The Rural Voice, 1998-09, Page 65The future is bigger
for Kansas feedlots,
speaker says
Feedlots continue to get fewer and
bigger in Kansas, the second leading
beef -producing state in the U.S., says
Dr. Gerry Kuhl, Extension Feedlot
Specialist in nutrition and
management at Kansas State
University.
Speaking to 175 cattlemen from
across the province at the first
general meeting of the Ontario Cattle
Feeders' Association in Brussels,
August 19, Kuhl said managers of
Kansas feedlots are also more
technologically driven as they seek to
match the productivity of the swine
and poultry industries.
While the number of feedlots
handling under 2,000 head of cattle
has slipped only from 95.3 per cent
to 92.2 per cent of all feeders, they
now produce only 3.7 per cent of the
cattle. By contrast, those feedlots
handling more than 16,000 head
make up only two per cent of the
total numbers of feeders but produce
70 per cent of the cattle marketed.
Despite the fact 30,000 of
Kansas's 69,000 farms are cow -calf
operations, the production of calves
dropped by 19 per cent from 1981 to
1996 while the number of fed cattle
increased by 67 per cent from three
million to five million head and the
number of cattle slaughtered
mushroomed by 93 per cent to seven
million. It means that cattle imports
to the state have increase by 79 per
cent and packers have to import
cattle to meet their capacity.
As packers look for security of
supply, many feedlot owners are tired
of the time taken up in marketing and
are seeking contracts or alliances
with packers. In 1981 dnly 13 per
cent of cattle were marketed under
contract but by last year the number
reached 40 per cent and in one week
in early August that level was 60 per
cent.
Kuhl warned that although there
are many alliances being struck,
many will fail and probably some
should. Because they are designed to
News
sell feed or for purposes other than
the production of beef they are not
good for the entire industry, he said.
For feedlot managers a major
focus is on cutting production costs.
"Just being big doesn't necessarily
translate into profitability — it just
means you lose more faster." In
Kansas, Kuhl said, it's been about 13
months since producers saw any
black ink because of poor prices.
The poultry industry improves its
productivity by one per cent per year,
Kuhl said. While that might not stem
a large accomplishment, the
cumulative effect is the poultry
industry has increased its
productivity by 50 per cent in 20
years, Kuhl said.
The other major issue for Kansas
producers, which they share in
common with Ontario producers, is
declining market share. Bccf's share
of U.S. meat consumption has
dropped from 49 per cern in 1976 to
34 per cent in 1997. During that time
poultry went from just a 19 per cern
market share to 34 per cent. Pork
held steady at 24 per cent.
"We must realize that demand for
our product is slipping," Kuhl said.
A consumer survey carried out by
Pillsbury showed the top factors
determining consumer choice in any
food were consistency of taste (and
in the case of bccf, tenderness) and
convenience.
"Tenderness is probably our
achilles heel, at least in the U.S.,"
Kuhl said. "That's something we've
got to work on."
The challenge for the beef
industry is to find more convenient
ways for consumers to use the
product, he said. "Certainly as we
look at our competition they do have
much more user-friendly kinds of
products so its a challenge to all of
us, no matter which side of the
border we're on, to work on that
convenience aspect of our products."
Products like pre-cooked entrees
need to be developed that consumers
can buy, pop into a microwave and
have a meal ready in five minutes.
U.S. cattlemen are very interested
in the idea of developing branded
products where a name is given to the
product and the industry stands
behind it that it will meet the
expectations of the consumer.
"Whatever food product we're
talking about, quality assurance is
going to be the name of the game,"
Kuhl said. "It's not just a buzzword,
it's here to stay. We've certainly got
to take this to heart, whether it's
needle marks or bacterial in nature
what have you, we've certainly got to
work dedicatedly as a group to
recognize that every critter we put on
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SEPTEMBER 1998 61