Grass Routes

ABP out and about

It’s that time of year again when ABP wants to encourage producers to get involved. More information and nomination forms are available from your zone’s current delegates, the ABP office, or online at www.albertabeef.org/about/becoming-a-delegate/. If you or someone you know would like to become an ABP delegate please have nomination forms in by August 31, 2010.

Lori Loree, Communications Manager, attended a Special Editorial Advisory Committee meeting in Edmonton this week. Along with Alberta Milk, Alberta Canola, Alberta Pork, ALMA and Alberta Agriculture, the group brainstormed with editors from the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal. An ALMA grant allows us to place weekly stories about our commodities into the papers. The meetings are also a perfect way to liaison with editors on industry issues and events.

ABP parade schedule
Promotion committee delegate, Chuck Groeneveld, will be visiting several parade routes this summer. The new Alberta Beef Producer trailer has already hit the roads for a few parades, and hopefully with summer-like weather finally here, many more beef consumers will view the colourful float. If you are in the area, make sure to check out these parades:

August 21st – Pincher Creek
August 24th – Lethbridge
September 6th – Cochrane

CAP Zone Coordinators
We are currently recruiting coordinators in Lethbridge, Crowsnest Pass, and Edmonton.

The Classroom Agriculture Program (CAP) is a non-profit, multi-commodity initiative that teaches elementary students the importance of agriculture in their daily lives. Since inception in 1985, over 550,000 students across Alberta have taken part in CAP.

CAP is a multi-commodity initiative supported by Alberta Barley Commission, Alberta Beef Producers, Alberta Canola Producers Commission, Alberta Chicken Producers, Alberta Egg Producers, Alberta Pulse Growers Commission, Alberta Veterinary Medical Association, Canadian Wheat Board, Eastern Irrigation District, Olds College, and Potato Growers of Alberta.

This is a unique program in that it is presented by volunteers involved in the agri-food industry. Volunteers are encouraged to personalize the CAP material with their own props and stories. The dynamic one-hour presentation promotes as much interaction as possible while teaching students about agriculture.

The role of the Zone Coordinator is to organize the volunteers in their specific zone with the schools who have registered. Zone Coordinators also offer presentation ideas and guidance to volunteers.

If you are interested in being a Zone Coordinator, please contact Karen Spelay, CAP Coordinator at 403-710-1959 or at capcoordinator@albertabeef.org.

The International Livestock Congress (ILC)

Calgary is holding the Beef 2010: Raising Optimism - Global Strategies conference on August 11, 2010. The conference is an opportunity for livestock producers to join beef industry leaders and hear industry experts discuss current issues. Registration cost for the conference is $175 plus GST for primary producers and $370 plus GST for industry members. For further information, contact Iris Mech or Carol Huculak at 403-686-8407 or e-mail ilcreg@imcievents.ca. A full agenda, list of speakers and registration form are available on the ILC website at www.ilccalgary.com.

International Livestock Identification Association (ILIA)

The ILIA is a group that includes U.S. state and Canadian provincial livestock inspectors, animal health technicians, veterinarians, government officials and livestock investigators. ILIA members promote livestock traceability through livestock identification and movement tracking. ILIA members also ensure fair and legal commerce, assist with infectious disease investigations and animal welfare concerns specific to production livestock in the U.S. and Canada.

The ILIA held their annual conference in Calgary this week with three days of presentations, meetings and a tour to Western Feedlots at High River. There was good discussion on traceability, and its role as a tool to market beef in a global market place.

Dr. Ted Schroeder, an economist from Kansas State University, has done a considerable amount of economic modeling for the U.S. and Canadian markets to better understand beef business drivers. He looked at those countries with good traceability programs selling product and those countries with programs buying product.

Those countries with a large export market are shown in the top group, and those primarily with an import market are in the bottom group.

The demands for beef from Japan, South Korea and the European Union all have mandatory premise ID, individual animal ID and recorded animal movement components as part of their own systems. This means that any company wanting to sell product into their systems needs to be able to conform to their system.

Our competitor countries have a considerable amount of beef to get into the global market. Right now Brazil is very aggressive, particularly into the E.U., and Australia is aggressive in Asia. Australia has mandatory premise ID, individual animal ID, electronic animal ID (using RFID tags) and recorded movement information. Canada has mandatory individual animal ID and electronic ID but to date only voluntary premise ID and recorded movement information. As of March 1, 2010, Alberta implemented a movement requirement for feedlots feeding more than 1,000 head per year are required to report movements into the feedlot to the Canadian Livestock Tracking System (CLTS) within seven days. These reports include a feedlot premises number, individual RFID ear tag number of each animal entering the lot and the date of entry into the feedlot.

The U.S. has not implemented mandatory initiatives but do have to have some voluntary state movement requirements. Canada has the opportunity to leverage market access with the CCIA traceability system against U.S. product. In late June, China agreed to accept Canadian boneless beef from cattle under-30-months of age and beef tallow as a first step to full market access. The next step is to go for bone-in product and to head for the South Korean market.

Click here for a detailed report on the conference.

Cost benefits in the beef chain

One of the sessions at the ILIA Conference in Calgary this week dealt with traceability and the costs and benefits along the value chain. Who pays what and who profits from what?

Right now we have limited information on the Canadian model about this. It is always the other guy who benefits and “we” pay the bill. That is difficult to show when working along the system. We know that there is “trickle-back” economics at work: costs move back down a chain to the lowest common denominator so that the base sector tends to shoulder the costs. But what about the benefits?

Supply-demand can set prices and volumes sold. The price of feeder replacements is based on the sale price of fed cattle; the price of feed grains is based on the quantity and demand in Alberta and in the global market place.

