Most recently, high unemployment in the world’s wealthiest nation had cash-strapped Americans avoiding restaurants where beef is a common entree and had them switching to lower-cost non-meat dishes at home.

USDA estimates 2011 U.S. per capita beef consumption at 57.4 lbs., down 13 per cent from 10 years ago and down about 25 per cent from 1980. In 2012, USDA predicts, Americans will eat 54.1 lbs. of beef on average.

The beef industry is coping with these changes by developing new cuts that will satisfy appetites for steaks but at a lower cost. Also, it has benefited from a huge recovery in beef exports particularly to Asia and Russia, where consumers are upgrading their diets and concerns about mad cow disease fade.

Beef companies, like Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef are carving up beef carcasses in interesting new ways. Carcass portions that were once meant for ground meat or roasts, such as rounds and chucks, are now sliced into cheaper cuts of steaks for the American palate.

These new less expensive steak cuts became popular during the recession and still are, said Chris Calkins, professor of animal science at the University of Nebraska.

Smaller portions

At the height of the recession the beef industry saw a decline in high-end steak consumption, such as tenderloin and rib-eye, in fine-dining restaurants.

This created an opportunity for beef companies and retailers to promote those higher-end cuts in supermarkets but in smaller portions, Trevor Amen, director of market intelligence at the National Cattleman’s Beef Association.

“We have been successful in maintaining sales and item movement by producing smaller and thinner packages of our more expensive beef items,” said Karen May, external communications manager for Supervalu, a U.S.-based retail grocer chain.

As tough economic times and higher-priced food bite into Americans’ grocery budgets consumers look for ways to cut costs. Meat industry experts say Americans still crave the “steak-eating experience” but want it with a cheaper price.

An even more popular cost-cutting tactic has been to purchase ground beef, oftentimes in bulk, instead of steak, creating what has become known as the “Hamburger Economy,” said Erin Borror, an economist with the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

Ground beef sales in dollar terms rose seven per cent in the last 52 weeks while steak cuts increased 1.3 per cent, according to National Cattleman’s Beef Association data.

In an effort to improve domestic beef sales, meat giant Tyson Foods Inc. ran a 2011 summer promotion featuring its premium ground beef for burgers during the height of grilling season that was picked up by 1,600 retail stores, said Gary Mickelson, a Tyson spokesman.

These efforts, plus strong exports and a decline in imported beef have helped push the average retail beef price to a record $5 per lb. in November, U.S. government data showed.

Exports are surging

While Americans are eating less beef, the appetite overseas is growing, particularly in places like Japan, South Korea and Russia, which has helped meat company profits. In the first 10 months of this year exports are up 25 per cent from a year earlier, putting 2011’s exports on track to be the largest ever.

The more expensive cuts, like rib-eye and T-bone steaks, that for years were eaten here, are increasingly finding their way to affluent overseas customers who are expanding their presence in the world of fine dining.

“Americans are cutting back. We’ve consumed ourselves to a plateau, but the growth and demand is there for exports,” said Chandler Keys, spokesman for the U.S. subsidiary of Brazil’s JBS, the world’s largest meat producer.

“After the BSE we (the meat industry) realized we can’t pile back into the domestic market,” he said.

The industry was laid flat by that mad cow outbreak as overseas consumers initially shunned U.S. beef for fear they would contract the human form of the disease, with exports plunging in the aftermath.

Since then export markets have slowly reopened.

Japan, the top export market for U.S. beef before the mad cow case, has gradually resumed beef purchases since 2003 and is now the third-largest importer. Plus, it is considering fully reopening its door to the meat, a move that could add $1 billion to the value of U.S. beef exports, the U.S. Meat Export Federation said.

With rising retail costs here and efforts to tackle chronic but preventable ailments such as obesity and diabetes, meat companies are increasingly developing and catering meat products to the tastes of foreign consumers.

“The key thing is the people we’re selling our beef to are not in economic trouble. Asian countries make up a good portion of our buyers and Asia is still on a very strong economic growth path,” said Rich Nelson, director of research at Allendale Inc. in McHenry, Illinois.

