R Calf Love em or hate em

[Horse]

I dont agree with the border thing but I do admire the fight in R Calf I sure wish there was a few more producers in Canada with the balls to at least stand up for what you believe is in your best intrests. As for the border thats more politics than anything If we was getting a premium I wouldnt like the yanks coming in and lowering prices either and I would like it if the ABP would stand and fight for our producers.
I see someone mentioned that mabey we should reduce our cow # and finish our own calves , I have sugested we slaughter smaller animals thus reducing the need for export markets now lets hear some more ideas and quit whining about the border for a while and see what we can do ourselves.

[intr3est]

If we export 70-80% of our production, how much would we have to reduce the weight of a marketed animal?

[magpie]

Well said, I for one think the border issue is all about back room deals and politics. The best thing we as producers can do right now is get behind the proposed packing plants and support them. With all the proposed expansion of packing capacity, I would ask has there been any work done on expanding markets for all this beef other than US. Sure as the sun shines there will be attempts to curb the flow of processed beef from these new plants once they are up and running. I know this has been discussed before and if we truly want to open new markets for these plants lets test, it is rather a small cost if it will open new markets and get us into some of the most lucrative markets of the Pacific Rim. By testing we are not saying our beef isn’t safe we are using the test as a marketing tool to add value and expand. Much like others use hormone free, anti-biotic free, to sell their beef. After all this bse !@#@@# is over their will be segment of consumers that will demand a tested product sort of like hormone free or anti-biotic free. Why not be first in trying these new waters.

[r.reid]

"but I do admire the fight in R CALF".
You have got to be kidding me Horse. There is a hidden adgenda behind them. Many of the big shots in R CALF are trying to keep the border closed so they can take advantage of our low beef prices, and buy them up. Who do you think the "American investors" are that are looking at buying feed lots in Alberta. I'll bet they are strong R CALF supporters. All they are is a bunch of FANATICS looking after themselves. They don't give a RATS ass about the typical American rancher or small packing plant. But yes, we should have our own kill plants here.

[Horse]

Intr3st I dont think our net exports are that high that is if you deduct the imported beef but if we killed fats at 1200 instead of 1400 we would reduce total beef by app 110# per animal or app 15 % now that is a significant number and we could even reduce the weights more . Now I am talking about saving the cow calf man not the big feeders as they would holler like hell but they dont seem to wory about the cow man so why should we worry about them.
reid I wouldnt mind haveing someone stand up for the cow man like R calf even if they have thier own intrests at heart What the hell is ABP doing for the cow man unless you have welfare cows.

[cowman]

I totally agree that the ABP is pretty well useless as far as I am concerned and in fact I would even go so far as to say they work against my best interests! I also agree we should get the cows off the government land or let everyone have a kick at the can! There is no excuse for the Alberta taxpayer to be subsidizing one set of producers to the detriment of the rest. When grazing fees bring in three million, and the leaseholders get $40 million from the oil companies, this is a major scandal and every Alberta taxpayer should be screaming for the governments head!
Horse: I wonder how it would be possible to get the weights lower? Obviously the packers are quite comfortable with these weights and the feeders feed for what the market demands? Let's face it, if you are a packer, it costs the same to kill a 1400 lb. steer as it does to kill a 1200 lb. one? Therefore you get a much lower processing cost? Why would they ever give that up and would they need to lower prices on lighter cattle to make up the shortfall?

[Horse]

Cowman if I was a packer I would probably do as you say but I am a cow calf man first.
I can feed almost any animal to a lighter weight by starting them on feed lighter and diferent rations I fed a bunch of her X hfrs three yr ago and had them fat at 925# was going for a smaller carcas because there was a demand for freezer orders but run into health problems and sold them through a large feeder and I got the same as he got altho mine were 300# plus lighter.
We as cow men could down size the cows by 3to400# and acording to the experts we would be at a optumium size cow 2 weeks ago at triple J they had a lot of 1900 plus cows and a lot of 1150 cows they only have 1 calf and I dont think there is enough price diference to feed that big of a cow especialy with culls at 22 24 cents.