The history of IRM and SPA

In Columbus, Ohio, in 1988, five economists prepared an executive summary on competitive issues in the beef sector and, specifically, addressed "Can beef compete in the 1990s?" One of the challenges to the beef industry is that the cow-calf sector needed to become more business orientated and create ways of maintaining or reducing costs to maintain a competitive position in the food production cycle. The IRM concept and the National IRM Coordinating Committee have been focusing on helping the cattle industry to achieve that goal.