And we support CCA?

[grassfarmer]

Continuing from the last thread I had the chance to read the CCA response to the NFU Livestock Crisis document today and it was quite entertaining. All about deflecting any blame from the packers, even if it means piling a double dose on the retailers not that any proof of their profiteering is offered. According to the CCA the NFU have got it all wrong - dropping consumption is the main problem.
I quote;
"The one factor that has resulted in significant challenges for the beef industry and resulted in declining prices is reduced beef demand across North America. Increased exports since 1989 have increased packer returns
which have been passed onto the producer in increased cattle prices as profits or losses move through the
supply chain. However, decreased demand has resulted in lower cutout values domestically depressing live cattle prices."
Never ones to let the facts get in the way of a good story they continue; "Currently soft beef demand domestically and internationally has created large spread losses throughout the production chain; encouraging large cow slaughter."

On captive supply CCA argue it is a tool designed by the feedlot sector to ensure their financial survival - I guess it must just be coincidental that it benefits the packers? I quote again;

"A feedlot’s ability to custom feed
packer owned cattle at a profit is important to overall resilience in a small margin industry."

I would ask the question again "And we support CCA?" unfortunately the answer is yes, in a financial way anyway. The sooner we can change that the better as this outfit, like the ABP, are clearly working against the producers interests and apparently on the packers behalves.

[kato]

Good Grief!

Perhaps a change of name from Canadian Cattlemen's Association to perhaps Canadian Beef Processors Association is in order.

I would think that this means the CCA has already given up on the viability of the beef industry as it stands in this country. The primary producers, and independent feedlots have been dismissed as not being able to go forward. They have accepted the fact placed before them by big business that vertical integration and the life of a contract feeder is the only way to survive. I would suggest to them that they speak with whatever independent poultry producers are still left standing the the U.S. to see how that works out.

They have already decided that placing their futures in the hands, and at the whims of big business is the only way to survive.

What they have forgotten is that someone has to grow those feeders that will fill their feedlots. Someone has to be out there wrestling with cranky cows, difficult calvings, broken fences and 7 day work weeks.

This is unacceptable.

Perhaps one answer is for those brave souls who do the 7 day work weeks and grunt work to just keep those calves themselves and finish them at home. But then we'd see American feeders come rushing north like a tsunami and we'd get screwed again. So we'd have to find a way around that.

So the primary producers build their own packing plants to process their home finished cattle. The big ones would soon find a way to get them out of business like the ones that have already tried. So we'd have to find a way around that.

I guess the best way to deal with this is to either elect cow calf people to represent us, or dump the checkoff, or a combination of the two.

[farmers_son]

The entire CCA document Grassfarmer refers to can be seen at:

http://www.cattle.ca/CCA%20responds%20to%20NFU%20report.pdf

[smcgrath76]

Hmm...
I don't dismiss some CCA arguments, but I disagree with a lot of that rebuttal, just as I disagreed with several points in the NFU report.
If some people would pull their finger out instead of defending territory on every side of this thing, we could probably make some progress.
We need processing and competition in that sector, the risk of the US border limiting access to packer competition is huge, so what is the Canadian solution?

[grassfarmer]

According to FS the Canadian solution is to keep on doing what we have done unsuccessfully for the last 20 years and move our cows to the US. Now there's a strategy the ABP/CCA can be proud of!

[Sawbones]

I have some real problems with the CCA report
1) Who's the author.
2) How can they possibly claim that retail prices have not changed since 1975
3)How can they justify a decrease in price to producers when exports rose from 206,000 tonnes in 1982 to 785,000 tonnes by 1998 and blame the fall in Canadian consumption when over 50% of the meat was exported.
4) How can they claim that prices will flow down the chain
5) How can they claim that closure to the US border ... limited marketing opportunities depressed cattle prices while the cut-out value remained the same (We're not that stupid..we were held hostage and our cattle were stolen by the packers who made obscene profits at our expense when the border was closed to live animals)
6) Where's the numbers that verify the graph illustrating the Wholesale to retail spread.
As stated in previous threads, I may not have agreed with the NFU conclusions but they certainly had the facts and references to back up their claims...and they do that on a fraction of the CCA budget and by the way, I think NFU supporters also pay check-off dollars

[greybeard]

Some of the data they may be using might come from here.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/meatpricespreads/
This is obviously U S data but does go back nearly 40 years. It is a bit hard for old seventies drop-out like me to interpret but the way I see it is if you follow the money retail has made the big gains and packers and producers have ended up fighting over the bottom half with no clear winner.
There can be no argument our situation in Canada can’t be analyzed using American data post BSE.
I think it does show a ban on captive supply is not going to send much money down when retail continues to take a bigger slice.
It seems to me that the timing is all wrong for an attack on the packers. With the concentration of agri-business globally, it’s not to hard to follow the money. Who ever was running Tyson obviously saw his best chance at enhancing his bonus for the year was to cash out his Canadian assets.
The NFU report is probably looked at by any right of center politicians as a kind of “I told you so.” They have been shrilly proclaiming Cargill will ruin Canadian agriculture since they built the concrete elevator at Rosetown in the early seventies. I’m thinking presenting that report to Gerry Ritz and expecting him to act on it will give you about as much satisfaction as telling your two year old his head will cave in if he doesn’t quit picking his nose.
As cow/calf producers we need one of those producer owned cow plants to get up and running. There must be at least 2 of them sitting there dark. The majors are using cows here to fill the line when they don't like the fed movement.

[smcgrath76]

As of today there are now 2 majors. One kills cows, one doesn't. It is hard to argue one way or another that the Brooks purchase is better than a Brooks closure. In the end we are still left with two packers, just now we still have quite a bit of capacity should they choose to use it.
Maybe $300,000,000 from the province would have bought Lakeside (oh wait it did).
There are producer owned plants, none of which are killing cattle. The PEI plant is at least making some headway and has seen some government support for its' efforts. I think it may be easier to start a plant in an area with no packers than to try to build new capacity in a territory where the processors already exist.

[kato]

Such as Manitoba? Not a lot of luck there so far. The prov.gov. gave lip service to it back in 03, but when it came right down to it there was no real political will until someone decided to start up in Winnipeg. Now all of a sudden the province is behind it. duhhhhh..... what a surprise.

This province has no real commitment to agriculture unless it takes place within Winnipeg city limits. Any development that takes place here will be in spite of them, not because of them.

At least in Alberta your province does step up once in a while, even though it's not always in a way that everyone agrees with. We wish we had such problems.