...currently discussing the US presidential election campaign until Inauguration Day.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The end of Argentine Beef as we know it?
I'm speaking to those fans of that lean, flavorful, organic-by-default, low LDL, high HDL, 1/3 the calories, no hormones, no antibiotics, crazy-good red stuff that puts everything to shame back home.
Please believe me. This is really happening:
I've spoken before of the crisis that exists for those here that persist in producing the traditional free-range grass-fed beef for which La República is so rightly famous... now my seeming rant is, lastimadamente, being noted even in the foreign press.
With the Kirchner administration's announcement that it will subsidize US-style feedlot beef, virtually every link in the food chain will be receiving assistance from the federal government except traditional beef producers.
Don't take my word for it...you can easily verify this yourself.
This is simply insult to injury when you consider that beef producers now operate under restrictions like NO other part of Argentine agriculture (slaughter-weight, export limits, price control campaigns, etc.)
Now with "free" corn for the US-style feedlot producers...the next big beef story may well be the droves of estancieros that will be putting their land to other uses. ANY other uses.
In fact, Mrs. Yanqui Mike and I are penning the last few details for a conversion of 100 to 300 hectares to corn or soy production. That will blow all of the organic bragging rights that we have for all of our cattle because of the close proximity to the agro-toxins that come with it.
The lovely Ms. TangoinherEyes once asked me, in response to a Gancia-flavored description of mine, why I don't explain more of the differences between Argentine beef and what we were all raised-on in Norte América.
I told her that I didn't think people would be very interested.
My Sitemeter, however, tells me otherwise. My traffic goes up in response to cow / beef / pampas posts.
Feedlot beef is disgusting, tastes bad, horrible for cows, and is bad for your health!
Leave me a comment if you want some more on this subject.
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12 comments:
Mike, el subsidio del gobierno es para mantener los actuales niveles de producción en feedlot. A diferencia de USA aquí se los suele usar para "terminar" el engorde. Por otra parte los subsidios del gobierno suelen ser complejos y de difícil acceso. No creo que el argentino medio esté dispuesto a sacrificar el sabor de un bife. Tus puntos de vista son acertados pero creo más prudente esperar para ver cómo se desarrollan los acontecimientos. Aquí del dicho al hecho suele ser un muy largo trecho :)
Un abrazo
Juan
Kirshner is obviously not a farmer.
Other impications would be that the genetic make-up of your cattle will have to be focused on high feed conversion ratios for fast growth.Angus are known to be good feedlot cattle but is this true of the Argentine herd with the current production system being in place for years?
Over here we have a saying: " If you need a plan ask a farmer" I am sure with a bit of creative thinking you will overcome this problem.
The answer is probably to change to a weaner calf production sytem. You could keep more cattle because weaners are marketed at +/- 7-8 months.Bull calves do not have to be castrated and more than one calving season can ensure fairly regular stock.Converting to corn if it is for your own feedlot will be difficult because you have to compete with free corn.What you need is a feedlot to purchase your weaners and its bussiness as usual.
But like I said, I am sure you will make a plan.
Regards
Pieter
I am disgusted on your behalf.That a politician can destroy a national asset and tradition just like that.Without considering that shorterm gain (cheaper beef)will be offset by much more expensive health expenditure due to steroids increased fat etc. This exercise will mean lower profitability for farmers.So they will pay less tax Somewhere in future another politician will probably cut subsidies again resulting in more expensive bad quality beef. In the mean time Argentina's beef industry is being destroyed. This is really short sighted
Pieter
Well... these are the cold numbers. Return on investment (without land investment):
cow calf as usual -> 5%
transgenic soy/corn -> 300%
Take a close look at agrositio.com I´m not exaggerating a bit. We don´t like changing but we don´t see any alternative...
(nuestra familia ha criado Aberdeen Angus de primera calidad por generaciones, con una organización pequeña de tipo empresa familiar donde todos trabajamos intelectual y físicamente, mi marido YankiMike incluído. En procesos como el de cría y recría vacuna hay que planear por lo menos 3 años de anticipación porque ese es el ciclo productivo de una vaca desde que nace. Así es que estamos acostumbrados a tener paciencia y a ser prudentes -estoy de acuerdo con vos Juan-, sin embargo la situación actual ya se ha prolongado por más de un año y es muy duro mantenerse firme en el negocio sin introducir estos cambios)
(Thanks for your words Pieter. The thing is we´re already selling our male calves at 7 months old -although nobody buys them if they're not early castrated because testosterone changes meet flavor-. Moreover, the prices have gone from 2.90 pesos/kg in March/06 to 2.4 pesos/kg in February/07... same animals... and 20% average higher costs)
mike- please keep us updated on how things turn out. thanks.
OMG! STOP THE MADNESS!
Juan (Anon) makes some good points...but I have to differ.
