For Immediate Release October 29, 2007
Contact: James Hunt (806) 358-3681 james@tcfa.org
CATTLEMEN HAVE BEEN GETTING AN EDUCATION,
ACCORDING TO TCFA CHAIRMAN
"We all went back to school this year. It feels like we received a PhD in a new area: Food, fiber and fuel."
That's how Don McCasland described the events that transpired during his year as Chairman of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA).
Maintaining the scholastic theme throughout his speech at the 2007 TCFA Annual Convention in San Antonio, McCasland said that over the past twelve months cattlemen learned that "fuel takes priority over food."
"Every consumer is learning that today in the grocery stores. In cattle feeding today, protein is taking a back seat to energy." McCasland said.
McCasland pointed out that in recent years, the livestock industry has been using 6 billion bushels of corn. With 2 billion bushels being exported, 1 billion going to human consumption and the ethanol industry getting 2.1 billion bushels, the consumption total comes to 11.1 billion bushels. Meanwhile just 10.5 billion bushels have been produced.
"Consequently, we dipped into our carry-over corn by 0.6 billion bushels. As a result, corn prices nearly doubled, causing our cost of gains to increase from 50 cents to 80 cents per pound, "McCasland said as he set up his ironic question: "Who would have ever thought that $100 fed cattle would lose money?"
Nevertheless, McCasland said, "Our hats should be off to our farmers, "because they continue to produce increasing amounts of corn to meet the government's escalating renewable fuels mandates.
McCasland then transitioned to what he called the "second major we studied this year", Export Economics, with a special emphasis on Export Recovery as the beef industry continues to bounce back from the dark days of zero exports in 2004 following "the BSE Christmas Cow."
Over the past year, "We learned that our trading partner, Mexico, went from an $800 million client to a $1.2 billion client. It replaced Japan as the number one recipient of our exports," McCasland said.
Meanwhile, McCasland said South Korea "taught us to respect a pea-sized bone fragment" and "to inspect beef with an X-ray machine.''
And, "Japan taught us the real meaning of animal identification. We may all have to buy a camera and send in pictures of each feedlot manager with each fed steer and heifer going to market. This would create our 'story beef' so we can compete in the retail market," McCasland said.
McCasland said cattlemen have also learned "what human error in exporting beef can cost the entire beef industry."
But, as the beef industry continues to make progress in export recovery, McCasland offered "our thanks" for the efforts of President Bush, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, U.S. Meat Export Federation and TCFA.
"We have restored about 65% of our export markets without Japan and Korea at their true potential, "McCasland said. He described the encouraging prospects for continued gains by noting that, "About 96% of the world's population lives outside the United States, so export growth seems almost unlimited."
McCasland also said, "We have re-learned the lesson of how valuable our domestic consumers are. They remained steadfast and picked up the slack when our exports failed."
He also congratulated U.S. beef producers, saying they had shown their value by succeeding in attaining "the OIE status as having healthy and safe food This designation has opened many doors for us and will continue to open doors in other markets."
As he prepared to relinquish his chairman's post, McCasland said the influence TCFA has with government officials makes it "a must organization to be a part of."
"We (cattlemen) must communicate our needs to our Washington leaders. We (TCFA) are highly respected in Washington," he said.
- end -