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Record-breaking triple-digit temperatures were prolonging a devastating drought that has been baking the U.S. South and the dry spell could extend into next year and beyond, climate experts said last Thursday.

Just when you thought it couldn t get any worse… we are seeing expansion of this drought. This drought will continue to persist and likely intensify, said climatologist Mark Svoboda, with the University of Nebraska s National Drought Mitigation Center.

The drought is edging its way to the east even as it intensifies in the southern states, according to a weekly report released last Thursday by a consortium of state and federal climatologists dubbed the U.S. Drought Monitor.

We are seeing intensi – fication in the southeast, in particular Georgia, eastern Alabama, said Svoboda.

The drought increasingly looks likely to extend into next year, he said. Hurricane Irene offered only a little respite for some areas to the east, he said. But the rest of the nation was contending with mostly dr y, warmer -than-normal weather.

A strong tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico was needed to provide enough precipitation to relieve the parched soils in the southern Plains, according to Svoboda.

Texas has been the hardest hit, and 2011 was expected to be the driest calendar year since records were first kept in the late 19th century. In that key agricultural state, levels of extreme and exceptional drought totalled 95.04 per cent of area last week, up from 94.42 per cent a week earlier, the Drought Monitor reported.

The parched soils and rangeland and lack of rainfall have decimated crops, left livestock with little to eat or drink and sparked wildfires across thousands of acres. Texas officials peg damages at more than $5 billion.

Oklahoma was also suffering, with extreme an exceptional levels of drought now across 85.37 per cent of the state. And nearly a third of Kansas is in extreme or exceptional drought, according to the Drought Monitor.

Wheat growers are quest ioning whether or not to even try to seed a new crop this autumn with soils lacking moisture the plants need to grow.

The drought was starting to engulf Louisiana, where extreme and exceptional drought grew to 59.50 per cent of the state, up from 55.97 per cent a week earlier.

The drought grows worse with each 100 F-plus (40 C-plus) day, breaking records and bringing more misery.

Wichita, Kan., has recorded 50 such days this year and areas in Texas have recorded more than 80.

Temperatures last Thursday were again surpassing 100 F in many parts of the Plains.

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The alternative feeding strategy, which could improve feeders’ financial returns by lowering input costs without impacting the animals’ physical development, has been validated through recent studies conducted at Iowa State University and the University of Nebraska, Archer Daniels Midland says in a release.

“Using crop residues and coproducts, rather than higher-value grains, to help feed animals could enable the world to make more of the global harvest and help agriculture expand to meet all needs,” said Mike Baroni, vice-president of economic policy for Archer Daniels Midland Company.

In cattle-feeding trials, adding hydrated lime to corn stover rendered the plant material sufficiently digestible to constitute up to 25 per cent of cattle rations after the treated stover was combined with wet distillers grains and solubles. WDGS, a protein-rich feed ingredient, is a co-product of corn ethanol production.

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“I’m kind of hungry. This is the best chicken soup ever,” she said as she propped herself up on our couch and took a sip of soup. She looked pale and kind of fragile wrapped in a fuzzy blanket.

My husband had just gotten over a fever, chills, sore throat and bad cough. I overheard my son sneeze five times consecutively. Illness was working its way through my family.

I was glad my daughter’s appetite was returning. I’d like to say I made the “best soup ever,” but the chicken soup came out of a can.

Most people struggle with a cold one or more times a year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), colds and flu share many symptoms. The flu is associated with more serious symptoms, including fever, aches and extreme fatigue. Colds usually are not linked with pneumonia and hospitalization.

Does chicken soup have any properties that help relieve cold symptoms or does it just act as a “vaporizer in a bowl?”

Chicken soup may have some special properties, according to a laboratory study published in 2000 by Stephen Rennard at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He put his wife’s homemade soup, as well as canned soups, to the test. The homemade soup included a variety of vegetables, including carrots, celery, parsley, onions and sweet potatoes.

When he and his research team diluted the soups and performed their lab tests, they found that homemade and canned chicken soup reduced the movement of white blood cells known as neutrophils. As a result of this effect on white blood cells, they theorized that homemade soup and canned soup might reduce inflammation and, therefore, some cold symptoms.

