NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
December 9, 1999
Harlan Hughes, Extension Livestock Economist
NDSU Extension Service
This is the season for beef educational meetings. These meetings provide a key opportunity for producers to learn about trends and developments in the industry that can impact their operations.
I spent this last week participating in three educational programs in four different states: the Bovine Connection for Profit in Sidney, Mont., the South Dakota Cattlemen's Association Annual Convention in Pierre, S.D., and the Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association Annual Convention in Bloomington, Minn. One major benefit of participating is that I learn right along with the producers.
In this Market Advisor, I'll highlight three of the presentations given at the Bovine Connection program in Sidney.
Bob Bellows, a USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist at the Fort Keogh Lab in Miles City, Mont., outlined how research during the last 30 years has benefitted the livestock industry. Some highlights that I felt were of specific note included research showing the merits of semen sexing, development of pregnancy testing with ultrasound and nutrition research designed to reduce the amount of harvested feeds fed.
Bellows defined genetics as fitting cows to the environment and pointed out how expected progeny differences (EPDs) have advanced the management of genetics. He went on to indicate that research suggests that as birth weight goes above 82-85 pounds, calving problems start increasing at an increasing rate. He also shared with the group that beef cow producers can influence the number of cows that calve in the daytime through feed timing. He also noted that calves born from cows with short calving labor periods grew better than calves born from cows with longer calving labor periods. Nutrition does impact a cow's labor period.
I was next on the program and discussed the last 10 years of Integrated Resource Management (IRM). I reviewed how the IRM Standardized Performance Analysis (IRM-SPA) came into being through the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. In this last10 years with IRM we have seen some good times and some tough times in the cattle industry. As promised, we have practiced IRM in North Dakota for one full 10-year cattle cycle.
During this period, we learned that if beef producers want to know where money is earned in the farm or ranch business, they need to divide the farm or ranch into profit centers and treat each profit center as a stand-alone business. We learned how to separate and calculate economic returns, costs and cash flows associated with the beef cow profit center.
We learned that ranchers have to weigh calves to measure herd performance. Ranchers need to count cows on bull turn-out date and on Jan. 1 of each year to measure inventory change. We learned that beef farmers and ranchers have to measure production costs to actually manage production costs. We learned that to manage production costs a manager needs to measure costs by hundredweight of calf produced and not by cow. We learned that you budget your inputs on a per-cow basis and measure results on a per-hundredweight-of-calf basis. We also learned that comparing your herd's production and economic factors against a set of benchmark herds is the single most powerful ranch management tool available, bar none!
A copy of my full paper entitled "Some Things that North Dakota Learned from a Decade of Integrated Resource Management" is available from my secretary Paulann at 701-231-7393 or on my Web page at www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/cow/ under the "past Market Advisors" hot button.
Jane Boles, assistant professor of animal range science at Montana State University, shared some of her considerable experiences with beef production systems in some competing countries. Boles has worked in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Boles indicated that Canadian cattle production is very similar to that in the United States. Growing practices are very similar, making the beef raised in Canada very, very close to that raised in the United States. The Canadian cattle herd is approximately 12. 6 million head (verses a 99.5 million U.S. herd). The average Canadian beef cow herd is 45 head with many small cattle herds. Canada feeds 3.2 million cattle each year, producing 3 billion pounds of beef. Canada has 1.3 percent of the world's cattle inventory and produces 2 percent of the world's beef supply. Canada exports 53 percent of their total beef produced with the largest proportion (89 percent) going to the United States. The United States is Canada's largest beef customer, and Canada is the third largest beef customer for U.S. beef.
The main difference between the new Canadian and U.S. grading systems is the name used. In 1998, Canadian Prime was added to allow for competition with the higher quality U.S. beef.
Turning to New Zealand, Boles noted that the beef industry there is based on a national herd of about 5 million cattle. Beef cattle production systems are pasture based, and the steers and bulls are all grass fed. Most steers are slaughtered at 27 to 34 months of age at an average 1250 pound live weight. The dairy industry contributes 53 percent of the beef produced.
Approximately 85 percent of New Zealand's beef is exported and accounts for 7 to 8 percent of the world's beef exports. North America is the main destination for three fourths of all production. Beef exports to North America are usually manufacturing beef in frozen form.
Australian cattle numbers total almost 25 million head with the majority of the cattle raised and fattened on natural pastures. Grass-fed beef is lean and is favored by some Australian consumers because it is seen as healthy, low in fat and more flavorful. In Australia, the grain fed beef market is more of a specialty market. Animals are fed a high-energy ration for 70 days or less for the local market. Cattle are fed a high-energy ration for 400 days for the Japanese market.
Australia has 2.6 percent of the world's cattle and supplies 20 percent of the world's beef exports. Australian beef is exported to over 100 countries making Australia the largest and most successful red meat exporter in the world.
Boles offers an interesting note on country of origin labeling. She says that there is a perception that the inconsistency in the U.S. meat supply is caused by imported product. This theory might be accurate if the imported product was being used for table cuts; however, it is not. The majority of beef imported from countries like New Zealand and Australia is used in the United States for processing. Imports are necessary to get the lean trim necessary in the manufacturing of processed meat products. Boles suggests that countries like New Zealand and Australia would like to label their products in the U.S. market. Producers there believe in the quality and consistency of their product and would like to see country-of-origin labels. Boles' complete paper is available from Paulann, my secretary, at 701-231-7393.
Future Market Advisors will discuss other presentations. Stay tuned.
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Source: Harlan Hughes (701) 231-7380
Editor: Tom Jirik (701) 231-9629