TRACEABILITY FROM FARM TO FORK SUMMIT MEETING

[SADIE]

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Thankyou Gary E for sending me this copy a couple of weeks ago. I some how get these invites when these discussions are carried on in Saskatchewan. I will let you Albertians handle this meeting.

For those agrivillers this might help explain why I put the posts up again about RFID eartags, Traceability and what some of the commercial cattlemen are facing today.

You have some great people out there in Alberta and on agriville and members of the WSGA that likely will be /could be at this meeting.

TRACEABILITY

"DOG AND PONY SHOW" "GREAT CANADIAN GONG SHOW"

Per is close by and has been quite quiet. Get ahold of GARY E and My classmate Dr. William Newton ---both of you guys are close to this meeting.

[per]

A guy gets into less trouble when keeping his mouth shut. Especially with a difficult conversation where the bureaucrats and industry are not necessarily after the same thing and where there are as many opinions as there are producers.

[per]

I would however be very comfortable with either Gary or Bill looking after my interests on most industry subjects.

[kato]

Mandatory traceability, IMHO, gives a market advantage to Canadian beef, in general. The problem with that is that an advantage to Canadian beef, is another way of saying an advantage to Canadian beef processors, not necessarily Canadian producers. Promoters of this kind of marketing advantage are believers in the trickle down theory of economics. The problem with that is that it doesn't trickle down, at least not as far as the producer level. All the tracing and tracking and work done by us will not give us any more money. It will make money for JBS and Cargill though.

If traceability was voluntary, then there could possibly be some economic benefit, because the big players would be forced to pay for the work done at our level if they wanted to get enough cattle to market as traceable. It could also be a way for smaller processors looking for their own markets to have something extra to offer.

The bottom line is that we're doing the work, but we're not getting the benefit. So far traceability hasn't done anything for food safety either, as the fiasco at XL showed us. Make it voluntary, and make them pay if they want it.

[rkaiser]

You nailed it Kato. The only thing traceability is god for is to break the back of the (producer) that can be used as a scape goat in any food safety issue that may "pop" up.

The only thing that will change this industry in a substantial way is our own value chain including our own plant.

[ALLFARMER]

Ya spot on kato!

[Happytrails]

X3 on Kato's comments. The feedlots and packers are willing support mandatory tagging and scanning because it makes a higher value product available to them without a higher cost. Not to mention the discounts on undocumented cattle. Let the MARKET drive traceability!!

[WiltonRanch]

So true. The mandatory side is unescesary for age
verification. We should get a premium but we dont. I
think the whole AV and premises id are floundering
because packers arent paying premiums. Gets me
is Alberta guys have to do AV but Sask guys dont,
and we know damn well Sask cattle go into Alberta
unverified. This thing is a complete waste of time
and expense for the producer. Like rkaiser said just
a convenient means to scapegoat the producer.
When the first bse case showed up, cfia traces the
tag back on the cow to a guy I know that had it
many moons ago, and they proceeded to down his
herd along with other guys herds that traded cattle
with this guy. Was this a great means to wipe out
bse? I dont know. Was it a knee jerk reaction by a
govt agency in a panic? Hell yes. Therefore that is
why I hate this whole tagging bullshit because our
livelihoods are sometimes at the whim of insipid
beaurocrats looking to wag the dog. Anytime we get
the govt more involved in our business for our
supposed betterment it is not good.

[kato]

To make a comparison... regarding premiums disappearing when things become mandatory.

In Manitoba age verification is not mandatory. Here there is a premium paid on cows. It can be anywhere from five to ten cents a pound. This is only as a rule on cows going south. It is negligible on calves and feeders.

Why? Because the cows are going to the U.S., where they can capture a premium. They need to pay it to us in order to have animals for that market. The feeders, and cows staying in Canada will be heading to Alberta, where there is no reason to pay a premium.

If it wasn't mandatory in Alberta, I would be willing to bet that there would be a premium on age verified cattle of every class.

Make it mandatory, and we producers lose. Everyone above us wins. This applies to traceability as well. IMHO

[perfecho]

I feel a little embarrassed here...is age verification mandatory in Alberta? I run purebred, so majority of animals are registered, but any culls I run through the auction(young and old) have never been age verified, nor the animals we have processed for off farm sales. I have never been asked for this info….I RFID tag, but nothing else.....should I be hiding out?