George Morris Centre Releases New Paper on Cattle Carcass Weights
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
The George Morris Centre, Canada’s only independent think tank for agriculture released a paper entitled ‘Food Industry Lessons from Cattle Weights?’ that seeks to examine the conflict between production and demand facing the beef industry. The paper written by Kevin Grier, Senior Market Analysis for the centre who specialises in livestock and meat analysis started thinking about the topic after he recently visited a slaughter plant where he was astounded by the carcass sizes and started to think about the implications that carcass size has on supply and demand. Grier said in an interview, that over the course of 20 years the carcasses are about 120 pounds bigger.
In Grier’s paper, he carefully explains how beef carcass weights have evolved and highlights some of the tensions that this creates between beef producers and the agents including supermarkets and the food service industry as a whole. This is an important issue that needs to be discussed as it’s ultimately hurting demand. As families are getting smaller with an aging population, gigantic roasts and large steaks don’t meet the needs of the consumer population. However, as Grier explains the issue is a complex one. Larger carcasses are more efficient from a producer and packing plant standpoint, while larger carcasses pose a problem for restaurants from a thickness and plate coverage standpoint which all impact price-points.
The paper is a good attempt to spur discussion about some of the challenges facing the beef industry and adapting to consumer demands while finding a balance between all the players in the food industry chain.