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State’s beef industry bouncing back |
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Written On: March/April 2007 |
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Written By: by Daniel Brunell |
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Washington is well known for many of its agricultural products: apples, potatoes, wheat, even wine. But where’s the beef?
As of 2006, Washington state had more than a million head of cattle. About 237,000 of these are dairy cows. There are more than 13,000 cattle ranchers and 810 dairy farmers in Washington, located in nearly every county.
Cattle operations range from large corporate ranches to the more than 5,000 beef producers that have fewer than nine head of cattle. Washington produced almost 604 million pounds of beef in 2005. The beef industry is a growing element of the state’s $29 billion agricultural picture. In 2004, cattle sales totalled about $543 million, with another $476 million in stock on farms and ranches. Nationally, the U.S. cattle industry was a $79.5 billion business that year.
Beef is an international commodity. Despite being the world’s largest producer of beef, the United States is also a big beef importer. In terms of total weight, we import more beef than we export. In terms of dollar value, however, exports far outstrip imports. This is because most of our exported beef is expensive, grain-fed cuts like steak and roasts. Most imports are lower value, grass-fed beef destined for processing, primarily as ground beef.
"The United States produces the highest-quality beef in the world," said Patti Brumbach, executive director of the Washington Beef Commission. "For example, in a country like Japan, they really like the flavor of American beef and they have been our most successful international market."
In 2003, international beef exports from the United States totalled more than $3.19 billion. Almost 10 percent of U.S.-produced beef was exported; half of this was exported to Japan, with most of the balance going to South Korea, Mexico and Canada, representing about 90 percent of U.S. beef exports.
Mad cows
By 2005, exports had declined by half to $976 million. What happened? Something called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as "mad cow" disease or BSE.
When a Canadian-born dairy cow was found with the disease on a farm near Yakima in December 2003, the world took note. Two more cases followed, cropping up in Texas in June 2005 and Alabama in March 2006. The news rocked the U.S. beef industry. Momentum that had been built up over the previous two decades suddenly hit a brick wall. Overnight, nearly all U.S. beef exports stopped. In the end, beef producers saw an 80-percent decline in the beef export market.
Washington was especially hard-hit by export bans imposed by Canada and many major Asian customers.
"It’s frustrating," said Tom Bisamby, president of J.R. Simplot’s land and livestock group. Simplot is among the top 10 suppliers of cattle in the United States and is involved in all aspects of beef production. "The cattle market is always going to be volatile—it’s a commodity industry. But we are slowly getting the foreign markets back," he said.
Making a comeback
The last three years have been tough for the beef industry, but many lessons were learned. The Department of Agriculture now restricts cattle imports—putting a 30-month age limit on cattle imported to slaughterhouses from outside the United States—since most cases of BSE occur in older cows. There is also a renewed effort to more closely monitor the feed that cattle eat. Brain and spinal cord tissue was banned from both cattle feed and the general food supply, since the disease is carried in the nervous system of cows. These measures, along with better and more frequent testing of the beef supply, have gone a long way to ensure the quality of America’s beef.
The U.S. beef export market is just beginning to recover from the BSE scare. Canada and Mexico resumed imports a few months after the first case after assurances from the U.S. government that the outbreak would be contained.
However, both Japan and South Korea have been slow to reopen their markets. Both countries have placed restrictions on imports, including age limits on imported cattle (21 months in Japan and 30 months in Korea). In addition, South Korea decided they would only accept boneless beef products, resulting in the rejection of three U.S. beef shipments. Prior to 2003, bone-in products were an important part of the Korean market and exports were growing.
It’s a slow start, but beef is being shipped again. Fortunately, the demand for U.S. beef remains strong in the international marketplace. That’s good news for Washington’s cattle producers.
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