After 18 years, we are crawling out of BSE purgatory, having been deemed “negligible risk” by the World Health Organization (OIE). Unfortunately, drought has bookended the BSE period for many beef farmers and ranchers. For me, the onset of BSE has always been linked to the drought of 2001 and 2002. The second year of […] Read more
Comment: BSE purgatory flanked by drought
A tale of two ministries: Saskatchewan’s provincial meat inspections
For the life of me, I can’t understand how anyone expects the average Saskatchewan resident to understand our provincial meat inspection system, without doing a lot of research. It’s a labyrinth, but I’ll do my best to draw a map of the current system. It’s a system Judy Ferguson, the recently retired provincial auditor, knows […] Read more
‘Time is ticking’ on drought response for beef cattle sector
'We need answers like yesterday'
As Canada’s beef farmers and ranchers face drought, industry leaders are trying to find ways to secure feed and help those forced to sell rebuild their herds. B.C. ranchers are dealing with high temperatures that have “parched the grass that was there,” Kevin Boone, general manager of B.C. Cattlemen’s Association, said during a Canadian Cattlemen’s […] Read more
It’s a very delicate system: Running a small abattoir
The pandemic-related disruptions to our packing plants have triggered a lot of questions about our beef supply chain. Much of the discussion centres around why we don’t have more small abattoirs to spread the risk to our domestic meat supply. Tackling this issue is a little like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. For that […] Read more
Comment: Eye on the future
I think we’ve all heard the saying “throwing good money after bad.” This is the concise, down-to-earth description of the sunk cost fallacy, a decision-making concept loved by people interested in economics and psychology alike. The sunk cost fallacy explains the human tendency to keep investing money, time or other resources into something that is […] Read more
Bringing livestock price insurance to the Maritimes
News Roundup, from the May 2021 issue of Canadian Cattlemen
Work is underway to bring livestock price insurance to Atlantic Canada’s beef producers. While producers in Western Canada have access to the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program and Quebec and Ontario also have risk management programs, producers in the Maritimes lack any program to offset market risk. “Producers in the Maritimes manage their risk by […] Read more
Comment: The power of acknowledgement
We may need to drop the 'win the argument' mentality more often
Well, it sure has been a long haul with this pandemic, hasn’t it? I wonder what the world is going to look like in six months. Will we all remember how to socialize in real life once we re-emerge from these cycles of lockdowns and semi-lockdowns? Will we regain ground on the mental health front? […] Read more
Livestock Price Insurance Program expansion offers more strategic options for cow-calf producers
Recent changes to the Livestock Price Insurance program give cow-calf producers a few more tools to protect themselves against market risk. The Livestock Price Insurance Program, available to Western Canadian producers, protects producers from a range of market risks such as a rising Canadian dollar, a drop in the futures market, changes in basis levels […] Read more
Meat plant workers on deck for COVID-19 vaccination
The beef supply chain likely breathed a collective sigh of relief with news that Cargill plans to hold an on-site COVID-19 vaccine clinic for workers at its High River plant around April 20. With the rise of variants across the country, moves to vaccinate meat plant workers can’t come too soon. The Canadian Meat Council […] Read more
Comment: The problem or the solution?
March saw a flurry of press releases and articles related to climate change, the environment and agriculture. Notably, the Weston Family Foundation allocated $25 million to preserving grasslands over the next five years (see News Roundup). A pilot project for a carbon offset protocol that encourages grassland retention is also underway. This carbon offset protocol […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