Because colds are so common, many hot beverages are used to help relieve sore throats and coughing. For example, many people use hot water with lemon and honey to soothe colds. Also consider these cold-and flu-prevention tips from the CDC:

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.

Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread this way.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

If you are sick with a flu-like illness, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.

In parts of China, ginger tea is used to relieve some symptoms during the beginning stages of a cold. To make ginger tea, add chopped, fresh ginger root to boiling water and let it steep a few minutes, then strain and sweeten with brown sugar or honey.

Few clinical studies have tested the effects of beverages on cold symptoms. A researcher in Wales reported that a hot fruit drink made with juice from apples and black currants might have promise. They provided the purple, vitamin C-rich beverage to 30 students with colds who had not taken any medication to relieve their symptoms.

The students reported that their sore throats and coughing were less severe within a half-hour of drinking the hot fruit beverage. However, when clinical breathing tests were done, there were no differences.

If you’re feeling ill, you might want to have some chicken soup and a hot beverage. It won’t hurt you, and it just might help hydrate and nourish your body. There may be psychological benefits if someone prepares it for you.

Julie Garden-Robinson, PhD, L.R.D., is a North Dakota State University Extension Service food and nutrition specialist and associate professor in the department of health, nutrition and exercise sciences.

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“If you’re working against nature, I’ll tell you what, you’re going to lose. That’s all there is to it. And the number one thing you’re going to lose is money.”

– Terry Gompert

Cow Longevity Is Everything

Forget everything else, says Terry Gompert, because cow longevity is the most important factor in ranching. “You’ll start to notice the functional cow on her 10th calf on your place, under your management,” he said. “She will have had a calf every year with no special care.”

That’s even more important here in Canada, he added, because depreciation of a cow here is more extreme, and salvage value is much lower.

For consistent profitability, cow longevity and fertility outweigh all other factors. Out of 100 head, there might be only three or four that fit the bill.

“Weaning and yearling weights and carcass data have little to do with profitability. That’s mostly about product,” he said. “My suggestion is that you save every female and male from these found-out matron cows. These animals cannot be purchased.”

On purebred farms, he noted, the older cows are sold off long before they get a chance to prove their worth over time.

Smart ranchers, on the other hand, are paying attention to longevity and fertility in order to produce their own herd sires that are naturally adapted to the unique conditions found on their farms.

Bunch ’em up, and keep ’em moving. That, in a nutshell was Terry Gompert’s message to the Western Canadian Holistic Management conference here last week.

Gompert, who ranches near Centre, Nebraska, favours ultrahigh stock density, also known as mob grazing, where many animals are grazed together in small paddocks and then moved to fresh grass on a daily or even hourly basis. He says the strategy is paying dividends.

“Every year that I have used it, I have had increased production regardless of rainfall,” said Gompert, who is an extension educator from the University of Nebraska and a certified holistic management teacher.

First, it heals the land. Grazing mobs of cattle trample the grass stems that they don’t eat, creating surface litter. This eventually breaks down via microbial action into nutrients that feed new growth. Without hoof action, or “deep massage,” much of the grass would never have contact with the soil – it simply dries up, oxidizes and literally blows away.

Second, mob grazing heals the pocketbook. More soil organic matter means more retained moisture, and more litter on top creates shade to keep it from drying out.

That means more grass for more cattle – and more money for the rancher.

Since he started mob grazing in 2005, Gompert has averaged 74 Animal Days per Acre (ADA), or 2.85 ADA per inch of rain, nearly three times the area average under continuous grazing, which is just one ADA per inch of rainfall.

One animal day equates to 26 pounds of dry matter in the gut of a 1,000-pound cow.

His pastures have improved steadily under mob grazing, Gompert added. In 2008, he got 85 ADA, even though only 20 inches of rain fell (his average is 25), giving him 4.25 ADA per inch of rain, a fourfold increase over the average.

In his area of Nebraska, one ADA is worth $74 per year in pasture rent. That means anything he can do to increase productivity puts more money in his pocket.

That, plus gains on buying, selling and raising cattle, comes out to about $125 profit for every extra ADA per grazing season that he can squeeze out of his pastures.

“So, knowing my ADAs, and knowing my efficiency, becomes critical to my profitability,” Gompert said.

YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE

In his job at the university, he’s often asked how to get rid of leafy spurge. It isn’t intentional, but he admits that he tends to annoy the people who ask such questions. That’s because he insists on asking them, “Why do you want to get rid of it?”

Gompert’s aim is to encourage people to figure out what they really want. That means going beyond band-aid chemical solutions and embracing holistic thinking, which means looking at their entire operation as a whole, not just individual parts.

“If you’re working against nature, I’ll tell you what, you’re going to lose. That’s all there is to it. And the number one thing you’re going to lose is money.”

Working with nature could mean obvious strategies, such as May-June calving, which is more in sync with nature.

“That’s a ‘duh!’ isn’t it,” he said, with a laugh.

Gompert, who described himself as a “recovering” registered purebred breeder, has traded artificial insemination on his ranch for multi-sire breeding.

“There is strength in complexity. (Holistic management founder) Allan Savory says that we are losing complexity and diversity on our Earth and having desertification as a result,” he said.

“If we want to be profitable, we need to save the Earth. We need complex, diverse systems, not monocultures. We need to have adapted animals that know our forage, our land, and our operation. You do not get an animal that knows your land by using A. I.”

STARTS WITH THE SOIL

Gompert said his favourite sport these days is learning about the soil food web. From the myriad microscopic creatures that dwell in between grains of sand, to the dung beetles that break up cow patties, all are critical to a rancher’s success because they work together to cycle nutrients to feed the grass.

“The old rule of thumb is that there are more pounds of life under the soil surface than there are pounds of life above it,” he said. “We don’t even think about that when we use fly tags, because we’re killing the dung beetles that actually solve the problem of flies.”daniel.winters@fbcpublishing.com

SURVIVAL: Terry Gompert, a certified holistic management educator and extension agent with the University of Nebraska, presents his views on how to survive in the cattle business at the Western Canadian Holistic Management conference in Russell last week.

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From 1957 to 1959, Murray was employed by Manitoba Department of Agriculture (MDA) as an agricultural representative in Swan River. Following postgraduate studies in the U. S., Murray became senior economist with the Manitoba Economic Consultative Board. In 1967, he rejoined MDA, first as assistant deputy minister and then a year later as deputy minister. Murray’s review of agricultural services led to a major reorganization of the depar tment and the implementation of a regional structure for the delivery of specialist extension services. This structure is still in place today.

In 1973, Murray assumed the position of assistant general manager with Manitoba Pool Elevators (MPE). He was promoted to general manager in 1978 and then CEO in 1984. Under his leadership, MPE expanded its oilseed and food processing, fertilizer production and terminal elevator capacity.

It also improved and consolidated its country elevator system to achieve economies of scale. In 1988, Murray was recruited by Agro Company of Canada to serve as CEO in Montreal. He returned to Manitoba in 1993 and did contract work first for the Federal Business Development Bank and then the provincial government where he was involved in the development of Canadian Agra Corp’s oilseed-crushing plant at Ste. Agathe. In 1995, Murray became executive director of the Western Grain Marketing Panel. From 1997 to 1999, he was deputy minister of Manitoba Industry, Trade and Tourism where he was involved in the establishment of the Maple Leaf hog-processing facility in Brandon.

During his career, Murray held many senior positions on boards, committees and commissions. He served as chair of: Manitoba Dairy Board; Manitoba Agriculture Credit Corporation; Senior Grain Transpor tat ion Committee; and Westglen Milling Ltd. He served as director of: Manitoba Clean Environment Commission; Lake Winnipeg Management Board; XCAN Grain; Prince Rupert Grain Ltd.; CSP Foods Ltd.; Western Cooperative Fertilizer Ltd.; Pacific Elevators Ltd.; Western Grain Elevator Association; Economic Development Winnipeg; and Ensis Growth Fund.

Murray was also actively involved in his church, his community and his profession: St. Vital and Beaurepaire United churches; Manitoba Heart and Stroke Foundation; Biomass Energy Institute; Manitoba Institute of Agrologists; Agricultural Institute of Canada; and University of Manitoba Alumni Association.

Besides his contributions to agriculture, Murray is a proud father and devoted husband.

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