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U.S. cattle feeding industry will reduce Mexican exports, report says
Story Date: 2/13/2013
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Source: Andre Sulluchuco, MEATINGPLACE, 2/12/13
Mexico has become an aggressive feeder cattle exporter to the U.S. over the last 30 years, a situation labeled by experts as being “unsustainable.”
According to a new report from the Rabobank Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory (FAR) group, the availability of cattle for export may decrease this year. This could leave the U.S. cattle feeding industry searching for ways to make up for this reduced supply.
“Record high feeder and calf prices in the U.S. [led to] a surge of exports to the U.S. over the last two to three years,” said report author Don Close, vice president of food and agribusiness research & advisory, animal protein. “However…the severe drought in 2011 prompted such a notable increase in exports to the U.S. so that the levels became unsustainably high,” he added.
The drought-induced surge in feeder cattle imports from Mexico over the past two and a half years has led to increased heifer shipments. When U.S.- Mexican feeder trade began to take shape, 90 percent of the cattle exported by Mexico were steers.
By September 2012, spayed heifers accounted for more than 25 percent of all shipments. Such an escalation in heifer shipments signals a depletion of total Mexican cattle supplies.
“We’re going to see a depleted inventory but…there is going to be a sharply reduced retention of potential replacement heifers,” said Close.
As to how the U.S. cattle feeding industry will make up for a reduced supply of feeder cattle from Mexico, Close said that “cattle feeders are going to need to change several aspects of how they procure cattle, starting with becoming more dependent on feeders from the southeast cow/calf complex.”
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