Brazil

1,500-lb. Carcasses the New Normal, Not the Exception

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 16:26:38 GMT

Today the entire beef industry — from producers to processors — is economically incentivized to produce heavier animals. Ty Lawrence, West Texas A&M University animal science professor and director of the BCRC, predicts that carcass weights will continue to increase, potentially reaching 1,500 lb. in the near future.

Lawrence was a keynote speaker during the 2025 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Symposium in Amarillo last week. He says the industry has already seen harvests of cattle approaching that weight, with some producers currently feeding cattle up to 2,300 lb.

“We can feed cattle today to much bigger weights and be more profitable than you’ve ever considered,” Lawrence says.

BIF attendee and Kansas beef producer Joe Epperly from Wamego, Kan., summarizes, “The most hard-hitting comment at BIF was Lawrence’s 1,500-lb. carcass prediction by the end of his career. The implications of that to genetic selection, cost of production and cow size are far ranging. It will be a challenge for producers in every segment to meet.”

More than 400 beef producers, breed association leaders and industry professionals participated in two and a half days of educational programming focused on beef industry profitability and sustainability.

Tuesday, June 10, the event kicked off with the Young Producer Symposium. Wednesday’s general session focused on “Beef Industry Profitability: Conflicting market signals and profit drivers in the beef value chain.” Thursday’s general session theme was “Sustainability: Improving our product through selection, applications of technology and data integration.”

Wednesday and Thursday afternoon technical breakout sessions focused on a range of beef-production and genetic-improvement topics.

Bradley Wolter, a symposium attendee from Aviston, Ill., says, “Larger carcasses will be a critical part of bridging the supply gap in the near term. Identifying genetic association with late-term mortality and morbidity requires further research and coordination on the part of breeding entities.”

He says the chasm remains between exponentially larger finished carcasses that optimize fixed packer costs verses a target of smaller cows for biological optimum on the ranch.

“More collaborative, holistic data analysis with integrated research is needed to avoid industry sub-optimization and ensure competitiveness on the world stage,” Wolter summarizes.

Scott Greiner, Virginia Tech professor and Extension animal scientist, agrees with Epperly and Walter saying the message that resonated with many in attendance was the continued emphasis on increasing carcass weights by the feedlot and packing sectors, and the impact it will have at the cow-calf sector as it relates to cow size and production costs.

“This trend is not new, but I think the way things were conveyed by several speakers in terms of the economics and market signals, sure seems like bigger is what will continue to be a primary emphasis,” Greiner says.

Ken Odde, 2025/26 BIF vice president from South Dakota, says: “Two of the real questions about feeding cattle this long [to 1500-lb carcass weight] is what happens to the carcass traits as you do that? What happens to feed efficiency?”

One of the sessions that stood out to Odde during the symposium was a presentation on a project at South Dakota State University in the Advancements in End Product Improvement breakout session — “Extended days on feed: Influences on growth performance, efficiency and carcass characteristics of steers and heifers of different proportions of Angus and Limousin genetics.”

Is the U.S. Behind?

“From conversations in the hallway, I learned that the U.S. beef industry is behind on methane research, and if we are going to compete in the global marketplace, we need to get a move on,” Epperly says. “Australian Angus will release a methane research EPD in 2025, and we have barely enough data in the U.S. to see differences. That Australian data includes a lot of American bulls, so we will have data whether some American breeders like it or not. The optics for some are unfavorable, but whatever we can do to keep the doors open for our product the better off we will be.”

Likewise, symposium speakers referenced the Brazilian beef industry and how it is poised for continued success and rapid growth given its bountiful resources, not the least of which is its people.

“You see it not only in its scaled adoption of AI, but through the numerous young geneticists who make up the audience,” Walter says. “The U.S. industry needs to continue to invest in its genetic improvement through both public and private partnerships to maintain a position of world leadership.”

Young Producer Focus

“The Young Producer Symposium opened with a message about ‘Standing on the shoulders of giants,’” says Elizabeth Dressler, a graduate student who attended the symposium. “This resonated with me as I thought about all the research and progress the beef industry has made over the years. I thought it was a great way to open the conference by paying respect to the work that has been done in the past, as we look into the future the rest of the conference.”

Wolter adds there’s an excitement among young people in the beef industry.

“These young leaders are creatively engaged with our consumers unlike the previous generation,” he says. “I believe that will only create more demand and opportunities for an industry despite some questions and uncertainties with how cattle interact with their environment.”

Brazil Confirms BSE Case, Halts Exports to China

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 16:27:20 GMT

Brazil’s beef exports to China will be halted starting Thursday after a case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the northern state of Para, the country’s agriculture and livestock ministry said on Wednesday.

