As a cow-calf producer, I’m very familiar with the day-to-day operations of our family business. The seasons of our operation – from calving, to haying, to weaning, to feeding, to marketing the calf crop – provide a rhythm to our life and if a consumer asked me about my segment of the beef industry, I would feel confident that I could tell my story well. But, what about the other segments?
As cattlemen, are we adequate at explaining the beef production story from pasture to plate?
“Fragmentation is both the blessing and curse of the U.S. beef cattle industry,” writes Wes Ishmael in the August issue of BEEF magazine. “The equity required for production – land, feed, cattle, etc. – is so steep per head that the odds of any single entity ever owning a significant percentage of the industry, as is the case in pork and poultry, is remote at best.
“In other words, while different segments enjoy comparative advantages at different points of the supply cycle – such as cow-calf producers currently – no single sector and no single player within a sector can drive the market.”
Read the entire article, “The Story Of Beef From Gate To Plate." It's the first installment in a yearlong series that will examine beef production from pasture to plate by sector, and discuss their interrelatedness as well as modern tools and practices. A series of graphics will help tell that story; check out “Connecting The Dots: A Look At The Numbers.”
Those infographics also are available in a Facebook photo gallery: Connecting the Dots: A Look At The Numbers.
Feel free to share these infographics on Facebook and Twitter to pass along this information to interested consumers.
Are you prepared to share the beef production story from pasture to plate? If not, stay tuned to future updates on this subject, as we continue this yearlong series explaining the cattle business in layman’s terms.
