News Update
July 30, 2013
Beef Demand May Vary With Quality
The gap is widening between key indicators of demand for premium and commodity beef.
Non-branded USDA Choice beef saw eroding demand since its 2010 peak, as consumers apparently turned toward a premium branded alternative.
Details are in an updated research paper from Kansas State University (K-State), “Defining and Quantifying Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) Brand Consumer Demand, 2013 Revision.”
Pounds of CAB product sold increased every year since 2005, but it took economic modeling and research to see the demand effect. K-State economist Ted Schroeder and 2010 master’s degree student Lance Zimmerman conducted the initial study that year. Zimmerman took a break from his role as analyst with CattleFax to update his college work with new data to characterize demand through 2012.
That index provides a measure of demand change over time, and features a new timeline comparison. “Since CAB product is a branded subset of the USDA Choice-and-higher marketplace, demand for the aggregate quality category was expected to share more similarities than the non-branded USDA Choice index used in the 2010 research,” the paper says.
The results show three different demand growth patterns among the indexes. Demand for the aggregated Choice-and-higher grading product actually outpaced CAB from 2008 to 2010 before declining in 2011 and 2012, while CAB product continued its improvement. Demand growth for both categories was similar through the first nine years of the study.
“However, as much as the early growth patterns point to the similarities, the divergence of demand patterns most noticeable in the last two years of the study suggest there are perceived differences in CAB relative to its greater product category in the mind of consumers,” the paper says.
For more information, please view the full release here.
NFU Joins Suit to Support COOL
National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson issued a statement after the NFU Board of Directors voted unanimously July 29 to intervene in a recently-filed country-of-origin labeling (COOL) lawsuit seeking an injunction to vacate and halt the implementation of the USDA’s final COOL rule:
“We strongly support USDA’s final rule because it addresses the issues previously brought forth to the World Trade Organization and preserves the consumer’s right to know where their food comes from.
“NFU is joining with the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) in efforts to defend COOL. We are thankful for USCA getting the process started. We have fought long and hard for the implementation of COOL, and will continue to do so for as long as it takes.
“The packer-producer organizations that have filed the suit against the USDA are continuing to refuse consumers’ right and desire to know where their food comes from.”
The aforementioned suit’s plaintiffs include the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), American Meat Institute (AMI), Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Canadian Pork Council, National Pork Producers Council, North American Meat Association (NAMA), American Association of Meat Processors and Southwest Meat Association.
MU Field Day Set for Sept. 25
More pounds of beef per acre sums up some reports at the Forage Systems Research Center field day to be held Sept. 25. The field day will show two ways to grow more forage per acre. Besides forage, the field day includes beef and natural resources.
Registration starts at 8 a.m., with tours from 9 a.m. to noon. A free lunch will be served. Area businesses will have equipment on display near the new headquarters building.
Justin Sexten, University of Missouri (MU) Extension beef nutritionist, will report numbers on how much baled hay gets used by cows. Waste is high.
Rob Kallenbach, MU Extension forage agronomist, will do the same for standing forage during winter months. He will introduce graziers’ arithmetic to allocate fall stockpile for efficient use with less loss.
That will take some equipment, which he will explain and demonstrate, Davis says.
John Lory, MU soil specialist, will show wise use of nitrogen on grass. Fall applications can increase winter stockpile for grazing, reducing need for baled hay.
A new alliance works to improve fescue pastures in Missouri. Craig Roberts, MU Extension forage specialist, leads efforts to show advantages of new toxin-free fescue.
Dietrich Volkmann of the MU College of Veterinary Medicine will tell the value of early pregnancy diagnoses after fixed-time artificial insemination. For something different, MU entomologist Wayne Bailey will show dung beetles at work in pastures at FSRC. Also, he’ll warn about impact of cattle wormers on beetle populations.
For more information, please visit the Angus Journal’s Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
A Participatory Method to Produce Biodiversity Indicators
People have long believed that too many domestic animals grazing in an area can damage soil and vegetation. However, in some areas, like Western Europe, removing livestock can contribute to undesirable changes, including the loss of biodiversity. What land managers need is a quick, inexpensive and practical way to assess habitat response to grazing removal.
The authors of an article in the current issue of the journal Rangeland Ecology & Management provide a participatory method to develop indicators of plant and animal diversity that can evaluate many environments, yet also be tailored to a specific habitat. The key to their method is input from knowledgeable scientists and local managers. These experts cooperatively create a checklist used to rapidly determine the effects of grazing and to produce data crucial to management decisions.
The authors created a four-step process and tested it in an area of Scotland where pastoral sheep farming had been reduced. They first invited scientists, government and nonprofit representatives, and land agents to a workshop where participants predicted the effects of fewer grazing sheep. The study team used these predictions to develop biodiversity indicators which they then evaluated at several sites. Finally, they compared the predictions with the study results.
For this study, the team formed nine biodiversity indicators from the workshop predictions. The authors found that fewer sheep allowed more red deer to graze the study sites. Despite the larger deer population, the sites had more short shrubs and taller vegetation overall, an effect predicted during the workshop. Fewer grazing sheep did not always produce the anticipated results. Two results contradicted predictions related to reduced sheep numbers, confirming the importance of field testing.
For more information, please view the full article here.
A New Bug In Town
There’s a new bug in town, but entomologists stress its arrival is good news for El Paso, Texas, residents and the environment.
Subtropical tamarisk beetles, better known as saltcedar leaf beetles, have made their way to El Paso after first being released along West Texas waterways in 2006 to combat saltcedar, said Salvador Vitanza, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service entomologist in El Paso County.
Saltcedar thickets compete for water, increase flooding and reduce biodiversity, said Allen Knutson, AgriLife Extension entomologist at Dallas. He said saltcedar was first introduced as an ornamental plant in the early 1800s, but escaped and has become a serious invasive species.
“We’ve been working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and other agencies to establish the leaf beetles for biological control of saltcedar,” Knutson said. “We’re now starting to see an area-wide impact as beetles defoliate miles of saltcedar thickets along the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers, and in the Texas Panhandle and Rolling Plains.”
Vitanza recently surveyed the westward movement of the beetles and found abundant larvae along the Texas/Mexico border south of Tornillo. He also found a few adult beetles two miles south of Fabens and 1.5 miles east of Clint.
“These beetles have been known to spread up to 80 miles in a season in ideal conditions,” Vitanza said. “Currently, a few adult beetles have been observed defoliating saltcedar plants near Clint. It’s possible some beetles may reach the city of El Paso before the year is over.”
For more information, please view the full release here.
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