Angus farmers are well placed to reap the benefits of premium supply offers, with increasing numbers of carcases achieving the required criteria, says Darren Drury, category beef manager for Alliance Group.
The co-operative offers a range of premium programmes that use internationally credible assessment systems to measure eating quality criteria that we know our export markets will pay a price premium for.
“Angus has, over time, proved to be a very consistent breed for us,” says Darren.
Since Alliance established its Angus programme in 2021, the company has seen an improvement in the baseline of prime Angus steers coming through. Farmers are focusing more on developing the required attributes for premium programmes and becoming more adept at breeding animals that meet those targets, including high levels of marbling.
Darren says the work the sector has been doing to raise awareness about the importance of using estimated breeding values for carcase weight, growth, eye muscle area and marbling during bull selection is clearly paying off in terms of greater consistency for Angus cattle achieving the required criteria for Alliance’s premium programmes.
“We are seeing a definite uplift,” he says.
The Alliance livestock reps have a strong focus on connecting farmers with the appropriate experts who can provide advice on approaches, such as what steps they can take if they want to improve marbling.
While New Zealand farmers and consumers may take for granted the fact that beef produced here is grass-fed and antibiotic- and growth hormone-free, Darren says it’s important to recognise that is a critical advantage in many global markets.
“It’s simply what Kiwi consumers expect, but in a lot of countries consumers are prepared to pay a premium for what we have here.”
Alliance is committed to building a differentiated premium portfolio and is providing farmers with supply programme opportunities to partner with for new products. This enables them to capture greater market value for those products.
“The premium programmes we have built have been based on consumer demand,” Darren says.
Modern consumers are increasingly interested in how their food has been produced. They have ethical and sustainability expectations so processors are shaping the programmes to meet this.
“That means that as well as consistency of quality, there has to be the consistency of record keeping, an auditable trail of how the animal has been raised this highlights the importance of cattle arriving at the plant with NAIT tags.”
