture export is nuclear components, which totaled $920 million in 2019.
CODY WINCHESTER, THE WORLD-HERALD
6 - Miscellaneous chemicals
Miscellaneous chemicals Chemicals are among Nebraska's fastest-growing exports. The state sent $372 million worth overseas in 2019, a 403% increase from 2010.
BRENDAN SULLIVAN, THE WORLD-HERALD
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