Classic example of feedlot vs. cowcalf

[per]

Coppertop the WSGA tour travels the length of the province and both busses will stop in central Alberta to pick up passengers both FL and CC. The idea is to put them all together and talk on the busses. It has to start and end somewhere and was intended to bring the province together. There are plenty of feedlots throughout the province as well as ranches but there is a concentration of them near Lethbridge so as not to pick winners that is the direction chosen. Also there is a first class research station there. Busses get charged by the day so it made sense to just go one way. If there is a good uptake of participation of course it could go a different direction another year. It is one of those cases of trying to make a difference. I hope this explains it for you Coppertop. There is a pickup at Innisfail, pretty central, or Hanna.

[coppertop]

per, I realize the busses will pick up in
Central AB, but I do think WSGA should
consider doing a tour in and around Central
AB sometime. The Research Center is
interesting, many of us have toured it
during Agricultural Service Board tours or
on other tours over the years.

[per]

Point taken Coppertop. This is the first one and if successful certainly it could be done in your area the next time. The WSGA holds its AGM in Red Deer and tries to hold board meetings at central Alberta locations when possible. Hanna during the drought last year.

[grassfarmer]

Randy it would appear to be the same kind of "insulation" some African tribes use when they smear their huts with cattle manure.

[Happytrails]

I have been told to be careful what you toss around lest you get a bunch of it on yourself. On this thread it looks like it could be true. Per, my intention in bringing up the differences between the CC view and the FLs is certainly not to discredit one or the other. However we are sometimes affected by regulations differently. At the moment in Alberta the FLs seem to have more influence than the CCs. Could be ALMA or whatever. My only point is that we CCs had best make ourselves heard or we will have ourselves to blame if the results aren't to our liking.
Good info on the Stockgrowers bus tours in 2 weeks. They are one outfit which should have been making some noise on this in my opinion but haven't. HT

[littledoggie]

HT, cow/calf producers certainly don't have a voice now that check-off is refundable. Now we have many voices - WSGA, ABP, NFU, BIA, BIG, Wildrose......who do you suppose the gov't and their "experts" should listen to? Oh right, they don't have to listen to anybody because they have a cattle advisory committee with ALMA. All appointed people. And who are the people representing the cow/calf sector on this committee? Do they actually represent us? or their own interests?

[per]

How has whether they listen or not changed with refundable checkoff? As far as the Cow Calf Committee at ALMA I checked it out and it has a pretty representative group of CC folks on it. The Alberta Livestock Industry Development Fund, ABP, WSGA and 3 CC producers at large make over half of the committee.

[smcgrath76]

Devil's advocate here...
Is $3 going to make or break you? I
know the $2.79 we pay for tags is a PITA
that I kind of resent and that pennies
make dollars, but in the grand scheme of
things the $3 is pretty small potatoes.
Does the CC guy bear all the cost, you
bet, but there are ways to turn that to
advantage. We are all focused on cost,
but how many focus on adding value?
Spending $1 is ok if it generates $1.10.
Can you use the RFID to make your
management easier? Can we use it to
sort cattle better and target end
markets?
We are always at odds with
feeders/packers, etc. but we cannot add
value without these components working
together and vice versa. I think there
has to be some common ground there.
The $3 is a nice bit, but unless you
have 10,000 cows it is not a source of
income.
If we are concerned about cost, then why
do most of us not focus on the 200 days
that we feed cows, or the depreciation
expense on that same cow? While there
are many issues surrounding RFID that
are real the cost is not a real issue in
my mind, but a symptom of a larger
problem.

[Happytrails]

Good comments. The cost of ID tagging has never been my issue but rather the cost of scanning those tags, particularly at auction markets. Also the likelyhood of losing the present brand inspection and livestock tracking service provided by LIS in Alberta is a concern.
As far as the CC producer's voice with a refundable check-off I think it will be louder because we can speak with our $$.

[grassfarmer]

"The cost of ID tagging has never been my issue but rather the cost of scanning those tags, particularly at auction markets."
That's been my argument all along - and why I have tried to move resolutions with ABP to ensure the costs of the system are borne by Government not the auction marts. Compared to a multi million dollar disease outbreak this would be cheap insurance for the Government.
Sticking the head in the sand ala ABP and wishing it will go away is not the answer.