Texas A&M AgriLife, Colorado State Team Up for Beef Export Project
University researchers developing industry best practices.
Texas A&M AgriLife and Colorado State University (CSU) researchers are teaming up to evaluate production practice risks to beef trade, develop educational materials and programs to assist producers with meeting requirements for exporting to China, and helping the U.S. beef industry capitalize on future export trade revenue.
The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has awarded Texas A&M AgriLife Research and CSU $750,000 to develop the program.
“One purpose of this joint project is to develop and disseminate best practices to help U.S. beef industry members meet the requirements for marketing beef to Chinese markets,” said Russell Cross, professor and Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist in the department of animal science at Texas A&M University in College Station.
“Those best practices will be based on a series of answers to research questions regarding the types of production practices that could inject compliance risks in exporting beef to China,” said Keith Belk, professor of animal sciences at CSU.
Joining Cross on the research team are animal science faculty members Kerri Gehring, Ashley Arnold and Penny Riggs, all in College Station. Collaborating from CSU are Belk and animal science faculty members Hua Yang, Jessica Prenni, Terry Engle and Dale Woerner.
“This is truly an international project,” Cross said. “This effort will help the United States fully access the Chinese market, which has the potential for billions in added revenue for our beef industry. However, we must better understand China’s requirements, such as limits on chemical residues.”
To achieve full access to Chinese markets, the U.S. beef industry will have to utilize appropriate production practices to comply with requirements, especially those related to growth-promoting compounds or compounds for which there is zero tolerance in China.
At least eight industry training sessions will be hosted after completion of the research phases of the study. Additional training sessions will be hosted for USDA FAS personnel and will be in online and face-to-face formats.
“This is a team effort with some of the best researchers you can assemble from Texas A&M and Colorado State Universities,” Cross said. “We are looking forward to developing the training materials and seeing these best practices implemented throughout the beef industry.”
Editor’s Note: Blair Fannin is a media relationship specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Communications.