Mega farms

[cakadu]

I'm kind of following your drift StrawBoss - the old adage of teach a man to fish sort of thing and there is some merit to that.

Sometimes it takes a long time for the message to be heard and you do have to have the strength and the conviction of your ideas to see things through. I see things happening today that others started a long time ago that didn't work back then because the conditions, timing, resources or what have you weren't "right" at that particular moment in time.

The one thing that I have learned is that things never happen as fast as we would like nor in the exact manner we would like. What you and whatever team you are working with have to celebrate is the small victories and keep moving forward.

The key is to find the values and beliefs that motivate others and help them to achieve what is right for them, which helps us all to achieve more than we would have if we had gone it alone.

[ValueChainFX]

Subsidies are not the answer and waiting for others to solve your challenges just won't work. The wealth we have is in the experiences we have all been through and our ability to work with others. Knowing we have started to take on our own issues is a start and working with others that have as much to gain as you have will take us to the next step, and the next step and so on!

[redcountry]

Three kinds of people !!!
one watches to see what happens.
one makes it happen.
one has no idea what is happening.
on the east coast there was a local meat plant (hogs and beef) it had been there for many years when along came MAPLE LEAF FOODS the bought out the owners shut down the beef side of the plant (not in their corp plans) and left the entire east coast of canada without a beef kill plant
send your to onario! 1200 miles away was our instructions and we did. the shrink was terrible , dead cattle on the trucks , dark cutters, and transportation costs and being at the mercy of the ont plants (we will take your animals after ours )
we on the east coast with only 3% of canadas herd did not get much attention from ottawa so!!!
We took the bull by the horns you could say
We now have under construction the Atlantic Beef producers Co-op plant at borden-carleton PEI
This plant will produce ATLANTIC TENDER BEEF CLASSIC a producer owned brand
The plant is to open in the fall of 2004 with most of the production contracted to the atlantic farmers
co-op grocery chain (no connection)
Most of the beef producers (not all) in the atlantic provinces bought shares in this new plant
With the provincial governments providing financial backing we are well under way to having our own plant
Wish us well, soon we will have either a solution or a $15m debt but as we had no other option
One other topic
The east is the "EAST' not central canada as many posts call OTTAWA
there is a lot of canada east of ottawa and we are "verrrry" proud of it!

[cakadu]

Redcountry- it sounds like you have a solid plan in place and I wish you every success. The branded product is the only way to go. Those of you on the east coast have stepped up to the plate with your branded products and I think they have done very well.

I heard Barry Cudmore speak about the branding of PEI and the successes it was achieving.

Differentiation in the marketplace is critical and it sounds like you're well on your way to ensuring that you have it. Best of luck in your endeavours.