Agricultural News
Will There Be a Window of Opportunity to Relax Beef Age Requirements for US Beef to Japan?
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 4:50:58 CDT
What are the chances that the Japanese may be willing to rethink their current beef import standards that only allow beef to come in from animals that are 20 months of age or younger? That standard was a knee jerk reaction to the BSE scare of 2003, when the United States discovered the Canadian cow in this country with Mad Cow Disease. The Japanese claimed but international testing protocols never confirmed a couple of cases of the disease in younger animals, prompting the Japanese to be the only country in the world with the tighter standard. Most countries that would accept beef from younger animals accepted the more recognized thirty months of age or younger. That includes almost all beef animals that go to US Feedlots and are finished there.
The extra burden of supplying beef from just the younger carcasses means that the US has limited beef product that can qualify for the Japanese market. On today's Beef Buzz, OSU Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel talks about the possibility that the current problems with the Japanese domestic livestock industry because of the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear fears might mean the Japanese could be more open to relaxing those international standards that hinder more consistent supplies of beef to their country.
We also talk with Dr. Peel about the seasonal highs of the spring in the US Cattle Market- and whether we have hit the highs of the first half of the year already or not.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the listen bar below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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