Related Party Transactions	3 Months Ended
Related Party Transactions	Mar. 31, 2012
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]
Related Party Transactions	15. Related Party Transactions National Beef enters into transactions with an affiliate of NBPCo Holdings, LLC ("NBPCo Holdings") and U.S. Premium Beef, LLC ("USPB"), owners of redeemable noncontrolling interests in National Beef. For the three month 2012 period, sales to and purchases from the affiliate of NBPCo Holdings were $45,632,000 and $10,633,000, respectively, which the Company believes are based upon prevailing market prices on terms that could be obtained from an unaffiliated party. National Beef has entered into a cattle supply agreement with USPB pursuant to which National Beef has agreed to purchase through USPB from the members of USPB 735,385 head of cattle per year (subject to adjustment), based on pricing grids furnished by National Beef to the members of USPB. National Beef believes the pricing grids are based on terms that could be obtained from an unaffiliated party. During the three month period ended March 31, 2012, National Beef obtained 20% of its cattle requirements through USPB. At March 31, 2012, amounts due from and payable to these related parties were not significant.

The entire disclosure for related party transactions, including the nature of the relationship(s), a description of the transactions, the amount of the transactions, the effects of any change in the method of establishing the terms of the transaction from the previous period, stated interest rate, expiration date, terms and manner of settlement per the agreement with the related party, and amounts due to or from related parties. If the entity and one or more other entities are under common ownership or management control and this control affects the operating results or financial position, disclosure includes the nature of the control relationship even if there are no transactions between the entities. Disclosure may also include the aggregate amount of current and deferred tax expense for each statement of earnings presented where the entity is a member of a group that files a consolidated tax return, the amount of any tax related balances due to or from affiliates as of the date of each statement of financial position presented, the principal provisions of the method by which the consolidated amount of current and deferred tax expense is allocated to the members of the group and the nature and effect of any changes in that method. Examples of related party transactions include transactions between (a) a parent company and its subsidiary; (b) subsidiaries of a common parent; (c) and entity and its principal owners; and (d) affiliates.

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