To Russia With Love

Rob Thomas, who formed a marketing alliance with Beef Northwest and his commercial customers a couple of years ago, had the opportunity of a lifetime recently when he traveled to Russia to meet with beef producers.

"It was a real eye-opening experience," says Thomas, who owns and operates Thomas Angus Ranch of Baker City, Ore.

Two other U.S. seedstock producers - Jack Holden and Doug Stevenson, both of Montana - joined him on the week-long journey. The Russians asked them to share their expertise on beef and cattle production with about 250 producers in Moscow. They also journeyed about 500 miles to a beef cattle operation near the town of Tver.

The ultimate objective of the trip was to develop an export market for U.S. beef genetics - but there's a long way to go, says Thomas.

"The Russian beef industry is pretty much non-existent, but they're working hard at rebuilding it," says Thomas. "At one time, the country had nearly 2 million beef cows. Now they're down to 200,000."