Agricultural News
Telling a Good Story Brings More Value for Beef Producers
Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:16:55 CST
Everyone loves a good story, especially one with a happy ending.
Keith Belk of Colorado State University says cattle buyers, more and more, want the full story
"All sectors of the industry-it doesn't matter whether you're buying feeder cattle or beef-they want more information attached to that product that will allow them to make good decisions regarding their purchase."
The kind of story the buyers want depends on the market sector, Belk says. And the story needs to grow as the product moves each step of the way from farm to fork.
"Feeders want to know what was the health management background of these cows before they buy them. But retailers want to know where they were produced. Were they produced with good animal well-being practices? And, so, they want good information attached to them and you can see that as you move along the production chain, the amount of information that is attached to them actually increases."
Cattle feeder Kenny Knight expects cattle to arrive at his Lyons, Kansas, yard with documentation he can pass on to the next buyer.
"Our goal has always been to get as close to the end user as possible with a product that's either branded or certainly where they know where their meat is coming from. And if we've got a paper trail all the way through, not only on the source and the age, but on the vaccinations, I think that's important to the consumer. And if it's important to the consumer, it's important to us."
For cattlemen, the first reward comes from supplying those details so buyers will pay an information premium. Belk says the next chapter should include more than the basics.
"We start adding to that, then, things like how the cattle were treated. When were they treated? Did they meet withdrawal times? Those sorts of things are going to continue to add value to that. So those ranchers that can take advantage of systems that allow them to add that kind of information to the identity of their cattle will reap the benefit of then being able to tell the story of their beef."
That's a tale that ranchers, feedlot managers, packers, and consumers can all enjoy.
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