News Update
April 19, 2012
BIF Symposium Being Webcast Live
Those who can't attend the 44th Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Research Symposium & Annual Meeting April 18-20 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Houston, Texas, can watch a live webcast hosted by Liveauctions.tv at www.BIFconference.com. To view the webcast, viewers will need to sign in with a Liveauctions.tv username and password. If you do not have an account, you can sign up for one at www.BIFconference.com or http://liveauctions.tv.
The Thursday afternoon program will feature concurrent technical sessions of the Emerging Technologies Committee and joint session of the Cow Herd Efficiency and Selection Decisions committees. The latter will focus on some of the current industry discussion on feed efficiency and will be included in the webcast.
Ron Gill will host a stress-free cattle-handling demonstration Thursday evening at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds, beginning at 7 p.m.
Friday's general session, which begins at 8 a.m., will address what the National Beef Quality Audit means to different segments of the beef retail chain. Speakers will represent the cow-calf, feedlot, beef processor and retail segments. After the break, presenters will focus on epigenetics and fetal programming.
Three committees — Producer Applications; Live Animal Carcass and End Point; and Genetic Predictions — will host concurrent technical sessions to conclude the conference program. Angus Productions Inc. (API) will offer live coverage of the Producer Application session.
The symposium will include two awards luncheons. Thursday's luncheon featured the naming of the Commercial Producer of the Year; Roy Wallace Scholarship Award winners; and BIF Ambassador, Pioneer and Continuing Service Award winners. Friday's luncheon will feature the naming of the Seedstock Producer of the Year and the Frank Baker Essay Contest winners.
API will provide comprehensive coverage of the symposium at www.BIFconference.com. Following the event, visit the newsroom for summaries, PowerPoint presentations, proceedings papers, audio and videos. Visit the awards page for announcements of winners, and the photos page for photo galleries from the meeting and post-symposium tours.
This year's meeting is hosted by Texas A&M University (TAMU) AgriLife Extension Animal Science and the American Brahman Breeders Association (ABBA). Walk-in registrants are welcome. For more information on the BIF symposium, contact Joe Paschal at j-paschal@tamu.edu or 361-265-9203, or Chris Shivers at cshivers@brahman.org or 713-349-0854. For questions regarding the website, contact Shauna Hermel, API editor, atshermel@angusjournal.com or 816-752-0089.
From the Beef Checkoff
Snacking Frequency on the Rise. Almost half of consumers are snacking at least twice a day, up from 25% in 2010, according to market researcher Technomic.
Technomic said restaurants are capitalizing on this trend by providing quick, portable, smaller-portioned, low-priced foods in various ways. Restaurants now represent 22% of consumer snacking occasions, up from 17% in 2010.
In addition, 37% of consumers have broadened their definition of snacks to include more types of foods, beverages and restaurant fare, and mini sandwiches, sliders and wraps have evolved from a snack to a downsized gourmet version of a full-sized offering.
Heart-Check Impacting Shoppers' Decisions. A new in-market study examined the impact of merchandising beef with the American Heart Association Heart-Check mark. The study found that merchandising with the Heart-Check mark dramatically increased shoppers' purchase interest and retailer loyalty. Read the executive summary to learn how beef cuts can boost beef sales and reshape consumer perceptions about beef as an everyday food.
Cattle Handling Tips for Cow-Calf Producers. A new video from the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program titled "BQA Cattle Handling Tips for Cow/Calf Producers" is now available at bqa.org as well as on YouTube. The video was created to demonstrate how to handle different types of cattle (bulls, cows, heifers, calves, and pairs) on cow-calf, stocker, and seedstock operations. Experts Ron Gill, Curt Pate, John Maas, and others take producers through different production settings and the changing cycle of a cattle operation to understand how the handler and the cattle react to these differing situations.
April Producer Profile: Jackie Means, Texas. The Means family first ventured into Southwestern Texas with a small herd of cattle in the early 1880s. They were greeted by a tribe of Comanches who offered an interesting trade — they would spare their lives if the Means would hand over their cattle.
"Easiest decision I ever made," said great-grandfather Means, who handed over the herd as requested and immediately went back to get some more animals.
Today, the place is known as the Means Ranch Co., Ltd., a family owned cattle operation near Van Horn in the extreme southwestern corner of Texas. Read the full story here.
Checkoff Partners to Grow U.S. Beef Exports. The customer is always right, and that's never more true than when the customer is the largest importer of U.S. beef in Japan and is looking to buy more. Nippon Ham, the largest ham and sausage manufacturer and distributor in Japan, currently purchases a significant percentage of all the U.S. beef exported there and has a goal of boosting that amount considerably. The company is, however, concerned that some members of its sales staff aren't familiar enough with American beef because more than half of them joined the company during the post-BSE period when U.S. beef either could not be imported or was under severe limitations.
To remedy that, the beef checkoff and Nippon Ham's subsidiary distribution company, Nihon Food, have partnered on a series of three training seminars reaching more than 550 of the company's sales professionals. Read more here.
