Australia

[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.