Peace Country Tender Beef Co-op

[r.reid]

I don't know if any of you are involved in the Tender Beef CO-op, but the folks that have been the driving force behind it certainly deserve a tip of the stetson from all producers for their tenacity and ingenuity.
They are hoping to begin production by May of 05. Partnering with Dawson Creek on the biodigester seems like a win win for both parties.
Apparently the initial kill will be 60 head per day, and when the entire operation is up and running they say they can handle 400 head per day.

And to think that this plant could have been in the Peace Region of Alberta !!!

[wd40]

Cowman's beloved :-) Kline Govt. (Ven Cap corp) signed a deal with Lakeside to never help another packer get into business. So we won't see the Alta Govt. helping anyone here.

[wd40]

wd40 are you sure that the government did sigh such a deal ? It would be interesting to see the terms under which the deal was signed if it exists.

[wd40]

Push your MLA. Some ABP delegates know about it.

[cowman]

Well I'm not supporting Ralph Klein in anyway, but I thought he stated very clearly once that the Alberta government was not going to invest money in any private enterprize?
And correct me if I'm wrong but basically they haven't?
I would hope, as an Alberta taxpayer, that the Conservative government would not invest in risky ventures that have little chance of succeeding? And I also believe that just about all of the" proposed packing adventures" have been labelled as "very risky"? Not by the government...but by the banks?

[Horse]

I sure wouldnt bet they havent put any money into private ventures . Rember the line NO NEW TAXES.
Its amazing how they get around regulations like Mr Mar and his friends.

[hgb]

In a round about way the government is helping Ranchers own Co-op as AFSC is willing to finance producer shares($1000 down and $4000 at 5%) Why don't more producers take the bull by the horns and get more involved in some of these plants. You can not get ahead in any business by sitting and waiting for some body else to solve your problems.

[wd40]

Do a reality check - or pull your heads out of the sand. The Alta. Govt. stuck millions into Cargil and even more into Lakeside. Go to the Library and dig up some old news papers. It was all there, but when you have 'beaten wife syndrom' it's hard to see the forest for the trees.

[wd40]

Infact - The only thing risky for a packing plant is the fickel producers that run to where they think the next nickel MIGHT be.
Acording to our research if you followed the CanFax numbers since 1999 the Return on an investmentin a packing plant would have been around $80 on a $170 investment.
I'm sorry Cowman any producer that dosn't get off their synical one legged stools and cheers the open border should be charged with tresion.

[cakadu]

WD - you bring up a good point. There was a plant in the south eastern part of the province that was trying to make a go of it with producers and they lost the business because the producers went elsewhere for 2 cents per pound more. It makes me sad to think that some people have tried to get things going, only to be met with apathy and scepticism. Now with the hint of the border opening people are gravitating towards that rather than focussing on what the real solution is and that is to enhance our own packing capacity so that the value of what we produce is going back to the producer.

We won't get more for our product as long as we continue to produce a commodity i.e. cattle versus marketing and selling what has the value.

I agree that the people who have managed to see their vision become a reality - like the tender beef and the one in atlantic canada - deserve a lot of credit and praise and certainly well wishes for the best of luck.

[boone]

wd40:could it be that the provincial and or federal governments have been threatened by the enforcement of NAFTAS
Chapter 11 {1102-1103- 1106} stipulates that a host country must treat foreign investors and their investments "no less favorably" than domestic investors, or is this too much of a leap here? Cargill, Lakeside et,al

[wd40]

boone - I couldn't answer that question, but anything is possible. As we all know the ag industry is just another card in a poker deck that usually gets sluffed for higher stakes usually (Eastern).

[grassfarmer]

One point someone mentioned the other day was that the last US proposal to open the border before R-Calf alledgedly scuppered it contained something to the effect that OTM beef would be allowed to cross the border in boxes. Someone else told me yesterday that there was no way this would happen for at least 5 years even if the border opened to live cattle. If the latter is the case we need to be broadcasting this to ranchers - all talk of backing new OTM plants has died down in the last month on the assumption that the border will open soon. We can't risk waiting another 6 or 8 months and not have a single brick laid in a cow slaughter plant.
Producers seem like bears, sell the calves in the fall regardless of price, hibernate until spring and hope next year will be better. Have we really learnt nothing in 18 months?

[cowman]

When Cargill came on the scene in 1989 we had over capacity in slaughter facilities. Thus a lot of very good Canadian packing houses closed their doors. Many reasons but the bottom line was there just wasn't enough cattle to go around?
With the death of the CROW the cattle herd expanded rapidly as every man and his dog got into the cow business. The excess was sent to the states.
Today our packers are basically getting most of the fats killed? They have done this by increasing kill numbers and scrapping their cow kill. Expansion of the plants will increase that kill capacity to a point where they will be able to kill every fat in Canada?
Now when the border opens up to young stuff a certain amount of fat cattle/feeder cattle are probably going to end up in the USA? This will free up slaughter space for cows at IBP and XL Calgary(Cargill never has killed cows).
I would really question how many cow plants we might need and if they could ever pay for themselves before the border opens to cows again? Can a plant be paid for in five years?
There was a reason that our cattle were heading south before this all happened and that reason was there was more money to be made by everybody in the beef business by doing it that way? How will that have been changed? If packing plants in Canada make so much sense why aren't any entrepreneurs jumping right in to get in on the bonanza? How come the banks consider the proposed packing houses as extremely risky?