US
beef herd shrinks as drought bites
Feeding
cattle on grass - in a pastoral system simlar to New Zealand's -
could be the future for many American beef farmers.
30
November, 2012
The
country that is synonymous with steaks as big as Texas is suffering a
serious shortage of cattle, the BBC reports.
The
US national herd is now at an alltime low. Numbers peaked at 132
million head of cattle in 1975. At the start of this year this was
down to just under 91 million.
Across
the US, cattle are sometimes housed in feedlots to be fattened for
slaughter. These huge operations on average contain around 3000
animals have also suffered a significant drop in numbers, down around
12.5% on last year.
So
what is going on?
There
are long term factors in terms of profitability and rising costs but
what's really pushing the decline right now is a potent mix of
environmental issues and politics.
Desperate drought
The
US has been suffering a desperate drought that has affected around
80% of the agricultural land across the country. It has been so
severe that in certain parts, farmers have been forced to get rid of
their cattle as they simply don't have any pasture for them to graze
on.
The
drought has also affected the yields of grain crops, which are
estimated to be down around 13% on last year. And because US farmers
depend on grain to fatten their beef herds, this has increased
pressure to get rid of cattle.
Adding
further complication is the politics. The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has had a mandate in place since 2005 that requires a
certain percentage of US liquid fuel comes from renewable sources.
In
practice this means blending ethanol made from grain with regular
gasoline. This year, as the drought persisted, desperate farmers
asked the EPA to set the mandate aside to help cut corn prices.
They
refused and this year ethanol production will consume a whopping 42%
of the corn crop, says the US Department of Agriculture.
Dr
Stan Bevers from Texas A&M University say the US beef industry
was built on abundant corn supplies, so the cattle industry must
adjust and get smaller."
According
to Dr Derrell Peel, from the University of Oklahoma the current
problems could have long term impacts on US beef. He thinks it is
likely there will be changes in how cattle are fed. Less grain, more
grass, and lighter cattle.
.
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