Is it time for organic beef?

[dnach]

This may be a far out question, but is it time for some to realy capitalize in a venture such as this. There are some producers already well into organic beef production, but will the consumer start demanding more of this type of beef? Not a cattleman, so any comments pro-con would be interesting.

[bombay_43]

I would not advise anyone to get into cattle right now. Many of us in the business are contemplating getting out. It is my understanding that BSE and many other diseases for that matter, have no bearing on whether they are raised organic or not.

There is no way to capitalize on the current situation unless.....

-you could buy culled animals for .05 to .10 per pound
-place them into a feedlot for 30-90 days to finish them off(if necesssary)
-get the government to subsidize you for all the animals you slaughter
-use farmers checkoff dollars to promote Canadian Beef during the BSE crisis
-sell your beef for record high prices to consumers who mistakenly believe the farmers are getting the money

HIGHLY UNLIKELY!

[ValueChainFX]

Also to keep the animal organic you must used approved facilities to process it? Where are they, for the most part we don't have them! A Federal processing plant to customer process your animal, so few what does one do?

[cowman]

Being pretty tight with my money I have never been too eager to spend it on chemicals, hormones, feed supps etc.! Always believed grass, straw and hay were just about all they needed, plus salt and a good mineral mix. Too lazy to bother with Ivomec, or grubex. No warbles so why use it? They might get a few lice but they disappear when spring gets here. Will use some grain if the price is right...and that means it is cheaper than hay!
I've found that most anti-biotics are a waste of time and if you cull hard for feet and don't overfeed grain you have very little footrot. I might use half a bottle of liquimiacin a year, at the most. So I guess I already have organic beef?
We use way too many chemicals in our food. We were always told it was safe...you know living better chemically? But in reality these chemicals are poisons and that is the truth! How long can you put poisons on everything we eat until it comes back to haunt us?

[15444]

With talk of SARS in Toronto and around the world and with the development of 'superbug' in Winnipeg's new microbiological laboratory, I believe that time has come.

[Freesaw]

Every bit of the food sector is base on quantity not quality, in order to mass produce food, drugs hormones Gmo's and who nows whats next will be used. We will not know the full effects of this for some time.

[kato]

I have a neighbour who raises organic beef. He has it slaughtered at a small local abbatoir, and sells it privately. It works for him on a small scale, but on a larger scale, you'd have to be quite a marketer.

[cowman]

There is a family at Eckville Alberta who raise totally organic grass fed beef. They have a waiting list of customers for their product. They pushed it hard at the farmers markets a few years ago, but now have an established customer market. I went to a seminar where one of the boys explained how it worked for them. A very high end product for a high end clientelle. His profit numbers were very good.