Beef's Meaty Profits Slow Effort To Boost Antibiotic-Free Production

Oregon cattleman Gary Bailey says business at his ranch has thrived in recent years thanks to growing consumer hunger for meat produced without antibiotics.

But the 36-year-old has struggled in another role: recruiting fellow ranchers to leave the conventional beef market and join his rancher cooperative, Country Natural Beef, a supplier to Whole Foods Market Inc. Many of those conventional ranchers are already earning some of their biggest-ever profits.

“With a real strong market like that, there’s just no advantage to going to a natural program,” says Tim Knuths, 56, a Madras, Ore., rancher who has rebuffed Mr. Bailey’s entreaties.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: Wall Street Journal