Beef Supply Chain Wrestles With The Cost Of Resiliency

Feb 02, 2022

Fundamental changes are transforming the beef supply chain from a just-in-time delivery model toward a just-in-case approach. Managing the costs associated with these changes may result in a shift of the historical live cattle and retail beef price ratio, according to a new RaboResearch report, “Beef Supply in a Post-Covid World.”

“While a cattle producer has little or no control over what happens in the beef supply chain post-harvest, it will be important for livestock producers to be aware of changes occurring throughout the supply chain,” writes report author, Don Close, senior animal protein analyst with Rabo AgriFinance. “Any changes, any inventory building, any additional controls and inspections could have a direct impact on the total cost of beef to the end user, which could change historical norms for live-to-wholesale and live-to-retail price spreads.”

Meat processors, distributors and retailers are striving to build supply resiliency into the beef supply chain and reduce the risk of another round of empty grocery store shelves in the future. The major drivers of change explored in the report are:

Automation in packing plants to increase the efficiency of their labor force
Packaging that extends shelf life, is more durable for grocery delivery and meets sustainability expectations
Government and investor-led sustainability demands, which may require more documentation and verification methods throughout the supply chain
The transportation system’s technology and infrastructure overhaul that reduces carbon emissions and the risk for backlogs

The area of change with the greatest potential direct impact on cattle producers is meatpacking plants’ embedding more automation into their facilities. The report notes that the initial introduction of advanced technology will not serve as a replacement for labor. It will serve to make labor more efficient. However, the transformation toward greater automation will require a workforce with different skill sets or extensive retraining.

Click here to see more...

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.