Handing Over Our Competitive Edge
The sport of cutting is all the rage in Europe thanks to U.S. expertise and horses. In some aspects of ranching we might consider it flattering to be copied, but not when it comes to raising cattle. Welcome to Open Range I’m Susan Allen when I return I’ll tell you why I think the American beef industry might have shot themselves in the foot by teaching our competitors our secrets of raising and marketing the best cattle on the planet. It’s an on going deal throughout the ag industry, good will hand shake tours, visiting countries with the intent of sharing idea’s and problem solving . Problem is, we end up giving up all all our innovative ideas along with our competitive edge. You wouldn’t show your cards before you double down, I think the same should be true with cattle. Sitting across the table peaking at our hand are competitors like Brazil, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and even Mexico. We provide them cliff notes that help them obtain footholds in places our cattle producers depend on as export markets. What do they do, delightfully remind our markets over and over again about one lone cow in a history of millions with BSE. The Aussies are aggressively promoting a “clean, safe” campaign to persnickety Japan who gobbles up their slogan “Traceability You Can Trust.” Mexico also is using the "Safe Choice" mantra wooing fickle South Korea by saying they produce safer beef than we do. What, yu can’t drink the water, the countries in chaos and whose inspecting that beef, the cartel? Yet those Koreans are buying it.
