Is it really this bad?

[cowman]

In one of the farm papers(Gateway)there was a quote from a local MP that a suicide hotline in Red Deer, Alberta was recieving 700 calls a month from beef producers. Now that would seem to be pretty high I would think. Most people I talk to are concerned but they're not at that point!
I believe the biggest problem is the percieved lack of the government actually doing anything or having some definite plan. As the bills mount and nothing is done people are getting anxious and sceptical.
If people are at the point where suicide becomes an option then I believe it is time for our various governments to get off their duffs and do something! Stop kissing the Americans butts and start retaliating in this unfair trade war! How can we do this? We've sold out to the Americans for the last 20 years or so for the almighty dollar and they basically own us now. One way would be to test and ban ALL meat not tested! Another way would be to band together more closely with Mexico. The Mexicans are getting pretty sick of the American bully too! If you never stand up to a bully he'll own you forever! If you stand up to him you may get the crap kicked out of you but at least he knows he can't walk all over you and he'll get a fight everytime!
The American bully is the toughest kid on the block but if all the other kids ganged up on him they can bring him down!
If you are at the point where suicide starts to look pretty good then I urge you to get some help. Phone the hotline, talk to the neighbors or family. No piece of dirt or cow is worth dying over.

[rusty1]

Ranchers & Beef Producers should own their own Packing Plants and Feedlots!

Saskatchewan is sitting in the drivers seat to have a huge feeding Industry and packing plant. We have sparcely populated land to run cattle and grow feed. We have the know-how and also we have the product the consumers want. So if we have the will of the people to put this huge resource into production, our children and grandchildren will surely benefit.

Building five and ten thousand head feed lots is okay, but it still leaves you in a peace meal marketing system. We need one hundred thousand head feedlots and in some way incorporate these smaller feedlots into this system, so we have a huge supply of beef. I'll leave you with that thought.

If Cor Van Raay Farms Ltd. and Western Feed lots can make money out of our cattle, why can't we?

To the rancher and beef producer - we need a marketing system that pays you for your top carcass cattle.

To the rancher and basic beef producer - some how we have to have more of the consumer dollar flowing to us to stay in business.

This is just to put things into a simple prospective. On our mailing list we have over 1000 people. A lot of these people pay $2500 - $6000 for bulls; some of them buy three or more, so three times $4000 is $12,000 of investment every 3 to 5 years. If each of these people put in $10,000 it would come to 12 million dollars. If you sold 250 calves, that's only $50 a calf for a $12,000 investment.

We could build a packing plant or whatever it takes to kill our Saskatchewan cattle or anybody else's. Our First Nations people need jobs and opportunities to invest in their future. We should invite them to join us in the development of our province.

I can't see why the Federal Government wouldn't give grants to train people for these jobs.

Anyway, my position would be that the ranchers and beef producers would sit on the board of directors and if they ran that business as frugal as they have to run their ranches and farms, it should pay huge dividends.

If this huge feeding Industry was Incorporated right, I can't see why businesses in Saskatoon, Regina, and Battleford, wouldn't buy shares. Even the Northern Lights Casino should buy shares, as there would be money around their places.

My father came to this country, as I am sure a lot of yours did, as pioneers. He drove 3 oxen and 1 horse to break land. No one promised these people anything, BUT THEY MADE IT WORK! So why don't we get together and make a huge successful feeding industry and packing plant in Saskatchewan. I think us ranchers, farmers, and business people in this province should do it; not the government or the banks. JUST US THE HARD WORKING PEOPLE.

In 2050 there will be four hundred million Americans. If they don't do something foolish and blow themselves up, someone has to feed them.

This letter is to get you thinking. I have put a lot more thought into this venture. It surely isn't impossible and could be darn profitable. You wouldn't build a house without painting it, so why shouldn't you figure out some way to take your product to the consumer. He will pay if you produce what he wants to eat.

Drop me a line or a phone call after you think it through. If we are of like minds, this could help make Saskatchewan a 'have' province - with our oil, gas, potash, and other. Combine this with a huge feeding Industry to look after the potential expansion in the beef herd in the next few years and LOOK WHAT WE COULD GAIN! WHAT COULD WE LOSE?