Dr. Jill Hobbs from the University of Saskatchewan discussed some of these factors, particularly in context with animal traceability. Why are we involved with traceability anyway? Four categories of benefits were assessed. A direct benefit flows back directly to the specific sector; an enabling factor assists the value chain through improved efficiencies, information flows and operations that can help pull product flows through efficiencies of operations. It is one thing to produce a good product; it’s another to deliver that product consistently and competitively.

Risk management (direct)
This includes areas of livestock disease management, strengthening, liability incentives for good practice, building and protecting reputation, developing consumer confidence, and credibility, trade and food safety. Good veterinary programs help prevent diseased stock from entering the food chain. A level of trust in the consumer’s market is backed through source reputation and food safety.

Production management (enabling)
This includes benefits from operational efficiency and information management. Providing rations that optimize livestock performance at the cow-calf or feedlot levels fits here. Using management information systems to cull poor doers or to select breeding stock that produces high grading carcasses is enabling the operation. Some of the latter is also a supply chain relationship.

Supply chain management (enabling)
This includes benefits that can be captured through improved processes and information flows along the supply chain. At present, cow-calf producers do not necessarily know how well their genetics is working; some feedlots do not know how they rack up in their feeder purchases from one source or the other.

Market enhancing (enabling)
Benefits gained from improved information flows forward through the value chain, facilitating quality verification, enhanced competitiveness. For example, what happens to management effects in the feedlot on carcass tenderness?

The area of cost-benefits in the Canadian beef sector has not been well quantified. Some more economical work in this area would help focus high and low drivers and improve value chain operations for our industry. Because 50 per cent of Canadian beef is exported we need to have systems in place that can help at the farm and in the competitive global market place. How much is an increased export sale of 100,000,000 kilograms of beef worth to the cow-calf operator in feeder price? How much would it cost the industry and individual producers to close the border for five days? For 10 days? Systems are in place to this; they just need to be refined and organized to do the job.

Antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is again the focus of considerable controversy in Washington. Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is one microbe of concern. A recent Beef Cattle Research Council study funded by the National Check-off examined MRSA in feedlot cattle. Click here to read what they learned http://www.cattle.ca/pdf-download/735829mrsain_beef.pdf.

Boston Pizza launches new Canadian beef burgers

Hot on the heels of its highly successful Prime Rib Burger launch last fall, Boston Pizza has added two additional Canadian source-grind beef burgers to its menu -– the Jack Daniels Double Bacon Burger and the Mushroom Swiss Burger -– for a limited time, from July 12 to September 7.

Last fall, the Beef Information Centre (BIC) assisted Boston Pizza to launch the Prime Rib Burger, its first ever burger on its menu. Made with eight ounces of ground prime rib, the success of the Prime Rib Burger has exceeded expectations. As a result, Boston Pizza has amended its 2010 marketing plan and is heavily promoting all three Canadian beef burgers -– all made with ground prime rib -– via a summer marketing campaign.

Initially consulted on the development of the Prime Rib Burger by influencing Boston Pizza’s product specification to include 100 per cent source specific Canadian beef, BIC continues to work with Boston Pizza on their Canadian beef burger program and the launch of the two new burgers.

“This burger program is a huge success for the Canadian beef industry,” says Judy Nelson, BIC chair and a cow-calf producer at Lundbreck, Alta. “These new burgers mean increased value of source ground beef which, in turn, optimizes carcass value.”

The new promotional materials for all three Canadian beef burgers feature the Canadian beef brand mark and a strong Canadian beef identity.

“Boston Pizza recognizes the value of leveraging the Canadian beef brand mark,” adds Nelson. “It demonstrates they’re committed to serving high-quality Canadian beef, something their guests are looking for.”

Boston Pizza is a national chain with over 340 locations across Canada, ranking number one in sales in the casual dining segment, and number nine in overall sales. They have a strong location focus in all regions across Canada including most major cities and a number of large rural communities.

Canadian beef puts the ‘fresh’ in FreshCo

Grocery retailer Sobeys has undertaken a complete makeover of their Ontario discount retail outlet Price Chopper with the new name FreshCo and a whole new look.

A big part of the FreshCo concept is their new Canada AA and Canada AAA fresh beef program complete with unique packaging and on-pack labels featuring the Canadian beef brand mark.

The Beef Information Centre (BIC) worked closely with Sobeys, providing relevant research and insight to help them understand the changing consumer landscape, to identify what is relevant to today’s consumer and where the opportunity is in the marketplace. FreshCo’s new beef product line is a result of 18 months of extensive research and consultation with BIC. Identifying that 96 per cent of Canadians prefer to purchase Canadian beef, FreshCo chose to develop a quality, 100 per cent AA Canadian beef program.

The Canadian beef brand mark is incorporated onto the on-pack labels of Canada AA and AAA beef packages branded FreshCo. Packages feature cooking categorization and detailed cooking instructions on the peel-off label.

“Sobeys recognizes the value of communicating the fact their beef is 100 per cent Canadian,” says Judy Nelson, BIC chair and a cow-calf producer at Lundbreck, Alta. “The FreshCo focus is one of freshness, value and outstanding quality, all of which Canadian beef can provide.”

This market was targeted because Ontario is the most developed discount marketplace in North America, with 35-40 percent of the retail grocery marketplace a discount banner. In addition to offering AA and higher quality, FreshCo fresh beef is not tenderized or further processed.

“Shoppers will appreciate FreshCo’s commitment to providing an affordable assortment of higher quality Canada AA and AAA beef,” says Nelson. “They have taken the bold step of differentiating themselves from their competition by introducing a sustainable, all fresh Canadian beef program that is devoid of any further processing interventions.”