Given the sharp increase of wholesale costs, retailers probably won’t be putting beef on sale any time soon.

Don’t expect steak sales for Father’s Day

Price impacts of COVID-19 on the beef industry were wide spread and retailers are still feeling the pinch

This Father’s Day, people probably won’t see sales on their favourite beef steaks—but they shouldn’t blame the butcher or retailer. Blame sits almost entirely on the coronavirus. COVID-19 had a catastrophic impact on beef production in North America. The spread of the virus resulted in several plant shutdowns or slowdowns, which in turn meant significantly […] Read more



meat display in store

Retail beef prices drive cattle sales

Prime Cuts with Steve Kay

The North American beef industry lives or dies by how well beef sells in grocery stores and in restaurants. Retail demand right now, at least in the U.S., is stronger than it has been in quite a number of years. Sales have more than recovered from the challenges in 2014 and 2015 when retail prices […] Read more

CBCE technical director Abe Van Melle seeks added profits from carcasses.

Making the most of a beef carcass

Abe Van Melle of the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence offers up his thoughts on creative butchering

In a recent beef-cutting demonstration, Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence technical director Abe Van Melle gave a first-hand look at the added value to be coaxed from a beef carcass with creative butchering. The 28 per cent of a beef carcass categorized as prime cuts from the middle sells itself, but there are lots of […] Read more


Nine per cent of roasts and eight per cent of steaks carried traceability claims; less than two per cent carried claims related to animal diets.

Opportunities in the retail meat case

Seventy retail store visits and more than 21,000 packages of beef later, findings from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association’s National Retail Meat Case study are coming together. This is the first big-picture view of how the beef you produce is being marketed to Canadian consumers. “Asking consumers what they would like to buy is not always […] Read more

steaks

High pressure beef processing

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

In high pressure processing (HPP), food is sealed in water-resistant packaging, placed in a water-filled container, and exposed to very high hydrostatic pressures (up to 87,000 psi) for three to nine minutes. High pressure is harmful or deadly to many pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, so HPP can improve food safety and extend shelf life. But […] Read more



Millennials eye the meat case

Millennials eye the meat case

Prime Cuts from the September 2015 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Consider these numbers. The millennial generation in the U.S., those born between 1980 and 2000, are 80 million strong. By 2020, spending power of older millennial parents will hit US$1.4 trillion a year. The numbers for Canada are much smaller but equally important. This is the generation that must be the North American beef industry’s […] Read more


meat display in store

Tough times in the meat case

Prime Cuts from the August 2015 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

May and June are the two best months of the year for retail beef sales in the U.S. But high prices and consumers’ reluctance to spend more on beef put a damper on sales this year. The week leading up to the Memorial Day holiday has the second-largest sales in volume and value while the […] Read more

A slightly more modern photo – than described below – of cooking steaks over hot coals.

History: Barbecuing Beef

Reprinted from the September 1949 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

By Harry J. Hargrave, co-ordinator, Range Research, Lethbridge, Alberta There are few menus for outdoor summer gatherings that are more appropriate or more tasty than barbecued beef. Properly barbecued beef has a distinctive flavour which apparently cannot be secured by other means of preparation and it carries a lot of appetite appeal for crowds both […] Read more