**Status of Beef Cattle Production in Argentina Over the Last Decade and Its Prospects**

J.C. Guevara and E.G. Grünwaldt

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/50971

## **1. Introduction**

116 Livestock Production

pp. 593-595

Zwi, A.B., Forjuoh, S., Murugusampillay, S., Odero, W. & Watts, C. (1996). Injuries in developing countries: policy response needed now. *Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg,* Vol. 90,

> Historically, beef cattle production has been one of the traditional activities and an important support to the economic growth of Argentina. This activity led the country to being inserted in the international market as a beef supplier, and placed it in the past as one of the world's largest beef exporters.

> During 2001-2010, Argentina devoted an average of 84% of its beef production to the domestic market, on account of which it was exposed more to within-country changes than to international ones; an opposite situation to that of other South American countries where most beef is allocated to global markets.

> The increase in soybean planting in Argentina led to its positioning as the crop with the largest planted area. It expanded from less than 40 thousand hectares at the beginning of the 70's [1] to 18.3 million hectares in the 2009/10 crop season [2]. Because of the steady increase in soybean production, cattle are being displaced from traditional production areas in Argentina's Pampa plains to other regions of the country.

> In the course of the year 2006, misleading public policies intensified a process of strong intervention to ensure lower beef prices in the domestic market, which affected exports as well as domestic trade.

> Although valuable information has been reported by several sources that emphasized different aspects of Argentina's beef cattle production [1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], this chapter is based mainly on local sources and it reviews and analyzes the information available on beef cattle: stock and its composition, relationship between cattle stock and human population, extraction rate, domestic consumption, production systems, territorial distribution, meat exports and health status over the period 2001-2010 and prospects. It also analyzes a particular non-traditional case of a province located in the west of the country.

© 2012 Guevara and Grünwaldt, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2012 Guevara and Grünwaldt, licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

## **2. Cattle stock and its composition**

The number of beef cattle in Argentina experienced a sustained rise over the period 2001- 2007. Since 2007, a sharp decline is recorded in cattle stock, which by the year 2010 had decreased by nearly 10 million head (Table 1).

Status of Beef Cattle Production in Argentina Over the Last Decade and Its Prospects 119

On the other hand, during the period 2007-2010, the national cattle herd drop was exacerbated by the worst drought in 70 years over 2008-2009 that affected about one third of

The human population in the country was 36.3 million and 40.1 million in 2001 and 2010, respectively, which means an increase close to 11%. In turn, the cattle stock increased by

The beef cattle/inhabitant relationship was respectively 1.34, 1.53 and 1.25 for the years 2001, 2007 and 2010 [13, 14, 15]. The number of cattle head per inhabitant over the whole period analyzed here (2001-2010) was notoriously lower than the one the country had in 1952,

During 2010, Argentina's per capita cattle stock was higher than those in Brazil, Australia, United States of America (USA) and India, and lower than those in Uruguay and Paraguay,

Uruguay 11.80 3.36 3.51 Paraguay 12.31 6.5 1.91 Argentina 48.95 40.41 1.21# Australia 26.73 22.30 1.20 Brazil 209.54 194.95 1.07 USA 93.88 309.35 0.30 India 210.20 1,224.62 0.17

Human population

(million inhabitants)\*\*\* Cattle per capita

the farm belt forcing some ranchers to sell off cattle [12].

only approximately 3% over the same period.

Country\* Cattle population

Source: Own preparation based on \*[16]; \*\*[17]; \*\*\*[18]

**5. Beef domestic consumption** 

**4. Cattle extraction rate** 

(million head)\*\*

differs from the 1.25 value previously cited because of variation in the data source.

**Table 2.** Cattle population per capita in some of the main beef exporting countries in 2010

(14.0%), Paraguay (12.2%) and India (5.0%) had lower extraction rate [17, 19].

The number of animals slaughtered and the extraction rate in the country over the study period are shown in Table 3. The extraction rate (slaughter/beef cattle stock) was obtained from the stock cited in Table 1. In the year 2010 the extraction rate in the USA (37.6%) and Australia (31.1%) was higher than that in Argentina, whereas that Uruguay (18.6%), Brazil

For many years, Argentina was the country with the highest per capita meat consumption worldwide. During the period considered, the year 2007 recorded the highest meat

which was 2.56 [3].

#

**3. Relationship between cattle stock and human population** 

some of them competitors of Argentina in the world beef market (Table 2).


Source: Own preparation based on [8] Year 2001; [9] Year 2002; [10] Years 2003-2010

**Table 1.** Cattle stock evolution over the period 2001-2010 (million head) by category

The fluctuation of the cattle population in Argentina observed in Table 1 is not something new, because, to just mention an example, in 1977 there occurred the greatest liquidation of beef-cow herds in the country's cattle history, since cattle stock between that year and 1988 fell from 61.1 to 47.1 million head, which represented a 22.9% stock contraction [11].

From November 2005 on, misleading public policies intensified a process of strong intervention to ensure lower prices of beef in the domestic market, affecting exports as well as domestic trade. Some of the measures adopted by the National Government in terms of foreign trade were [11]:


The public policies imposed were effective in the short term in keeping beef prices low in the domestic market, although in the medium term they favoured the process of beef cow liquidation. However, these policies had no influence on the high agricultural profitability, and did not reverse the existing difference between the last one and that from cattle production. As consequence of the government's intervention policy, the live weight price dropped, which reduced the profitability of cattle rearing, causing a strong sell-off of breeding cows, factors that explain the cattle stock decrease.

On the other hand, during the period 2007-2010, the national cattle herd drop was exacerbated by the worst drought in 70 years over 2008-2009 that affected about one third of the farm belt forcing some ranchers to sell off cattle [12].

## **3. Relationship between cattle stock and human population**

The human population in the country was 36.3 million and 40.1 million in 2001 and 2010, respectively, which means an increase close to 11%. In turn, the cattle stock increased by only approximately 3% over the same period.

The beef cattle/inhabitant relationship was respectively 1.34, 1.53 and 1.25 for the years 2001, 2007 and 2010 [13, 14, 15]. The number of cattle head per inhabitant over the whole period analyzed here (2001-2010) was notoriously lower than the one the country had in 1952, which was 2.56 [3].

During 2010, Argentina's per capita cattle stock was higher than those in Brazil, Australia, United States of America (USA) and India, and lower than those in Uruguay and Paraguay, some of them competitors of Argentina in the world beef market (Table 2).

