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GIVE COPPER BOLUSES A SECOND LOOK • NEEDLE-FREE INJECTIONS PROVE OUT www.canadiancattlemen.ca

February 2013 $3.00

BITTING INTO

THE BEEF

MARKET

NICOLE LAMB, BALZAC, ALTA.

Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240

8th Annual Family Day Sale February 18, 2013 1:00 p.m. at the farm at Athabasca, AB Lunch at 11:30 a.m.

300 HEAD SELL www.olefarms.com

4:06 P

February 2013

Volume 76, No. 3

Established 1938 ISSN 1196-8923 Cattlemen Editorial: Editor: Gren Winslow 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 (204) 944-5753 Fax (204) 944-5416 Email: gren@fbcpublishing.com Field Editor: Debbie Furber Box 1168, Tisdale, SK S0E 1T0 (306) 873-4360 Fax (306) 873-4360 Email: debbie.furber@fbcpublishing.com

What can go wrong with swath grazing?.......................8

Advertising Sales: Deborah Wilson RR 1, Elnora, AB T0M 1K0 (403) 325-1695 Fax (204) 944-5562 Email: deb.wilson@fbcpublishing.com

Winter calving still pays at S-7 ranch........................... 12

Head Office: 1666 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0H1 (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562

FEATURES

Needle-free injections prove out. ................................. 16 Epds: what do they mean?............................................... 18 Biting into the beef market........................................... 22 Give copper boluses a second look. ............................... 28 Ranchers need to consider liability. ............................ 38 Verified beef production................................................ 41

Advertising Services Co-ordinator: Arlene Bomback (204) 944-5765 Fax (204) 944-5562 Email: ads@fbcpublishing.com Publisher: Bob Willcox Email: bob.willcox@fbcpublishing.com Associate Publisher/Editorial Director: John Morriss Email: john.morriss@fbcpublishing.com Production Director: Shawna Gibson Email: shawna@fbcpublishing.com Director of Sales and Circulation: Lynda Tityk Email: lynda.tityk@fbcpublishing.com Circulation Manager: Heather Anderson Email: heather@fbcpublishing.com Contents of C attlemen are copyrighted and may be reproduced only when written permission is obtained from the editor and proper credit is given to Cattlemen.

Cattlemen and Canadian Cattlemen are Trade Marks of Farm Business Communications.

Departments

12

COMMENT............................................... 4 NEWSMAKERS......................................... 6 HOLISTIC RANCHING.............................. 34 RESEARCH............................................ 36 NUTRITION............................................ 42 VET ADVICE.......................................... 43 CCA REPORTS...................................... 44 PRIME CUTS......................................... 46 STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP...................... 47 NEWS ROUNDUP................................... 48 PURELY PUREBRED............................... 56 THE MARKETS...................................... 59 MARKET TALK....................................... 61 SALES & EVENTS.................................. 62

“Congratulations to our Februar y sur vey winner, Derek Cummings, Northampton, N.B.”

Cattlemen is published monthly (with the exception of July and 2 issues in Februar y and October) by Farm Business Communications. Head of fice: Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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The editors and journalists who write, contribute and provide opinions to Canadian Cattlemen and Farm Business Communications attempt to provide accurate and useful opinions, information and analysis. However, the editors, journalists, C anadian C attlemen and Farm Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the editors as well as C anadian C attlemen and Farm Business Communications assume no responsibility for any actions or decisions taken by any reader for this publication based on any and all information provided.

Cattlemen / february 2013 3

c o m m e n t

by Gren Winslow

An interesting year ahead

Obama’s inaugural sends a chill

R

eading through Barack Obama’s second inaugural address the other day I was struck by the thought that 2013 is going to be an interesting year for the Canadian cattle industry.

The supply side of the industry is already so tight that good prices are basically a given. But good prices do not a margin make, so the focus this year will be on the cost side of the equation.

President Obama’s pledge to lead the search for sustainable energy resources pretty clearly puts ethanol production back on the high road in the U.S. That will be disappointing for livestock producers across the continent, and a relief to corn producers.

Obama’s pledge to revamp the tax code probably sent a chill through the expense account class, the very people who support the demand for middle cuts. Higher payroll taxes are also putting a dent in the pocketbooks of most Americans and have analysts looking at how it might affect the demand for beef in North America.

Demand and cost: when inventories are low that’s where the industry’s focus will remain through 2013.

Those shrinking inventories brought on by years of low returns and more recently by drought are starting to change the look of the industry.

We’ve already seen some signs with the closing of smaller cow plants on both sides of the border.

Now we have the idling of Cargill’s major beef plant in Plainview, Texas on February 1. As Steve Kay reports in his Cattle Buyers Weekly newsletter, drought has squeezed the U.S. cattle herd down to its lowest level since 1952 and forced near-record numbers of feeders up from Mexico over the past two years. With fewer Mexican cattle expected this year the writing was on the wall for one of the major plants in this area. The Plainview closing reduces the Texas Panhandle capacity by 22 per cent.

As you can imagine that news reverberated through Western Canada after the XL Foods fiasco.

Instead JBS Canada has now exercised its option to take over the Brooks plant, which is returning a sense of stability to the western market.

The Obama administration is undergoing some retooling but not in agriculture after the reappointment of secretary Tom Vilsack. It will be four more years of the same policies. With the May 23 deadline for the U.S. to comply with the final World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling on

4 Cattlemen / february 2013

country-of-origin labelling (COOL) one couldn’t help but wish there was a fresh face in charge of USDA today. Remember, it was Vilsack who sent a letter to the food industry in 2009 asking companies to voluntarily impose stricter COOL practices than were spelled out in the hotly contested final rule.

Certainly the U.S. meat and retail sectors would be happy to see some of the more restrictive portions of the law repealed. Recent research suggests the U.S. gained nothing in the way of improved demand from this expensive labelling law. But up to now neither the congress nor the administration has given any indication of what their reaction will be in May. John Masswohl the director of the government and international relations with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association suspects the May 23 deadline could be the starting point for another round of foot dragging by the U.S. He wouldn’t be surprised if they offered some sort of regulatory change that could be done without involving the Congress. The CCA doesn’t believe that will fix the problem because the wording that requires segregation of Canadian product is in the legislation. If Canada can’t accept what the U.S. is offering we will have to request a compliance panel, and another round of meetings. If that panel finds the U.S. has not complied with the ruling then Canada would be free to bring in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

Retaliation has to be based on the harm done to the other country. The CCA some time ago came up with a figure of $639 million but it would be more than that today. The Canadian Pork Council recently commissioned a study that put the harm to their sector at $2 billion and growing.

Ottawa won’t speak of retaliation before May 23, but Masswohl says he is very open about discussing possible target products with his contacts in Washington and around the U.S. The Canadian industry has a recommended list of products in mind that it will be putting before the federal government should the need arise. Retaliation has to be restricted to same sectors, but the WTO considers all goods produced as one sector, so the choices are wide open.

