This is a hot topic in the U.S but maybe doesn't get much press up here. Cargill(in Alberta) owns a whole lot of cattle in feed lots and I assume IBP does too. Right now the U.S. is trying to limit how many cattle U.S. packers can own. Is this a good thing? Or is it a violation of the packers rights?
Packing houses like to portray themselves as struggling middle men operating on the slimmest of margins. Nothing could be further from the truth. The packing business is probably one of the dirtiest, crookedist businesses in the world. And never think evil companys like Cargill or IBP invented all the dirty tricks. Our old Canadian packers were not exactly angels!
When I was young I worked in a packing house for a few years. When I first started the vet in charge of all the meat inspectors was a fairly decent man who tried to do an honest job. He tended to condemn the farmer owned cattle more than the packer owned ones but wasn't blatant about it. Eventually he got promoted out of there. The next vet to take over was hell on wheels...very by the book!!! He was causing the company all kinds of problems. Finally the manager(the sharpest business man I ever knew!) got the vet in his office for a little chat. The next week the vet was driving a new T-bird convertable! With packing house plates on it!! Guess what happened?? Well you could have dragged in an animal that was dead for a month, shaken the flies off and it would have made the grade!!! Business was booming!
This same packing house owned all kinds of cattle in custom lots and they periodically used them to drive down the price. They would just refuse to kill any cattle but their own for a week or more. And this went on across Alberta as they were a major player.
Here is another funny story. One of the employees was just a kid and he got caught stealing a horse. It was the scandal of the whole plant. A farmer asked the head buyer why didn't he make the kid a buyer as he would fit right in with all the other thieves!! The head buyer said"Well you have to like the kids attitude but his technique needs some work!"
Packing houses like to portray themselves as struggling middle men operating on the slimmest of margins. Nothing could be further from the truth. The packing business is probably one of the dirtiest, crookedist businesses in the world. And never think evil companys like Cargill or IBP invented all the dirty tricks. Our old Canadian packers were not exactly angels!
When I was young I worked in a packing house for a few years. When I first started the vet in charge of all the meat inspectors was a fairly decent man who tried to do an honest job. He tended to condemn the farmer owned cattle more than the packer owned ones but wasn't blatant about it. Eventually he got promoted out of there. The next vet to take over was hell on wheels...very by the book!!! He was causing the company all kinds of problems. Finally the manager(the sharpest business man I ever knew!) got the vet in his office for a little chat. The next week the vet was driving a new T-bird convertable! With packing house plates on it!! Guess what happened?? Well you could have dragged in an animal that was dead for a month, shaken the flies off and it would have made the grade!!! Business was booming!
This same packing house owned all kinds of cattle in custom lots and they periodically used them to drive down the price. They would just refuse to kill any cattle but their own for a week or more. And this went on across Alberta as they were a major player.
Here is another funny story. One of the employees was just a kid and he got caught stealing a horse. It was the scandal of the whole plant. A farmer asked the head buyer why didn't he make the kid a buyer as he would fit right in with all the other thieves!! The head buyer said"Well you have to like the kids attitude but his technique needs some work!"