ST. LOUIS - As a five-decade livestock producer, Jim Farmer wants his son and two daughters to follow in his footsteps.

He hopes ready-to-eat beef - in a can - is the ticket.

Farmer has joined resources with about three dozen other beef producers, including his son and son-in-law, in creating a co-op that aims to turn 1,000 cattle a year into canned beef. Eventually, the co-op hopes to handle as much as 10 times that.

The specially built plant in Montgomery City, about 70 miles west of St. Louis, has begun production. Canned beef has hit the shelves in some Missouri stores, mostly in tiny towns.

To the investors from five Missouri counties, consumers get precooked beef on the go, perfect for outdoor enthusiasts from hikers to hunters and anglers to campers. Given its shelf life of two to five years, the farmers say, the canned beef can be left in tackle boxes or storm shelters.

In return, folks behind the Heartland Farm Foods Co-op say, participating farmers get a consistent market for their beef while satisfying pent-up demand for the kind of commodity that was commonplace decades ago, before refrigeration.

The co-op and its cannery are starting slowly, processing just five cows a week right now.

Each animal produces about 400 to 500 cans of federally inspected beef from cattle raised without steroid and hormone additives or routine antibiotics, the co-op's general manager said.

No water. No preservatives. And to Mark Uthlaut, no worries about safety, given that the pressure-cooking, sterilizing canning process rids each can and its contents of harmful bacteria.

Some retailers are asking $4.99 a can, a cost that Uthlaut knows could discourage some people.

It's unclear how much of an appetite such offerings actually attract - or how much consumers are willing to pay.