Industry Overviews 9/23

Top Countries for # of cattle.
India - 215m
Brazil - 159m
China - 107m
USA - 98m
Argentina - 55m

Top Countries for Meat Production
USA - 26 Billion lbs
Brazil - 13b
China - 10b
Argentina - 6b
Russia - 5b

How can we have significantly less cattle than Brazil and still double their production? (India doesn't slaughter cattle, I'm sure you knew that)
Answer - our genetics are better. We have been using feed efficient, fast growing, and high yielding cattle for years. Bos Indicus (indian cattle) are also dominant in Brazil, these cattle take a lot longer to finish out then an Angus cross. They also are primarily grass fed in Brazil. We feed grain to our  cattle which is obviously faster at finishing an animal out. Quite simply, the USA is where the beef is at.

Top States for Beef Cows
Texas 5.1 million
Oklahoma 2m
Missouri 1.9m
Nebraska 1.8m
South Dakota 1.6m

for comparison, Ohio has approx. 297k head of cattle.

Cattle on Feed
Texas 2.7 million
Nebraska 2.5m
Kansas 2.4m
Iowa 1.4m
Colorado 1m

Feedlots are in the midwest because its dry. a feedlot is a piece of ground with feed bunkers, what happens if you put 20,000 cattle in a dirt lot and it rains? EPIC MUDHOLE.

Largest Feeders
1.JBS Swift, also the largest packer, Brazilian based. 870k capacity.
2.Cactus
3.Cargill

Top Packers
JBS Swift (they dominate the market because of vertical integration)
Cargill
Tyson
NBPC
American Foods

Top 10 importers of American Beef
Japan (money, the best quality, they get the good cuts of meat because they will shell out the big cash for it)
Mexico (low quality)
South Korea
Canada
Hong Kong

Who gets the best and worst cuts of meat (1 being the best and 6 being the worst)
1. Exports (places like japan who have the money to afford top quality meat)
2. Fancy restaurants
3. Food services (caterers and banquets)
4. Regular restaurant
5. Grocery Stores
6. Exports to poor countries

In the USA we export what we don't want (or what other countries are willing to pay for) (things like tongues , stomachs, tails.
we import things we like, steaks, burger, etc etc.