Producers use complex measuring system

Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007

A consumer sees milk in gallons and buys meat by the pound, but producers live in a different world.

"We buy milk by the hundredweight," said Dub Garlington, president of Plains Dairy in Amarillo. "There's roughly 8.6 pounds per gallon. Low fat would be a little heavier, about 8.9 pounds, because water is heavier than fat."

That means when a dairy farmer is paid $15 for 100 pounds of milk, that money is buying about 11.6 gallons at $1.29 per gallon.

The origins of the different measurements are not clear.

"For the 35 years I've been doing this, it has been that way," Garlington said.

According to information from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the practice far outdates the American dairy industry.

Since at least 1400, Britain has used the hundredweight which in Britain is actually equal to 112 pounds. But at least that makes it closer to the weight of competing units of other countries, such as the German zentner and the French quintal.

Selling by the hundredweight is also a tradition in the beef industry.

"The price is on a per-pound basis, but what most of us do is talk about price per hundred," said Jim Gill market director for Texas Cattle Feeders Association.

"When a packer sells his beef, it is usually quoted on a dollar-per-hundred-weight basis. I think one reason is a semi load is supposed to be 40,000 pounds, so that makes figuring pretty simple."

Size also confuses the pricing picture.

When a packer buys a steer from a feedlot for $95 per hundred weight, comparable to 95 cents per pound, it is buying a 1,000 pound animal making the price $950 per head. But that is not the same as 1,000 pounds of steak.

"The yield varies, but generally, it is 63.5 or 64.5 percent," Gill said. "What that means is you end up with 630 to 640 pounds of meat. That's bone in but hide and offal off."

So the packer's $950 went for what ends up as byproducts and 640 pounds of meat.

Measuring food

While grocery shoppers usually buy vegetables and fruits and other food by the pound, box or jar, food dealers operate in a different world.

On the wholesale market, prices for grain are expressed in bushels, or for every 2,150.42 cubic inches, according to the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. That compares to a bag of flour or loaf of bread.

Other wholesale measurements include:

Snap beans in a bushel weighing between 28 and 32 pounds;

Cabbage in bags weighing 50 pounds;

Sweet corn in cartons weighing 50 pounds;

Potatoes in cartons weighing 100 pounds.

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