CALF_News_August_September_2019

17 CALF News • August | September 2019 • www.calfnews.net supplies most of those soybeans, but with the trade war between the United States and China shutting off access to American corn and soybeans needed to fill any unexpected supply gaps, uncer- tainty has raised prices. The number of large cattle opera- tions has increased but these operations have focused on cattle feeding. Most are integrated operations with their own harvest, processing and importing opera- tions. They do not raise calves, leaving that to the small operations with 100 head or fewer.With these small operations unable to expand to meet demand and facing rising feed costs, the price of a 550- pound calf has risen to $1,481. The large, integrated operations have reduced cattle feeding operations due to high calf and feed prices and focused instead on import- ing live cattle and then processing them in their harvest and processing plants. African Swine Fever (ASF) will reduce Chinese pork inventory by 6 billion pounds in 2019, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. The Chinese prefer pork over all other meats. Pork accounts for 60 percent of all meat consumption in China. But, with reduced availability and ques- tions about the safety of pork products due to ASF, the Chinese have had to increase imports of both pork and beef. The USDA estimates that China will increase pork imports in 2019 by 33 percent and beef imports by 20 percent. American beef in China has to com- pete against beef from Brazil, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina. Right now 95 percent of all beef imports into China come from these countries. Brazil has the largest cattle inventory in the world. As the largest beef exporter to China, the South American country accounts for 30 percent of beef imports into China. They have an advantage over American beef exporters because they face lower tariffs and have well-estab- lished business relationships in China. Australia provides 80 percent of live cattle imports into China. The China- Australia Free Trade Agreement makes this trade cost effective. On January 1, 2019, the tariff on live cattle imports from Australia into China fell to zero. The USDA predicts that these live cattle imports into China will increase 7 percent in 2019. Despite slow growth in exports to China, U.S. beef exports rose to record levels in 2018 thanks to exports to other Asian countries, primarily South Korea. Exports of U.S. beef to South Korea in 2018 rose to $1.75 billion, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. That was a 43-percent increase over 2017 exports of U.S. beef to South Korea. Two factors account for this increase – the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which lowered duties on U.S. beef, and Koreans developing a taste for U.S. beef. South Koreans now eat more U.S. beef per capita than any other foreign country. The United States government hopes to repeat that trade model with China. President Trump’s “America First” trade policy played a key role in U.S. beef ’s rising exports to South Korea. The United States used its leverage Continued on page 19  Can you guess which supplement they prefer? The research shows calves prefer supplements with IntelliBond ® trace minerals trace minerals www.micro.net (317) 486-5880 Smart minerals, smart nutrition... smart decision SULFATE FREE N o C o p p e r S u l f a t e • N o Z i n c S u l f a t e • N o M a n g a n e s e S u l f a t e • TraceMineral MADE IN USA Three studies confirmed it. When given a choice, beef calves are more than twice as likely to consume supplements with IntelliBond ® trace minerals compared to sulfate or organic sources of trace minerals. 1-3 Switch to IntelliBond trace minerals for better palatability, plus higher bioavailability, increased fiber digestibility, less leaching and less binding with antagonists. 1 Wiebusch, 2015. JAM. 2 Caramalac et al., 2017. J. Anim. Sci. 95:1739-1750. 3 Micronutrients trial #2017BC106USCZM. IntelliBond ® is a registered trademark of Micronutrients, a Nutreco company. © 2019 Micronutrients USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Check out the data and discover the benefits of a sulfate-free trace mineral program at micro.net/species/beef .