080104 U.S. Red Meat Industry Must Continue to Compete

Denver, CO - The red meat industry has a long and colorful legacy, and it's that legacy that will move it ahead in the future, a Colorado State University animal sciences professor told a crowd of about 250 at the National Western Stock Show.

Tom Field was the featured speaker at the Red Meat Club's annual meeting, which saw the Harold Harper family of Eaton receive the 2008 Friend of the National Western Stock Show Award for the family's support of the stock show and red meat industry.

Harold's father, Howard, was responsible for improving the stock show's sheep shearing contest more than 25 years ago and his son, Mike, continues to serve as the shearing superintendent. They are lamb and cattle feeders and send about 250,000 lambs to market on an annual basis.

"I sure am thankful for this award. I only wish Howard, my dad, could be here tonight," Harold Harper said in receiving the award from Pat Grant, president and CEO of the stock show. Harper said he has been a part of some great national organizations during the years, including the International Livestock Exposition when it was conducted in Chicago -- where he won a junior sheep shearing contest as a teen -- but he said the National Western is second to none.

"This is the finest livestock show in the United States and I'm proud to be a little part of it," he said.

Field said the red meat industry must continue to compete to remain a viable industry not only in the United States but in the world. The three fastest growing countries in the world, he said, are China, India and Russia and they will represent a growing market for red meat in the future.

"We get an additional 78 million consumers each year worldwide," Field said. That means the U.S. will double it's red meat production within the next 20 years. But at the same time, there are several other countries around the world that are also increasing production, and that includes China and Russia among a dozen or more.

"When I was a kid I remember my parents telling me to clean my plate because there were kids in China who were starving. Now, there are people in China who are starving for our jobs. A job is not God-given in the United States any longer. We have to compete and believe that the impossible is doable," Field said.

While other countries can beat the U.S. in labor and other costs in producing red meat, the U.S. has one advantage over the rest of the world.

"Nobody can compete with the quality of product that we can provide. That's the story we have to tell. That's our legacy and the name of the game is that legacy," Field said.

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