Actual situation and prospective of Argentina livestock sector A Regional approach

Resumen

The situation of the livestock sector in Argentina in some way is similar to what is occurring in most countries of the Region. The expansion of the high profitability cash crops that occurred in the last years in the Region has reduced the land available for livestock production. Soybean in Argentina and Uruguay, sugar cane in Colombia, rice and forestry in Uruguay, oil palm in Ecuador are some examples of that. The livestock reduction due to a reduction of its area has a negative impact on beef production. In Argentina the reduction of beef production caused an increment of beef price that helped other alternative meats as pork and poultry which improved their competitiveness. The increment in beef price also helped to reorganize the livestock sector starting from the better prices per kg live body weight that calves have compared to finished steers. This price difference has made the cow-calves activity economically very attractive which is actually reflected in a high retention rate of female calves. Heifers that usually are sold for slaughtering are kept today in the farm as future cows. The reduction of livestock land is not temporary because usually land taken by cash crops never is returned to livestock production. It means that we would be now in the Region facing a different productive geography. In countries like Argentina, Uruguay or south of Brazil, where livestock should compete with cash crops for land, beef price should be high enough to assure the competitiveness that the livestock sector need.