Branded Beef

[rkaiser]

I got to apologize for calling you a thumb sucker this morning farmer_son.

Took the snake oil salesman comment a bit too personally and reacted rather than going for a walk in the trees before my reply. Another good thing about these forum meeting places as long as those of us with a bit extra passion remember to use the walk in the trees.

I am actually proud to be a salesman farmers_son. For Christs sake man Christ was a salesman -- how bad can it really be?

Even though it is good to hear opposing views, there are limits for all of us. ABP/CCA has shown us all how it limits opposition and emotional reaction will be my personal challenge when it comes to posts like the one old farmers_son put up.

Canada Gold is about responsibility folks. Rather than continue to blame the packers, blame Rcalf, blame government, blame the economy, or blame those pesky Beef Initiative Group loud mouths for our woes, we are saying that we take responsibility and manifest our own destiny.

Of course this industry is full of folks who have given up or have no social interest in bettering the overall industry, however most, if not all of the folks on this site have a social interest, but simply have different views on how to change things.

Canada Gold can and will make a difference for the industry.
It will make a bigger and better difference if we can get all of these bright minds (including yours farmers_son) on a similar page.

Even though I have used the word social a couple of times on this post, Canada Gold is going to be a for profit corporation with thousands of shareholders who will buy in at a reasonable initial value. The company will show profit over time and those who buy in will be rewarded. BUT the rest of the industry will also be rewarded by the efforts of this company.

When Canada Gold starts to move product off of this continent into high value markets in Asia, the E.U., and yes Christoph the Untied Arab Emirates, our farm gate and beef prices will rise in turn. I for one, will be glad to be a beef owner at that time rather than sharing those increased profits with the multinational packers in the way that grassfarmer fittingly described the current situation.

The consumer needs to be educated grasssfarmer, and maybe not just about food cost but about farmers share.

OR we could simply save the education costs and become price setters ourselves through a Canad Gold process.

[grassfarmer]

"Untied Arab Emirates" indeed - is that a case of "who let the arabs out?" LOL

I asked a while back who owns the cattle/beef once they leave the feedlot? Is the ownership retained by the feedlot,owned by Canada Gold or owned by the packer?

[rkaiser]

Canada Gold Beef (inc. ltd., corp., or maybe alliance) will own the beef.

[farmers_son]

First, while I did infer that the Canada Gold Beef concept was snake oil I was not thinking of anyone as a snake oil salesman. However when the cattle industry is considering solutions for the problem of chronic low producer returns we do need to keep our ideas strongly rooted in reality.

See: Magical Thinking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_thinking

We need to be careful that we, in our sincere desire to improve our lot, do not fall victim to magical thinking. I respectfully submit that it is magical thinking to believe that an organization such as Canada Gold Beef can form a relationship with a global beef processor to process live cattle and then that organization can sell that same beef globally in direct competition and in the same established distribution channels as the global beef processor and realize a profit by doing so. I see no marketing plan, I see no numbers, no understanding of costs or benefits. I see no unique competitive advantage that cannot easily be duplicated by other competitors or even the cooperating packing plant. I do see the beef industry as a mature industry with entrenched competitors and it is unlikely that there are dramatic marketing opportunities that have not been fully exploited.

Branding does offer opportunities but not without cost and risk and no one should assume all branding efforts are successful, they are not. Government dollars can mitigate that associated cost but I think we need to consider government money as being like rocket fuel. It can get an idea off of the ground fast but if the idea does not have wings to fly it will just crash and burn.

Bottom line we do operate in a marketplace and right now it sucks to be us. There have always been times of profitability and loss in the cattle industry. I do think we will see stronger live cattle prices in the near future and that is where I make my money from, live cattle. I would love to move up the value chain to a more stable wholesale branded beef market but I do not see one example of where that has been successfully accomplished in a major way without owning at least the processing capacity. Typically these branding efforts are highly vertically integrated and when you consider that even the mighty Tyson is having their profitability threatened by strong grain prices it is clear that even vertical integration will not guarantee sufficient profit for a branded product to offset the larger economic factors that we are all experiencing.

[rkaiser]

Right on farmers_son. I feel that you are suggesting what I would like to see happen with Canada Gold in the very near future. Ownership of processing capacity.

You must have looked at the USPB program by now. http://www.uspremiumbeef.com/

We have all been reading up on the success of USPB up to and including their current plans to sell their National Beef plants and become shareholders in JBS Swift. It seem that this very wise group of producers sees the future better than you or I farmers_son and may even have concerns over the packer ownership issues that are moving ahead quicker in the USA compared to Canada. Might be one of those things that I have to actaully look back and thank ABP/CCA for holding out on when we do own the plants, the cattle and the beef.

Had we gotten this Canada Gold thing off the ground a bit sooner, we could have had the Ranchers Beef Plant for a song, but still have potential to purchase or at least work with the Acheson, Ranchers Own Plant, the Natural Valley Plant and any other plants that see merit in the Canada Gold concept.

As for your concerns about snake oil or dreams farmers_son, remember that "Problems can not be solved at the same level of awareness that created them".

We have a problem that needs to be corrected. Did you not see the enthusiasm in the room at the Alberta Cattle Industry conference in February when Canada Gold was announced? Canada Gold will happen and could use your help as well as your criticism. How do you think we could approach the plant ownership thing farmers_son?

[loric]

Randy

As the ABP staff person who works with the website, I can personally assure you I never shot down your idea about a forum on the ABP website. In fact, I can recall a conversation with someone where I said it was an idea that we are considering but that I had used up my website budget for the year just getting the basics up and running.

We have a budget in place for the 2008/09 year and I'll be working with our web designer on updates. What you have to remember is that just because you build something - does not mean people will come. There are a million forums out there on the World Wide Web and people who post on the forums they are familiar with - enjoy the conversation with the other people they have come to know on them.

The idea of a forum will be raised at some stage this spring. It has been in our minds since we began to design the new site, but there were more important pages to pay for than a forum for the 2007/08 year. You have a forum that you post on right now - enjoy it and use it to your advantage - and I'll keep you informed on the progress of the current ABP website as changes and additions are made according to what I can afford with my budget.

[rkaiser]

Thanks Lori,

I hope that you are enjoying agriville as well. You can't even imagine the folks who read this stuff. Still think it would be a good idea for ABP some day and hope that you stick it out long enough to make it happen. I aways said ABP has good staff........