A Conversation with Bryan Walton, CEO of the Alberta Cattle Feeders

[shaney]

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[wd40]

One script - Prerequisit to these jobs is "read and memorize the scrip that was written 40 yrs ago. Nothing has changed.

[burnt]

It's the truth. A couple of years ago, I found in a remote corner of the basement a copy of a 35 year old farm that dad had kept for some unknown reason.

The headlines could have been taken from today's paper.

One point of interest from Bryan Walton was his concern about feeder prices. I can only assume that he meant that they were too low?

Heh, heh. Yeah right.

I think it's past time that the cattle feeders start pushing the other end of the supply chain for more money if they want to increase their margins.

The drastic, national decrease in the cow/calf herd is evidence of what happens when one tries to maintain margins by costing costs.

[burnt]

That should have read " . . . 35 year old farm paper . . ."

[riders2010]

lol!!! good one!

[IAMTHEMOLE]

Hey Burnt, I think your idea of feeders getting more money out of their end of the supply chain is a great one. Can you offer any suggestions though.....?

[burnt]

Nope! It was just a novel thought I had!!

In reality though, how long can an industry survive when cannibalizing its primary base is how it maintains itself?

I think the next few years will force the feeder sector to deal with this question.

[wd40]

There is one simple way! A beef industry stakeholder owned, value based packing plant for 2000 hd per day.
Owned by 1)the pure bred industry, 2)the cow calf industry, 3)a few select feedlots, 4)grain producers, 5)and the service industry because they are all stakeholders; stakeholders willing to focus on the future of the beef industry in Western Canada, not on TOMMORROWS price.

I might even add government. Oops. They’ve given the current packers so many tax concessions and gifts that we really own the current houses anyhow. And if 30,000 Western Canadian stakeholders were behind such a venture Govt. would be begging to help.

It would pay dividends to producers that would blow you minds. It would pay dividends to share holders that are out of this world. And if someone closely connected to the packer (including feedlot opperators) says anything different, call him a liar. The average ROI for a large plant is 33% AFTER tax!
And if you or anyone connected to the current packers says it can't be done check out http://www.uspremiumbeef.com/

And as I've said before unless you have had the privalege of seeing the books of a major plant your just blowing smoke to have an opinion.