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Post by shumakerherefords on Apr 20, 2015 16:55:44 GMT -6
www.beefcentral.com/live-export/biggest-boxed-beef-customer-us-now-wants-our-live-cattle/This was in planning several years ago when an employee leaked a memo from the CEO of Cactus Feeders proposing importing Ausie feeder calves. At that time I did some research and found that the cost of importing a horse from Australia was over US$ 600 per animal. That was due to U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service quarantine and health inspection costs. Now obviously the US feeders have figured out a way to circumvent those costs. There seem to be other factors at play to attempt to lower the record high cattle prices in the US. Last week there were several reports that the chains at the packers were running very slow and the cash market on fed cattle fell back. That is mildly surprising with the summer grilling season starting.
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Post by moon on Apr 21, 2015 15:38:04 GMT -6
This is nothing new, because back in 2003 or 2004 I was told by a well known cattle marketer that Aussie cattle have been coming to the U.S. through Mexico for several years. He knew one of the principals in the group shipping the cattle by boat to Mexico. He described to me how the ship was modified to feed, water, and discard the waste, as well as monitoring the health of the cattle on the trip. This ship held 5,000 head. After arrival in Mexico they were kept in grower lots for a set period of time then trucked into the U.S. as Mexican cattle. My contact's main concern was this method could be a direct source for introduction of hoof and mouth into this country.
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Post by shumakerherefords on Apr 21, 2015 16:35:59 GMT -6
That does not surprise me. Wonder what they do with the waste, just dump it overboard? With 5000 head there are bound to be a few deads. Wonder where they go?
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Post by larso on Apr 22, 2015 1:13:07 GMT -6
No Foot and Mouth in Australia, I think you will find we have the cleanest cattle in the world due to our very stick quarantine laws. As for live export we have refined that also to where live export into Asia is now one of our biggest beef markets. We would have no trouble getting them there finding the cattle is the problem.
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Post by jayh on Apr 22, 2015 9:39:12 GMT -6
Why cant they feed them there? It has to be cheaper to get grain to them than take them to grain?
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Post by shumakerherefords on Apr 22, 2015 11:15:54 GMT -6
Why cant they feed them there? It has to be cheaper to get grain to them than take them to grain? Good question! I just did some 'back of the envelope' calculations. If the Australians were to feed out those calves like we do in the US the 1.2 million head mentioned in the initial link would require about 6,000,000,000 pounds of feed (primarily maize). That is 3 million tons. The total maize production for Australia including Tasmania is 375 kilo tons en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Australia . Thus it would require importing most of the feed from overseas. Then they would have to build the feedlots and packing facilities.
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Post by larso on Apr 22, 2015 13:58:23 GMT -6
We don't use maize in the feedlots or very little, barley and sorghum are our 2 cereal grains used. As for building feedlots and packing facilities we already have them as I said before finding the cattle is the problem. With the new free trade agreement with China we now have there is not enough cattle to supply that market. The top end of Australia and Queensland has been in severe drought for the last few years and cattle numbers are depleted their. We are a nation of 22 million your 300 million plus and 2/3'ds of Australia is arid," fair dinkum" you guys have nothing to worry about from us, it's probably just a threat to put down ward pressure on your market. PS. you can have as many boat loads of Kangaroos as you want, we're over supplied with them.
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Post by George on Apr 22, 2015 14:42:44 GMT -6
Why cant they feed them there? It has to be cheaper to get grain to them than take them to grain? Jay, the reason that most feedlots are located where they are in the US is because it is cheaper to move the cattle to the feed than it is to move the feed to the cattle.
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Post by jayh on Apr 22, 2015 14:56:14 GMT -6
Why cant they feed them there? It has to be cheaper to get grain to them than take them to grain? Jay, the reason that most feedlots are located where they are in the US is because it is cheaper to move the cattle to the feed than it is to move the feed to the cattle. That just makes no sense to me. If you figure in death loss and insurance I would think that you could move grain cheaper than cattle. I guess that's why I work on cars and not run any government.
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Post by George on Apr 22, 2015 15:01:34 GMT -6
Jay, the reason that most feedlots are located where they are in the US is because it is cheaper to move the cattle to the feed than it is to move the feed to the cattle. That just makes no sense to me. If you figure in death loss and insurance I would think that you could move grain cheaper than cattle. I guess that's why I work on cars and not run any government. It is cheaper to move 1 pound of beef than 6 pounds of grain.
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Post by shumakerherefords on Apr 22, 2015 16:34:05 GMT -6
We don't use maize in the feedlots or very little, barley and sorghum are our 2 cereal grains used. As for building feedlots and packing facilities we already have them as I said before finding the cattle is the problem. With the new free trade agreement with China we now have there is not enough cattle to supply that market. The top end of Australia and Queensland has been in severe drought for the last few years and cattle numbers are depleted their. We are a nation of 22 million your 300 million plus and 2/3'ds of Australia is arid," fair dinkum" you guys have nothing to worry about from us, it's probably just a threat to put down ward pressure on your market. PS. you can have as many boat loads of Kangaroos as you want, we're over supplied with them. Don't doubt for a minute that US packers and feedlots want to drive the price down. A few years ago a local sale barn had a cow with blisters around her mouth. That started a rumor of foot and mouth disease and phone calls spread it all over the country. It turned out the blisters were caused by timothy hay but the rumor knocked an estimated $50 million off the cattle market in the next few days. As far as the roo meat: a fast food chain, Jack in the Box, got a batch in the 1990s that was labeled as beef. They claim it was never served to customers? ??
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Post by larso on Apr 22, 2015 17:16:31 GMT -6
Can remember the roo meat debacle, they serve it along with emu and crocodile as a delicacy at restaurants now. We are the only country in the world that eats it national emblems, nothing is sacred here. No wonder the Poms exported us 200 hundred odd years ago.
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Post by oldduffer on Apr 27, 2015 11:10:47 GMT -6
In response to shumakerherefords post: I have worked extensively with a US exporter [outbound] that his ridden the "boat". Yes, once in international waters everything goes overboard.
"first hand information.......................not hearsay!"
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Post by shumakerherefords on Apr 27, 2015 16:55:08 GMT -6
Recently there were news reports that the cruise ship industry dumped "over one billion gallons of sewage into the ocean in 2014". thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/04/3599528/cruise-lines-sewage-2014/ Apparently there are no laws preventing the dumping of sewage in international waters. I can only imagine the outcry when they discover the 'cattle ships' are dumping tons of cow shit straight into the ocean.
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