What do you think

[magpie]

Since our government is not prepared to help invest in the future of our cattle industry with our producers, I think the time is right to bring up an idea that I spoke about many months ago. That is bring in investors from Japan that would come into a joint venture with producers on a packing plant. Now I don’t know if this is possible but surely we should leave no rock unturned in finding a way out of this mess. The advantages of this type of an agreement would certainly provide quality control and assurances for a premium market. Would bring in much needed competition for the large U S packers which is desperately needed in this country. With the help of the Japanese , would this not open up more Asian markets for our beef? Successful business leaders surround themselves with people in their respective fields. We have the tools to work with, national ID, premium beef, only much needed capital is in short supply. Just about everything else is foreign owned in this country, only this would be partially foreign owned and would provide producer’s a step up in the food chain. I think even talks of this would get the attention of the US and might drive home one of their own phrases from the movie Independence Day, THAT WE ARE NOT GOING TO GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT

[grassfarmer]

Excellent idea - the Japanese certainly have plenty investment capital and experience in this kind of deal. It also would ensure a market for the beef from the outset so we wouldn't be building a plant on the chance they might take our beef.

[pmckenna]

As I recall, Lakeside (now Tyson) was at least some percentage Japanese owned for what seems like this very reason, now they are not. Does anybody have any insights into this?

[pmckenna]

If nothing else Magpie, get them involved in Management. This is, and always has been, one of the focal points of the producer funded plant supported by BIG C. I agree with you 100% in suggesting involvment of Asian countries. It is simply common sense to have our new customer involved.

Our country is so full of "nice guy" business people. We need some of that competitive edge that most other industrialized countries have. We hear about the mutinational companies, but how many of these are run or owned by Canadians. I am not saying it is bad to be honorable, and civil, but business is cunning, and the new wave of functioning slaughter plants in Canada will have to have that cunning.
Cunning may come in new forms like partnerships with clients, rather than the current, grab every buck you can cunning that our mutinational freinds have adopted.

There will be ways for these new plants to survive, despite all the pessimism concerning the despicable "war chest"
games that Cargil and Tyson are preparing. This idea of customer involvement is one, and there are a lot more plans taking shape. Let's give the people who are planning these new plants some credit. They have certainly considered every angle that we have on Agriville, plus a few more.
The wonders of communication have allowed for mega volumes of conversation, and just because some of our industry groups have decided not to read or act on some of these volumes doesn't mean that this communication is left unheard.

I only hope that everyone continues to talk, bring up the negatives along with the positives, and create solutions for grassroots movements like BIG C and others to act on!

[pandiana]

Another case of being carefuly what you wish for. Why trade one superpower, megacorp, for another just as ruthless. Japanese didn't get to the top of the pile by being nice guys either. Why are we always looking for a easy leg up?

We want a made in Canada industry, let's get on with it.

[ALICIA]

The Bay Store is the last big store owned by Canada and they are selling out to the states (target)
The farmer and ranchers of Canada seem to be the only thing left in Canada that isn't owned by a foregn power.
A few of our roads are even owned by foreigners.
When the goverments finally break the farmer then Canada is lost.

[magpie]

Rpkaiser I sincerely hope that big C would take a close look at what I think is the future of joint ventures to come. As we speak we have heard of major banks talking on merging in order to compete in the international market place. Major companies providing the same services and goods combining to gain a foothold in the global markets. We have something to offer the people of Japan, a chance to invest in food security as far as protein is concerned. Oceans are quickly being depleted of protein in the form of fish. With the population rising along with arable acres decline here and around the world, all I think is needed is a promotional campaign explaining that the Canadian producers are here waiting to go into partnership with you. The Americans had their chance and blew it and they have pretty much stated they don’t need our live animals. With all the arm wrestling tactics the Americans pull day in day out with their trading partners, this type of business venture just might be what Japan wants to hear. There is a China group right now looking at purchasing a plant to process soybeans. Imagine that, we are not even sure we can grow soybeans year in and year out in the central-northern prairies and yet they are willing to invest in a plant. This is the forward thinking of Asian investors and the time is right to come forward with a plan that would be beneficial to both participants . Pandiana I too want this to be a made in Canada industry. Do we have the time to do it? Can we get the assurances from government to succeed in the future? IE [protection laws for start up ] Will our pockets be deep enough when the border opens? The border I believe will open when the US reaches a deal with Japan and can again start adding value to our beef and make a profit, only makes sense. I know what you’re saying but take a look around how many companies are truly Canadian in the global market and doing it successfully. there are some and how do we not know they are not being partly financed by some foreign investment. How many american companies have foreign investments and slap made in the USA on their products, they did it to our beef. This would be a made in Canada industry one that has a different sort of spin on it. One that has been thought of by Canadian producers, remember we are still part owners of this plant. We all know that supply management industry in Canada has provided some assurances to the industry, can we not move the beef industry towards that type of market only move it to the world stage and involve our customers providing them with quality products along with stable markets and prices for producers? You know it’s the elephant and the mouse thing that’s rearing its head again , well its time for the mouse to change it’s elephant. Sorry for being so long, but I haven’t posted in a long time but I’ve been reading