Certainly, imported beef and pork would have to top the list, but there are fruits, vegetables, cereals… and a whole bunch more.

As I was saying, it’s going to be an interesting year. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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NEWSMAKERS Many across the industry were saddened to hear of the passing of the Honourable John Wise last month in London, Ont. He was 77. Wise, a dairy farmer/politician from St. Thomas, John Wise Ont., served four terms as an MP and twice as minister of agriculture. The first time was for nine months in Joe Clark’s government that fell in 1980. He had the distinction of being preceded and succeeded

by Eugene Whelan. His second term as minister was from 1984-88 under PM Brian Mulroney where he was instrumental in developing the agriculture sections in the Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement. After retiring from politics he served as chairman of the Canadian Livestock Exporters Association and the Canadian Embryo Exports Association.

Cedric MacLeod was elected chairman of the New Brunswick Cattle Producers at the group’s recent annual meeting. He and his wife run a grass-fed finishing operation near Centreville and market their beef direct to Cedric MacLeod consumers. Cow-calf producer, Donald Bettle of Sussex is vice-chairman.

The federal government is investing $575,000 into Delta Genomics, the notfor-profit service arm of Livestock Gentec that provides genotyping, biobanking and sequencing services to the Canadian cattle industry.

6 CATTLEMEN / FEBRUARY 2013

TK Ranch of Hanna, Alta. was certified as an Animal Welfare Approved operation in January. It is the fourth Canadian operation to be certified by the U.S.-based Animal Welfare Institute. To be approved a farm must adopt and adhere to the institute’s audited animal welfare standards. Colleen and Dylan Biggs operate the 10,000-acre spread located southeast of Edmonton where they direct Dylan Biggs market grass-fed beef and lamb, pasture-raised pork, free-range chicken and Muscovy duck to consumers and a growing list of organic food stores.

Dr. Duane Landals resigned as registrar of the Alberta Veterinary Medicine Association on February 10 although he will remain on staff in an advisory capacity for the next eight months.

Duane Landals Dr. Darrell Dalton is the interim registrar until a permanent replacement is found. Landals ran a mixed rural practice in Alberta for 25 years and also served as president of the ABVMA and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) and vice-president of the World Veterinary Association.

Pat Collins, cattle buyer for JBS Canada, formally XL Foods, retired last month. He was the longest-serving salaried buyer in Canada.

The Saskatchewan Forage Council (SFC) recently contributed $500 towards the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) Range Team in recognition of the 11-plus years of service by Janice Bruynooghe Janice Bruynooghe as executive director of the SFC. The money was used to offset some of the expenses for the team to attend the Society for Range Management (SRM) conference and team challenge in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma February 1-8. Thirty teams competed at this meeting in the Undergrad Range Management Exam, which covers a wide variety of range management topics such as animal units, stocking rates, and plant knowledge. The top three individual scores are taken to represent the team as a whole.

Dr. Michael Jelinski of Airdrie, Alta. is the 2013 recipient of the Boehringer Ingelheim Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners Veterinarian of the Year award. He opened Veterinary Agri-Health Services, a beef consulting practice designed to provide high-quality animal health services to a limited clientele in 1993.

The exclusively beef practice now includes Drs. Craig Dorin, Nathan Erickson and Cody Creelman. Jelinski is a mentor with the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders program and the University of Calgary Veterinary program. He holds a clinical instructor appointment with the faculty of veterinary medicine distributed learning community at the U of C. C

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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12-12-20 15:20

grazing

What can go wrong with swath grazing?

L

ike any production practice, swath grazing is a learned skill. But sometimes it does not matter how good you are at a skill, it does not always go smoothly. Sometimes the weather, or the feed, or the cattle don’t co-operate quite like we would want. I think it is best if we are prepared for the worst every time we swath graze.

Today, I’m going to run through all the wrecks that I have had swath grazing. Sometimes the best way to learn something is to fail at it. I don’t appreciate articles or books that tell you how easy and worry free a production practice is only to find out about all the mistakes the hard way. Let’s look at some of my wrecks.

Yes, we can get too much snow for swath grazing to work.

But to tell you the truth, I have had more trouble swath grazing with not enough snow than I have with too much snow.

Too much has only stopped me once. Not enough has caused me trouble three times. Yes, I will admit that if I get more than two feet of snow that gets hard and crusty from melting or freezing rain, some cattle have trouble. If you think the cattle are having trouble finding the swaths through the deep snow, dig down by hand and pull up a handful and stick it in the snow. Repeat this on as many swaths as you would like to open up and let them work.

Now, you can’t just turn untrained cows into two feet of snow and expect them to do well. Starting them on the system when there is only a little bit of snow or having experienced cows with them will give adequate training to those welfare cows that you have been feeding every winter. Monitor them and if they are losing condition, you will have to adjust. You can supplement feed as well.

Not enough snow is more of an issue. A couple of years ago I was swath grazing cows on a remote field and we had no snow on the ground. I was counting on snow as a water source that year. As a backup, I did have access to a couple of dugouts. Of course from October on, I kept telling myself that pumping water was a temporary measure until it snowed. Five months later, the swath grazing came to an end in February after I emptied two dugouts and hauled water for the last two weeks. Instead of travelling to the swath grazing every three days to move a fence as planned I had to go every day to pump water. My labour costs went way up.

On two other occasions, not enough snow caused me some major headaches from the snow melting. We had about two inches of snow and the cows were doing great on a field of pea straw residue. We were well into Febru-

8 Cattlemen / February 2013

ary and we had a warm spell that melted the snow on the swaths. It then cooled off again and froze the moisture in the swaths. What I ended up with was concrete swaths that the cows could not eat. They were totally out of feed and water literally overnight. The snow was gone and the swaths where solid as a rock. A preplanned bale-grazing paddock solved this dilemma. All is not lost as the ice from the swaths will dissipate and the cattle will again be able to access them but it will take a week or two. No feed, no water… not good!

Sometimes here in Alberta we can get some cold weather.

I have been swath grazing at -47° (C or F, that’s cold!). I try to have a backup plan in place to deal with this. I fence off a treed area that can be “saved” for the cold periods. If you allow them access to the trees all winter, they not only damage the trees and remove some of the underbrush, but they will pack the snow. Both of these are a benefit to the animals on those cold days. When the cold spell hits, I can just open up the gate and give them the protection of the trees.

If I am swath grazing residues or another lower-quality feed, then I will also have the bush set up as a bale-grazing paddock. A week or two of bale grazing this paddock will usually get me through the cold spell. I have witnessed that when the feed quality is too low in the swath, the cows would prefer to shiver, than to dig for it when it gets below -30 C. If you plan and already have this paddock set up, it can still be very economical. And I don’t need to start a tractor. I can open a gate on snowshoes. Emergency avoided.

