Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Gary Sadlmayer, There's Jim Rose. Lucy Chapman is here,
of course, and we're glad to welcome Blake Alberts to
the program, a fine Nebraska beef producer, Blake. Good morning,
good morning, Good to have you on. Brett is a
producer or Blake brother as a producer and whizner. And
yesterday I noticed that Lucy had posted we chatted about
(00:23):
this a little bit, Blake, that Lucy had asked a
question on Facebook? Is it possible to get unvaccinated beef? Well,
let's see if we can find out, Blake, what do
you say about that? Is that ever done?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Absolutely so. I most claims that the f SIS or
the USDA regulate are going to be about hormones and antibiotics. Right,
what you can do is find a rancher that's going
to give you an alf David or his word that
you can lean on. That he said he never vaccinated
those animals. Now, when we're talking about vaccinating animals, that
(00:59):
really insulates us from that animal having a lot of
health problems, respiratory problems. So we actually, you know, want
that animal to be healthy, both for animal welfare and
for the economics of it, of course, So the vaccines
insulate us from having to use a lot of antibiotics,
(01:20):
so it you can always find these things, and you
can find specialty beef producers, and that's great. But what
I always tell people is, you know, the product that's
on the shelves is also safe, wholesome and regulated, you know.
And I'm a producer who does both. So we come
from a family farm that does a lot of commodity beef,
(01:42):
and then I own a processing company that focuses just
on specialty beef. So I can sit here and kind
of tell you both sides of that equation. But what
we don't want to do with specialty or program beef
or family farm raised beef is marketed at the detriment
to the safety of the product that's on the shelf.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Right you have, like, but if a customer comes to
you and said, it says, Blake, I want I want
to buy a side or whatever, and I don't want
I don't want that animal to have any shots of
any kind ever, you will do that. You will raism
that way.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, that's something we can line up. It's always you know,
what will the market bear, does that make economic sense
uh and and if it does, a farmer will provide that.
It's like you said, more so, what we would lean
into products we carry all the time are what we
call NHTC, which is going to be the non hormone,
(02:44):
non antibiotic no ionophores and and that covers most of
the bases that people are concerned with. Again with the caveat,
hormone treated beef is perfectly safe and uh and fine,
but we do we do carry that kind of product,
and we do follow those cattle all the way through
(03:04):
the system and have ways to verify that.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
What about the mr the mr NA shots that people
are talking about being introduced into our food supply, That's.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Gonna be a whole different ballgame. You know. I'm not
gonna sit here and say I completely understand the science
of that. The traditional vaccines that you're getting in in
livestock now have been around since the seventies for the
most part, I don't think we're going to see a
massive change in how these cattle are treated, and if
(03:37):
they are, it will be easier to identify those animals.
I don't think we're going to see a massive shift
in how we treat animal health overnight, and certainly with
the with the concerns that have been raised, and with
with the administration in charge now, I don't think you're
going to see people sliding things under the radar from
(04:00):
a labeling perspective, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, Lizzie, was that what your concern your question was
basically yesterday?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yes, I know there's been a lot of talk about that,
and so I think that that should be something that
the public really needs to be aware of when it happens.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I had a friend tell me, and she's in the
beef business, said to her, unvaccinated beef is no better
than roadkill because you want to obviously, you want the
animal to grow up healthy.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, yep, I met her briefly yesterday. She's opinionated, and
I I am on the team that you know, Like
you said, we don't ever want to say that the
product is on the shelves that you just find that
your regular grocery store is not safe and wholesome. But
(04:49):
if you have special requests or products that you want
to find that are of a more premium quality, man,
there's a ton of great producers and we work with
some of them that do that. And you know, as
far as the new technology stuff, you know, I would
just if that's a concern of yours, and it would
be of mind too. You just keep an eye on it.
(05:11):
But like I said, nothing that I'm aware of is
getting slid under the radar and into the food system.
And we frankly we're U SDA inspected facility, so we're
pretty up on labeling requirements and which always brings me
to the next thing if I have thirty seconds. Labeling
(05:32):
requirements are very interesting because we get very worked up
about breed claims. What I think should be more regulated
and is more interesting to someone like you, Lucy, is
somebody can come in and start a beef brand and
say Star seventy seven ranch established nineteen twenty eight. Well,
(05:54):
nobody cares about that label, and that could be coming from,
you know, a plant that does seven thousand head a day. Right.