William Dillabaugh

[pandiana]

Go Rusty1!

[cowman]

Rusty1:The old meat packing game is a tough one to crack. The big boys don't like competition and they play hardball! IBP and Cargill both know how to get down in the trenches and play dirty.
Your basic idea is sound. It seems silly that Sask. sends the feeders and feed grain to feedlot alley when they could be doing it at home.
About two years ago I went to a presentation put on by the town of Churchbridge in east central Saskatchewan. They were promoting their area as "The last great cattle frontier". The speaker said the population was aging and there was zero interest in raising cattle. They were trying to get some new blood in(and new money) so that their town and county wouldn't just wither up and die. The next summer I took a little visit out there just to see what it was like. As far as I could tell it was a cowmans dream. Aspen parkland, rolling land, lots of potholes, deep black soil. Cheap, cheap,cheap land! Only about 35 miles to Yorkton. And hardly any cattle! The farmers there were trying to farm the hills and around the potholes and brush with their big modern equipment.
Now why is it that this town has to try to entice people from Alberta to move there? Why aren't Sask. residents raising cattle there?
If I was younger I might have considered moving there...One quarter here would buy ten there!

[rsomer]

cowman: I share your views and concerns expressed in your first post in this thread. It needs to be said.

Rusty1. Did you know Canada is the worlds second largest exporter of live cattle. It would seem there are opportunities to process some of those live calves here in Canada.

There are examples of producers joining together in order to own their own packing plants and feedlots.

U.S. Premium Beef, Ltd., Kansas City, MO, (www.uspremiumbeef.com) is a producer-owned, beef marketing company with more than 1,850 producer members in 37 states representing all segments of the U.S. beef industry. USPB member cattle are marketed under the U.S. Premium Beef™ brand and numerous NBP product lines including Farmland Black Angus Beef®, Farmland Certified Premium Beef®, and Black Canyon Angus Beef®, in addition to Certified Angus Beef®. USPB member cattle are also marketed direct to consumers through Kansas City Steak Company, a high quality, portion control and mail order company owned by National Beef Packing Company. U.S. Premium Beef's Bylaws require Board representation from every segment of the beef industry. Specifically, there must be one Board member from the purebred sector and an even number of commercial cow-calf producers and also stocker operators and commercial cattle feeders on the board.

National Beef Packing Company, LLC, Kansas City, MO, (www.nationalbeef.com), owned by USPB is the nation’s fourth largest beef processor. It is the only major beef processing company in the United States with a majority of its ownership held by beef producers. With a 10 percent market share, National Beef processes and markets fresh beef, boxed beef and beef byproducts for domestic and international markets.

Other examples of producer owned processing include food-processing and marketing success of other U.S.cooperatives such as:
· Gold-Kist, the second-largest broiler producer and processor in the United States.
· Sun-Kist, an orange producers’ cooperative.
· Ocean Spray cranberry cooperative.

In the arid southwestern corner of North Dakota, the desire for an in-state feeding industry has resulted in a network of new feedlot pens built to hold 6,500 head of cattle. Surrounded by open prairie, the feedlot facility is owned by Dakota Prairie Beef, a cooperative of 145 members, most of them farmers and ranchers, each of them owners of cattle being custom fed in their cooperatively owned lot.
See: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/nov02/home.html

There is an excellent compendium of producer owned meat processing plants in the United States at:
http://web4.msue.msu.edu/msuewc/clarksville/pub/PRODUCER%20INVESTMENT%20IN%20MEAT%20PROCESSING.pdf

Listed is producer owned beef, bison, pork deer and elk, sheep and goat meat processing plants with in some cases annual output and amount of equity required. Also at the end is some notes on two beef producer beef processing plants explaining briefly what they do, share ownership etc. and some phone numbers you can call for more info. A good read if you are interested.

In Alberta, AVAC Ltd. based in Calgary would offer planning assistance to a group that was seriously interested in processing or other value added activities.