The stars are aligning for the grassfed beef sector, with a new surge in interest in promoting a rangefed brand evident last week's Meat and Livestock Australia meetings due to the severe impact of soaring grain prices on the feedlot sector.

The move signals an increased role for the Meat Standard Australia grading technology in order for a grassfed beef brand to succeed in competing on quality against grainfed product, but MSA would not be used as a branding mechanism as some sectors have argued in the past.

The debate was sparked early in proceedings when Sung Hwan Jeon, visiting chief executive of Korean wholesale and retail chain Greenworld, told the 650 delegates that industry needed to be a break away from promoting beef in terms of the number of days an animal has been on feed.

Instead, he said beef should be promoted according to its qualities, such as marbling and tenderness, which would pave the way for marketing quality grassfed beef, but would require an investment in education to "get into customers' minds" as opposed to the generic three-grade US branding.

It was a sentiment backed by JBS Swift Australia's chief executive Iain Mars who said it was high time the industry abandoned marketing beef in "processor speak", such as 60 or 100 days grainfed, and instead promoted beef in "market speak" in terms of eating quality through terms such as marbling.

But would such a brand bring extra dollars to grassfed cattle producers? What do you think?