I have also had issues caused by the maturity of the crop grazed. I had two fields side by side with the same crop of oats. One matured faster because of poor fertility. They www.canadiancattlemen.ca

were swathed at the same time but the first field was still in the milky stage and the second had seeds in the heads. As the winter progressed, we had quite a bit of snow. The wildlife decided that they liked that mature crop of oats. I would have about 100 deer out on that second crop every night.

Not only did they eat a good portion of it, they packed the snow down on each swath and caused it to freeze solid. The cattle were unable to access that field until the spring. The first field was untouched by the deer and we were able to graze it without any trouble. My lesson… allowing your cereal crop for swath grazing to mature is a great idea if you want to feed the deer!

Have you ever grazed 365 days of the year? The first time I did, I overlooked one thing, spring breakup. I was out grazing on a grain farmer’s field in April when the frost came out of the ground. Wow, can 300 head ever punch out a field. Another lesson learned, and now I always have another plan to get me through the mud. Not only did they damage the field, they walked a lot of feed into the mud.

Now I plan to be done my swath grazing before this time.

It’s easier to be bale grazing on a good, solid sod pasture at this time.

How about the quality of the feed? I have on two occasions now had issues with the quality of the feed with swath grazing. Both years have been on years of high rainfall and good crops. One crop was a beautiful stand of oats five to six feet tall. It made great swathes and had really nice colour to it. Best crop I had seen for swath grazing. The cows with

calves that were grazing it would not settle. Every time I went there to check, they would bawl at me.

For two weeks I had 250 cow-calf pairs that would follow me around and bawl at me. Then the feed test came in.

With the good growing season, it caused the protein percentage to be very low. I cut back the ration of swaths and started unrolling two hay bales every day to supplement the feed. The next day they were laying down chewing their cud when I went to see them. Problem solved.

I have swath grazed pea straw residue a number of times and was quite aware that the nutrient content was marginal.

After the feed test, mineral was mandatory as well as a bit of protein supplement. I have more recently had an oat swathgrazing field where two cows went down because of a mineral imbalance in the feed. The oat crop again was pretty good from a year of high rainfall but was not a balanced ration. Providing a proper mineral and supplementing with some hay every day to balance out the ration was the solution. It was a monoculture. I feel a polyculture crop is a better option if possible.

I hope you can learn from my experience and remember, just because swath grazing does not work perfect every year, it does not mean it is not an economical solution to winter feeding. The key is to be prepared. Best wishes!

C — Steve Kenyon Steve Kenyon runs Greener Pastures Ranching Ltd. in Busby, Alta., www.greenerpasturesranching.com, 780-307-6500, email skenyon@ greenerpasturesranching.com.

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doing more. using less.

A series on being ready for the farming challenges ahead

Precision farming becoming mainstream Adoption accelerates as capability and simplicity of new technology improves

Y

ield monitors were the first step many growers took when venturing into precision farming in the 1990s. While yield monitors are still considered to be the cornerstone of precision farming, other applications are quickly gaining popularity. these applications include, but are not limited to, farm planning, field mapping, soil sampling, auto guidance, crop scouting, variable-rate applications and yield mapping. “there is no question that precision agriculture has changed how farmers view their land,” says trevor mecham, Case iH Advanced Farming systems marketing manager. “Where they once treated fields uniformly, they now are able to micromanage fields – developing the most effective strategies for higher production. the result is reduced expenses, higher yields and a more environmentally friendly farm.”

“There is no question that precision agriculture has changed how farmers view their land…”

Trevor MechAM Case IH Advanced Farming Systems marketing manager

mecham attributes the gaining popularity of precision farming to availability of tools that are more accurate, cost effective and user friendly. “there used to be the perception that precision farming could only be used on large farms with large capital investments and it required extensive experience with information technology,” he says. “this is certainly not the case. there are inexpensive and easy-to-use techniques developed for use by all farmers through the use of GPs, Gis and remote sensing.”

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management

Winter calving still pays at S-7 Ranch The payoff in the fall outweighs the inconvenience

O

ther than its location near Alliance, Alta., Steve and Betty Saruga’s S-7 Ranch of today doesn’t bear much resemblance to the mixed farm they started 37 years ago on a deserted yardsite that his father had owned.

About a dozen years into it, they became so discouraged with having to use the profits from their cattle to pay the bills for the cropping side that they sowed all of their cropland to an alfalfabrome mix and started building their herd to a sustainable size, which hovers from 130 to 160 cows, for their 1,100acre land base and to earn a living.

They identify four practices they feel have made the biggest difference to their bottom line through good times and tough times: genetics for goodmilking cows and growthy bulls, winter calving, feeding the cows properly, and a good mineral program.

Shortly after switching to a standalone beef operation, they purchased a Charolais bull to use on their British breed cows. The concern of the day was high birth weights, however, the breeder who suggested going this route was also a veterinarian and promised to cover the cost of any C-sections. The deal was too good to let pass and the next year at weaning those buckskin calves weighed up 50 pounds heavier and brought 10 to 15 cents more per pound than the straight British breed calves.

“We’ve never looked back and our weaning weights are way up since those years,” Steve says. They attribute this to buying quality Charolais bulls with expected progeny differences (EPDs) for high weaning and yearling 12 Cattlemen / February 2013

weights to mate to their strong, goodmilking Simmental-Red Angus-Hereford cows. They aren’t too concerned about maternal trait EPDs because they don’t retain any of their own heifers.

They always try to purchase from the top 10 per cent of the bulls on offer at the sales and have had a lot of success through the years with bulls from Marcinkoski Charolais, Cougar Hill Charolais, New Country Livestock, and Buffalo Lake Charolais. All of these breeders have also provided topnotch service if something went wrong, he adds. They had the good fortune to buy the winning ticket on a $10,000 bull in the commercial producer bull draw at the 2011 Alberta Select Charolais Show and chose a Cougarhill Hank bull from Don Grant of Olds.

On the female side, they always buy bred heifers because there’s less risk of bringing in diseases and other people’s problems than there is with buying cows. After their longtime supplier retired from business, they found Brian and Elaine Matthiessen at Heisler, who now specialize in buying and selling bred stock. The Sarugas’ preference is for red-factor Simmental heifers, which the Matthiessens breed to a Simmental bull with conformation for calving ease coupled with good growth traits.

Some of the heifers from the last group weaned 750-pound calves, but there’s a fine line between a good-milking heifer that can bring in a good calf and still rebreed, and one that brings in a super calf but has milked so heavily that she can’t catch up in condition and rebreed, Steve explains.

There are no second chances on

the S-7 Ranch — the heifers and cows either have a calf or they’re gone, so it comes down to a trade-off of sorts.

They may have to cull a few heifers on account of them coming up open in the fall, but those that do carry on are assured good milkers.

They keep records on all of their breeding stock, noting details such as calving problems, weaning weights and treatments. Preg checking in the fall and semen testing before bull turnout on April 20 are routine procedures.

