Australia

[rkaiser]

Interesting comment on Australian marketing greybeard. The problem with Canadian Marketing efforts is the complete marriage of CBEF and our American packing industry. There is very little interest on the part of the American packing oligopoly in Canada to market beef anywhere but the USA. CBEF's hands are tied with no say in what Cargil and Tyson want to do with their beef. The pressure by these powerful players opened the door to America for boxed beef 3 months after the border was slammed shut, and profits have never been better since. This whole debacle has been about money and power and the folks with all of that have called the shots.

Think about this OTM thing for a moment. If OTM boxed beef would have been allowed to cross the line in a box March 7, 2005, the other American packers who don't have the ability to steal Canadian cows from producers would have been at a disadvantage. We can all watch the media proclaim a victory for Rcalf, or NCBA, but this is a power move until the American packers all feel comfortable with the situation.

I predict that the next rule will include OTM cattle and beef to help save some American packing plants, and make sure that Canadian Industry and Government does not open their eyes long enough to adress the issue of fast tracking Canadian Infrustructure capable of boxing OTM beef, and sending it to the USA or elsewhere.

[Willowcreek]

Everyone of these posts just gave another reason why the US and Canada need Country of Origin Labeling.....unless you want to maintain the status quo and let the multinational packers pass off your beef as a worldwide generic product...Throw it all in the same pile along with the kangaroo and waterbuffalo meat......

[cowman]

I totally agree that we need COOL for both the USA and Canada. Nothing wrong with standing behind your product, in my opinion!
I actually think all meat packing companies should be doing this for their own benifit instead of being dragged kicking and screaming into complying? Quite frankly I don't want to eat Aussie beef...tried it once and it was tough as hell! Have ate some really good steaks over the years in Montana, Idaho,Washington, Wyoming but also got a really bad one that was advertized as US Corn Fed Beef! Looked really good, was tender and juicy, but had no taste.
The USDA stamp does not mean that beef was raised in the US. Just means the USDA has approved that piece of meat came from a plant that has their approval? Could be a Bramha from Mexico or some tough old boot from Australia!
I guess the packers aren't too keen on the idea of COOL because then they wouldn't be able to sell the garbage at premium prices?

[farmers_son]

No discussion of the Australian beef industry would be complete without considering Australia's number one competitor: Brazil.

See:
http://www.rabobank.com.au/knowledge_services/research_consulting/research_services/research/documents/global_focus_beef_aus_jul03.pdf

This site contains some interesting statistics about both Australia's and Brazil's beef industry.

Although we might look to Australia for its market development as the driving force behind its success in exporting beef, Brazil has set a goal to surpass Australia to be the number one exporter of beef in 2005. With the worlds largest beef herd and a lower cost of production including much lower wages for abattoir workers they are likely to succeed.

More importantly, Brazil is becoming more savvy about world politics. In the recent WTO agreement in the Doha round Brazil very wisely aligned itself as one of the key agriculture players in the negotiations - Australia, with the US, the EU and India.

[cowman]

Now I don't know much about Brazil or their cattle. I saw a picture once in an article about some big ranch there and the cattle were all Zebus or something? Do they raise other types of cattle or just those Brahma types? And how is the meat off those kind of animals? Would it fit into the steakhouse market? They looked kind of lean and mean in the pictures I saw.

[cowman]

for years Brazil imported genetics from various breeds from Canada, particularly Alberta. I exported live cows to Brazil in the early 90's.

[Willowcreek]

I don't know what their cattle look like, but for years Leachmans exported many bulls and a lot of semen to Brazil- If I remember right they even had a Brazilian operation where they worked to develop better heat tolerant cattle.......

[grassfarmer]

I don't know what these big Nelores cattle they have taste like but they are really late maturing and poor fertility cattle. As you say Leachman sent a lot of bulls into Brazil - Red Angus crossed with the native Nelores seemed to work well. I've seen pictures of feedlots with these crossbred cattle in them and they look quite good.

[sverchomin]

Hi guys,

New to the forum. Couldn't help but notice the big discussion on Australia. The Alberta government recently released a document titled "Australian Production, Grading and Promotion of Manufacturing Beef: Lessons Leaarned from the Australian Manufacturing Beef Industry." The document provides an overview of the Australian manufacturing beef market, their production and processing industry, promotion, and grading and meat classification system. Analysis of their beef industry is also included.

If anyone is interested in reading this document please e-mail me at stefan.verchomin@gov.ab.ca and I will send you a PDF copy. Please include your name, group affiliation or operation type and reason for requesting the document.

[farmers_son]

I asked for the PDF file, wonderful reading for anyone interested in the Australian beef industry.

One statement stood out for me. Australia views the U.S. and Canadian markets as one as they are so integrated. As Canadian producers we have a Jekyll and Hyde view of our market. On one hand we jump up and down and insist that we are in a North American market, the next moment we are a Canadian market looking to export globally. I tend to think we are in a North American market, for better or worse.

Canadian producers like to think we are an important beef exporting nation. We can produce statistics that suggest we are the fifth, possibly the fourth largest beef exporter in the world, approximately equal to New Zealand. We tend to forget we are also the world’s ninth largest beef importing nation in the world, importing about the same amount of beef as S. Korea and Mexico. The fact of the matter is if we consider that we are part of a North American beef market and the movement of NAFTA beef between U.S. and Canada and now Mexico, both North and South, are not imports/exports per se, just movement of beef within an integrated marketplace then Canada is not even on the radar screen when it comes to beef exports.

Now I have looked to Australia for almost 10 years and thought that is how it is done and I wish we were doing that. And what they are doing is impressive, after all they are a major beef exporting nation. But I have come to the conclusion that Canada is just a beef exporting nation wannabe. We are like a 2 year old toddler that wants to play with the big boys but we are still in diapers. And now we have BSE and diapers, messy ones at that. The fact of the matter is even before BSE Canada imported more non-NAFTA beef, mostly from Australia, than it exported beef to all non-NAFTA nations combined.