Cattle population reports

[grassfed]

Therein lies the long range problem with grass fed, least cost, marginal genetics programs in the U.S. Do you really want to try and compete with all these other countries for the least cost, low margin, end of the market or do you want to try to expand your share of the high end, larger margined, grain fed premium beef trade.

I would agree with your statement AW as far as marginal genetics are concerned as well as "least cost". The producers that are going to succeed in the future are those that are "low input" not "least cost". Grass fed is simply a market and predominantly a premium market. There is a problem in the grass fed industry in that most, IMHO producers don't really know how to finish an animal, they want the money so they are not willing to give the animal the time to finish. I am really surprised by the number of producers that call an animal finished that is just starting to finish. Education is key to any marketing program no matter what the product. The "grain fed premium beef trade" that you speak of is a commodity market and anyone can produce that product. The direct market is where the real money is. ;-)

Have a great day!
grassfed
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