Steve helps preg check the heifers to assess temperament and make his picks from the earliest calvers. Their preference is to calve heifers early in the season when it’s not as busy and they’re not as tired as when calving gets into the full swing of things, however, the 17 heifers in this year’s group are due March 1. They’ll see how it goes, but have no intention of moving their calving season later into the spring.

Winter calving starting in mid- to late January, with the bulk of it in February, is an important part of the overall plan to earn a living from their beef operation because it means more pounds at weaning and more money in their pockets. It has also proven valuable in dry years when they’ve been able to sell 500- to 600-pound calves in July to save the cow herd, which wouldn’t be an option if they moved to calving on grass.

They have developed their winter calving facilities with lots of pens and small shelters connecting to an insulated 24x32-foot calving barn that can Continued on page 14 www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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Continued from page 12

be heated if necessary. Last year, they added a 32x48-foot loafing shelter off the calving barn to hold cows likely to calve through the night.

A typical day during calving season really starts late in the daylight hours when they take care of the routine feeding chores. This strategy keeps the cows busy eating through the night so they settle down to calving in the daytime. After sorting the imminent calvers into the loafing area later in the evening, Steve takes over with the night checks, which are every couple of hours when the weather is cold or stormy. Betty’s shift starts early in the morning and around noon they head out to tag the new calves and give them their vitamin shots. They keep things simple for sorting and other management purposes by using blue tags for males and pink tags for heifers, with the calf’s number the same as its dam.

Betty stresses the importance of having quiet cows, not only because they raise quiet calves that get right down to eating, but for their own safety because they spend so much time working in close quarters with them. They find that taking the time a few weeks before calving to walk through the herd each day helps to get the cows and especially the heifers accustomed to being near people. It makes calving season easier for all concerned, including their four children and seven grandchildren who frequently lend helping hands throughout the year.

Being 35 miles from the nearest veterinary clinic, they have learned to take care of most problems themselves, except C-sections. Twinning is the most common reason for assisting a cow. Since there have been seven to 10 sets each calving season in recent years, they keep watch for signs such as a small calf already on the ground, calves coming backwards with one or both hind legs showing, and cows that seem to be making slow progress with nothing showing, which could mean a malpresentation.

They’d rather not let a cow raise two calves because it pulls the cow down too much. If they have a cow that’s lost its calf, they take time to adopt a twin onto her and they have found good sales to producers looking for newborn calves for the same reason.

The pairs are moved out to a nearby field in groups of about 50 as calv14 Cattlemen / February 2013

ing season progresses. A well-bedded 32x90-foot open shed, with a large area split off for the calves to come and go on their own time, provides all the protection they need. The key here and throughout all of the calving area is providing lots of clean straw for bedding.

Scours has never been a problem in their system, so they’ve never felt the need to vaccinate the cows to boost antibody levels in the colostrum, though they are diligent about using the Pfizer Gold vaccination program for the breeding herd each fall. The calves also have access to a bucket of diatomaceous earth, which at about $25 a bag goes a long way in preventing them from nibbling dirt and debris that can contribute to calfhood illness.

They’ve always vaccinated the calves with an eight-way blackleg-clostridial product and added the Pfizer Gold program for calves a few years ago during an exceptionally dry, dusty spring when they were seeing quite a bit of pneumonia. They were amazed at how quickly the vaccines worked to stop the outbreak in its tracks and have continued with the program as a preventive measure ever since. The calves receive the Pfizer vaccines, a boost on the eightway vaccine and their Ralgro implants around the first of May when they are branded and dehorned.

“From mid-January to the end of March we don’t do anything but work with the cows, except we do take time to go to the Bull Congress at Camrose and attend a few other bull sales in March. People say we work too hard and it is hard work, but it’s our livelihood and it pays off in the end,” Betty says, adding that in spite of the long hours it’s absolutely her favourite time of the year.

Payday is Steve’s favourite, not only because of the annual paycheque, but because it’s really satisfying to see those big buckskin calves top the market every year and know that they are producing quality calves that buyers want.

Abundant grass the past couple of years along with new genetics has added another 30 pounds at least to the average weaning weights of 750 pounds on the steers and 700 pounds on the heifers, so it’s not unusual to see some of the steers come off the cows well into the 800-weight range.

The biggest was a steer that tipped the scales at 1,040 pounds after shrink!

They expose their calves to as many buyers as possible, for many years sell-

ing through the televised version of Canadian Satellite Livestock Auctions and now through an early-October pre-sort sale at the Stettler Auction Mart with a live webcast of the sale and online bidding. He knows the calves have gone to eastern buyers many times and they often call to find out when their calves will be selling, but in recent years the local buyers have been snapping them up.

Feeding the genetics Situated in the Parkland belt of east-central Alberta, most of their land is prime grain-growing land and they can generally count on ample moisture to produce more than enough forage for grazing, 800 bales for winter feeding, and 60 acres of an oat-barley mix for swath grazing. Their straw supply comes from Betty’s brother 20 miles away.

The mature cows are experienced swath grazers and do well through November and December with the wire moved every second day to provide fresh swaths.

The swath grazing and fall pastures have been kept close to the yard where the cattle have access to waterers since the horrible day a few years ago when they lost 16 cows that ventured onto thin, snow-covered ice on a dugout.

All of the dugouts are now fenced and solar pumps fill the troughs for summer grazing.

The fields are cross-fenced into approximately 40-acre parcels for haying and rotational grazing from the time the grass is four to six inches high in the spring through October, with pattern varying from year to year. The fields cut for hay in July are left to regrow for fall grazing.

The heifers start on full feed of alfalfa/grass hay delivered through the bale processor and six pounds of range pellets per head per day in December.

The mature cows are brought in from swath grazing in early January and receive 30 pounds of hay per cow per day, supplemented with the pellets after calving. The mineral mix is formulated according to feed test results and the animals’ needs.

Even though the Sarugas have the benefit of lots of practical experience on their side, they continue to attend conferences and seminars to learn about new strategies that could be good fits for their ranch.

C — Debbie Furber www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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NEEDLE-FREE INJECTIONS PROVE OUT Even at 40 below, if you don’t drag your feet

V

accination with the use of a needle-free (NF) injection device proved to be equally as effective as the conventional needle-and-syringe (NS) method in stimulating immune responses in beef calves in a study led by graduate student Mitch Rey and Dr. Kim Ominski, beef production professor with the faculty of agriculture and food sciences at the University of Manitoba.

Rey says this is the expected result because he found no evidence in his review of scientific studies testing NF systems that led him to believe otherwise. NF technology has been used for some time now in the hog industry in Canada and the U.S. and in U.S. dairies, but had never been tested under the rigours of the outdoor environment typical of a Canadian beef operation.

NF systems work on air pressure to drive the vaccine through the hide into subcutaneous or muscle tissue. The injection is triggered by pressing the nozzle against the skin. An NF device made by Pulse NeedleFree Systems was selected for use in this study.

