Texan":6zetwl8x said::clap: Great point, Frankie. I couldn't agree more.Frankie":6zetwl8x said:I have to admit, though, that it rubs me the wrong way when I see the organic people jumping on BSE to scare people away from eating non-organic beef. Not everyone can afford to buy organic beef. If they shy away from regular beef and eat chicken instead, it hurts the beef industry as a whole.
I guess I'll never understand the driving force behind the 'grass-fed hippies' as BP used to appropriately refer to them.They seem to have a blind eye to the south. Why would someone put all of their eggs in the grass-fed basket when there is no way that we can ever produce those products as cheaply as they can in South America?
If (when?) FMD issues ever get resolved, it seems to me that in a few years we will likely be overwhelmed with grass-fed beef from south of the equator. Beef that can be produced for a fraction of what we do it for here. Throw in an M-COOL like so many are crying for. Add a little bit of marketing philosophy similar to the New Zealand Lamb game. Seems to me like the American grass-fed consumer will settle for nothing less than Juan Valdez's All-Natural Product of Brazil. Especially when it can be produced cheaper.
Seems like a no-win situation to me. The grass-fed market may be increasing. But it looks to me like it would only be a temporary market to penetrate at best. Simply because of competition from the south. Our domestic beef industry is based on quality products. Not quality grade, necessarily, but grain fed quality. I think we should focus our energies on capitalizing on what we do best---the best quality beef in the world.
The efficient cow works for all of us. I certainly don't have any problem with her. I just don't see why we can't have her, as well as progeny from her that will feed out to fit our marketplace. I think South America will be the 900 pound grass-fed gorilla sooner rather than later. Why would anyone want to build their genetics around a product that Brazil can beat us at?
I fail to see why you think Brazil can produce grass fed beef cheaper than the U.S. IF you own your land and cattle outright and aren't playing with borrowed money (and a lot of the U.S. is priced high enough now that buying the ground on credit doesn't pencil out...now). Diesal is not cheaper down there. Tractors aren't cheaper down there. We both can buy the same Brazilian gaucho wire. We have to pay more for labor obviously (assuming we are big enough that we need to pay for labor); but they have to pay to transport it over the water. There only advantage is that they can pack it for less.