PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2013

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment Disclosure [Text Block]

6. PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

     Property, plant and equipment (“PP&E”), net consisted of the following:

	March 31, 2013			December 30, 2012
	(In thousands)
Land	$	63,772		$	63,788
Buildings		1,083,257			1,081,059
Machinery and equipment		1,509,726			1,498,280
Autos and trucks		59,088			58,526
Construction-in-progress		55,170			47,927
PP&E, gross		2,771,013			2,749,580
Accumulated depreciation		(1,589,495	)		(1,559,659	)
PP&E, net	$	1,181,518		$	1,189,921

     The Company recognized depreciation expense of $33.8 million and $31.9 million during the thirteen weeks ended March 31, 2013 and March 25, 2012, respectively.

During the thirteen weeks ended March 31, 2013, the Company sold certain PP&E for cash of $1.7 million and recognized net gains on these sales of $1.1 million. PP&E sold in 2013 included a vehicle maintenance center in Texas and miscellaneous equipment. During the thirteen weeks ended March 25, 2012, the Company sold certain PP&E for cash of $3.1 million and recognized net losses on these sales of $0.9 million. PP&E sold in 2012 included various broiler and breeder farms in Texas and miscellaneous processing equipment.

     During the thirteen weeks ended March 31, 2013 and March 25, 2012, the Company also scrapped certain unused or obsolete PP&E and recognized net losses of approximately $18,000 and $0.8 million, respectively.

Management has committed to the sale of certain properties and related assets, including, but not limited to, processing plants and an office building, which no longer fit into the operating plans of the Company. The Company is actively marketing these properties and related assets for immediate sale and believes a sale of each property can be consummated within the next 12 months. At March 31, 2013 and December 30, 2012, the Company reported properties and related assets totaling $26.8 million and $27.0 million, respectively, in the line item Assets held for sale on its Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. For the thirteen weeks ended March 25, 2012, the Company recognized impairment expense of $1.3 million on certain of these assets. The Company did not recognize any impairment expense for the thirteen weeks ended March 31, 2013.

As part of the exit or disposal activities discussed in “Note 13. Exit or Disposal Activities,” the Company closed or idled various processing complexes, processing plants, hatcheries and broiler farms throughout the U.S. Neither the Board of Directors nor JBS USA has determined if it would be in the best interest of the Company to divest any of these idled assets. Management is therefore not certain that it can or will divest any of these assets within one year, is not actively marketing these assets and, accordingly, has not classified them as assets held for sale. The Company continues to depreciate these assets. At March 31, 2013, the carrying amount of these idled assets was $59.7 million based on depreciable value of $155.1 million and accumulated depreciation of $95.4 million.

The Company last tested the recoverability of its long-lived assets held and used in December 2012. At that time, the Company determined that the carrying amount of its long-lived assets held and used was recoverable over the remaining life of the primary asset in the group and that long-lived assets held and used passed the Step 1 recoverability test under ASC 360-10-35, Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets. There were no indicators present during the thirteen weeks ended March 31, 2013 that required the Company to test its long-lived assets held and used for recoverability.