The study included a group of 96 spring-born calves and a group of 96 fall-born calves from two co-operating farms.

Each group was initially vaccinated at two months of age with two vaccines commonly used in beef operations: a killed 7-way clostridial vaccine that protects against blackleg and some other bacterial infections; and a modified live virus vaccine that protects against Types 1 and 2 bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) and three other viral respiratory infections.

In each group, 47 of the calves were vaccinated using the NF system and 39 by the NS method, while the remaining 10 calves were vaccinated with the clostridial vaccine, but not the BVD vaccine to rule out exposure to a natural BVD infection. All calves were screened for BVD to ensure that none were persistently infected.

In keeping with typical farm practices, the injection sites on either side of the neck weren’t clipped or cleaned before vaccinating and the needle was changed every 10th animal in the NS groups for biosecurity reasons.

Body weights and blood samples to be analyzed for antibody titres against blackleg and BVD were taken five times during each trial period.

Observations The trend for the immune response was similar for both the spring and fall herds, both vaccines, and both methods of delivery.

There were no significant differences in average daily gain among the calves, indicating that performance wasn’t hindered by use of the NF system.

16 Cattlemen / FEBRUARY 2013

Immunity was the same with air and needle injections.

Rey observed that the pressure sound when delivering vaccines with the NF system didn’t startle the calves and they showed no more or less discomfort than the NS-vaccinated calves.

Previous research with swine had found the NF method may cause more skin irritation than needles. This was the case in Rey’s study as well, however, the reactions were only on the surface of the skin and not tender to the touch. He says this may not be a bad thing — some research suggests skin inflammation is a sign that the calf is developing an immune response to the vaccine. Since this study didn’t follow the calves through finishing, he doesn’t know whether the skin reactions would have a negative effect on carcass quality. Future research will have to prove this one way or the other.

Other trials also indicate that NF systems leave vaccine residue on the surface of the skin. Rey says residue was obvious on roughly a quarter of the calves vaccinated with the NF system throughout the study. The tag numbers were recorded and on followup those calves had the same immune levels as the calves with no obvious residue on the skin and the Continued on page 17 www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Continued from page 16

needled calves. The residue is bubbly because the vaccine is under pressure, he adds, so it may be more visible than residue that may be left on the skin from a needle.

Rey also evaluated the performance of the NF equipment under freezing conditions. In preparation for giving the fall-born group their BVD boosters in February, he worked with the university’s biosystems engineering department to formulate a mock hide of high-density Styrofoam to put the NF system to the test on a -40 C day. The equipment never malfunctioned during one hour of delivering a mock vaccine (water and dye solution) into the mock hide at the rate of once every five minutes and the solution penetrated the Styrofoam to a consistent depth throughout the test.

On booster day though, the vaccine did freeze in the line after they had vaccinated five calves and then left the device idle for quite some time.

In a research setting, the vaccinating process is much slower than on the farm because of the multiple procedures, methods and documentation involved, he explains. After giving the NF system time to warm, the remainder of the NF calves were vaccinated one after the other and the device didn’t freeze up when it was in continuous use.

As a precaution he suggests having a warm place available to set the NF backpack system if you have to leave it idle in cold weather.

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Comparatively speaking “As a producer, I would use a needle-free system,” says Rey, who is involved with his family’s cow-calf operation near St. Claude, Man. The big advantage he sees is that it totally eliminates the needle which addresses the food safety issue of broken needles ending up in retail cuts of meat as well as the biosecurity issue of transferring disease from animal to animal on needles.

The main disadvantage is the $2,500 to $5,000 cost of an NF system and the maintenance, Rey says. Initially it’s not as easy to use as a syringe with a needle because there’s more technology involved, but once you get on to it, there may be a time saving compared to a syringe.

Ed Stevens, president of Pulse NeedleFree Systems headquartered in Kansas, says it’s important that the people who will be using the needle-free technology are properly trained on the use and maintenance of these devices. There are tips and techniques that are best demonstrated on the farm, so a training session by an experienced person is very important.

He strongly recommends working closely with your veterinarian and vaccine suppliers to ensure success.

Collaborating with Rey and Ominski on this study were doctors Juan-Carlos Rodriguez-Lecompte (immunology), Jason Morrison (biosystems engineering), Karin Wittenberg (associate dean), Tomy Joseph (virologist with Manitoba Agriculture) and Robert Tremblay (Boehringer Ingelheim).

Rey, who was awarded the 2012 Manitoba Beef Producers’ bursary, finished second in the graduate student oral presentation competition for his presentation on this study at the Canadian Society of Animal Science conference in Phoenix this past July and was recently awarded a travel scholarship to attend the International Livestock Congress in Denver.

C — Debbie Furber

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13-01-10 4:50 PM

breeding

EPDs: WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

T

he complexities of the scientific models developed by researchers to compute expected progeny differences (EPDs) casts a shroud of mystery around them. What do they tell us that we can’t get from actual performance numbers?

The short answer is EPDs let you quickly compare genetic differences among cattle within a breed.

A method called contemporary grouping is used to strip away the effects of environment and management such as season of birth or feed availability that also influence the expression of traits. Direct comparisons are only ever made between cattle of the same breed composition, sex, and age range that have been raised under the same management conditions. The differences in performance can then be attributed to the genes inherited from the parents and, in turn, pedigree information can be used to tie this genetic information together across the breed, explains Sean McGrath, a consultant with RAK Genetic Consultants of Lethbridge.

EPD calculations also account for the heritability of traits, the correlation between traits and the performance of all related animals. Therefore, they can also begin to tell you something about reproductive traits that can’t be measured physically.

It’s important to remember that EPDs predict the performance of an animal’s future offspring, not the animal itself. They reflect differences in performance relative to breed-average EPDs or other sires, not the actual performance or weights of individual animals, McGrath stresses.

Breed-average EPDs are not set at 0. They change with every spring and fall national cattle evaluation or EPD run, and are continually updated on breed association websites.

EPDs are expressed in the same units as the actual measurements, so if a bull’s birth weight (BW) EPD is +5.0, you could expect the average birth weight of his offspring to be 5.0 pounds heavier than offspring from a bull with a 0 BW EPD when mated to the same group of cows.

18 Cattlemen / February 2013

Kajal Devani

Kim McLean

Keep in mind the EPDs of a sire only account for half the genetics of the calf. You could expect the average offspring to score around the average of the sire’s and dam’s EPDs. When the cows EPDs are unknown, you need to compare bulls for use on groups of similar females.

For example, you could mate a +5 BW bull to heifers and a -2.5 BW bull to mature cows, and the heifers may actually have lighter calves than the cows. If the +5 bull and -2.5 bulls were mated to the same group (either the heifers or the cows) you would expect the calves from the -2.5 bull to be 7.5 pounds lighter on average than the calves from the +5 bull.

To translate EPDs into actual measurements, you need to know the performance of your own cow herd.

