JBS northern and southern division livestock managers Edwin Cooke (left) and Steve ChapmanTHE demand for highly consistent quality beef, backed by a provenance story and a validation of what a customer is eating and consistently enjoys has been the major driver for JBS Australia’s Southern grassfed operations transitioning to predominantly an Angus breed base.

Speaking during the World Angus Expo in Tamworth on the weekend, JBS northern and southern livestock managers Edwin Cooke, Dinmore, and Steve Chapman, Melbourne, said the company’s transition to running 95 percent of its southern division grassfed cattle as Angus, had been simply driven by customer demand.

Mr Chapman said that 85pc of JBS’s Great Southern grass cattle are pure Angus, another 10pc are Angus-infused and 5pc are other breeds that suit their brands like Hereford Boss.

JBS’s Great Southern brand program is one of the world’s largest farm-assured certified grassfed beef programs, accounting for about 4000 head per week. While the program is not breed-specific, the fact is the overwhelming majority of yearling steers and heifers entering the program are Angus based.

In JBS’s grainfed operations – the largest in Australia – the company currently has 160,000 head on feed in six yards stretching across southern Queensland into southern NSW. Seventy percent of the cattle on feed are currently Angus or Angus-infused.

“We have held our integrity on our Angus products that they must be 100pc pure Angus, if that’s what our brands state they are, and it is this consistency that our customers demand and are willing to pay for,” Mr Cooke said.

The demand for high quality Angus beef continued to grow across the domestic and international markets, and the level of quality was dictated in the company’s brands, offering a product and price point for all our customers,” he said.

Mr Cooke said brands like JBS’s Tender Valley Black Angus (pictured left, marbling score 3+, export-specific) product will next year reach a 50 year supply milestone with large Korean customers, showing the depth of relationship JBS had with international customers seeking a high quality, consistent product.

Mr Chapman said the motivation for JBS to buy Angus was solely customer-driven, and the demand for Angus beef around the world had never been higher than it is right now.

Steve Chapman

“China is a big supporter of Australian products and now with the recent tariff movements, Chinese customers are showing a huge amount of interest in sourcing beef from Australia,” he said.

“Customers want to know what they are getting and the sheer number of Angus (in the national cattle population) allows us to work with producers to deliver a product that fits every one of our brands.”

The pair told the crowd they were still seeing increased demand for Angus beef from around the world and especially the United States, even after recent tariff announcements.

Marbling performance continues to advance

Mr Cooke said the top-end brand under the grassfed Great Southern ‘master-brand’ umbrella was Little Joe, requiring a minimum marbling score 4, with an MSA Eating Quality Index of 60 plus. Suppliers hitting the spec with their program cattle receive a 40c/kg carcase weight premium.

Sample of Great Southern’s Little Joe marbling score 4 and up farm-assured grassfed product. Click on image for a larger view

“We now have clients that are hitting these specs with 70pc of their consignments, which underpins the demand for Angus beef and delivers the quality our customers are seeking,” he said.

Mr Chapman underpinned the conversation showing the crowd that Angus was not just a grainfed option for JBS, with individual Angus producers delivering grassfed yearling cattle producing an ossification of 133, 3.68 average for marbling score and MSA Index of 66.3 off grass at 19 months.

“That’s nearly unheard of,” he said. “Traditionally to get cattle to this level of marbling would have taken 36 months – these Angus cattle are changing the game. We now have some Angus cattle delivering marbling scores of 5-6 off grass.”

“Producers are chasing premiums, whether it is grain or grass fed and our customers are willing to pay for it, as they know the consistency we are now delivering,” Mr Chapman said.

He said if JBS had never made the decision to collect and aggregate data, it would have still had those premium carcases going into a ‘generic’ carton (along with lesser marbled product) and one consumer would have had an ‘amazing’ experience and the other, a ‘different’ experience.

Mr Cooke said JBS Southern’s grassfed programs only buy from the farm-gate, as it could control the quality of the product it bought, and the throughput of product this way.

“We are able to buy known cattle, from Angus producers that are at the top of their game and that allows us to keep growing our brands and markets to suit all of our customers,” he said.

“All of our customers demand a point of difference and the diversity of the Angus breed, their capability and the consistency of product allows us to do that,” he said.

• More reports from the World Angus Forum’s Tamworth leg later today, and the upcoming Brisbane Congress later this week.