Article By: Country Wide-Magazine. Source: Country-Wide

One of the largest beef producers in Japan confronts several hurdles before it can gain full organic status and satisfy growing demand for 'safe' beef in that country.

The discovery of BSE in Japanese cattle has resulted in a massive drop in confidence among Japanese consumers about the safety of domestic beef.

A survey of Japanese consumers in 1999 indicated that 75% of consumers were buying domestic beef because they believed it was safe. But research since the first BSE discovery in 2001 shows that confidence in the safety of domestic beef has dropped to around 50%, while it has risen from 5% to 70% for imported beef.

The food safety concerns are driving the perception that only organic beef is safe. A scientist with the Nippon Veterinary and Animal Science University, Take Ozawa gave the Society of Animal Production conference an insight into how the largest pasture-based cattle farm in Japan is trying to satisfy that demand.

The Soya Cape Beef ranch (SBR) is in the Hokkaido district at the northern-most tip of Japan. Winter temperatures are extremely cold, averaging -17°C. Because it is not possible to grow rice or other crops in this climate, pasture-based dairy farming dominates land use. The 1170ha (eff) ranch runs 1088 breeding cattle and 2044 finishing steers. This compares to
the average Japanese farm size of 1ha with 25 cattle.

SBR is also unusual because it is using a pasture-based system for all calves up to 12-months when they switch to silage and hay feeds for five months and steers are only removed totally from the grazing system from 18-26months for finishing. However less than half of SBR's total area (550ha) is classed as pasture, used solely for grazing. The enterprise sources all of its own hay and silage from 420ha classed as 'meadow' which is never used for grazing, and 200ha of 'meadow and pasture' which is used for both making supplements and grazing.

Ozawa explains that the SBR, which is an equity partnership between seven local governments and eight farming cooperatives, has set a number of standards for 'healthy and ecological' beef production. For example when cattle are housed the standards state the minimum amount of space, and natural litter they need at each age in order to be able to lie down comfortably. The SBR breeds purebred Japanese black and Angus cattle as well as crossing Japanese Black across Angus cows and Holstein cows. It uses natural mating and artificial insemination but has banned genetic modification or cloning.

However the main sticking point when it comes to organic certification is SBR's reliance on concentrate feed for finishing cattle. Guidelines for organic foods require livestock systems which provide 100% of the diet from organic feed, or in a preliminary phase at least 85% of the drymatter consumed.

"Even if they aim to achieve their self sufficiency ratio of pasture to be more than 30%, this sufficiency ratio is far below the level required."

There is no problem sourcing non-genetically modified grain and they also buy corn or maize that is post-harvest free (PHF) meaning they have not been treated with post harvest chemicals to prevent fermentation. All finishing cattle are fed 10kg/day concentrates from 13 months. These concentrates must comprise 62% grain, 36% brans (rice/wheat), 12% crude protein, 2% crude fat.

No additive such as vitamin A, D and E or sodium hydrogen carbonate, which is often used to stabilise rumen pH, are allowed. But in order to gain organic certification SBR would need to use concentrate ingredients that are organic as well as PHF and non-GM.

"It means they would have to use organic feed for fattening which is very expensive, which would mean SBR would have to sell their meat for two or three times more than the current price. So you can see it is very challenging in Japan to satisfy Codex (organic) guidelines."