At U.S. Premium Beef, we take beef very seriously. Our Unitholders and Associates from 36 states share a belief that quality beef begins at the ranch and ends with satisfied consumers. They've made a commitment to select the right genetics and to use the best possible production practices--from the ranch to mealtime--to produce consistent, high-quality beef.This website will help you learn how you can join the more than 2,100 Associates of U.S. Premium Beef to earn greater profits for producing beef designed for today's consumers.U.S. Premium Beef continues to accept new producers who want to earn premiums for producing better quality beef.During fiscal year 2009, U.S. Premium Beef Unitholders and Associates earned an average of $30.95 per head over the cash market by selling their cattle through this unique producer-owned beef company. On top of that, our Unitholders and Associates have also realized more than $140 million in dividends and cash distributions derived primarily from the earnings of their processing company, National Beef Packing Company, LLC since USPB began operations in 1997.

Do you have an oh-so-bad craving for something chewy? Oberto Sausage Company has the answer: Its Oh Boy! meat snacks. The company manufactures more than 400 varieties of dried meat products, such as jerky (in beef, pork, and turkey versions), snack sausages. All these goodies are sold under the brand names Lowrey's Meat Snacks, Oh Boy! Oberto, Pacific Gold, and Smoke Craft. Oberto's products are available across the US and Canada in supermarkets, club and convenience stores. In 2009 the company ended its 10-year distribution agreement with Frito-Lay.

H.C. Brill Company, a subsidiary of global ingredients giant CSM, makes a wide variety of commercial bakery products, including frozen doughs and batters, icings and glazes, powdered and liquid fillings, whipped toppings, and frozen cakes. It also makes consumer products such as prepared mixes for bread, brownies, cakes, and puddings, as well as fruit-based glazes and fillings. Its products are available in some 25 countries. Brill took its present form in 2005 when CSM combined its three bakery-ingredient businesses -- H.C. Brill (which CSM had acquired in 2003), Baker & Baker, and Henry & Henry.

Begun in 1914 when seven Missouri farmers got together to buy binder twine, the agricultural cooperative MFA today ties together 45,000 farmers in Missouri and adjacent states. It is one of the US's oldest regional co-ops, supplying its member/owners with agronomy, distribution, financing, and purchasing services. It runs some 100 retail farm supply centers and works with independent dealers. MFA supplies animal feeds, seed, fertilizer, and crop protection products. In addition to feed, fertilizer, and seed, the co-op also provides its members with agronomy services, animal-health products, and farm supplies. It also offers marketing services, and is the publisher of Today's Farmer.

Farm Service Cooperative (FSC) offers a big bushel basket full of products and services to farmers in west central Iowa. The agricultural co-op offers its members such farm-management supplies and services as grain elevator operations, grain marketing, equipment rental, tires, livestock feed and fertilizer sales, soil sampling, on-staff crop advisors, farm credit and financing, agronomy, and Cenex energy products (diesel, home-heating oil, propane, ethanol, gasoline) from its 10 locations.

DPI Specialty Foods, DPI Specialty Foods Northwest supplies grocery retailers and foodservice operators with more than 5,500 different food and non-food items. It distributes a wide variety of specialty food products, including ethnic ingredients, gourmet products, and organic food items. DPI Specialty Foods Northwest supplies customers in the Pacific Northwest region and a small number of other western states. Parent DPI Specialty Foods is controlled by the Irish Dairy Board.

Sorbee International is a candy and confection company that develops, distributes and sells products worldwide under its own brand names: Sorbee® and EatRite BeFit™ and via license from Kraft under the brand names CRYSTAL LIGHT® and COUNTRY TIME®. Sorbee International, LLC Sorbee and EatRite BeFit brands include sugar free chocolate candies in many different varieties, sugar free hard candy in multiple flavors, sugar free black and red licorice, fruit chews (Sorbee Bursts®), sugar free lollypops, sugar free cookies in several different varieties and sugar free syrups in multiple flavors. The Company’s CRYSTAL LIGHT and COUNTRY TIME lines currently include a variety of well-known CRYSTAL LIGHT flavors contained in sugar free hard candy available in various package sizes, and non-sugarfree (i.e. traditional) lemonade hard candy which is also available in several different sizes. The Company’s products are distributed widely and can be found in grocery stores, convenience stores, mass marketers, chain drug stores, club stores, bulk suppliers and online at Sorbee.com. In April, 2008, Sorbee was acquired by Werther Partners, LLC, a New York based private equity firm specializing in the acquisition, management and operation of businesses in the food, confection and licensed products spaces. Dan Werther, principal of Werther Partners, has over 25 years of experience in operating consumer product businesses and is the company’s fulltime CEO. Sorbee International, LLC continues to occupy the location where it was started over 30 years ago. Sorbee’s management team includes a small group of highly dedicated professionals each with many years of service to the Company, all of whom are experts in the candy and confection industry.

Maple Leaf Foods makes hot dogs and the buns to put them in. The company is Canada's largest pork processor and produces fresh and processed pork and poultry products under its flagship Maple Leaf brand. Its agribusiness group raises swine and poultry and includes Canada's largest rendering operation, Rothsay. The company owns almost 90% of leading bakery business, Canada Bread, which produces fresh and frozen baked goods, pasta, and pasta sauces. Maple Leaf owns and operates 37 bakeries and 34 fresh and packaged meat plants. A branch of the McCain family owns 32% of Maple Leaf Foods' voting stock; the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan fund holds 33%.

Phillips Foods, Inc. was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Phillips Foods, Inc., a seafood company, owns and operates crab and seafood processing plants in the United States, Ecuador, Mexico, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. It offers various products, such as crab meat and cakes, seafood cakes, appetizers, soups, fish, shrimp, seasonings and sauces, and party packs for food service and retail markets. Phillips Foods company also operates seafood restaurants. It offers its products through grocery stores, as well as supplies to restaurants and hotels.

Ridley keeps Canadian cows happy. And other barnyard animals as well. The company is a leading maker of animal feed, premixes, feed ingredients, animal-healthcare products, and nutritional supplements for cattle, hogs, poultry, and other animals. It also manufactures animal-care and livestock handling equipment. The company's customers include cattle ranchers and dairy and poultry farmers in Canada and the US. Its brand names include Feed-Rite and Hubbard feeds, Ridley Feed Ingredients, and Sweetlix feed supplements. The investment company, Fairfax Financial Holdings, owns approximately 70% of Ridley.

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