Changes are Needed

[poorboy]

All of the above posts are correct in that we need to do better jobs of controlling the quality of our products. Canada being a small market, we export most of the goods we produce and the natural resources we eploit. Our market is just too damn small!!!!!

We have to have better quality control because we need all these export markets to survive.

Almost everything in the world has serial numbers on it. This allows most people a system to trace the commodity throughout the system, be it a tv, computer, car, etc. If a batch of faulty brakes is discovered by Ford, they know where the brakes were used and which vehicles to recall. This instill confidence in me as a car buyer and user. Would you buy a vehicle from a company that had very poor quality control?

Probably not, even if it was made in Canada. So why as beef producers do we think that we are any different? The mad cow case has certainly made us aware of how export oriented we are, and because we rely on exports so much for our livelihood, we should definately be doing MORE to provide a serial number for each animal and a traceably chain for the animals that could be traced back in under 24 hours.

In the future, we may encounter a situation where the USA finds a case of mad cow, and the stores and restraunts, could just switch to Canadian beef and tell their consumers that they know to the farm where each animal spent its life.

If we could have had a system where we could have positively known where the mad cow had been within 24 hours and had all of the herds dead within 2 days, the mad cow issue would have blown away instantly.

Good business's would consider it just part of good marketing. But some cattle farmers are so backwoods and slow that I doubt it will ever happen.

In most industries, the poor producers just disappear from lack of sales and profit. Only in Agriculture are the poor producers allowed to integrate and destroy the markets for everyone!!!!!

[rusty1]

Fortunately we have the tools to track every animal throughout it's life time. Like you say the only thing still lacking is the will. However after the unthinkable wake up callof "520", if a producers refuses to participate in a new national ID program that records the calf birth place date and travells then he should be refused a place to market his calves.
As I said we have the tools now ready to be put into action which will track the animals like a passport from pick-up point to delivery point, and all points in between.
Every brand inspector, auction mart, feeder, terminal or community pasture needs to be equiped to read the tags and interface the critical data with the CCIA.
This needs to be private enterprise giving the livestock owner the option to vertically integrate any production records he deems helpful to obtaining a better market value.
This would also go a long way to genetic improvment, value capture for good cattle and discounts for the ones that have been over paid.
As I said we have the tools to provide an vertically integrated service and will be making anouncements in this reguard soon. So keep watch.

[ValueChainFX]

Poorboy and rusty are right in all counts, the trace back is here and we best get used to it. Trace back is great up to the packinghouse door, but once the ccs hits the fab floor we seem to fall down, this is about to change.

However, getting to poorboys comment the quality assurance is the next key to trace back, issues such as security and feed trace back fall into the same issue now, and these also have to be part of the system.

Several trace back systems provide great live id and info associated with that id. Getting a standard that is in alignment with those global markets and the government regulations that go with those markets means trace more, faster and in the right price range for all of us.

I look forward to your announcement rusty and hope we can all work to those goals. Our system is there as well, and making the industry better is what it is all about!

I would love to hear more about your system rusty feel free to drop me a note avcc@telus.net

[charliep]

ValueChainFX

You asked me a question (forget which thread about marketing in the new world (likely in the beef one). My silence indicated I didn't have an answer.

Another challenge/opportunity for creative thinking today. Met with a potential value added grain processor about buying grain. Spent all our time talking about being competitive in a commodity market. The project has all the good things about it (rural development, more competition, new product line, etc). In order to be successfull, however, this company will have to encourage farmers to grow/do something different (a behavior change). Financial rewards, sharing of risk, relationships, etc are the ways to make this happen. The new business mind space is to pay lip service to some of these things but the smoke clears, buy cheap in a commodity market.

From the farmer side, they are not likely to be enthusiastic contractors (what this company needs to ensure supplies) until their is a trusting relationship established and they feel good about crop profit potential relative to other alternatives. I am not sure that there will be enough crop production to ensure supplies for this plant on a consistent ongoing basis.

Realizing I wasn't born yesterday in asking this question, is there anyway to change agricultural industry's thinking to creating value versus selling/buying commodities, a recognition that the word profit in all sectors is not a dirty evil thing and the importance of working together to satisfy a consumer need (an end product for a customer is what the game is all about)? Create value first and then let the market shares the proceeds along the value chain.