Korea lifts ban on Canadian beef

[gaucho]

I agree 100% Grassfarmer and your point is well well taken... could not agree with you more about how many producers that value chains are suppose to work.... let someone else do all the work and all they want to do is drop of the calves and get a premium without putting anything else in!We are making good margin on the cattle going through now but it took 6 years to get to where we are at today and even then you have to watch how much you produce and balance it with the demand that is actually willing to pay the premiums needed to make it work... sway to much supply into it and margins kill very quickly.... Heritage Angus goal 10,000 per year in order to minimize the overhead cost on administration and also have enough volume to get the key accounts so that we do not short our value added production. This coming year we will break close to 6000 head

[rkaiser]

Talking about producers being selfish and socialist is not going to get many on board the value chain train boys. Offering them return as well as ownership will. I am sure that your producers own shares in your company gaucho, but what does that entail? I have always been a real estate investor (on a small scale BTO buddy)myself and it seems to me that most farmers and ranchers have that stuck in their heads as well.

As for implant free beef becoming a commodity. Come on boys, we are already there. And that is a little bit of "reality" for you gaucho. 8 years ago in Calgary -- Canadian Celtic had the market pretty much cornered. We moved retail prices up for years until the game looked good and the next value chain animal up the food chain came to town. Now we not only have Heritage Angus, but it looks like NB and Bern are going to take a run at dropping prices as well.

But hay - that's life and so is the fact that implant free beef is becoming more than an E.U. request by offshore consumers.

If you want to stay small grassfarmer, stay ahead of the game with more innovation than implant free product, or stick with your grass fed stuff. I don't see and mid sized value chains heading the grass fed route any time soon. I took is personally grassfarmer, when the then chairman of ABP called BIG C socialist for asking for a government backed loan to fund our producer owned plant proposal and am now on a private investment path because of it.

Sorry I could not get back to you quicker gaucho, not only had to get out of my armchair, but fell out of my hammock and hurt my typing wrist. LOL Actually working on marketing along with investment capital hunting which some of the failed reality based marketers say needs to be done ahead of time.

reality - a state of - or present condition of - real. usually due to past and beliefs and built on experience.

And this is where every one's reality is a little bit different.

My reality says that everything changes every day and if you look back - actually got better - every day.

Kind of speaks of a future that might just do it again.

Forge on bravely you two "g"ood guys.

[smcgrath76]

We have been burned with plant ownership
and lesson learned. If plants are a
great investment, wouldn't more people
from outside of agriculture be building
them? That said, we would not turn down
the right opportunity if it came our
way, but we would ask a lot different
questions than the last time around.
I agree with the value chain thing
becoming a commodity, but that is the
challenge of finding your point(s) of
differentiation. The more
differentiated you are, or the more
challenging the management aspect
becomes, the more difficult it is to
duplicate. Example: hormone free is
relatively easy, hormone free/VBP type
audit is harder, hormone
free/VBP/Producer profiled (owned) is
even harder, hormone free/VBP/Producer
faced/grass finished is harder again,
etc.
Each layer of challenge can create an
earned competitive advantage, with the
trick being to convert that difference
into margin. Why is there not more
grassfed when the margins are good? My
thoughts are that it is a hell of a lot
harder than finishing on grain, and a
hell of a lot harder than selling at a
presort in the fall. Add to that the
fact that a lot of cattle are kept as a
recreational pursuit where profit does
not drive the train, and the easy
marketplace (selling calves at auction)
is one with very little earned advantage
available.
Pick your advantages carefully, and
market the heck out of them.