Beef Rallies on Stronger Demand as
"Pink Slime" Controversy Fades
A rally in boxed beef prices of nearly $7 per hundredweight (cwt.) early this week lends support to the idea the media-led controversy over pink slime is subsiding. Choice boxed beef prices were quoted at $185.38 on Wednesday, $6.87 higher than Friday's price. The Select cutout was quoted at $183.50, an increase of $6.17 over Friday's price.
Early-week feeder cattle auctions are called steady to $4 per cwt. higher. The grass-buying run is mostly over for the season, but tightening numbers of feeder cattle are providing ample support to the market.
The fed-cattle trade offered little in terms of a market gauge, but ideas are that prices may find a late-week rally. Through Wednesday the trade was light to moderate, with top prices in the $122 to $123.50 per cwt. range. Analysts say feedyards are asking $125 per cwt. Packers are thought to need cattle as retail inventories are low. Last week saw one of the smallest non-holiday slaughter numbers over the past year.
Leading into the peak grilling season, beef demand has been soft, fueled in part by the media firestorm over lean, finely-textured beef (LFTB), often referred to as pink slime by the national media. Ground beef sales, including trimmings, fell 11% to 37.7 million pounds during March. That's the smallest amount of ground beef sold during March for 10 years. USDA data shows that wholesale Choice beef dropped 7.8% last month, the most since October 2008.
The Sterling Beef Profit Tracker shows packers have lost money on every animal processed since September of last year. This week's calculations by John Nalivka, Sterling Marketing president, show packers with an average per head loss of $106.57.
Glynn Tonsor, assistant professor in agricultural economics at Kansas State University, told Bloomberg News this week that beef packer margins are likely to stay negative at least through September because the industry's problems have been "magnified" by the decline in the use of LFTB. Lower LFTB use will increase costs as processors switch to more expensive cuts for ground beef, he said.
Livestock Groups Concerned with Animal Production Mandates
Lawmakers and representatives from animal agriculture joined forces to educate nearly 100 people about the deliberate emphasis farmers and ranchers place on caring for the health and well-being of their animals. During a briefing hosted by Congressmen Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), congressional staff learned about multiple voluntary, producer-led animal care programs and about the concerns farmers and ranchers have with legislation introduced in the House that would mandate strict on-farm production practices.
Congressman Smith said science must be the driving force behind public policy decisions. He said farmers and ranchers are dedicated to caring for the health and well-being of their animals.
"Ensuring public policy is driven by sound science is critical to the continued success of agriculture, and, in turn, the long-term safety and security of our nation's food supply. The landscape of American agriculture continues to evolve, but the concern and care farmers and ranchers show their livestock remains unchanged," Rep. Smith said. "Improved housing, updated handling practices and modernized health and nutrition products are the result of generations of investment and research into raising high quality animals. Every day, our producers demonstrate their dedication to providing the highest quality, safest and most affordable products in the world."
NCBA President J.D. Alexander joined Amon Baer, an egg farmer from Minnesota; Betsy Flores, director of regulatory affairs for the National Milk Producers Federation; and Bill Luckey, a hog producer from Nebraska on a panel to explain how they care for their livestock and poultry. Each speaker raised serious concern with H.R. 3798, legislation that would codify an agreement between the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the United Egg Producers (UEP) to seek federally-mandated production practices for the egg industry. Alexander, who is a Nebraska beef producer, said a one-size-fits-all approach to animal agriculture won't work.
"No two farms or ranches are the same. What works for my neighbor may not work for me because all farmers and ranchers have to adapt to meet the needs of their animals, to comply with regulations and, ultimately, to satisfy consumer demand," Alexander said. "My biggest concern with H.R. 3798 is that outside groups with no knowledge of the industry will be dictating my livelihood and potentially compromising the welfare of my livestock. This legislation creates a slippery slope. Today, it's egg farmers, but tomorrow it could be any other segment of animal agriculture and we're not going to let that happen."
Alexander said the groups are not alone in their opposition to mandated, prescriptive production practices. He said the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE) has acknowledged mandated animal production practices, such as those proposed in H.R. 3798, are not in the best interest of promoting true animal welfare because they cannot easily be adapted or updated for different farming models. A far better approach, according to Alexander, is voluntary, producer-led programs like the beef industry's Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program.
"BQA works and has been successful because it was created by beef producers working with veterinarians and other animal health and well-being experts to develop guidelines based on science. Unlike strict legislative mandates that would require an act of Congress to update, BQA standards are updated regularly to reflect the latest science," Alexander said. "No one cares more about the health and well-being of animals than the men and women who work each day raising them. Together, we will work to stop this ill-conceived attempt to take animal care decisions out of the hands of farmers and ranchers and veterinarians."
The briefing was hosted by a coalition of agricultural organizations working to stop H.R. 3798. The coalition includes NCBA; the Egg Farmers of America; the National Pork Producers Council; the National Milk Producers Federation; the American Sheep Industry; and the American Farm Bureau Federation.
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