A 5.0-pound difference could mean 70 and 75 pounds in one herd, or 105 and 110 pounds in another depending on the herd and management. Most breeds don’t publish raw breed averages because the actual numbers vary so much from herd to herd.

The advantage of EPDs is that you don’t need to have all of the raw data at your fingertips or concern yourself with differences in how the animals were raised because EPDs account for

all of that to give you a genetic snapshot for quick comparisons.

A general recommendation is to look for EPDs similar to those of bulls that have moved you closer to your goals, and avoid bulls with EPDs along the lines of those that haven’t worked.

Adjustment factors to compare EPDs across breeds are available from breed associations, however, they add another layer of numbers to the picture.

Putting them to work “All of those EPD numbers do intimidate lots of people, so I always suggest thinking of EPDs as a bonus,” says Dr. Kim McLean, a regional livestock specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture. You still need to look at the whole picture — performance record, structural correctness, physical soundness, conformation and performance records of his parents and siblings if available. And you have to like the bull.

She says the key to using EPDs is setting goals, writing them down, and sticking with them. Evaluating where you are now compared to where you’d like to be helps you zero in on the trait EPDs that will be most useContinued on page 20 www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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Continued from page 18

ful. Then you can look for bulls with EPDs that fit.

Producers who sell their calves at weaning generally focus on birth weight and weaning weight EPDs. Others who background their calves may pay more attention to yearling weights, while carcass traits will be of importance to those who finish cattle for a branded beef program, and fertility traits will be a priority when raising heifers for the replacement market.

The other key is patience. McLean says it’s easy to become discouraged when you don’t see results right away. It may take five or 10 years for the results to show consistently across your herd.

Weaning weights, if that’s what you’re after, may go up a small amount each year but over time the gains add up.

Progress will be faster with highly heritable performance and carcass traits and slower for low-heritability ones such as fertility.

Balance is also required, especially

with growth traits. Calves with lower birth weights tend to have lighter weaning and yearling weights, and vice versa. So by choosing bulls with impressive weaning weight EPDs, you could be selecting for higher birth weights. On the other hand, the positive correlation between weaning weight and milking ability could work to your advantage if you are retaining replacement heifers and one of your goals is to improve milking ability in that group.

Your marketing strategy is another factor to consider. If you want to retain replacement females and bulls for your own herd, mate your superior cows to superior bulls and choose your replacements from that group. To maximize production and uniformity, mate average cows to lower-end bulls and the bottom third of your cows to your average or best bulls.

“Always remember that functional traits are a must and numbers are just numbers, says McLean. “Overall, breed associations do a good job of contemporary grouping and the EPD

numbers are a great tool for what commercial producers need.”

Kajal Devani, the breed development director with the Canadian Angus Association has a similar message. “People like to buy solely on how animals look, but it has been proven time and time again that the rate of genetic gain is faster with EPDs and the higher the accuracy of the EPD, the faster the gain. So, both conformation and EPDs should be used to select well-balanced animals,” she explains.

She also urges producers to pay close attention to the accuracy values attached to every EPD. If it isn’t reported in the catalogue she recommends you ask the breeder for it.

Accuracy values reflect the reliability of the EPD ranging from a low of 10 per cent to a high of 100. The values increase as performance data for a bull’s offspring come in each year. Anything above 80 per cent is considered highly accurate.

Accuracy values for young cattle are generally low around 20 per cent because they have no offspring, so the

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EPDs are based on their own performance records and pedigree, although DNA testing incorporated into genetically enhanced EPDs can increase the accuracy into the mid-range before the bull’s first offspring hit the ground.

Each breed association produces possible-change tables that give the deviation associated with each accuracy value for each trait. Using the Angus table as an example, the deviation associated with 90 per cent accuracy for BW EPDs is 0.26 pounds.

Therefore, you could expect the birth weights of calves from an Angus bull with a BW EPD of +3.0 to range from +2.74 to +3.26 pounds on average.

The possible change for a BW EPD with a low accuracy value of 10 per cent increases to 2.36 pounds, which widens the range from +0.64 to +5.36 pounds in this example.

Devani finds commercial producers tend to place great importance on birth weights, when it’s actually calving ease they are after. The calving ease direct EPD accounts for all calf characteristics, including birth weight and shape,

Overall the breed associations do a good job of contemporary grouping and the EPD numbers are a great tool for what commercial producers need to predict how easily a calf will come out of a first-time calver.

The Beef Improvement Federation guidelines for producing EPDs say they “most efficiently combine phenotypic performance data from all related animals and information for genetically correlated traits to predict the relative performance of future progeny. Information from these sources is combined into a single prediction of genetic merit, therefore there is no advantage in using information from

sources that contribute to the EPD when the EPD itself is available. For example, if EPDs for birth weights are available, then these statistics provide a more accurate indication of the difference in birth weights of future progeny than the actual or adjusted birth weight records. Likewise, if the selection criterion is calving ease and calving ease EPDs are available, then consideration of birth weight EPDs is unwarranted.”

Many breed associations offer selection tools on their websites to help producers use EPDs to search their herd book for cattle that meet their requirements.

Those who get bogged down by the numbers appreciate the percentile graphs that provide a visual summary of where an animal’s EPDs stand compared to the breed average EPD for each trait.

Devani leads a free EPD 101 webinar on the first Tuesday of every month, which is open to all. Call her at 1-888571-3580 ahead of time to register. C — Debbie Furber

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Marketing

BITING INTO THE BEEF MARKET Marketing grass-fed beef on its tenderness and flavour

T

ake a conscientious ranching family, add some grassfed beef-finishing know-how, season it well with business and marketing savvy, then garnish with a twist of slow-food philosophy and you have the perfect recipe for a new branded beef line — Bite Beef’s slowgrown grass-fed beef.

The Bite Beef Company was started by managing partners Nicole Lamb (finance, logistics) and Carli Baum (marketing, sales). Completing the core team are Lamb’s parents, John and Kim Lamb, who manage the dayto-day ranching operations from the home ranch near Balzac, Alta.

After a year of preparation, Bite Beef officially opened for business online in October, 2011 with product also sold through Community Natural Foods’ two Calgary locations. Within a year, Bite Beef was available from the Bear’s Paw Farmers Market in Calgary, six Calgary restaurants, the Old Country Sausage Shop of Raymond, which sells its processed line through several retail chains in Calgary, Edmonton, and Lethbridge, and most recently in retail portions from The Butcher Shoppe in Airdrie.

The idea behind slow-grown grassfed beef is to let the animals grow and mature to optimum marbling at their own pace on forage diets without the addition of grain, Lamb explains at the Western Canadian Grazing Conference in Red Deer.

Traditional grass-fed beef production systems typically target average daily gains of 1.5 to 2.0 pounds per day from birth through finishing with the goal of marketing the beef from cattle 18 to 20 months of age.

