Black Day in July

[rusty1]

IBP's announcment today and word I get from south of the 49th. that Cargil is on the verg of a simular announcment plus possibly another facility spells the end to any hope for the Canadian beef industry.

Cattle men everywhere take you're hat in hand and see how many crumbs we can keep.

[kato]

What announcement?

[BFW]

Tyson Foods announced yesterday their plans to add an additional 1000 head per day slaughter capacity at their plant in Brooks. Cost is 17 million and will employ an additional 30 people full time and is expected to be operational by fall 2005. Many are expecting Cargill Foods to make a similar announcement for their High River plant. Makes it a whole lot harder for any new operations to get up and running and shouldn't come as a big surprise.

[kato]

Looks like they are the only ones listening to the Canadian cattle producers calls for more capacity.

They know as well as we do that it is needed, and they're going to make sure it's all going to be in their hands, not ours.

Not surprising at all, is it.

[grassfarmer]

A sad day indeed and so much worse because it has been aided and abetted by our politicians and industry representatives. How can ABP in today's info update suggest this is a good thing - I don't believe any longer that they are that ignorant, they must be working hand in hand with the packers. When the ABP reps are beef producers as well how can they possibly back this?

[grassfarmer]

Come on guys, we all knew this was going to happen. You simply cannot reap the kind of profits that Cargil and Tyson have been reaping without using some of that money to expand. Yes the need is there, and they may be first to supply kill capacity, but let's not let on that we did not expect to see this day.

If there is any hope for rusty's plant or the Fleming/ BIG C cow plant in Sask., it is going to have to come from dedicated producers. In fact the only hope these facilities have is for people fed up with the monopolies to step up to the plate and support them.

I say let em build. And build our own as well. If the cattle producers left in Canada once the dust settles are dumb enough to go back to the old way of doing business, it will then be a dark day. For now, there is still hope for new initiatives, and I guess, a lot more boxed beef sales in the fall of 2005.

[rsomer]

I agree with rpkaiser. This changes nothing. There will still be no competition for our live cattle and there will not be until either the border opens or producers build their own plants. Until then, Tyson Foods (Lakeside) and Cargill will be free to continue to carry on price fixing in a monopoly market. Only they will be able to do more price fixing.

The need for producer packing plants and competition in the marketplace still remains. One thing that really bothers me however is that government money is likely to go to these pirates to help them build this extra capacity. After all the money these two companies have stolen from the industry and government too, that would be really outrageous.

I would encourage the CCA to review their policy on encouraging more packing space to encouraging more competition in our marketplace. Without competition our situation will not have improved and the marketplace will continue to not function properly. However given the close relationship the two big packers enjoy with the CCA and the Beef Industry Round Table I do not expect to see increased calls for competition from our industry leaders. In fact according to the Western Producer, this fall the producers will be asked to approve making two seats available to the packers on the ABP Board of Directors. Now that would be a black day.

[grassfarmer]

Personally I would like to see the ABP delegates replaced en masse this fall at the producer meetings. If we could replace them with BIG-C supporters imagine how much we could achieve with ABP funds and their proven committment. Again I'm probably dreaming because despite all the talk in beef circles it still seems producers are prepared to sit back and let someone else fight their battles(or not fight their battles in this case) - how can we motivate and unite primary producers, feedlot guys auction companies?

[grassfarmer]

I meant to add I spoke to RanchersOwn coop in Spruce Grove yesterday to check on progress of their proposed cow plant. They are still planning on going ahead, with soil moving possibly in Sept. this year(August was the planned start) They didn't get the number of members they needed signed up but feel they have enough to start. The comment was "too many farmers want to play wait and see" before committing their money.
Why can the Government at either federal or provincial level not step up to the plate in this kind of deal? All these type of groups need is a little help and hey presto you have more killing capacity.

[ALICIA]

The sooner the number of cattle are down the sooner they will have to start paying a decent price....

[kato]

grassfarmer... I think when the banks start talking this fall, there will be plenty of motivation.

Now the real trick is to have that motivation not come too late.

I guess talking it up with everyone we come across is the best way to get things fired up. It seems like one person can't do much, but if that one gets one more fired up, and they turn around and get someone else going, it does snowball.

Word of mouth managed to get hundreds of people to the rally in Winnipeg with three days notice. Believe me, the networks we have are bigger than we realize.

Look at how far Big-C has come in a few weeks. I have seen news stories about the group from as far away as the southern States, and Australia.

We just have to keep plugging away, and don't shut up and go home.

[ALICIA]

I hope no one saw the news tonight. Just another story to dash the hopes of the cow calf guy this fall.