Agricultural News
U.S. Beef Quality Continues to Improve
Tue, 24 Feb 2015 13:10:02 CST
The story in the numbers. As beef cattle numbers have declined, quality grade has increased all across North America. The 2014 fed cattle harvest was down 1.3 million head but not every category suffered a decline. That's according to Certified Angus Beef Vice President of Supply Mark McCully.
"I think the story underneath that that we have missed is the fact that in that time, while that cow herd has gotten smaller, that calf crop has changed pretty drastically in terms of the genetic makeup, meaning many of them, much more of them are Angus type today and the percentage of those that are grading into choice and upper choice, like CAB and the Prime, that percentage has shifted drastically," McCully said.
Last year, U-S-D-A Prime production was up 8%, Choice was flat, and Select was down 13%.
"Today if you look at numbers, total CAB numbers would account for 15 to 16% on any given week of the US harvest, which is a very drastic change from where we were just 10 to15 years ago when we were 6 to 7% of the fed cattle mix," McCully said.
That shows the market signals are working as intended, McCully says. Cattlemen are making decisions based on available premiums and demand.
"They are responding to what the consumer is saying by a stronger demand of high-quality products like the CAB brand, a beef that has more marbling, like Prime, and the economic signals are being sent to produce those kind of cattle and that is being translated all the way back to the ranch where the cattlemen are investing in genetics, Angus genetics, that can hit that high-quality target on a very consistent basis," McCully said.
Couple that with an improved focus on management for specific endpoints, and it's a recipe for increased success.
"I think we have learned a lot to manage these high quality genetics to make sure that we get every drop out of them from their genetic potential for quality and so cattle feeders have really understood the benefits of hitting that high quality target on a more regular basis," McCully said. "So a very drastic shift most definitely, but I think one that just simply represents the cattlemen seeing the market signals that are being sent and responding to them."
Today nearly 15% of U.S. fed cattle qualify and are marketed through the Certified Angus Beef brand.
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