New technology: Iowa beef and the satellite network;

              A NEW TECHNOLOGY
Iowa Beef and he satellite network
by MAURICE L. McGILL/Partner Phots nix
Cattle buyer Wendell Hanson phones information from Held.
An undercover agent listening in
on an orbiting satellite fre-quenicy might first be puzzled by the following:
"Tel-Sat one, this is Tel-Sat base. How are ya, Bob? We need 15 choice-primes for Dakota City Here's the numbers. Choice-prime 3-4, 1,000-1,025 lbs., rated $69.75-70. Choice 2-4, 900-1,050 lbs., $67.50-69.50. Thanks, Bob. Catch ya later."
Such a transmission hasn't hap-pened yet, but it will. Incongruous as
it seems, the beef packing industry-with its images of crowded, noisy cattle yards and platoons of aproned meatcutters-is joining the space age. Tentatively, but surely, a communica-tions project is underway that may revolutionize an industry that has already seen considerable change in the past 20 years.
What is not so surprising is that Iowa Beef Processors, Inc., a firm responsible for many of those changes, is leading the revolution.
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