That was before this career that has taught me so much about the beef side of the cattle business. You see, similar to a good bourbon or fine blue cheese, beef benefits from a little age.
There’s always a lot going on around here, but sometimes we forget to step back and look at what this brand as a whole is accomplishing in the marketplace.
Yesterday we were following Mary Jo Staertow through a typical Tuesday, but there was too much for one post, so today we pick up just after she skips lunch to keep up her appointments.
Eleven to one—those were the odds the beef industry was up against for two decades. “We got $10 in new spending over that 20 years, meanwhile our pork and poultry competitors got $110,” said Nevil Speer, an animal scientist at Western Kentucky University. “You can’t grow an industry without new revenue coming in, and we basically worked in a stagnant industry for 20 years.” Speer presented as part of the Harlan Ritchie Beef Symposium during Midwest American Society of Animal Science meetings in Des Moines, Iowa in March.
Everyone in the beef chain seems to agree we need more of it. That’s the simple explanation for a trend that shows hot carcass weights (HCW) have increased 200 pounds (lb.) in four decades. But for all the opportunities that presents, there are many challenges. John Stika, president of Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), talked about both at last month’s Harlan Ritchie Beef Symposium during Midwest American Society of Animal Science meetings in Des Moines, Iowa. “The production side is looking for something bigger to cover their increased costs,” he said, “but the retail and foodservice sides are looking for [more units of] something much smaller that’s easier to manage from a portion-control standpoint and a unit-cost standpoint.”
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