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You just do not get it.RH

SandH the answer is so simple you want back into every market you used to sell to in the world - no exceptions test everything for BSE and variants , enhance the US feedban to international standards and make SRM removal manditory, implement NAIS. If you could show the world the US is taking this seriously and making a serious effort to provide a BSE or BASE negative product you could have your export markets back. What percentage of US cattle are killed for export markets you currently do not have acess to.
As for the money left on the table do not forget you have indeginous cases that could not be tracked back to where they became infected. I know you think money was left on the table, but you guys at least got to enjoy record prices for a few years while canadian producers were giving cattle away. I saw cull bulls selling for the 60 cent range this year a far cry from a couple of years ago when i saw cull bulls selling for 5 cents a pound. Think about it a 2000 pound fat cull bull selling and grossing $100. So complaining that times are tough just doesn't have the same effect, when you have seen good people going bankrupt because their assets have lost 90% of their value.
 
The answer is simple common sense and the first rule in running a business; give the customer what they want. That's what I want to do and all the polls on the subject suggest that's what the vast majority of producers want to do as well. I mean, it can't be any simpler or basic. We're talking junior high marketing. The problem is that the USDA is carrying water for the big packers and NCBA is right there being the loyal dog to the AMI and they're following a damaging policy that defies all logic and business sense exclusively for the big packer's business plans.

What really floors me is that we've had 5 years now to see how this policy is working and we've progressed to the point of limited sales, billions of lost dollars, and rioting in the streets. Yep, stay the course..... :roll: :mad:
 
So.......tell us.......what does THE beef consumer really want?

mrj
 
mrj said:
So.......tell us.......what does THE beef consumer really want?

mrj
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First of all, he wants to get food from a reliable source that he feels assuredly is giving him safe food.

As many times as the USDA has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and telling less than the truth, they are not qualified nor honest enough to be the seller of our product, beef.

Say and think what you want, but it's really not the U.S. cattleman that scares Korea, it's the USDA. Them and those in bed with them. :roll:
 
Mike said:
mrj said:
So.......tell us.......what does THE beef consumer really want?

mrj
Click to expand...

First of all, he wants to get food from a reliable source that he feels assuredly is giving him safe food.

As many times as the USDA has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and telling less than the truth, they are not qualified nor honest enough to be the seller of our product, beef.

Say and think what you want, but it's really not the U.S. cattleman that scares Korea, it's the USDA. Them and those in bed with them. :roll:
Click to expand...

Mike, you just don't get it. This is just a political ploy where beef was singled out because it was easy. The Korean people all love our beef and will scramble to get it as it is made available. The US producer is far better served by following selected "science" instead of proven marketing methods and the more money we lose in lost sales today, the better we will all be better off tomorrow. You simply have no idea how many businesses have benefitted from lost sales. Do some research.
 
Sandhusker, if a poll were conducted of the right group of consumers, and maybe even of any and all consumers, how many do you think would agree that that cruel and inhumane practices of castration, earmarking, or branding must be banned?

Some of us understand that these emotional, anti-science issues will come back to haunt the cattle producer.

Every time an unreasonable demand is met "to give the consumer what he wants", we are going to be hit with another one until it is impossible to produce food from animals.

Maybe you are delusional enough to think that agenda is no danger to cattle producers.

mrj
 
mrj said:
Sandhusker, if a poll were conducted of the right group of consumers, and maybe even of any and all consumers, how many do you think would agree that that cruel and inhumane practices of castration, earmarking, or branding must be banned?

Some of us understand that these emotional, anti-science issues will come back to haunt the cattle producer.

Every time an unreasonable demand is met "to give the consumer what he wants", we are going to be hit with another one until it is impossible to produce food from animals.

Maybe you are delusional enough to think that agenda is no danger to cattle producers.

mrj
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I believe in the free market, MRJ. I believe that if somebody would like to market beef from unbranded animals, they have every right to try it. If somebody thinks they can serve a niche selling beef from animals that have never been castrated or earmarked, it's up to them. If somebody wants to sell beef from animals that get daily massages and weekly manicures, they are totally within their right and I wish them all good luck. None of this should be mandatory, but a free market society dictates that all would be allowed. If you think certain demands are unreasonable and don't want to meet them, fine, that's your perogative - but to have the government step in and ban others from meeting them is NOT consistent with free enterprise. It's central planning, and that is what happened in the Soviet Union.

Maybe you are delusional enough to think that the government should be allowed to veto any company's marketing strategy. You should get along well with Ted Kennedy and Barak Obama. Both of them think the government should rule over business as well.

Maybe you are delusional enough to not realize the billions of dollars that this liberal intrusion of government into business is costing producers. Maybe your ignorance of marketing runs so deep that you don't realize that consumers protesting in the streets, vendors promising not to use US beef (even US vendors) and grocery stores declining to even offer US beef hurts sales there and everywhere else.

Maybe you don't realize that US producers make their living when beef from their cattle is sold - and it's not being sold under current policy.