The government says that the subsidies are to maintain the current levels of feedlot production...however, there is no subsidy to maintain free-range/grass-fed beef. Feedlot will be able to "maintain"... but traditional producers will not only be the sector that gets no help, but it will also be the only sector that is straddled with export restrictions, slaughter-weight limits, and a national campaign to keep prices low.
I actually agree with the restrictions!
IMHO, foreigners should not be allowed to buy all best beef simply because they hold currency harder than the Peso...just like they shouldn't be able to buy all the corn/wheat/soya away from Argentines either.
IMHO, regulations that require cattle to achieve a minimum slaughter weight is a really pretty good idea for the national herd.
IMHO, keeping supermarket beef prices down preserves part of the national identity every bit as much as Japan's protection of it's native rice production.
But it starts to smell when the agriculture most identified with Argentina is the only sector with such restrictions and the only one excluded from the support that everyone else is getting.
Juan also makes the point that feedlot in La RA is not like feedlot in the USA. I'm not sure that's correct. The conventional view is that grain is fed to cattle here only to "finish" them...that is make the fatter in the few months before slaughter. Even if true, that still means massive doses of anti-biotics. In a feedlot, cows stand/sit/lie in not only their own shit...but every other cow's shit as well. That's not sanitary...and that's where those deadly strains of e-coli develop in the US. Further, under those crowded conditions, if one cow gets an ordinary "cold or flu"...every other cow in the lot gets it too. Feedlots simply must inject their entire herds...as a preventative measure.
Not only that but grain healthy for cows only as a part of a balanced diet. Cows like it...but it's not what they were made to eat. Cows are amazing in that they process things that we can't eat: cellulose from grass. They need (and have!) 4 stomachs to do this minor miracle. If fed only grain, two of there stomachs shutdown and begin to bloat...then atrophy...then become ripe for infection: more anti-biotics.
And now with government price supports for their grain...what is to keep feedlots from raising cattle their entire lives on corn and soy (and anti-biotics)? The average Argentine cow is about 3 years old at slaughter...the average US cow is about 1 year old. That's the power of grain as opposed to grass. I could really use a "grass" subsidy; it would be good for me and it would be good for everybody.
Hmm...could Juan be right that the average Argentino would resist yanqui-flavor beef? Maybe. But if I and many others decide to plow up our pastures, dowse them with agro-poisons, and plant them with genetically modified corn and soy...will there be a way back to grass-fed?
A real crisis may be a long time coming, as Juan says. However, with the first spray of chemicals we will be 3 to 4 years from regaining old-fashioned Argentine organic status.
A long time can come very quickly.
abrazos,
Mike
I'm travelling from the UK to Argentina. A small part of my reason for coming to Argentina is to taste your famous beef. Will I still be able to purchase traditional argentine grass-fed beef when I arrive at Christmas 2007?
Without a doubt, UK Visitor!
In the long term, however, I could see this becoming a problem. If the grass-fed producers weren't suffering right now I would say this is a good time for a trade association to promote traditional beef.
It's easy for big bussiness to justify their raping of cattle and land - they say it's cheaper, they say genetic modification is safe and holds promise to improve quantity, some and even go so far as to say improve quality. And the politicians favour mass prodcution for short-sighted economic reasons.
Even if all these things were one day seen to be true, the voice of reason inside us all would still persuade us otherwise - and the voice of reason is never wrong, ever. Especially when it comes to the grand scheme of things and the bigger picture.
I have no solutions here, I'm just venting. But as a visitor from England, the only thing I can think of to help, is just to seek out your decent beef and eat it up.
Lot of truth in your comment, UK Anon.
The consumer can speak loudly in the marketplace... but only if he raises his voice. That is to say, money talks.
It would be a shame if yanqui-flavor beef caused good old-fashioned Argentine beef to become a high-priced boutique product.
And my big fear is that feedlot beef will slowly, stealthily infiltrate the supermarkets and restaurants (even the high-end ones) until everybody has been eating robo-beef so long that they can't remember the difference...
...they'll all just have this strange feeling of not being terribly satisfied or, in the case of the next generation, they won't be able to figure out why grandpa got so excited about eating beef here.
I'll give you a good example. Until WWII the US was not only the biggest consumer of coffee in the world... coffee was the most popular beverage in that country.
During the war, coffee was severely rationed. And after the war, the big coffee distributors decided that they could get rich by satisfying the pent-up postwar demand with the cheapest Brazilian and African beans they could find.
That worked for a long time but strangely none of the succeeding generations took up coffee drinking and the beverage fell farther and farther down the list of most popular beverages... until it became the boutique bev we know today.
Thanks,
Mike
Ironically, in Norte America there is a growing movement to go back to grass fed beef. It's become increasingly available in grocery stores and is highly sought after in Farmer's markets, at much higher prices than the feedlot beef.
Food is politics, and ironically some of the laws being put into place to reign in the factory foods are destroying the small producers. It would be a shame to see the same story in Argentina.
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