Beef Initiative Group meeting in Brandon

[kato]

To our Manitoba people.. Oct 18 at the Keystone at 7:30 p.m.

Be there or be square. LOL

[Joe-2]

Kato,Thanks for the reminder! I nearly forgot. Is that at the Keystone Center or the Keystone(peeler)Bar across the street???? hehehee!!!

[kato]

The Center...that's if we don't have to plow snow to get there!

We have to sort cattle before we go, so I hope we can get it done in time.

[kato]

Well, we got to the meeting. Needed four wheel drive to get home on the slushy/icy roads, though. The weather hurt the crowd, I think. Those who were there were very interested though.

While they were speaking and doing the question answer thing, I had an idea start to take shape. I'll toss it out, and you tell me what you think.

The fact that there are a bunch of smaller plants trying to start up was mentioned. Also the fact that start up funding is a major obstacle for most of them. Then there was the fact that a new big plant of the sort they envision will take the better part of a year and a half minimum. In the meantime, the big two will have their expanded capacity on line, and will continue to behave like the predators they are.

The idea I had was what would happen if some of these groups, especially the ones that are setting up as co-ops, put their heads together. The way I see it, they have for the most part done a lot of their homework. A lot of them have found markets. They are already farmer owned. They are scattered here and there over the prairies. Almost everyone is withing shooting distance of one of these plants.

Their main holdback is financial. They will start up short of operating funds, and in debt.

What would happen if they got together under an umbrella organization, sort of like the Prairie Pools used to be, and became one big co-op. That co-op could access the sort of financing that BIG C has proposed. The plants involved would see their viability increased tremendously. They would not have the cloud of cashflow problems over their heads. In theory they would be able compete a bit better for the product. There could be plants for otm and also for utm. There could be specialized plants. The benefits would go to a number of communities.

I know there are a lot of questions to address in this scenario, but maybe it might be worth investigating. As it stands now, farmers are grouping up into a lot of smaller forces that will probably compete amongst themselves to the detriment of all, while the big plants go merrily on their way waiting for us to give up and come back to becoming dependent on them.

As it's always been in agriculture... divide and conquer. Our independent natures set us up for the bigger entities to move in and take over. They know we'll go at each other and not even notice them moving in.

Just a thought.