According to the Western Canadian Cow Calf Survey completed in 2015, 72 percent of calves in Western Canada are sold at weaning, with 80 percent being sold via an auction market. The combination of stressors calves face in that short time from weaning to auction to entering a feedlot has major health and economic implications, says Brenna… Read more »
Category: Canadian Beef Industry Conference
More Research Needed to Measure Extent of Antimicrobial Resistance
Although he sees minor improvement in the cattle industry’s work towards mitigating the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), Cody Creelman, managing partner and DVM, Veterinary Agri-Health Services, says there’s much more work to be done to understand the extent of AMR. “There needs to be more dedicated research,” Creelman told RealAgriculture, in an interview filmed… Read more »
Necropsies Under-Utilized in Cow/Calf Production, Say Professors
We’ve all heard that phrase, often used to console in the gruff way most ranchers know best. “When you have livestock, you have deadstock.” But that phrase places too much emphasis on the notion that the death is out of our hands. It’s not. While we must not beat ourselves up for lost animals, there’s still something that… Read more »
Pain Mitigation: Just One More Way to Show Producers Care
For some ranchers procedures like dehorning/disbudding, castration and branding are necessary evils of the job. But necessity doesn’t make the work any easier. In an effort to improve animal welfare, and to respond to consumer concerns, the beef industry is addressing procedures like these with pain mitigation, and improved genetics. The Code of Practice for the Care… Read more »
U.S. Election Tops Concerns for the Canadian Economy: BMO’s Chief Economist
Anti-trade messages from both U.S. presidential candidates are undoubtedly troubling for the future of the Canadian economy, especially in export-oriented sectors like agriculture. “That to me would be the number one concern when we look over the next six months — what happens in the U.S. election and what happens afterwards,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist… Read more »
Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Introduces 2016 Mentorship Recipients
23 Cattlemen’s Young Leaders (CYL) semi-finalists headed to Calgary for the Canadian Beef Industry Conference earlier this month, and this week, 16 finalists were announced, including: British Columbia: Ryan Scorgie – Kamloops Alberta: Becky Tees – Cochrane, Grayden Kay – Lloydminster, Jessica Sperber – Rimbey, Jesse Williams –Hanna, Katie Songer – Sylvan Lake, Luke Marshall – Innisfail,… Read more »
Getting Ahead of the Curve: A U.S. Perspective on Beef Advocacy
With blurred lines between how pets and food animals should be treated, concerns about the use of growth promotants and antimicrobials, serious questions about environmental impacts, and let’s not forget, the cringeworthy moniker ‘pink slime,’ the beef industry has its work cut out for it when it comes to helping consumers understand how beef gets… Read more »
Searching for Stability in the Beef Market
Cattle markets will likely continue to trend lower, although at a slower rate than we saw for much of 2015 and early 2016, according to the senior analyst with Canfax. “We’ve been through such a massive adjustment here, I think the bulk of the pain is over,” says Brian Perillat in this interview at the Canadian… Read more »
Going Beyond the Fields and Barns with Best Practices
We often speak of best practices in agriculture as they relate to decisions made in the field or in the barn, but they go beyond that, to the office, to the meeting room, and even to interactions with the public. In his presentation at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference, Marty Seymour, director of industry and… Read more »
Intergenerational Transfer Doesn’t Have to be a Horror Story
We’ve all heard the horror stories of intergenerational transfer, but, says beef producer and lawyer Ryan Scorgie, it can actually work out, provided families are willing to navigate through some challenging waters. “One of the challenges we’ve seen in this industry is people don’t necessarily look at ranching as a specific business…but it is — it’s… Read more »
Arlene Dickinson on Disguised Entrepreneurship and Recognizing Failures
As CEO of Venture Communications, author, and former venture capitalist on the CBC series Dragons’ Den, it’s no wonder Arlene Dickinson needs little introduction. Dickinson was the keynote speaker at the inaugural Canadian Beef Industry Conference on Wednesday, where she led delegates on a tour of her successes as well as her failures. “I think… Read more »
Mission Accomplished for Organizers of Inaugural Canadian Beef Industry Conference
The co-chairs of the Canadian Beef Industry Conference were beaming on Thursday, as the inaugural beef industry event wrapped up in Calgary. With the theme “Putting It Together…,” the conference brought together the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the Beef Cattle Research Council, Canada Beef and the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, along with hundreds of beef producers… Read more »
TWORA — Crop Quality Concerns, Earls’ Apology and the Cattle Industry Comes Together — Aug 11
Harvest is off to a wet start in much of Western Canada, putting a damper on potential quality and yield. We hear from Neil Townsend of FarmLink Marketing Solutions on this week’s podcast, discussing how the wheat market looks as harvest ramps up. As well, cattle people from across the country are in Calgary this week for the inaugural… Read more »
Earls Restaurants Moving on from “Incident” to Partnership, Says President
From apologies to gratitude, the Canadian Beef Industry Conference started off with a bang, in a panel featuring representatives from Sysco Canada, Tim Hortons and Earls Restaurants Ltd. You could have heard a pin drop as the mic was turned over to Mo Jessa, president of Earls, who immediately addressed the ‘humanely raised’ elephant in… Read more »
Beef Market Update — CBIC ’16 Edition: Buying Back Demand
The inaugural Canadian Beef Industry Conference is underway in Calgary, Alberta this week, and this morning, RealAgriculture’s Shaun Haney and Gateway Livestock’s Anne Wasko took the opportunity to film a Beef Market Update in-person, in our studio on the trade-show floor. The duo started off talking about some of the good news in the industry, how we’re… Read more »