USMEF Roundtable Audio from Commodity Classic
Two Iowa farmers who serve in leadership roles for the U.S. Meat Export Federation were recently at Commodity Classic in New Orleans sharing the story of red meat exports and the impact record sales had on corn and soybeans.
USMEF Chair-Elect Dean Meyer of Rock Rapids says U.S. red meat exports in 2021 accounted for $2.94 billion worth of corn consumption or 536.7 million bushels. On the soy side, pork exports accounted for nearly 100 million bushels of consumption worth $1.3 billion.
?The 2021 statistics show approximately 66 cents is attributed to red meat exports per bushel of corn,? said Meyer. ?Soybeans, the 21? statistics are about a dollar-65.?
Meyer talks about the financial impact of exports on his own cattle operation.
?When I?m doing my daily job working with livestock and raising corn, I can realize each time I market cattle that $404 are going to come back to me because of red meat exports,? said Meyer. ?That?s significant.?
Fellow Iowa farmer Ralph Lents from Greenfield ? appointed at-large director for USMEF ? echoed Meyer?s comments that red meat exports have a positive impact on the bottom line of corn and soy growers.
?In the value of corn, it adds another 60-70 cents a bushel price increase by putting it through livestock. That?s what we have to gain as farmers,? said Lents. ?It?s very conducive for us to be using these guys and working with them as much as we can.?
Lents believes the rising success of U.S. red meat can largely be credited to the country?s broad-based international market portfolio.
?We are constantly looking for new markets,? said Lents. ?You never know when something is going to fail in a country, and you?ll lose one. We need to be bringing them in the front door so if we have a problem in the back door we are covered in the front.?
The full interview with Dean Meyer and Ralph Lents can be found at the top of this article.