What what I think you should look for if you're
looking to do business with the rancher farmers. If if
it's hard to find out who the owner is, just
make a pass, you know, because a lot of these
a lot of these labels can can give you the
(06:17):
illusion you're buying from a small family beef company. When
they're not. So if it's hard to research who the
owner is, maybe look for the next pass right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Great information, you're lookingund out Blake. Just quickly here. Our
business reporter Courtney Donaho had an item about a month
ago that the American beef cattle herd is the smallest
that's been in seventy two years, since nineteen or seventy
three years, nineteen fifty two. Can you speak to that
and why that is?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah? Absolutely, And the way I like to look at
it is, you know, we can talk about the beef supply,
the amount of beef that's on the market, and there's
a lot of charts and graphs, right, but if we
simplify it and go everything goes downhill from the mature female,
from that cow. You know, in the seventies we were
running about twenty one cows per hundred people in the US.
(07:13):
I think that number is down to around eight right now. Now.
Consumption's gone down, but that's just a massive shift in availability.
And so what's happened is with the we had a
processing crunch. I guess we didn't have enough processing power
about eight or nine years ago, and that created some
(07:35):
profitability issues and then that coupled with drought and the
natural cattle cycle, it just all came to head here
right now, and it's going to take some time to unwind.
It's going to take some time to rebuild. You know,
we're five pounds per capita per person on the demand
side off the lows, So we're eating about fifty nine
(07:57):
pounds now off of the low ten years ago. I
bet we could be five six seven pounds higher than
that if we were, if we had the prices that
would allow for that, you know. So it's it's a
very interesting thing. The demand shift has been huge and
people are eating more beef less demonization of fats, and
(08:20):
then we're we're coupling that with a lower you know supply.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
That's all due to the carnivore diet.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, well, I tell you what, I had personal experience
with it. You know, I'm not one hundred percent on
it now, but I lost fifty pounds on it and
it was great, felt great. You know, it's a great
metabolic reset. You know, it's not for everybody forever, but
it's a good reset.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Hey, Blake, thanks for the unfelling for the time this morning.
Appreciate it. That's absolutely Blake Albert is from Albert's Beef
fan He's just opened especially shop up in Norfolk,
I'm Gary Sadlmayer, There's Jim Rose. Lucy Chapman is here,
of course, and we're glad to welcome Blake Alberts to
the program, a fine Nebraska beef producer, Blake. Good morning,
good morning, Good to have you on. Brett is a
producer or Blake brother as a producer and whizner. And
yesterday I noticed that Lucy had posted we chatted about
(00:23):
this a little bit, Blake, that Lucy had asked a
question on Facebook? Is it possible to get unvaccinated beef? Well,
let's see if we can find out, Blake, what do
you say about that? Is that ever done?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Absolutely so. I most claims that the f SIS or
the USDA regulate are going to be about hormones and antibiotics. Right,
what you can do is find a rancher that's going
to give you an alf David or his word that
you can lean on. That he said he never vaccinated
those animals. Now, when we're talking about vaccinating animals, that
(00:59):
really insulates us from that animal having a lot of
health problems, respiratory problems. So we actually, you know, want
that animal to be healthy, both for animal welfare and
for the economics of it, of course, So the vaccines
insulate us from having to use a lot of antibiotics,
(01:20):
so it you can always find these things, and you
can find specialty beef producers, and that's great. But what
I always tell people is, you know, the product that's
on the shelves is also safe, wholesome and regulated, you know.
And I'm a producer who does both. So we come
from a family farm that does a lot of commodity beef,
(01:42):
and then I own a processing company that focuses just
on specialty beef. So I can sit here and kind
of tell you both sides of that equation. But what
we don't want to do with specialty or program beef
or family farm raised beef is marketed at the detriment
to the safety of the product that's on the shelf.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Right you have, like, but if a customer comes to
you and said, it says, Blake, I want I want
to buy a side or whatever, and I don't want
I don't want that animal to have any shots of
any kind ever, you will do that. You will raism
that way.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, that's something we can line up. It's always you know,
what will the market bear, does that make economic sense
uh and and if it does, a farmer will provide that.