[jensend]

prices would be higher if the increased number of buyers were servicing more markets. the big thing is that the downside from here is a lot worse if there isn't more competition. if we had to pay a moderate checkoff just to keep one or two more players in the market it could well be cheaper than having the monopoly/oligopoly situation we have now. kind of like the cost of testing versus the loss of markets. to me one apparent problem is keeping a producer owned or partially funded plant as efficient as possible to provide the competition the market needs.

[kato]

I understood that at the moment the only thing slowing our beef exports is the fact that the packers can't keep up. Having the capacity increase by making the current players larger won't do a thing for the prices..there's still only a couple of bidders.

The Big C proposed plant is for cows, anyway. We will need a place to kill them for quite some time to come, I would think.

Also, has anyone given any thought to the scenario of the border opening to fats and feeders, but not to feeder heifers? I think that idea is built into the price of feeder heifers already. Look at the discounts. They are huge! When they are finished there is little if any discount at all.

I think there is going to be a lot of heifers fed out here, and having another bidder on them would also be a good thing.

[cakadu]

That is a good question, kato - are there any other markets that have opened up to taking our beef or is it the US that is taking boned beef only?

To my mind we are really getting hurt by the fact that we look to one major market to buy everything from us. There is nothing wrong with having a steady customer, but wouldn't the plural i.e. customers be much better? It spreads around the risk so that we don't get hurt like this again.

Concurrently with the additional packing capacity, we need to be looking at ways to capture more of the value in what we produce - whether that be quick and easy meals, sausage, meat pies - whatever you can think of so that we are getting more for what we produce. Even looking for those customers that will take specific cuts and plenty of them would be better than trying to sell the whole cow somewhere.

[grassfarmer]

Presumably if we had the slaughter capacity available now - with competition - our price for fats would be closer to the US price. Presumably the US would buy all our available exportable surplus if we could get it killed and it would only drop the US averages slightly. Instead of the miserable mid 60c/lb we should be up around a $/lb. There is absolutely no reason it should be any less than that. I note the US current price mirrors the British price - the global marketplace at work. I agree this is the time to get building plants and looking for other export markets - this was the agenda before BSE was it not? - to reduce dependence on the US by a certain percentage over a few years.

[rusty1]

Here are some ways that another plant for UTM’s will benefit us.
1. The Canadian/ US dollar difference used to give us a 30% to 35% margin for just going across the border with finished product.
2. When shipping live animals across for slaughter, we paid the freight to say Greely CO,
3. We paid the shrink which is significant.
4. Our AAA and AA boxed here sells there as No-Roll, so guess who gets the Premium.
5. Our commodity beef bought here sells as US choice there so guess who gets the premium.
6. If you have Premium calves here in your own packing plant you’ll get paid based on their MERIT not the pen average.
7. Over weight discounts charged here now, and cost us producers probably $75Million per year, will be non-existent in your own packing plant.
8. There is often a $500 range in the real value between the best and the worst in any given pen of cattle under the current commodity system. With your own packing plant you’ll soon very soon find out which animals CAN’T make you any money and YOU will identify the cows that should be culled and bulls which should be cut. If you could identify early the bottom 10% early enough you could increase the profit of the rest by 50%.

This is just a start.

Check into www.cowboylogic.biz

[rusty1]

Better yet.
First check out http://www.uspremiumbeef.com/

That is a producer owned operation with 2 - plants and the biggest sucess story in the beef industry. Check out their Quarterly Newsletter, The testimonies of the seed stock producers and feedlots on the system.
But do it in the morning els you won't sleep too good.

That's what the Northwest Cattleman's Alliance is modeling after.

[bombay_43]

Has anyone here invested in Rancher Own? Check out www.rancherown.ca.

You have to be willing to invest $5000.00, and you agree to sell a certain number of culls at market price each year to them.

It is my understanding that they still need to sell almost 2/3 more shares, as they already have sold, in order to get up and running.

Anyone have any further news on this plant?

[cakadu]

Okay, let's throw human resources into the mix. One of the biggest problems that the other packing plants have is finding SKILLED workers. Are there enough people around that are willing to do this kind of work? You'll not only need people in the plant, but people to do marketing, run the place, direct the operations etc.

Human resources is a huge concern for everyone going into the future. How will this be taken care of?

I don't for a second doubt that we will capture more of the value here if we do many of the things that are proposed and what rusty has stated. The premiums should be here and more importantly stay here.