FCC Report Highlights Growth Potential For Livestock Markets

Farm Credit Canada (FCC) released its Agriculture Exports report at Canadian Western Agribition on Tuesday.

 

Chief Economist JP Gervais says the report looked at where we are shipping our commodities and where we have the potential to diversify further. 

 

He talked about the potential for beef and pork.

 

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership deal is going to actually open up even more doors for us to export and grow our presence in the Japanese market and we’ve got a trade deal with South Korea as well. If you look at our export presence in South Korea, it's been lower than what you would normally expect. So, there's an opportunity I believe to diversify a little bit more, maybe lower our exports to the U.S. and try to find that added value in Asian markets.”

 

Gervais says while there’s a lot of discussion around plant-based products – there’s still strong demand for protein sources like beef and pork.

 

“In the data, we find that there is still a very strong demand for both the domestic and foreign markets. So, I'm absolutely optimistic about the future of beef and pork....red meat in general. Just because the fact is, the data is pretty clear export markets want a lot of beef and a lot of pork.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.