Agmates

Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes

Brazilian owned JBS is on the verge of being the largest beef processor on 3 major cattle producing continents. This is world domination of the export beef market on a grand scale never seen before.

JBS S.A. advised it has received approval from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to purchase multi-species processor Tasman Group. JBS paid $150 million for the Tasman Group with the sale expected to now be finalized on the 2nd of May.

Tasman will become a subsidiary of Greeley, Colo.-based JBS-Swift & Co., already the owner of four beef processing plants and four cattle feedlots in Australia (formerly AMH).

Tasman operates six slaughter facilities and one cattle feedlot.

1. Brooklyn VIC - the largest Multi- Species Plant is the Southern Hemisphere.
2. Cobram VIC - Capacity of 3,000 lamb and sheep a day.
3. Yarrawonga VIC- Capacity 330 cattle aday
4. Longford TAS - Capacity 450 beef & 1,500 Sheep, Lamb & Veal a day.
5. King Island TAS - Capacity 180 Cattle a day
6. Davenport TAS - 150 Cattle & 2,500 Sheep, Lamb & Veal a day.
7. Yambinya feedlot NSW - Licensed to Feed 25,000 cattle & 45,000 Lambs. 7,000 acres of country and 5,000 megalitres of irrigation water. Extensive cropping area.

The newly structured Australian assets will have more than 5,000 employees and a capacity to slaughter some 25,000 animals per day.

JBS purchased Swifts last July 2007 for $US1.4 billion ($A1.7 billion) which owned AMH with has abattoirs in Townsville, Rockhampton and Dinmore near Brisbane and at Beef City on the Darling Downs, where it also has a major feedlot that complements similar fattening operations at Mungindi in Queensland and Caroona and Prime City in New South Wales.

With a market capitalisation in Brazil of $US3.2 billion, JBS is South America’s largest beef processor and one of the world’s largest exporters with 23 plants in Brazil and six in Argentina.

JBS is currently awaiting U.S. Department of Justice approval for acquisitions of U.S. beef processors National Beef Packing Co. and Smithfield Beef Group.

If approved, JBS-Swift, currently the third-largest U.S. beef processor in terms of slaughter capacity, would become the USA’s largest beef processor and control some 30 percent of its entire slaughter capacity.

That will mean JBS will be the largest beef processor on three continents - North America, South America and Australia.

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Have Your Say!

What do you think will be the consequences for beef producers in North America, South America and Australia of JBS’s domination of the worlds export beef production?

Leave your comment below or click on the blue word Comments and the text box will appear.

Darol Dickinson of the Dickerson Cattle Co. Inc (DCCI) Barnesville, Ohio USA writes:
(Click here to see a map of where DCCI Barnesville Ohio is in the USA. Right Click on the marker to zoom in)

Thanks for printing our little photo story on the tired little Texas Longhorn calves. We run up to 1600 head of registered cattle here in the Appalachian foot hills of the Ohio River Valley. Click here to check our ranch web site.

In the last few years we have sent Texas Longhorn semen and embryos to your country (Australia).

Magnum in the photo above, owned by Larry Smith II. This is believed to be the widest horn with the largest base of any steer of any breed. His 120″ tip-to-tip is exactly 10 feet. Magnum is half Watusi. He is one reason DCCI is excited abut Longhorn/Watusi crosses. If you are serious about horn, this is serious horn.

To learn more about the Longhorn Watusi cattle (The Cattle African Kings fought over for 7000 years) at the Dickinson Cattle Co Inc ranch in Ohio Click here

Below is Miss American Pie one of our favourite cows.

Below is some of our Watusi cows and calves. The Watusi herd was first founded in 1979. DCCI was the first private Ranch to breed Watusi, collect semen, and perform embryo transfers.

This Watusi cow pictured below produced the largest weaning weight of over 350 cows in 1997. Her extra horn twist makes her a stand-out in the Watusi herd.

Below is a picture of the Summer Ranch tours that show DCCI cattle to thousands of people. Daily the Watusi are viewed by new fans.

Say G’day to Darol Dickinson in Ohio or ask him a question or leave your comment?

Do that below or click on the blue word Comments and the text box will appear.

New South Wales cattle producer John Carter writes:

“This is the fourth in a series of articles written after my return from the USA where I attended and was a key note speaker at R-CALF USA’s 3 day annual conference held in Omaha Nebraska. I participated and spoke as a representative of the Australian Beef Association (ABA).”

Video that Sparked 62million Kg Beef Recall

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was really hammered by speaker after speaker at the conference and they deserved it.

As I waited for my connection in Los Angeles I read the Los Angleles Times and was amazed to read the story of the 62 million kgs of beef recalled due to a Federally inspected Californian abattoir killing downer cattle for the food chain!

The USDA recall is not because of it’s rigorous inspections but instead a video secretly taped by the Humane Society of the United States. The video showed Hallmark/Westland plant workers prodding downer cattle to get them to stand, and moving downer cattle with machinery, such as a forklift.

Click here to see the video that sparked outrage. (Thanks to Agmate Paul Williams for putting us onto this footage. WARNING - Footage shows cows too sick to stand being shoved by forklifts at a slaughterhouse….. Graphic footage … 2/2008)

I later phoned a retired friend who was a USDA employee and in a sad tone he said the the USDA was no longer the independent body admired worldwide for its integrity.

My friend said, “They (sic USDA) are now under the influence of the crooks in Washington.”

Conference delegates were most critical of the USDA reopening of the Canadian border against their own BSE rules. This was easier to understand than was their refusal to allow Independent meat packer Creekstone’s request to be able to test all their beef for BSE (at their own cost) which would have gained them access to lurative Japanese export markets.

Also delegates were furious about the USDA’s delaying of the Mandatory Country of Origin Legislation (MCOOL) for beef that was passed five years ago, but as yet due chiefly to USDA opposition is to be implemented.

My admiration for the independent R-CALF USA lone battle against bureaucracy on behalf of producers has grown enormously.