Bite Beef’s slow-grown system aims to maintain a minimum rate of gain of one pound a day to promote muscle growth and give the animals time to naturally develop the capacity to marble while maintaining a moderate overall frame size. Rates of gain less than one pound a day or weight loss during 22 Cattlemen / February 2013

Nicole Lamb any stage of development will have a negative effect on beef quality.

In the Canadian Prairie environment, limiting the rate of gain is necessary to align the finishing stage with access to high-quality fresh forage so that the finished animals can be delivered to the abattoir directly off pasture from August through October, by which time they average 29 months of age. Both the additional age on the animals and harvesting off fresh pasture are key to the unique taste Bite Beef is offering.

Lamb describes the flavour of slowgrown grass-finished beef as robust and beefy. It has a more grassy, earthy or fresh flavour than grain-finished beef, yet is mellower without the gamey tones that consumers sometimes associate with traditional grass-fed beef.

The inspiration for this new product line, which very well could be the first in Canada to be branded and marketed as such, came from the book, Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef, by Toronto writer, Mark Schatzker. His three-year globe-trotting quest to find and understand the perfect steak ended in Idaho on a grass-fed beef ranch.

After reading the book, Lamb convinced her parents that their operation was perfectly positioned to fill the gap for this type of beef in the local market.

“It didn’t take much convincing,” says Lamb, who is the third generation on the family ranch. “My parents have always maintained the frame of mind that there is lots of opportunity for the next generation on the family farm, but to be able to support all of us, the farm needs to grow and diversify. That’s where Bite Beef and I fit in.”

Their 1,000-head cow herd and idyllic 22,000-acre land base in Alberta and Saskatchewan, with its rolling pastures, ample natural shelter and abundant natural water sources (the Saskatchewan ranch is also home to North America’s largest duck-breeding site) provided a solid foundation on which to build the new company.

To learn the best techniques for raising and finishing grass-fed beef, they turned to Dr. Allen Williams, a former professor and animal scientist with universities in Louisiana and Mississippi, who has been involved with several private initiatives related to grass-fed beef production and marketing. He was chief executive officer of Tallgrass Beef, which proved the modern-day, slowgrown grass-fed production system in the U.S. His doctorate and continuing interest in animal breeding and genetics led him to become a founding partContinued on page 24 www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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ner of The Jacob Alliance to pioneer the use of Beef Image Analysis (BIA), an ultrasound imaging and interpretation software program developed by Designer Genes Technologies of Harrison, Arkansas, that evaluates meat quality characteristics, including tenderness and stress, in live animals. He is also a founding partner and president of Livestock Management Consultants, which assists clients with building natural-branded food programs and valuesbased value chain management.

Aside from identifying the need to change their production system to facilitate harvesting the animals directly off pasture, they learned the importance of managing pasture rotations to provide the proper ratio of nutrients at each stage of production.

During the last 100 days on feed, the cattle are moved to fresh pasture every three to seven days when plant photosynthesis activity is the greatest and sugar content in the leaves is at its peak, which is generally around midday. This has eliminated bloat issues associated with alfalfa.

It’s really all about trying to manage

Beef image analysis Beef Image Analysis (BIA), developed

by Designer Genes Technologies of Harrison, Arkansas, is an automated, chuteside software system that captures ultrasound images from live animals and calculates rib-eye area, rib-eye area per hundredweight, rib-eye shape score, backfat thickness, per cent intramuscular fat, tenderness and stress.

The ability to predict tenderness and evaluate stress in live cattle from ultrasound scans is relatively new technology. Research to evaluate its feasibility star ted at the University of Mississippi in the late 1990s and advanced through private interests during the early 2000s to make sure the scores were accurate, repeatable and fully validated, explains Dr. Allen Williams of Livestock Management Services, Starkville, Mississippi.

The BIA system generates the tenderness score from ultrasound images of the longissimus dorsi muscle. The current correlation coefficient between the ultrasound score for tenderness in live animals and the actual Warner-Bratzler shear force test results on the resulting

24 Cattlemen / February 2013

protein intake because too much protein during finishing can result in a gamey, “off” taste, Lamb explains. They try to let the feeders graze the top 40 per cent of the plants, then come back in the fall with the pairs to clean up.

Experience has already shown that with their type of animals and production system, it’s easier to get a consistent and timely finish on the heifers than on the steers. They always start the finishing period with a large group and narrow it down to the best of the bunch based on temperament and fleshing ability. The first year, they marketed 100 grass-finished steers and heifers though their slow-grown beef system and this past year, ended up with 189 heifers in the program.

Based on carcass quality of the finished stock and production data they collect on the cows and bulls, their herd has been gravitating from predominantly Simmental cattle toward an Angus base since they started exploring grass-fed beef production, through Lamb says it will remain a crossbred herd because of the greater yield potential in comparison with a straight-bred Angus herd.

The feeders are ultrasound tested, rib-eye steak at the 12th rib averages 0.85 to 0.87.

BIA tenderness scores are designated as 10 (very tender), 20 (tender), 30 (slightly tender), 40 (slightly tough) and 50 (tough). The ideal score is 25 or less, with 28 or less being acceptable for yearling bulls.

Stress scores range from 10 (no stress) through to 50 (severe stress) with the increments defined as 20 (slight stress), 30 (slightly moderate stress) and 40 (moderate stress). The ideal score is 20 or less.

Clay Nash, ultrasound technician and consultant to Bite Beef, explains how the scan detects stress and that it can actually be seen in the pattern of the marbling fat, which shows up as fine white flecks throughout the loin muscle.

Basically, the last fat on is the first fat off when an animal is stressed, he says. Animals that have been under significant stress, due to environmental conditions or illness for example, will have less marbling fat and it tends to be dispersed unevenly throughout the loin muscle because bits and pieces of fat have been drawn off to supply energy

ideally when they are 10 to 18 months of age, by certified ultrasound technician, Clay Nash of Arkansas, who is the former manager of breeding and ultrasound programs at Tallgrass Beef. Nash uses the BIA ultrasound software program to measure backfat thickness, rib-eye area and shape, marbling, tenderness and stress. The scanning results presented in a spreadsheet format provide valuable information that helps the Lambs gain a better understanding of the type of animals that do best in a grass-fed system and how to adjust their breeding program accordingly.

Many grass-fed beef programs like Bite Beef also follow some form of natural beef protocol, which guides other aspects of production and generally calls for avoiding the use of hormones, antibiotics and feed additives that include animal byproducts and other types of growth-enhancing products.

Animal well-being is one of Bite Beef’s top priorities, so animals in need of medication aren’t left to suffer. Any cattle that do require treatment with an antibiotic are sold through other avenues. Salt Continued on page 26

during the stressful event. A dark line void of fat is usually quite evident across the marbling pattern down the full length of the loin all along the back, and fat deposition will be null as he scans deeper into the loin. In most animals, that stress line never disappears.

