In my previous column, our editor kept me on track when she titled it Show Us the Money. That was appropriate because I have noted that cattle producers do follow the money. That is to say, they absolutely do respond to market signals, but when no such signal exists, they can’t. In this column, I […] Read more
Show us the money, Part 2: Balancing beef carcass quality and yield
Only by sharing grading information can the industry signal market demand to cow-calf producers
Show us the money, Part 1: What does the producer share of the retail beef dollar mean?
When looking at the farmer share of the retail dollar, we must recognize that U.S. prices still dominate the price structures of both our cow-calf and feedlot sectors
A common concern in agricultural circles is what proportion or percentage of the price of a litre of milk, a loaf of bread or a beef steak makes its way back to the producer. I have written and spoken about this before, but I cannot do so again without first admitting that I have sometimes […] Read more
Carcass yield grades on the decline
A close look at what’s behind the shift to lower yield grades in recent years and how the industry might reverse the trend
I have kept an annual record of grade and yield statistics since 1993 when a new grading system was introduced. It tells quite a story. I begin with the quality grades. One can see that the percentage of “Canada AAA” carcasses was below 20 per cent in 1993 and that the AA and A grades […] Read more
Cattle pricing during an economic crisis
Society has not yet discovered a better pricing mechanism than a free and open marketplace and is not likely to do so. Price signals the public demand for the product, with high prices signalling the demand for more, and the converse. Does this mean that one should never seek to override price signals that are […] Read more
Here we go again
Tariff disputes with the U.S. are nothing new
For many years we have complacently assumed that American displeasure with Canada’s supply management regime for dairy and poultry production was an issue well isolated from other agricultural sectors. This perhaps was never the case, but it certainly is no longer. If the wayward and quixotic President Trump can slap punitive duties on steel and […] Read more
Is synthetic beef a threat to the cattle industry?
Lab meat has plenty of hurdles to overcome before it can replace ruminants
Recent news that technology has been developed to produce artificial or “ersatz” meat has caused a ripple of concern in the livestock industry. NOT TO WORRY! A couple of generations ago there were confident predictions of manufactured fluid milk and it hasn’t happened. But while I say, not to worry, I don’t mean that it […] Read more
What the latest Census tells us about Canada’s beef herd
Marketing with Charlie Gracey
The Canadian beef cow herd reached a new record high of 4.92 million head on July 1, 2003, less than two months after the discovery of BSE in a herd in Alberta. For present purposes, I regard the 2003 number as the all-time peak even though beef cow numbers were forced upward to 5.44 million […] Read more
Musings on how much cattle eat and drink
Charlie Gracey looks at grain and water usage in cattle
Conventional wisdom holds that beef cattle are wasteful users of grain and in direct competition with humans for finite supplies of food grains and water. Thus the large acreages devoted to feed grains might better be deployed in the production of crops directly consumable by humans. This observation may appear logical on the surface but, […] Read more
An industry in crisis
Is there a way back? Cow-calf producers hold the key
A cattle-feeding industry that by year-end will have lost an estimated billion dollars since August 2015 plus a cow-calf sector that has lost more than one million cows and over 20,000 producers in the past decade strongly suggests an industry in crisis. Cattle feeders might be excused if they are not quite as optimistic about […] Read more
Has cattle industry productivity improved in recent years?
Charlie Gracey looks at the claim that we're producing more beef with fewer cows
For several years now I have been tracking industry productivity or output. Productivity improvement is important for any industry, and its just as important that producers should know whether progress is being made, at what rate, and in what manner. This brief discussion explores some of these factors. Recent claims that the cattle industry is […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
