OPPORTUNITIES AND OBSTACLES FOR BREEDING CATTLE EXPORTS

With the changing world of population growth, expanding economies and urbanization there is an increasing demand for meat, protein and milk by many developing countries around the world. Over the past few years, the United States has seen a tremendous growth in the export opportunities for live animals in the areas of beef cattle, dairy cattle and swine. Our strong customer base and many other countries have opened their borders to US livestock as we make progress to recover from the BSE detection in 2003. Many governments around the world have realized that “hungry people are dangerous people” and the amount of available food sometimes contributes to which governments stand while others fall. The purpose of this paper is to point out some of the opportunities that producers might have to develop new markets for their livestock genetics because genetics are a “value added” product that many take for granted in the export market. Many of these existing markets and developing markets also come with the challenges of the export process. Obstacles to assist the buyers to maximize the genetic potential of the investment they make in genetic programs also come into focus because of the lack of experience in modern day management technology that are used in the USA and not developed in other countries