Agricultural News
Beef Must Continually Improve to Compete Against Pork and Poulty, Spear Says
Tue, 24 Sep 2013 11:59:17 CDT
No one can predict the future. But animal scientist Nevil Spear of Western Kentucky State University says there are some certainties as the beef industry looks ahead: other proteins will keep getting cheaper. To compete, beef must be better.
"I think there's lots of varied opinions about what the industry will look like ten years from now, but, increasingly, we have to continue to hit that target. Do it more efficiently with more precision so that we are more price competitive versus pork and poultry."
But it's not all about price. It's about value, Spear says.
"Quality takes us to an increasingly-competitive product. We know that beef will never be able to compete with pork and poultry on a price-per-pound issue which just underscores the reason why we have to hit the consumer target for quality and consistency every single time."
As producers use all available genetic and management tools to make rapid improvements, could there be a downside?
"One of the concerns we have in our business is that as price gets higher, does beef get relegated to a luxury item? So, what do we do with that? Well, ultimately, what we want to do is not worry about whether it's a luxury item and then separate that from a commodity beef product. Actually, what we want to do, is create even more high-quality beef so that we can saturate the market, still garner the money, create demand for producers, but then make it more available."
Spear estimates USDA Prime and Premium brands already add about $3 billion annually to the beef marketplace or roughly $100 per head.
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