Analytical Review of Beef : Educate !

Our final assignment for our Australia trip is an analytical review of something we learned throughout the trip and to compare it to something in the Animal Industry in the United States. Throughout this trip we as students constantly found ourselves comparing what we have heard, learned, and saw throughout our college classes and just our knowledge on the Animal Industry here in the United States. Each and every stop we made there were several differences, but also very many similarities amongst our industry. The subject I have decided to talk about in my analytical review is the consumer demand for beef.

Grain-fed steak

As I stated in my last blog entry of day 3 and my blog titled “A Trip That Won’t Be Forgotten”, the high demand for beef in Australia is a very lean, grass-fed, and hormone free product. I was very surprised when many of the producers said that they have conformed to this way of producing their beef. The consumer demand for this beef product is comparable to our high marbled steaks here in America. When we were having dinner with some Hereford producers in Albury, they said that if they didn’t conform to the grass-fed, hormone free beef, they would no longer be in business. This was just a shock to me! One reason is that we as Americans try our best to promote our wonderful marbled beef products and educating as many consumers as possible. In Australia they have trouble getting the word out to the public; it is just a huge space and so little people to educate consumers on the quality of beef products.

Grass-fed Steak

There are many factors that are behind this demand for lean beef (personally that would be low-quality for me). The main factor behind this driving demand is the little if that disappearing of fat of the Australian beef product. In the minds of an Australian they will tend to gravitate towards a lean beef product compared to high quality beef product (very good in marbling).

When I talk about how important I believe in educating consumers about the animal industry I mean it. I think we need to educate those about the grain feeding, growth enhancements, or various scientific aspects effecting meat quality. If you prefer a leaner beef then that is okay. Many of us animal agriculturists just would like you not to select the lean beef for reasons that you are uneducated on. If you are from Australia and reading this there is a website put on my MLA, which is like our National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). Please take a look at these two websites! You can find MLA here and NCBA here. Are there differences in the two websites? Whoever you are please educate our consumers on the real reason to choose your beef product and not for the uneducated reason.

In the end it comes down to what the consumer will prefer and what is the most profitable for that reason. I don’t know about you but I like big thick and juicy steaks, there are plenty to go around. If the consumer wants it then they are willing to pay money for that beef product and they want to best quality. This is why we as Americans have such a tough job, that is making consumers happy an educated.

When it comes down to it our industry and some of the Australia industry needs to educate the consumers about the products we use on our cattle, or the feed that goes into the animal. In our world today it is scary to see what could happen if we do not educate the public about our animal industry, and especially the meat industry it will be hard to face the challenges as producers for what the world meat industry will want to conform to in the future.

What is in the future of the Meat Industry?

Hope you all enjoyed this !

-Kara