The suspension is part of an animal health pact previously agreed between China and Brazil and is expected to be temporary. It is a blow to Brazilian farmers, as China is the main destination for Brazil’s beef exports.

“All measures are being taken immediately at each stage of the investigation and the matter is being handled with total transparency to guarantee Brazilian and global consumers the recognized quality of our meat,” said Minister Carlos Favaro.

A case of the disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalitis, was confirmed earlier by Para’s agricultural defense agency.

“The symptomatology indicates that it is the atypical form of the disease, which appears spontaneously in nature, causing no risk of dissemination to the herd and to humans,” the agency said in a statement.

The sick animal was on a property with 160 head of cattle in the southeast of the state. The site has been inspected and preventively interdicted, the agency added.

Samples were sent to the World Organization for Animal Health lab in Alberta, Canada, to confirm whether it was the classic form of the disease or its “atypical” version.

In 2021, two cases of the disease triggered a suspension in beef exports to China that lasted more than three months.

Much of Brazil’s Beef Defies Zero-Deforestation Agreements

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 19:52:35 GMT

Brazilian meatpackers continue to procure cattle from inside the country’s protected areas more than a decade after zero-deforestation cattle agreements were signed to reform the sector. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Conservation Letters .

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Vrije University Amsterdam found that from 2013 to 2018, millions of cattle slaughtered for beef spent at least part of their lives grazing in protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon, including on indigenous lands.

The study found nearly 1.1 million cattle were sold directly from private properties inside protected areas to slaughterhouses in Mato Grosso, Pará, and Rondônia states. An additional 2.2 million head were linked via indirect suppliers located in protected areas. Researchers found 72% of that 3.3 million slaughtered head originated from sustainable-use areas, where ranching may be permitted in certain cases. However, the study found 20% of production also occurred in strictly protected areas and 8% on indigenous lands where commercial grazing is illegal and prohibited by the cattle agreements.

Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of beef and officials note that controlling commercial cattle production inside the protected areas is crucial to ensure Brazil’s access to foreign markets and protect biodiversity in the amazon rainforest.

“Protected areas are the cornerstone of Brazil’s conservation efforts and are arguably the most effective way that we have to conserve forests and the biodiversity inside of them,” says Holly Gibbs, a UW–Madison professor of geography and senior author of the study. “That meatpackers are continuing to buy from properties in areas that are under strict protection is alarming.”

Ranchers and slaughterhouses in Brazil are required to share information about where animals are transported, primarily for the purpose of monitoring their health. When coupled with property records, this information is also useful for identifying where cattle have grazed, including if they grazed inside protected areas.

Gibbs and her colleagues were able to track beef supplies by tying animal movement data to property records that they then cross-referenced with maps of protected areas in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Pará and Rondônia. Expansion of agriculture in those three states is accelerating deforestation at an alarming rate, researchers said. Historically, cattle ranching has been linked to about 80% of deforestation in the Amazon basin.

The study’s authors said their analysis ends in 2018 because the Brazilian government ended its previously transparent public recordkeeping. Meanwhile, satellite imagery analyzed by the Brazilian space agency indicates that deforestation rates increased by nearly 50% from 2018 to 2020, with nearly three-quarters of the loss occurring in the states covered in this study.

By ending its transparent accounting of cattle movement data, the Brazilian federal government also hampers meatpackers’ efforts to monitor their indirect suppliers.

“Many slaughterhouses have gotten the message that being associated with deforestation is bad for their business, but they cannot address this issue without increased availability of information about their suppliers,” says Lisa Rausch, a co-author of the paper and scientist at UW–Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

“There is an appetite among retailers and investors — the parts of the value chain that slaughterhouses are responsive to — for more information about slaughterhouses’ performances, but right now that information is lacking,” Rausch says.

Brazilian Cases of BSE Halt Beef Exports To China

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 11:46:10 GMT

Brazil has suspended beef exports to China after confirming two cases of “atypical” bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in two separate domestic meat plants, the agriculture ministry said on Saturday.

Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter and China is its top customer, buying more than half the country’s exports. The suspension, which is part of an animal health pact agreed between China and Brazil and is designed to allow Beijing time to take stock of the problem, begins immediately, the ministry said in a statement. China will decide when to begin importing again, it added.

The cases were identified in meat plants in the states of Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais, the ministry said. It said they were the fourth and fifth cases of “atypical” BSE that have been detected in Brazil in 23 years.

“Atypical” BSE develops spontaneously and is not related to eating contaminated foods. Brazil has never had a case of “classic” BSE, according to the agriculture ministry.

The two cases were confirmed on Friday after samples were sent to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) lab in Alberta, Canada. The OIE had subsequently been informed of the two cases, in compliance with international norms. The ministry said there was no risk to animal or human health.