This isn't hard to figure out if you would think on your own and open your dang eyes to what is actually happening.
 
Sandhusker, I believe you know, tho you answe as if you did not, that the point was that there are groups, maybe even 'consumer groups' working diligently to force, either by law or by demand of consumers, ranchers to end those practices.

That has NOTHING to do with your "free market" scenarios of niche marketing to those consumers demanding beef from unbranded, uncastrated, or other non-science based animal care.

Such "niche market" sales already exist!

That situation is vastly different from the total elimination or banning of those science based practices, and others, being forced on ALL beef sold in the USA. Voluntary testing for BSE by ONE packer is NOT a science based action, but a MARKETING PLOY which would affect not only all other packers, but the entire cattle/beef industry.

A marketing ploy which purports to be a food safety measure is not science based, but a deceptive practice, IMO.

I know that "consumers protesting in the streets" of SKorea may very well have NOTHING to do with food safety and EVERYTHING to do with local politics. We have had paid protesters in this country who had no idea what the protest was about and I seriously doubt people are much different in SKorea in the 'protest business'.

".....US producers make their living when beef from their cattle is sold - and it's not being sold under current policy".......Sandhusker, THINK!

Is US beef being allowed to rot due to not being sold? Is there a huge frozen stockpile of unsold beef somewhere? Or herds of cattle unable to be sold because no one will buy them? Of course not! ALL of the beef we in the USA produce IS being sold! Whether in SKorea or not, it IS being sold in most nations in the world.

Selling based on emotion and fear and deception works.....for a while. Selling beef based on science, value, nutrients, flavor, and satisfactory eating experience will serve the best cattle producers far better than the former methods!!!!!

mrj

I believe the major effect, due to the expected number of false positives and the impact that would have on cattle markets, would be devastating to all in the cattle or beef business.

It's a very good guess that the costs of those changes would not be paid by the consumer!
 
mrj

I believe the major effect, due to the expected number of false positives and the impact that would have on cattle markets, would be devastating to all in the cattle or beef business.

It's a very good guess that the costs of those changes would not be paid by the consumer!
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MRJ...why would the false positives impact the cattle market? The positives from Canada hasn't impacted the cattle market there lately has it. I would rather have a false positive or a positive that didn't make the meat stand. Wouldn't you? Lets test, test , test.
 
ranch hand, when the science does not have a solid link between BSE in cattle and any illness in humans, when there is no recommendation for testing of all animals, it doesn't seem scientifically warranted to me to test 100%.

If the Canadian positives have not impacted the cattle markets, doesn't that verify that additional testing in the USA is not necessary, or even warranted? And more especially so since the testing we ARE doing is what the computer model protocol indicated would find BSE even if we had an extremely low number of cases in the USA?

mrj
 
ranch hand, when the science does not have a solid link between BSE in cattle and any illness in humans, when there is no recommendation for testing of all animals, it doesn't seem scientifically warranted to me to test 100%. BUT, are you saying there is no sound science of people getting BSE from cattle. HMMMM, then why did we shut our borders to countries with BSE? Did someone just make this up, or is it not the science you follow to further your cult following.

If the Canadian positives have not impacted the cattle markets, doesn't that verify that additional testing in the USA is not necessary, or even warranted? And more especially so since the testing we ARE doing is what the computer model protocol indicated would find BSE even if we had an extremely low number of cases in the USA?

mrj
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But we could try and get some markets back with the testing. I would rather they find any cases and not worry about a few slipping through the cracks. Kind of like cancer, would rather catch it early than later.
 
Good points, and I agree with some reservation re. science versus rumor, ranchhand.

It also seems time for a thorough evaluation of what is KNOWN about BSE, from transmission to effectiveness of all protocols to stop it, to the people who spread rumors about it and use fears of it to sell ANYTHING, from beef to tests.

FACTS about BSE and cattle and human exposure to BSE are what is needed, scientifically verified facts, that is.

mrj
 
MRJ, "Voluntary testing for BSE by ONE packer is NOT a science based action, but a MARKETING PLOY which would affect not only all other packers, but the entire cattle/beef industry. "

I'll agree that will affect the industry. It will be a positive affect because it will cause sales of beef that otherwise would not be made. It is another option for consumers.

Hormone Free is also not science based and is a marketing ploy. How has it effected packers and the entire cattle/beef industry?
 
MRJ, "Is US beef being allowed to rot due to not being sold? Is there a huge frozen stockpile of unsold beef somewhere? Or herds of cattle unable to be sold because no one will buy them? Of course not! ALL of the beef we in the USA produce IS being sold! Whether in SKorea or not, it IS being sold in most nations in the world. "

MRJ, if you have a fixed quantity of product and the demand increases, price will increase as well.

Back when calves were selling for 70 cents, weren't all of them being sold? Were there bunches of calves with nobody to buy them? See how silly you sound? You shouldn't be trying to influence trade policy with your lack of basic marketing knowledge.
 

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