Reduced Cattle Sales

[rkaiser]

LOL littledoggie. NB stealing the idea... Why do you think they bought half of Bern's Spring Creek program. Because they care about cattle and humans? LOL Because they love what they do. Hogwash - all about profit and opportunity.

I wish that Brian would come on Agriville and correct me when I say that the only reason they are in the biz is money.

If that is the only reason we are in the biz little doggie, we got no more potential than they do.

This little "idea" of mine is not rocket science and is a middle of the road scheme that is being used all over the world. More so than in the good old USA than even here in Canada.

This microcosm that we are using in Calgary at Second to None Meats shops and and the little bit bigger program that Christoph has going are only the beginning in my mind.

Don't like the way that feedlots are feeding? Don't like the way that plants are harvesting cattle? This is a free and progressive country and the government still listens to the masses.

If we were the masses and cared about our industry and our cattle and the consumer, we could do this all ourselves. The government is in a pickle and looking for options right now.

Let's give them an option I say. Revive the levy funded cattle harvest facility idea brought forward by Beef Initiative Canada after BSE.

Instead of me chasing non industry money to change the face of the packing industry we could use our collective power to have the government supply the measly LOAN that it would take to get this idea off the ground.

It has to start with caring. And now for the big bad word that everyone is scared to use..... It is Sunday morning however.... LOL

It has to start with "love".

[littledoggie]

"levy funded cattle harvest facility"
Who is Beef Initiative Canada?

[kato]

It was a response to the BSE fiasco. It was a plan brought about to have producers get together, fund a plant of their own, and have some control over the results. Randy can likely provide more details that I'm likely to miss. It's been a while. LOL

We had meetings, some of them pretty big, all over Western Canada. Lots of enthusiasm from producers, and lots of naysayers as well, mostly from "industry". Big problem? Producers were broke. Industry was taking money to the bank in wheelbarrows.

Absolutley ZERO support from government. Their response was to take initiatives that pretty much solidified the status quo, and even made it more solid.

Which brings us to the mess we've got now.

We were told that too much reliance on the U.S. market was dangerous. IMHO, too much reliance on having most of our cattle processed in two plants was the real danger. The government ran around patting themselves on the back over all the so called new markets they opened up to Canadian beef. All the time they were really opening up markets that they had lost for us by dropping the ball on BSE. And they were opening them up for the products that came out of the two giant plants who had a captive supply of our cattle.

Real improvement, wasn't it?

BTW, I still have my Beef Initiative membership card on my desk. ;-)

[littledoggie]

The timing may have been all wrong. It's pretty hard to convince government that "bigger is not better" when there are 2 huge processing facilities (or were there 3 then?) operating with over-capacity in the country. Maybe now the environment is more favourable for smaller processors. The optics of this argument to the general public would be huge.

[BFW]

Your not still beating that horse are you Randy ? I thought you would have a plant processing by now. Anyway I think the days of the large plants in Canada are numbered and this latest incident will seal it. Not that they will just up and close, more that they will find it increasingly difficult to operate here and also their customers and consumers in general will be at least a little more skeptical about the whole proposition. We in the cattle industry (especially those finishing cattle) have known for a long time that trying to operate profitably in a 2 plant system is near impossible. When only a few cattlefeeders are giving that message to government it is difficult to get anyones attention there. Now,however, the public is involved and they see the risks albeit from another angle. There will be changes. The opportunity for smaller more specialized plants is now and I think they will get the required support required to gain some traction in the marketplace.

[littledoggie]

"required support" from government too, I hope.

[grassfarmer]

How realistic is that though BFW? I know how much
it costs to set up a small plant to do 40-50 head a
week and we would need several hundred of them
to pick up the 4000 head/day capacity at XL.
Do you think there are that many entrepreneurs with
butchering skills in Europe wanting to relocate to
the prairies where the cattle production is 90%
feedlot fed/ hormone treated? There sure doesn't
seem to be many Canadians with the expertise/
work ethic or desire to do it.
Not so easy a problem to fix. More realistic outcome
I think is more trucks of feeders and fats heading to
the US once they get back to more normal feed
situation re drought.