KU Kamphaengsaen Beef Producer Co-op

My day didn’t start until 11 a.m. today which was nice because I have been starting at 7 a.m. most other mornings. Apparently today was a government holiday in Thailand that loosely translates as Agriculture Day. There is a ceremony were a cow/buffalo is allowed to choose between many different items to eat and depending on what she chooses there is a prediction about the crops for the coming year. In another ceremony the King or Prince spreads some of the country’s best rice seeds and later farmers try to pick up as many as they can to bring them good fortune. Unfortunately, nobody told me about this until it was over as I would have liked to attend.

Today I had a translator for the first time in Thailand. Her shortened name is Ja and she is a veterinary student at the university we visited. I really enjoyed visiting with her on the way to and from our meeting. We traveled to Nakhon Pathom Province to the KU Kamphangsaen Campus Beef Producer Cooperative. By the way KU stands for Kasetsart University not The University of Kansas. The university has developed a breed of cattle that is well suited to Thailand’s tropical climate. They crossed the native cattle with Brahman and then crossed the offspring with Charolais cattle. The new breed is 25% Native, 25% Brahman and 50% Charolais. They call it Kamphangsaen. After developing the breed they started building a network of farms to raise these cattle. There are Cow-Calf, Stocker and Feed Lot phases and the individual producers are members of the cooperative. In addition to being paid for their cattle based on carcass score when they sell them to the co-op they also share in any profits the co-op makes at the end of the year. The first picture below is of one of their T-Bone steaks. The second picture is of an RFID ear tag that is used in their national tracing system. Foot and Mouth Disease still exists in some parts of this country, mostly near the borders, so it is important to know where cattle are coming from. The members also keep detailed health records on each animal. The co-op is growing fast with about 800 head slaughtered in 2006 and 1622 head in 2007. Demand continues to grow in Thailand but they cannot export because of FMD. The third picture below is a steer at a feed lot farm; their steers are about 3 years old when they go to slaughter. They also run their own restaurant on campus. When you enter their location there is a large sign over the gate that says Cowboy Land and has a cowboy on a horse roping a steer. There are also signs for Texas Steak and the last picture is of the entrance to the restaurant, notice the cowboy and Indian décor complete with teepees. We ate at the restaurant and I had a ribeye steak it was good and tender but it was cut very thin by U.S. standards.