Highland Cattle

[pettie]

Hello everyone !! I am asking for any information one can provide about Highland Cattle. Especially the cost ( not pedigree status ). We are seriously considering raising several and would like more information from those that know.
Thanks
Heather

[cowman]

Occasionally you will see Highland cattle come through the auction marts and they usually sell very poorly. Not exactly what modern beef production is looking for?
Cows usually in that $500 range, calves...holstein price, maybe 60 cents a pound...if lucky!
Still they are pretty things and the calves seem to be stocky little guys. I suspect the hide and horns are worth more than the meat? I have heard that they produce a very well marbled carcass of excellent beef but the economics just aren't there?
This might just be a casual observation, but the ones I have seen tend to have poor feet.

[charliep]

I apologize for jumping in too often but is too interesting to pass up. I find it interesting how a country that subsidizes production (both crops and bio fuels) complains because it creates opportunities for others.

Perhaps it is also an interesting article in terms of how success is measured. This article measures in terms of someone else getting something that should be mine. Perhaps a better measure of success should be ability to grow the market. A success factor for bio-diesel might be to create awareness of the product and its benefits. From there, the challenge would be to supply the market.

[Vader]

I would ask whether the palm oil that was made into biodiesel left a hole in the veg oil market that could be filled with soy or canola oil.

Isn't is simply a matter of how many million acres of crop land can be diverted from food production into energy crops?

The worlds current inventory of wheat is 135 million tonnes or 22% stocks to use. If that were reduced to 110 million tonnes perhaps the traditional buyers of wheat would get nervous enough to bid up the price of wheat to where it was back in the early 80's. ($5.25 back then which could easily be double that in todays dollars.)

To reduce the world inventory of wheat by 25 million tonnes would mean reducing production by 25 million acres, not over one year but over any number of years. Let us say we would like to accomplish this over 5 years that would mean a reduction of 5 million acres. It takes 3 ethanol plants the size of the new Husky plant at Lloydminster to take out one million acres. If Canada were to mandate a 10% ethanol blend it would take 7 million acres to do that. But Canada does not have to do this alone. Australia is getting into ethanol production from wheat and if the economic drivers are there it will happen in other wheat producing countries.

When Canada starts making ethanol out of American corn in Ontario we need a trade structure that will allow ethanol made from wheat to move into California. (and British Columbia for that matter).

And the last key to the puzzle is a government program guaranteeing borrowing for those farmer investors who would like to take an equity position in this new value added industry. (Like they have in the US).

[nicolaas]

When Canada starts making ethanol out of American corn

I like the idea of american taxpayers subsidizing our ethanol production!! Great idea....ethanol may actually pencil out in this case.

[rmhay]

Heather, I know of some people with a few Highland animals and they have a couple heifers they would like to sell. They are in south-east B.C. Don't know if this anywhere near you but thought I'd pass it on. If you want we can send you more info.

[wedino]

Vader, Quote "we need a trade structure that will allow ethanol made from wheat to move into California. (and British Columbia for that matter)."

Will the cwb **** us of any profit that can be made? Only in Western Canada of course.

[dannytoro]

..........This is sort of a mixed emotion topic for me. I recognize the fact that our local farmer's here in Georgia look more threadworn and beaten every year. It seems like every year they adjust their crops, only to find before capitalizing their expenses, that foreign imports just steamrolled their livelyhood.On the otherhand, the Associations who represent them are the worst part of the problem. When america has a fuel dependency problem, the Sugar growers and the Corn folks are busy stabbing each other in the back. When it's obvious Oil Palms are the way to go for maximum production. There is no sense, or logic or planning going on here. There probably won't be until another administration sets up shop. As far as Canada's Biodiesel stance, I can see the point of cost, but if the farming industry is the beneficary of that cost, what is the ever loving problem? Go ****seed! Viva you biomass beneficiaries!-lol Sorry, I think there is tremendous opportunity there.....

[Vader]

Wedino, I don't know where you are coming from. Wheat going into ethanol will be non-board.

In any event the CWB is not in the business of raping farmers. The last time I looked the cost of marketing through the CWB was about 1.5% of gross. This covers all admin costs, market development, sales, .....all in. All crop sales revenues over and above the admin costs are returned to farmers.

What is you definition of ****? A very harsh word indeed.

Are you opposed to ethanol? Are you opposed to value added. Are you opposed to new markets? Are you opposed to export development?

This is supposed to be a constructive discussion. It doesn't help when you let your hyperactive anti-CWB bias get in the way of good discussions.

[PureCountry]

Cowman, if you don't know, move on to some other topic, and keep your mouth shut. Your observations from the stands of the sale ring are anything but constructive criticism. If you've ever raised any and had a fair trial with them, run your mouth as much as you like.

heather, Highlands do not have poor feet. They are a source of some of the finest beef on the planet. They were raised on the toughest conditions and still thrived for hundreds of years, and are an excellent choice for a cross-breeding program given our Canadian winters. If you're interested, send me an e-mail, at pcstockfarm@yahoo.ca

The company I'm involved in sells Galloway, Welsh Black, and Highland beef to restaurants and hotels in southern Alberta and BC. Your Highland calves would have a market, which is more than most producers have.

[wedino]

Vader, Are you telling me the cwb has loosened it's strangle hold on off board wheat? I'm now free to export without purchasing an export licence?

You say "The last time I looked the cost of marketing through the CWB was about 1.5% of gross."

Are you telling me that the cwb consistently will get me 1.5% less than non board? I think not. Ask feed barley producers. Ask Mb wheat producers, a few years ago re: the problems with fusarium the cwb declared their wheat was worthless. I think "****" works no mater how strong you think it is. On my farm last crop year I sold feed wheat for 33% more than the cwb could get me. Your 1.5% just doesn't work, Vader.

You ask: "Are you opposed to ethanol? Are you opposed to value added. Are you opposed to new markets? Are you opposed to export development?"

No, No, No, No.

[charliep]

Just as a note, California is a good for the dried distillers grain by product of ethanol with a target the dairy market. Someone who is a nutrionist will a better handle but my understanding is that distillers grains have a fit into the dairy industry (by pass protein if I remember). The product could either be ethanol processed here or wheat sent to California. Don't know how DDG nutriant specifications compare between wheat and corn. The problem for both wheat and barley is an expensive frieght bill to get both wheat and DDG products there.

The thread started with a political story so have to highlight the optics of Canadian grain moving into their processing industry for bio fuel. No one has talked about the potential for canola to move into Velva N.D. bio plants and the US view.

[cowman]

Well so much for tolerating others views? No wonder grassfarmer got sick of this place.

[JD4ME]

I actually put the thread on here looking for that discussion also to see if anyone would talk about the need to look at developing an at home demand as well as infrastructure, it will be interesting and bears watching to see how the lawmakers react to this in the US, if energy needs suppplant the usual protectionist actions of the food industry if this was Brazilian soybeans coming in to the food industry and qualifying for the LDP we'd see how fast the door got slammed.
I feel the real underlying issue of this here to those of us in the agriculture business is that we do want to encourage development of any new usage of our product be it nutraceticals or bio energy or bioproducts, anything that widens our options of sales and or customers while creating a demand for what we grow is positive to our industry.
So keeping with that it may in fact be negative for us if this ruling deflates the American lawmakers desire to expand bioenergy usage in the US if they have to do it by giving subsidies to non-american producers and or corporations.

[JD4ME]

dang site needs a spell check, nutraceuticals not nutracuticles (nutritious fingernails)