Major growth predicted in next 10 years Six years ago, the Kaua’i Cattlemen’s Association was dormant and the island’s cattle industry looked like it was on its last leg. Today, the association’s membership has jumped from seven to 27 members,
Major growth predicted in next 10 years
Six years ago, the Kaua’i Cattlemen’s Association was dormant and the island’s cattle industry looked like it was on its last leg.
Today, the association’s membership has jumped from seven to 27 members, thousands of acres of former cane lands could be used for ranching, and a handful of ranchers, sensing market demand, are trying to bring back lean, grass-fed beef commonly bought by Hawai’i residents 40 years ago.
The signs all point to an industry that stands to grow in the future and give a boost to Kaua’i’s economy through jobs and a marketable product, say industry leaders.
“I can guarantee you in 10 years, you will not recognize the cattle industry on Kaua’i. It will be bigger and better,” said Bobby Ferreira, president of the Kaua’i Cattlemen’s Association.
Corky Bryan, president of the Hawai’i Cattlemen’s Council, representing ranchers statewide, said the future of Kauai’s cattle industry looks bright because of the island’s abundance of water and because of the potential availability of former cane fields for grazing.
Membership in the cattle association dropped in the early 1990s because members “gave up” on their hopes of acquiring choice lands, Ferreira said. With the sugar industry still going strong, ranchers were left with only lower-grade gulleys and hillsides for cattle grazing, he said.
The situation changed in the favor of ranchers with the closing of McBryde Sugar Co. in the 1990s and the shutdown of Lihu’e Plantation and Kekaha Sugar last November. More than 40,000 acres of former canefields, including state land leased for cane cultivation, were freed up for cattle grazing and farmers, ranchers say.
The time to use those lands for diversified farming and ranching is now, said Bill Spitz, an economic development specialist with the Kaua’i County Office of Economic Development.
“We need near-term utilization of the land, and cattle is one of those things that we could do quickly,” Spitz said.
Cattle grazing would also boost the island’s visitor industry, according to Spitz.
“Visitors will see cute cattle. It is an orderly, purposeful use of the land,” he reasoned.
Duane Shimogawa, a longtime rancher and manager for Kipu Ranch, one of the oldest ranches on Kaua’i, benefitted from the closure of canefields on the eastern side of the island.
With $200,000 in 1997, he and his 76-year-old father, “Stoop” Shimogawa, leased 1,000 acres in east Kaua’i from Grove Farm Co. and started A’akukui Ranch. Now, the younger Shimogawa said, he sells 4,000 pounds of grass-fed beef a week to Ishihara Market in Waimea, Thrifty-Mart stores in Kaumakani, Kekaha and Puhi, and other outlets.
With his grown daughter, Duane Shimogawa said he is about to enter an agreement with Grove Farm to lease another 2,000 acres near his current ranch to raise more grass-fed cattle.
Ferreira, a ranch manager for the Kipu Kai Ranch on the eastern coastline of Kaua’i, said he also is planning to lease 1,000 acres in Haiku from Grove Farm for his Olumau Angus Plus Ranch,
Up until the late1950s and early 1960s, Hawai’i residents consumed only meat from cows that were fed grass. Eventually a feed lot opened on Oahu where locally grown cattle were fattened up, slaughtered, processed and sold, according to Nils Morita, a representative of the state Department of Agriculture. He said the feed lot was eventually closed because it was no longer economically feasible.
Currently, nearly 95 percent of all the cattle grown on Kaua’i are fed grass and, at 400 pounds, are shipped to pastures in the U.S. mainland and then to feed lots for fattening. Cattle that weigh 500 pounds also are sent to feed lots for fattening.
When the cattle reach a marketable weight, they are slaughtered and processed for sale.
Hawai’i produced nearly 40 million pounds of beef for local consumption and export last year, up from 38 million in1999, Morita said, although nearly 60 million pounds was produced in 1992.
The weight of individual cattle is lower today because they have only been fed grass and have not been fattened with grain before shipment to the mainland, Morita said.
No breakdown for Kaua’i was available.
Shimogawa, Ferreira, Lincoln Ching, a board member of the Kaua’i Cattlemen’s Association, and a few other ranchers among the 100 on Kaua’i got involved with grass-fed cattle because they felt the product would help meet local demands.
Kaua’i County Councilman Daryl Kaneshiro said he raises grass-fed cattle on his 300-acre ranch in O’mao because “I think grass-fed cattle is better for consumers.”
Consumers in Hawai’i and on the mainland buy grass-fed beef because it is less fatty than grain-fed beef and because “more people are conscious of their health,” Kaneshiro said.
Ching said the “market is changing” and “we are trying to develop this market.”
With the help of the Kaua’i County Office of Economic Development, the Kaua’i association secured a $20,000 grant for a study on grass-fed beef markets and the construction of a cattle processing plant, Kaneshiro said.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
