SUMMARY REPORT ON THE MEETING OF THE CATTLE NETWORK WORKING GROUP
Paris, France, 04 – 05 March 2004

Under the chairmanship of Mr. A. Aumaitre, President of EAAP, the Working Group Cattle Network met on 4 and 5 March in Paris, at premises of the Institute de l’Elevage. Mr. M. Jeffries (New Zealand), President of ICAR, chaired the second part of the meeting. Five members of the Steering Committee and 19 professionals from ten European and three non-European countries attended the meeting. Ms. Carla Lazzaroni, Secretary, EAAP Cattle Commission also attended the meeting.

In reviewing market situations and problems of cattle sector in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania, the meeting noted:

	Stability in milk production and consumption in Europe; changes are expected in new members of the European Union where per caput consumption falls short of the one in old EU member countries, mainly as the consequence of the transition to the market economy systems;
	Increase in structural differences within the EU after the enlargement (larger number of small farms in new member countries);
	Shortage of beef in Europe caused by decline in production; exports are expected to decrease while shortages would be met by an increase in import;
	Beginning of the specialised beef production in some new members of the EU;
	Impact of BSE in North America and changes in trade patterns;
	Growth in dairy sector in Argentina as well as the strong development of beef production in Brazil parallel with an increase in export earnings in spite of low export prices;
	Competitive grass fed beef production in Australia and New Zealand and its role in the US and European markets;
	The growing export of beef from China to South-West Asia and the Arabian countries.

The meeting paid particular attention the EU policy measures affecting the cattle sector also in view of the fact that other European and some non-European countries follow trends in EU in their domestic policies. The meeting supported the position of COPA-COGECA with regard to the planned EU regulations related to transport of animals, use of hormones, animal breeding and animal health. Participants welcomed the opportunity to obtain the first hand information also from the representative of the European Commission and expressed their satisfaction with the orientation of the Commission to develop regulations in the field of animal production in close co-operation with representative European NGOs active in the sector, particularly with ICAR and EAAP. The Commission is ready to delegate part of the regulatory measures dealing with animal breeding as well as their respective implementation and control to the relevant NGOs and their national members.

Discussion on the situation with the Cornell Patent on the use of the test day model in herd management and genetic evaluation (a stalemate in negotiations between the Canadian Dairy Federation and the Cornell Foundation, contestation of the patent at the European Patent Office by ADR, Germany, supported by other European recording and evaluation associations) drew attention to the potential danger of indiscriminate patenting of common practices in animal breeding as the serious threat to the technology development and international co-operation in animal science and research.

The first results of the project on international genetic evaluation of beef carried out by evaluation organisations from France, Ireland and UK utilising data also from Italy and Luxembourg clearly indicated the need for a coordinated and more structured co-operation in this field. The meeting encouraged interested national and international organisation to act in this direction.

The EU regional project on cattle production in Atlantic zones was found to be of general interest in developing sustainable production in accordance with the specific environments. Experience and methodology of this project could be used in other regions, such as Mediterranean zones and in new EU member countries in Central Europe. Interested national organisations were invited to contact the Project Co-ordinator in developing similar projects and actions.

EAAP Secretariat informed on the implementation of conclusions of the first meeting (September 2003) and on the work done in the establishment of the web site of the network. It was agreed that the web site would be enlarged with new information related to business opportunities in the cattle sector, including information from suppliers of equipment and breeding material. The web site will be connected with the cattle catalogue, which was developed within the BABROC Project by the Slovakian partners.

The approved work plan for 2004 and 2005 envisages improvements in the flow of information, organisations of workshops and symposia as well as a joint session with the Cattle Commission. These events are expected to attract a larger number of participants. Steering Committee, acting as a Working Group in a narrower sense, would meet on the occasion of ICAR and EAAP meetings, or important events related to the cattle sector. Its main task will be to organise activities of the network and to monitor development in the sector.

The following are the PowerPoint presentations, as PDF files
 

1. Beef in EU (by Ph. Chotteau & J.-N. Bonnet) - 420 Kb
2. New Zealand and Australian Beef and Dairy Situation (by M. Jeffries) - 100 Kb
3. Project on international genetic evaluation on beef cattle (by L. Journaux) - 385 Kb
4. Activities of the COPA-COGECA in various area of Cattle production in Europe (by A. Malafosse) - 220 Kb
5. Atlantic Dairy Systems and Environment (by A. Pfilmin) - 235 Kb
6. European Milk and Dairy Market Situation and Perspectives (by D. Rama) - 335 Kb
7. Evolution of the registration systems in Latin America (by M. Russ) - 495 Kb
8. EU zootechnical legislation with view to Cross-border activities of breeding organisations (by K.-U. Sprenger) - 230 Kb
9. Trends in the Canadian Dairy Cattle Industry (by B. van Doormaal) - 330 Kb
10. Current Situation of the Cornell Patent in Canada (by B. van Doormaal) - 35 Kb