US official admits no more meat to be bought from Argentina
US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins confirmed that her country would not be purchasing any more meat from Argentina in a protectionist move to preserve local production. “No more meat from Argentina,” she said during a Fox News interview.
I know it’s a little off topic, but it would be great if the USDA would adopt the practices promoted by Allan Savory. It would be better for the environment, better for ranchers, and better for consumers.
Savory does extensive work on reclaiming desert lands and restoring them to productive grasslands. He does this by using cattle, sheep, and goats in a planned grazing system. His thesis is the world and the environment needs more cattle, not less. He advises ranchers to double their herds sizes to improve and reclaim arid land.
The challenge is building up a herd takes time. A cow’s gestation period is a little over 9 months. Twins are rare and not desirable. A heifer needs to be at least 13 months old before she should become pregnant.
Perhaps slightly off topic, but very, very important.
Ridiculous that we import Venezuelan meat when we have the best meat on the planet in the U.S. (short of perhaps the Wagyu prefecture).
That being said, I could not agree more, TS. We need to radically change animal farming for the better and that means better everything. Better profits for farmers, better conditions for the animals, better/regenerative treatment of the soil and better/more nutritious meat in our bellies. There are lots of good solutions from Savory and they need to be implemented.
Ive got a relative who raises cattle in the idaho high desert. Takes 400 acres to support one cow amd you have to have water. They engineered the ranch over 5 generations to be productive. Its over 50k acres. But it is still desert.
Colorado is about 27 acres a head. Pretty dry here also
YEP! That green stuff that comes out of a bovine's ass is what builds soil!
And seeds the soil at the same time. Bio-diversity increases 120% on grazing pastures within 3 years. 120%!!!!
And magic mushrooms 🍄
"Home , home on the range .Where the deer and the buffalo roam..."
I've been around and raised cattle for many years. I'm familiar with pasture management and grazing systems but not Savory. I'm gonna have to check it out.
Here’s a link to a TED talk he did. I’m surprised they invited him. I’ve watched a few videos where he is coaching ranchers, pretty interesting.
It’s amazing that he has documented proof his approach works and the “climate experts” act like his approach lacks a scientific approach.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
Thanks fren!
I came across this video about a couple in North Texas who have been applying Allan Savory’s methodology since the 1980’s. I thought you might be interested.
https://savory.global/science_library/herd-impact/
Thanks fren! o7
Exactly! Meat protein can be produced on semi-arid and even tundra.
Try growing plants on that. There is not enough arable land to grow enough plants if we all stopped eating meat.
When I cannot get local, I use Butcher Box, because the beef is guaranteed grass fed. Butcher Box gets its beef from Australia, because the climate there allows year round pasture, I imagine the same for South America. The USA so far, has lower standards, and there are enormous corporate controls over the industry. Very local beef is raised, and it is 4x more expensive, unless I buy half a cow and have it butchered and cut and wrapped locally, which is an option, some folks go half in on it. The local pork and chicken is also more expensive, but, I buy it. Trouble is, there are not enough Black Angus in this area, it is Vermont, a lot of dairy breeds, and the difference between Holstein, Jersey, and Black Angus is huge. Holstein beef just does not taste that good. Raising a a couple for my own use will not happen, they would just become hayburners and pets.
Yeah it's frustrating, if you want high quality, humanely raised beef in this country, you've really got to pay a premium, which I do as well. And amen to to buying a local half cow or pig. I've done both and my goodness, the quality of the meat is incredible, plus you're helping out a local farmer.
I am fortunate in that a local, independent butcher shop gets all of it's beef from a small farm in the northwest corner of my state and it's all grass fed. But woooo doggies is it expensive. Around $30 a pound for a porterhouse. I am fortunate enough to be in a position in life where that's affordable.
lol and I laughed at your last comment. I have the space and conditions for a few cattle but they'd never ever be slaughtered. My son and wife would name them within the first two days and then it's all over after that.
McDonalds gonna be PISSED!
Yep. They get a lot of it from Brazil too.
I've been wanting to buy some young beef calves or feeders. They are really expensive at auction right now so I'm holding off. Maybe I should bite the bullet and just do it? It's like $1500 for a calf or few hundred pound feeder right now which is way up
I'm lucky to live in an area where cattle out number people. I've bred, raised, and fed out many. Yes cattle prices are waaaay up. I don't know how one could make money at it right now unless you have an established herd.
From an agricultural perspective, this really is pretty yuge. The impact of this is pretty extensive. Now if we would do the same thing with Brazilian cattle.... If you're bored dig that rabbit hole.
So is this a punitive move towards Argentina or a move to help Argentina from getting raped by the corporation’s?
A divider trying to split /punish Javier Milei and Trump ?
Could be they are trying to break the corporate control of their beef industry? It sounds like it. Is this the first international move to help the actual citizens of a country, a move so foreign to us that we are left scratching our heads. I imagine the slaughter houses are all corporate owned and pay the ranchers crap for their cattle much the same way they do here.
Does the Bush family own a large Rancho in Paraguay ?
Likely trying to get Argentina to sell more to China in an effort to move American dollars from China to Argentina so we don't need to subsidize them directly.