CALF_News_February_March_2021

7 CALF News • February | March 2021 • www.calfnews.net Still feeding sulfate trace minerals? How distasteful. www.micro.net | (317) 486-5880 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. © 2020 Micronutrients USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Smart minerals, smart nutrition... smart decision Calves prefer the taste of supplements with IntelliBond ® more than 2 to 1 vs. sulfate trace minerals. 1-3 Did you know cattle have 25,000 taste buds? That makes them extra-sensitive to the bad taste of free metals from sulfate trace minerals in the ration, and causes them to consume less feed. But when you feed IntelliBond ® trace minerals instead, calves keep eating. Studies show calves prefer supplements that include IntelliBond ® more than 2 to 1 vs. sulfate trace minerals . 1-3 Ask your nutritionist about the tastier trace mineral option. Learn more at micro.net/species/beef. transparency through negotiated cash trade has boiled into 2021. The COVID-19 impact on beef processing last spring fanned the flames of already burning questions about price transparency. The Tyson plant fire at Holcomb hurt prices paid for fed cattle, yet wholesale prices weren’t as bear- ish. Many cattle groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, sought a U.S. Justice Department inquiry of the major packers. When COVID forced the shutdown of restaurants and other foodservice operations nationwide, consumers rushed to retail meat cases for beef. Demand was huge for packers. However, processing lines slowed down due to sick employees sent home with the virus. Cutout prices rose dramatically. Conversely, packer bids for live cattle were slashed considerably. That caused more turmoil. Packer captive supply of fed cattle numbers remains an issue. Congressional action was taken to propose mandatory negotiated cash trade on up to 50 percent of cattle purchased by packers. That ques- tion is still being argued among cattle groups. Some are for it and some fear that further government involvement in cattle marketing will hurt in the long run. Packer Expansion … Is It Needed? Tight packer capacity is part of the problem. Capacity was dramatically cut when Cargill closed its Plainview, Texas, plant in 2013 due to drought that caused a reduction in cattle numbers. Kevin Buse of Champion Feeders in Hereford would welcome more slaughter capacity. “There are several smaller start- up facilities under construction or soon to be going in the next year or so,” he says, discussing new plants in Idaho, Missouri and Wisconsin. “The expansion of beef-processing capacity at any size is a good thing. How- ever, long term, the issue of economic scale and operating cost will continue to focus on the larger size plants. In our region, STX Beef [formerly Sam Kane] is coming into new ownership in South Texas. Our local Caviness Beef Packers plant is expanding and adding 30 percent to capacity over the next several months.” Small packers with specialty markets in mind are also online. The former Brawley Beef plant in Brawley, Calif., was transformed into One World Beef packers in 2016. But financial obligations for such facilities are huge. And state and federal permits to operate a meat pack- ing facility can be back breaking. Help could come from Congress through the Requiring Assistance to Meat Proces- sors for Upgrading Plants (RAMP UP) Act, which provides federal incentives to improve beef processing capacity. Justin Benavidez, Texas A&MAgriLife Extension economist, says the beef indus- try should consider the cattle cycle and overall economic factors before spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a new packing plant. “I see no problem with the desire to expand capacity,” he says. “It’s an obvious market response, given the challenges over the last year. If it’s profitable for the new packer, I’m all for it and it would provide an alternative location in times of stressed capacity. “However, I see new plants facing several challenges that may be Continued on page 11 