It's like you said, more so, what we would lean
into products we carry all the time are what we
call NHTC, which is going to be the non hormone,
(02:44):
non antibiotic no ionophores and and that covers most of
the bases that people are concerned with. Again with the caveat,
hormone treated beef is perfectly safe and uh and fine,
but we do we do carry that kind of product,
and we do follow those cattle all the way through
(03:04):
the system and have ways to verify that.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
What about the mr the mr NA shots that people
are talking about being introduced into our food supply, That's.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Gonna be a whole different ballgame. You know. I'm not
gonna sit here and say I completely understand the science
of that. The traditional vaccines that you're getting in in
livestock now have been around since the seventies for the
most part, I don't think we're going to see a
massive change in how these cattle are treated, and if
(03:37):
they are, it will be easier to identify those animals.
I don't think we're going to see a massive shift
in how we treat animal health overnight, and certainly with
the with the concerns that have been raised, and with
with the administration in charge now, I don't think you're
going to see people sliding things under the radar from
(04:00):
a labeling perspective, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, Lizzie, was that what your concern your question was
basically yesterday?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yes, I know there's been a lot of talk about that,
and so I think that that should be something that
the public really needs to be aware of when it happens.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I had a friend tell me, and she's in the
beef business, said to her, unvaccinated beef is no better
than roadkill because you want to obviously, you want the
animal to grow up healthy.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah, yep, I met her briefly yesterday. She's opinionated, and
I I am on the team that you know, Like
you said, we don't ever want to say that the
product is on the shelves that you just find that
your regular grocery store is not safe and wholesome. But
(04:49):
if you have special requests or products that you want
to find that are of a more premium quality, man,
there's a ton of great producers and we work with
some of them that do that. And you know, as
far as the new technology stuff, you know, I would
just if that's a concern of yours, and it would
be of mind too. You just keep an eye on it.
(05:11):
But like I said, nothing that I'm aware of is
getting slid under the radar and into the food system.
And we frankly we're U SDA inspected facility, so we're
pretty up on labeling requirements and which always brings me
to the next thing if I have thirty seconds. Labeling
(05:32):
requirements are very interesting because we get very worked up
about breed claims. What I think should be more regulated
and is more interesting to someone like you, Lucy, is
somebody can come in and start a beef brand and
say Star seventy seven ranch established nineteen twenty eight. Well,
(05:54):
nobody cares about that label, and that could be coming from,
you know, a plant that does seven thousand head a day. Right.
What what I think you should look for if you're
looking to do business with the rancher farmers. If if
it's hard to find out who the owner is, just
make a pass, you know, because a lot of these
a lot of these labels can can give you the
(06:17):
illusion you're buying from a small family beef company. When
they're not. So if it's hard to research who the
owner is, maybe look for the next pass right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Great information, you're lookingund out Blake. Just quickly here. Our
business reporter Courtney Donaho had an item about a month
ago that the American beef cattle herd is the smallest
that's been in seventy two years, since nineteen or seventy
three years, nineteen fifty two. Can you speak to that
and why that is?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah? Absolutely, And the way I like to look at
it is, you know, we can talk about the beef supply,
the amount of beef that's on the market, and there's
a lot of charts and graphs, right, but if we
simplify it and go everything goes downhill from the mature female,
from that cow. You know, in the seventies we were
running about twenty one cows per hundred people in the US.
(07:13):
I think that number is down to around eight right now. Now.
Consumption's gone down, but that's just a massive shift in availability.
And so what's happened is with the we had a
processing crunch. I guess we didn't have enough processing power
about eight or nine years ago, and that created some
(07:35):
profitability issues and then that coupled with drought and the
natural cattle cycle, it just all came to head here
right now, and it's going to take some time to unwind.
It's going to take some time to rebuild. You know,
we're five pounds per capita per person on the demand
side off the lows, So we're eating about fifty nine
(07:57):
pounds now off of the low ten years ago. I
bet we could be five six seven pounds higher than
that if we were, if we had the prices that
would allow for that, you know. So it's it's a
very interesting thing. The demand shift has been huge and
people are eating more beef less demonization of fats, and
(08:20):
then we're we're coupling that with a lower you know supply.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
That's all due to the carnivore diet.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, well, I tell you what, I had personal experience
with it. You know, I'm not one hundred percent on
it now, but I lost fifty pounds on it and
it was great, felt great. You know, it's a great
metabolic reset. You know, it's not for everybody forever, but
it's a good reset.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Hey, Blake, thanks for the unfelling for the time this morning.
Appreciate it. That's absolutely Blake Albert is from Albert's Beef
fan He's just opened especially shop up in Norfolk,
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