Agricultural News
U.S. Herd Expansion Matched by Growing Demand for Certified Angus Beef, Need for Traceability
Wed, 04 Nov 2015 17:53:29 CST
Strong beef demand and limited supplies has been a good challenge for the beef industry. Certified Angus Beef brand's vice president of production Mark McCully works on the packing and processing level backwards into the cattle supply chain. McCully oversees the brand's supply development, packing and industry information efforts. He also works to develop allied industry partnerships and further education and research pertaining to quality beef production. He works with food service and retail outlets domestically and internationally. As economies have grown, so has the demand for high quality beef, like CAB.
"As we grow supply, we can grow demand," McCully said. "That's kind of what we've had here over the last few years. We've had cattlemen raising more cattle to meet a higher quality end target. As we've got that product now in the pipeline, it allows us to go out and market that product, bring on new distributors, bring on new retailers, grow into countries, which then creates more demand and more of an economic signal to produce more."
Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with McCully at the Angus Means Business Convention in Overland Park, Kansas. Click or tap on the LISTEN BAR below to hear the full interview.
U.S. cattle supplies have been greatly strained by the ongoing drought in the Southern Plains. That has been met by growth in the use of Angus genetics and improvement in meat quality grade. Even though the overall fed cattle supply declined, McCully said they have maintained the number of certified carcasses. This past year, CAB had 3.5 million Angus-influenced carcasses qualify for the program. That was on track with previous years.
Cattlemen also received record cattle prices in 2014. That has presented some challenges on the retail side. McCully said much of the retail sales are driven by ad features. With cheaper competing proteins that segment has been very challenging.
This year heavier carcasses has also presented some challenges. This has effected the middle meats and specifically the rib for food service operators. In working the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and others, McCully said they have brought in food service users and retail merchandisers into their education and culinary center. This allows CAB to show them how to work with these bigger cuts. There has been some positive news to having bigger carcasses. McCully said it's more ideal to remove single muscle cuts like the Flat Iron steak and Teres Major.
Going forward, the standards of CAB will stay the same. McCully said the corner stones will continue to be marbling, quality, taste, flavor and consistency. One area that will continue to grow will be demand for traceability. He said consumers are wanting to understand more about how cattle were raised, what the cattle were fed and want more transparency in the production chain.
"We spend an awful lot of time today taking food service groups and retail groups out to farms and ranches and into packing plants and helping them understand what we're doing and how we're doing it," McCully said. "And so, I think telling that story, as we kind of call it, is going to be a bigger part of how we market the brand and merchandise the brand down the road."
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