Producer owned Packing House

[cowman]

Actually I can see a lot of wisdom in your assessment of the situation Rusty. You are sure right about the consumer being more aware of the problem and stepping up to the plate to help. Unfortunately that help was siphoned off by the thieves at Cargill/IBP but you have to be impressed by how the consumer got out and bought a product with the belief they were helping?
And you might be very right that the public might be ready to invest in Canadian infrastructure. I believe your average Joe is starting to finally get what this whole "globalization" thing is about and he feels very uneasy about it? Maybe the time has come to start buying Canadian products built and processed here? Not many of them left other than agriculture products?

[rusty1]

Let me encourage you to email this thread to you’re producers friends and others for more feed back. We have had our first meeting of stakeholders (cow/calf, pure breed breeders, service sector people and feedlot operators). The consensus was to press forward with a plant. We are planning another meeting this week, with some completed research. There are some very successful and very exciting models to follow. We would love to see a lager consensus so again send out this thread to people that might be interested, and we will keep you posted here. When we are ready to launch, it will be public. Hopefully very soon.

[ValueChainFX]

Independent business people in the agriculture industry or supporting the Canadian agriculture industry are more aware today than ever before. A producer has a choice to become involved in a producer owner processing plant or not. If the system you are working in today works for your operation that is wonderful. If it isn't than you need to look at what industry plans are out there for you.

Retails, wholesalers etc. are also watching close and many want some changes as well. They are not all smiles in dealing with the big boys, but they have few options at the moment! The export markets are still options, but wouldn't it be nice if we looked after our Canadian market and had a good foundation market here in Canada.

Will the consumer pay more? I guess, we will have to watch and see, even though the research indicates they will.

[cowman]

Value chain: I don't know if it is a question of whether the consumer will pay more, but one of will the money be more fairly allocated in the value chain? I mean when I trot into Safeway and see T-bones at $20/kg. and then move down the isle and see pork chops at $6.50/kg. which one is the better buy?
Now if I'm forking out $20/kg. by golly it better taste awful good! You know you can get a tough rotten steak no matter what, but it seems the pork chops all taste the same? Why is that? Luckily I have low tastes...I actually really like hamburger!
I suspect for a lot of people beef is getting to the point where it is too expensive? Now I'm not talking about the doctors, lawyers, teachers who have a virtual goldmine on their hands, thanks to our government, but the average working Joe who makes in that $40,000 range? Or perhaps the farmer, who makes considerably less?

[ValueChainFX]

Cowman, as usual you hit the nail on the head, the ability to distribute the cash fairly in the value chain is more to the point. Although, the consumer has indicated their wiliness to pay more, that alone will not help. The pivot point seems to be at the packers at the moment, and we will need to have the ability to supply the product to the rest of the chain in an equitable manner which means the producer must have a hand in the packing industry.