COVID-19 Influence on Developments in the Global Beef and Sheep Sectors

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic and associated government responses have had a substantial impact on consumers and meat supply chains worldwide, the effect on beef and sheep farming has been surprisingly small, short-lived and largely offset by other global influences. However, the impact has also varied greatly between countries and regions, largely due to differences in Government measures and in industry circumstances and influences. This study aims to provide insights into the pandemic’s impacts throughout global beef and sheep supply chains, but with a focus on the farm level, particularly producer prices in 2020. At the centre of the study is an analysis of online questionnaire-based survey responses to the Global agri benchmark Beef and Sheep Network. The study also utilizes a variety of other studies and information sources to explore other potential factors that could have also driven beef and sheep sectors worldwide in 2020. It explores how these influences interacted with the effect of the pandemic. Food service sales were highly impacted by the pandemic, meat processing was temporarily disrupted in North America but global livestock prices remained high due, in large part, to the continuation of strong beef and sheep meat demand and imports in China.

Assessment of Key Feeding Technologies and Land Use in Dairy Sheep Farms in Spain

“…In the feeding package: use of unifeed technology that combines concentrate with forage (1), use of agro-industrial by-products and crop residues in the diet (2), diets and balanced rations according to physiological and productive status of animals in feeding lots (3), use of mineral blocks (4), use of animal supplementation with nutritional blocks and concentrated feeding (5). In the land use, technological packages were selected: grazing management (6), sow of crops and raw materials production (7), use of conservation of forages techniques (hay and silage) (8), production management strategies (9) and sustainable and efficient use of water and soil (10). The technologies: Diets and balanced rations (3), productive management (9) and sustainable use of water and soil (10) got a high consensus with scores over 4.…”

“…The second factor retained 17.84% of the variance. Land use for livestock food production (7) and the conservation of hay surpluses by (8) were the explained variables. This factor was linked to the land use strategy.…”

“…The parameters of quadratic equation (Table 4) were used to build the technological model. Use of unifeed (1), supplements (5), grazing (6), raw material production (7) and sustainable use of water and soil (10) were the technologies selected by the step-to-step multiple regression technique with an 83.53% adjusted coefficient of determination (R 2 ). Over ten technologies identified by the panel of experts, only five were selected by the model and three of them showed greater discriminant power.…”

“…Excluding labor, land, and capital, per sheep feed costs in 2020 account for 64.97% of operating costs, which has a direct impact on operating results [2,6]. Besides, COVID-19 pandemic had a strong influence on direct cost of dairy sheep farms, such as labor, feeding and energy [7]. Dairy sheep in Castilla la Mancha has been oriented towards improving production results: 1387 sheep per farm, 4 season mating, 328 d of lambing interval, 143 d of lactation length, a production over 150 kg per ewe and lactation and a prolificity of 1.4 lambs/parity [3].…”

Características fisicoquímicas asociadas a calidad de carne en ovinos de pelo del sureste de México

“…La creciente demanda de carne ovina impulsa a los ovinocultores mexicanos de incrementar su producción para satisfacer el mercado nacional; mismo que en un 95% se destina a la elaboración de platillos típicos como la Barcacoa o el Mixiote (3). Recientemente, hay un mercado creciente (principalmente por el turismo nacional y extranjero) que demanda cortes de ovinos para otras preparaciones como carne asada y cortes premium a la parrilla (4).…”