USDA adds grass-fed beef report

DESPITE lacking the budget to conduct a major midyear cattle inventory, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has added a monthly report tracking the grass-fed beef market to its portfolio of agricultural market data products. The monthly "Grass Fed Beef Report," first published in September, covers cattle prices, wholesale beef prices and direct retail prices. According to a release announcing the new report, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) created the report in response to a request from the Wallace Center, a Virginia-based organization that "supports entrepreneurs and communities as they build a new, 21st-century food system that is healthier for people, the environment and the economy." The organization asked USDA for a data product that might help them attract more producers to grass-fed beef production. "This monthly report will bring market clarity and exposure to assist the grass-fed industry in marketing their products," AMS administrator Anne Alonzo said. "This report will fill a significant data gap for the industry and increase transparency in the marketplace for all participants." The grass-fed industry, generally speaking, has been flying in the proverbial dark from its inception. Basic estimates of the size and scope of the market itself are hard to come by, with most pointing toward grass-fed production as being less than 5% of all U.S. beef produced. While the grass-fed industry will have at least some data at its disposal now, the beef industry as a whole was disappointed to learn last month that USDA would not conduct a midyear cattle inventory for a second year in a row. Due to budget cuts mandated by the sequestration, USDA suspended a number of statistical reports in 2013, most of which were of little concern to the feed and livestock industries...more