Thursday, February 28, 2013

Why would you want to raise beef for the world?

Why would you want to raise beef for the world?

This seems to be a very popular question or at least some version of this.  After listening to Dr. Fluharty at a recent beef banquet, the question may be more like why wouldn't you want to be raising beef for the world in the next 50 years.

Here are some interesting, yet very scary facts about population, Dr. Fluharty shared with the local beef producers.

World population will double in the next 50 years.
Doesn't this sound exciting, really something to look forward to (enter sarcasm).
We are going from 750 Million to 3.3 Billion middle-class consumers in the next 50 years, adding 51 Million middle-class consumers PER YEAR! It is factual the middle class currently likes beef. Score one for the beef producers.

I know you are probably wondering with the population increasing worldwide, what protein do all these people prefer? Dr. Fluharty shared these numbers.
Pork 40%
Beef 32%
Poultry 22%
Lamb and Mutton 6%
Lamb is the principal meat consumed in North Africa, the Middle East, India, and parts of Europe.

As you begin to look at this graph, the only thing that really is alarming with the information above, is that we are currently raising less calves today than any other time in the last 50 years.  I am by no means an economic major or even above average in intelligence.  However, what I think I am seeing/hearing is that demand is undoubtedly going up and our supply is currently down. Score two for the beef producers.
Personally this makes me think I have a husband who loves the beef industry more than me (don't feel sorry for me, I knew that when he asked me to marry him).  With this knowledge I also know Jake likes to work more than most anything else in life. So,while all of our friends are paying off their houses and taking cruises, we are buying more cattle. It is really hard to argue otherwise.
Dr. Fluharty then shared the number of cows in the world by selected countries in millions of cows.

India 320
Brazil 190
China 104
United States 92
European Union 87
Argentina 48
Colombia 32
Australia 28
Mexico 17
Canada 13
This makes you wonder, if this is where the cows are, who is and will be eating this beef.
According to USDA Protein Facts via Dr. Fluharty, these are the countries per capita beef and veal consumption.
Uruguay 134 lbs.
Argentina 117 lbs.
Brazil 84 lbs.
United States 83 lbs.
Hong Kong 52 lbs.
South Korea 30 lbs.
China 9 lbs.
India 3.5 lbs.
Really this information makes it really clear of why you would want to raise beef for the world in the next 50 years.  With our move back to Nebraska on the horizon it should be really clear why we would be so excited to feed all of these new middle class people beef.  What you really should be asking is why aren't you and Jake moving to Brazil to raise beef.
















  

1 comment:

  1. My husband has been trying (unsuccessfully) to get me to move to Nebraska because apparently the Sandhills is the absolute best place to raise cattle. But Brazil has crossed his mind also.

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