Ground Beef as a Share of Total Us Beef Consumption

Ground beef is such a staple in American diets and culture that information technology can exist easy to overlook its part in the bigger movie of U.S. beefiness production and marketing.

U.South. beef consumption final year was 58 pounds per capita, according to Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University. Of that, footing beefiness represented about 26 pounds, or about 45% of full domestic beef consumption.

In some ways, ground beefiness is to the overall beef circuitous what the stocker business concern is to the overall cattle business for both consumers and producers. Both amass related just diverse raw material and alloy them into a more homogenous product of greater value. Both also serve as a shock absorber of sorts, leveling out the seasonal ebb and menses of supplies, and so the product is available year-round.

When it comes to beef trim, for example, Skin notes that peak steer slaughter commonly occurs from May to belatedly June. Peak fed heifer and beef cow slaughter typically summit in the fall. Most dairy cow slaughter occurs toward the first and final quarters. Bull slaughter — a miniscule contributor to total lean trim book — comes mostly in the summer.

Plus, basis beef production, like to the stocker sector, contributes to maintaining relative price relationships because of the ability to warehouse product and apply products of various kinds.

"Ground beefiness is one of the major ways the entire beefiness circuitous maintains balance," Peel says.

There's aught simple most it, though. Ground beef represents a circuitous production arrangement within the hypercomplex cattle and beef industries.

Footing beefiness 101

For purposes hither, figure that fed cattle produce 55% lean beef trim. That's lots fatter than the 75%-to-80%-and-higher lean ground beef consumers typically see. Then, you blend the fatter trim with a college proportion of leaner trim that comes from slaughter cows and imported beef.

Similar to figuring a least-cost ration for cattle, Peel explains those in the meat business organisation mix and match a card of lean sources to make it at a specific per centum lean ground beefiness product for the everyman possible toll.

"The most economic conception for ground beef will change with changes in relative prices, market atmospheric condition and product demands," Peel says.

Lean trim sources on whatever given day range from fresh 85% lean trimmings to imported ninety% lean trimmings to the lesser round.

To a degree, Pare says footing beef production also mirrors the dual, specialized supply bondage that characterize the overall industry.

Food service — restaurants, schools, institutions and the like — business relationship for well-nigh 54% of total food expenditures in the U.S., co-ordinate to Peel. Beefiness products flowing through this concatenation are frequently majority- packaged and so further candy for portion command. Basis beef in this sector uses domestic fat trim, forth with fresh and frozen domestic and imported lean beefiness trim.

Conversely, retail grocery represents virtually 46% of total U.S. food expenditures. Much of the beefiness in this supply chain arrives at retailers in instance-ready packaging, ready for labeling. Footing beef hither is comprised more often than not of domestic, fresh lean and fat beef trim.

Imports key to U.Southward. basis beef

Over the years Peel hears a common question: Why do we import beef? Don't nosotros produce plenty here at dwelling?

"We produce plenty of beefiness, only information technology'south not in the right proportion of products relative to our demands in the market," Pare says. "To maximize value in the industry, we support our ground beef market with imported lean beef trim."

And then Peel walks the questioner through some numbers.

Start, the Livestock Marketing Information Center estimates total beef trim used in the U.South. concluding year at eight.5 billion pounds (see graphic). Of that, 27% (2.iii billion pounds) was from domestic beefiness and dairy cows; another 26% (2.2 billion pounds) was imported trim.

Livestock Marketing Information Center

Incidentally, Peel says nearly 72% of all beef imported to the U.Due south. goes toward domestic ground beef production. He explains almost half of U.Southward. beef imports last year came from Australia and Canada, followed by Mexico, New Zealand and Brazil.

"Roughly, information technology takes the trim of i cow to add to the trim of ane fed animal. Nosotros slaughtered six.4 1000000 cows in the U.S. last year, and 26 million fed steers and heifers," he says. "You brainstorm to run into the challenge right away

"We would have to slaughter near twice equally many choose cows in the U.s.a. to supersede the imported trim and still make everything balance with this huge book of fatty trim that we produce in the fed cattle industry."

In that location are options, all of which come up at higher price and provide less value.

For instance, Peel says the U.S. could decrease ground beef production by near 45%. Every bit mentioned, domestic consumers currently need 45% of their beef consumption as footing beef. Plus, the fatter fed cattle trim currently used in basis beef production would have to discover a new, lower-value habitation in the form of such things as tallow and pet food.

The U.S. could maintain current levels of ground beef product by utilizing more muscle cuts, which have more value in other markets.

Y'all could also run 10% to fifteen% of the yearlings equally range beef and market place them for values similar to cull cows.

"All of those alternatives would result in lower value to the U.S. cattle industry," Peel explains. "The way markets piece of work, we are increasing total value to the industry by sourcing lean where we can become it cheaper to meet the needs of that market, while letting other products that could be used as a source of lean become into other markets where they take a higher value."

The United States is a internet beef exporter on a value basis. This yr, for instance, the latest quarterly Outlook for U.S. Agricultural Trade from USDA's Economic Inquiry Service projects beef and veal exports at $vii.2 billion, with beef and veal imports of $six.1 billion.

"Adjustments in consign and import flows collectively serve to polish out total volumes of beef available for U.S. consumers," says Glynn Tonsor, agronomical economist at Kansas Country University, in Overview of U.South. Beef Product, Consign, Import and Domestic Consumption Trends: 2003-2019.

Full U.S. beefiness product terminal twelvemonth was 27.23 billion pounds. Of that, Tonsor says iii.02 million pounds of beefiness were exported, 3.06 meg pounds of beef were imported. Total domestic beef disappearance was 27.28 billion pounds, which corresponded to 57.97 pounds per person, given U.S. population growth.

"Therefore, 11.10% of total U.S. beefiness production in 2019 was exported, and 11.21% of total U.Due south. beef disappearance was sourced from imports," Tonsor explains. "There is a -0.53 correlation betwixt almanac consign and import flows consequent with imports increasing when exports decline, and vice versa."

"While this may be surprising, this synergistic relationship reflects differences in products involved, the role of imported products as inputs (ordinarily for basis beef production) into U.S. domestic consumption markets, and value differences associated with these book flows," Tonsor writes.

Notation: Peel shared his insights during the webinar series "Intersection of the Cattle and Beefiness Industries," hosted by the Extension services at N Dakota Land University, Texas A&M University and West Virginia University. You can discover the NDSU livestock Extension Intersection webinar series at bit.ly/ndsuleiw.

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Source: https://www.beefmagazine.com/beef/feeding-demand-ground-beef

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