New Zealand plants

[ValueChainFX]

Horse, I know the Barrhead story from top to bottom, in fact you should have a chance to come to a meeting sooner rather than later. The first meetings will be in your area! Ant way when tyou go to the meeting be sure to ask what makes this different than the pork plant!

[kenzie]

There is a group of feed lot owners in the Acme Alberta area that are trying to set up a packing plant in NE Calgary. They are currently raising funds. Will be looking into it further but it sounds like an attenpt to re gain control from the packers that were attracted to our province by massive government subsidies and incentives. May free enterprise rule the day.

[redcountry]

The new plant in PEI!
(1)the contractor is the owner with a lease back to the co-op
(2) the co-op is made up of the
1- producers 50%
2- atlantic co-op 15%
3- PEI government 35%

The large packers with 85% of market share will not drop prices on their 85% to try and undercut the 15%.

We are hoping transportation costs alone will give us a important advantage

We know trucking and shrink will give us near .20Lb advantage

I am 18klms from the site of the new plant with 200 cows looking to finish the majority of the calves for the

plant Wish us luck

[ValueChainFX]

Not only do we wish you luck, we hope you will keep sharing information with us, and also open to sharing information with you and your group as well! The more we stick together the less chance we have of a new high jack of the industry!

You guys and gals go for it!!!!!

[cowman]

Redcountry: Who is the contractor that leases the plant to the co-op? How much would your shares be worth? I assume one share equals the right to have one animal processed? Is there a dividend return expected on the shares?
Valuechain: Has the Alberta, Sask., Man. governments showed a willingness to become 35% partners in a deal like this? How about federated co-ops?

[redcountry]

The contractor is a local, Fitzgerald & Snow
The shares or hooks as we call them are $60.
The return on the first animal sent to kill will return more than the cost of the hook, transport now costs about .10 per lb or $80. per animal not including shrink
How much will a animal shrink on the truck for 20 to 30 hrs plus sometimes the weekend in a pen without food or water?
Producers that never had a dark cutter in years are now getting some on every load. what causes dark cutters?

Its not uncommon to have dead animals on the truck (total loss)

No more of this is the return on shares we expect!
The producers who refused to buy hooks are now scratching around trying to get in "no hook no purchase"

This is not a big plant the kill will be 500 per week when up to speed , remember our herds are small we only produce about 15% of our consumption

Anyone want some cheep feed! potatoes are given for the taking, last week we hauled 12 tractor trailer loads.

There will be millions of lbs dumped this spring.
At least we dont have to dump our cattle in the field and plough them down

[cowman]

Sounds like you guys have a winner down there! And it should provide some stable jobs. Maybe we need to import some of you spud diggers up here to show us how it's done!

[ValueChainFX]

Alberta, Man and Sask have all shown interest in getting information, but are only willing to but minor funds in at a very low % (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) for studies, etc. They will not put anything into bricks & mortar (as they like to call it). They still want to know if this is feasible!!! Go figure!

The AVCC does have some partners that are associated with government that will assist in their areas of expertise, but these folks seem to be doing it for their personal interst in seeing this happen.

Producer meetings are being set up as we speak and are planned to be held around Alberta. Some direct contacts have been made with other producers in other provinces that are interested in the template being developed. I believe the concept is to use this experience and information network to help tie producers together across Canada.