If the stress and tenderness scores of animals in a group being scanned are consistently in the ideal range with nice even marbling fat distribution, but a few animals have higher scores or irregular marbling fat, the producer can then go back into the production records to determine whether those animals had undergone stressful events that affected them individually. If nothing seems apparent and all of the animals in the group were exposed to the same stresses without showing negative effects, then the producer may conclude that the genetics of those particular animals is the underlying reason for their low tolerance to stress. When all animals score poorly, then there’s more digging to do to determine what’s at the root of the problem.

For more information, contact Nash at 870-897-3167 or Williams at 622312-6826.

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“It’s really important to identify your markets and know your consumers,” Lamb says. Bite Beef identified the Calgary area as its prime market with the goal of reaching conscientious consumers who want to eat local, get to know farmers and are willing to pay a premium to cover the additional costs of bringing such a product to the marketplace.

Bite Beef retails for up to double the price of commodity beef from the retail chain stores.

In preparation for launching their brand, Lamb and Baum visited Montreal’s vibrant farmers’ market to gather ideas for marketing and promoting their new brand of beef.

Already they have received inquiries from people in the neighbouring provinces who would like to purchase their beef, however, regulations prohibit cross-border sales of meat from provincially inspected plants.

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— Debbie Furber

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26 CATTLEMEN / FEBRUARY 2013

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GIVE COPPER BOLUSES A SECOND LOOK

I

n the course of trying to get to the root of a severe scours outbreak in 2011, Steve Ganczar and his veterinarian, Dr. Kevin Steinbachs of the Dauphin Veterinary Clinic, identified an underlying copper deficiency that was contributing to the problem.

Copper deficiency is commonly associated with poor growth and reproductive performance, but it also has a role in maintaining a healthy immune system. Cattle without adequate copper are more susceptible to disease and less responsive to vaccines.

A cow with borderline copper status may get along OK, but she needs to have enough to share with the developing fetus because most of the copper a calf needs for the first few months of life is absorbed before birth. It can be a slippery slope for a calf born with a copper deficiency to a copper-deficient cow because she also needs copper to produce high-quality colostrum. If colostrum quality is compromised, the calf likely won’t acquire a high level of passive immunity and because her milk won’t have enough copper to meet the newborn’s needs, its own developing immune system could suffer. A disease challenge like scours, or even cold stress could be deadly.

Fortunately, all of the calves Ganczar treated for scours that year survived, but it took a small army of supporters to pull them and him through a nightmarish two weeks that will haunt him for as long as he’s in the cow-calf business.

“It’s not unusual to have a bit of scours, but 2011 was insane. I had 32 calves on the ground and ended up treating 29 of them in a two-week period that April,” he recalls. “The youngest was five days old and the oldest was 30 days old. It was the type of scours that hits fast. You’d see a calf sucking and two hours later it would be down.”

Ganczar’s scours treatment protocol calls for administering CalfSpan sustained-release sulfamethazine tablets at the first sign of illness. If the calf quits sucking or goes down, then 28 Cattlemen / february 2013

Steve Ganczar he starts tubing it with an electrolyte product to combat dehydration and provide energy. If there’s not much improvement after three days, the next step is giving an injection of the antimicrobial Trivetrin.

The cost of treating that many calves is one thing, but the time and stress of keeping on top of the situation took a greater toll. He holds down a full-time job as loans officer at the Grandview Credit Union, which meant a 40-minute trek out to the farm and back at least once throughout the day to keep tabs on things, or whenever his right-hand man would call. That would be his mom, or dad if he wasn’t at work, too. Also in his corner were his understanding co-workers and clients, his good neighbour, Jack Bremner, an experienced rancher who was battling the same problem, and, of course Steinbachs.

Steinbachs says he likes to pay a visit to the farms that are experiencing scours outbreaks because it gives him an opportunity to really clue into aspects that could ease the situation. He generally looks at the feed, mineral program, calving area and sick-pen facilities.

He says the incidence of scours in the area was significantly higher in 2011 than in 2012, largely because of a lot of inclement weather that caused cattle to cluster together in sheltered areas where pathogens easily spread from calf to calf.

Everything was in order at Ganczar’s Plowboy Acres. The herd health program was up to date and the cows had been vaccinated with ScourBos before the start of calving to boost colostrum antibodies against scourscausing pathogens. Within 10 to 24 hours of birth, each calf receives an injection of vitamin A/D and vitamin E/selenium at the time of tagging and castration.

All but eight cows had calved and the pairs were bedded high and dry near portable windbreak fences out in the corn stubble pasture. There was a barn for use when needed and a sick pen for a half-dozen pairs.

There were no obvious mould or dust issues with the hay supply, though it’s common understanding that forage grown in the area is low in copper Continued on page 30 www.canadiancattlemen.ca

20

BEEF illustrated

What can you expect by putting Charolais bulls to work in your pasture?

Media created GM fears

U.K. consumers generally don't know "We should not, however, be afraid of some of the country's farmers use genetmaking the case to the public about the poin the soil and ofitsGM ramifications. duringgrades* periods of low copper intakeanimal to feed,ciency ically modified but once tential benefits beyond the food Continued from page 28 gains* • Improved carcass • Increased weight made they typicallyThat’s think thata good chain, for example, the use of pespart of reducing the reason he the required level in aware, the blood• Add 20% heterosis boost from crosssustain breeding* products derived from such livestock ticides and inputs such as diesel," he added. chooses a top-quality mineral product stream. Once the copper level in the because the sandy loam soils are copshould be clearly labeled, research by the No GM crops are currently being grown commercially in the aland has two mineral stations to U.K., ensure blood starts to drop, Food youStandards knowAgency the shows. per deficient.

Two-thirds of survey respondents said though the government has allowed it’s in frontsmall-scale of the animals all the time. liver stores are getting itvery low, SteinGanczar was supplying a top-qualwas very or quite important that it is cultivation trials, while imHe inmatches mineral formulation bachs explains. Liver biopsies more ity mineral and getting good consumpwritten onare a label if food itself or food ported the GM commodities are used mainly gredients are from a genetically and to a lesser tomodified the typefor ofanimal feed feed, throughout theextent yearin precise, but more invasive. tion, Steinbachs says, but of potential plant, or if food products are from animals some food products. and knows the cows and two bulls went concern given the scours situation and that have been fed them, the FSA said.

However, 66% of respondents to the through bags of mineral incrops 2011.

At copper-deficient soils, was the freeThe U.K. hasn't introduced any 50FSA survey thought GM are curscheme to indicate the absence GM in rently being grown by farmers in the 55of pounds a bag, consumption worked choice delivery method because there’s food and the research was commissioned U.K., with only 6% believing such a out labelto 2.87statement ounces a day yearnotround. really no way to know for sure whether to ensure the public's views about is false and 28% sure. ing were understood and represented.

Indeed, thegeneral FSA saidrecommenadditional inThat’s more than the each and every cow is consuming its Consumers still need to be reassured formation may be required to help redation of 1.5 to 2.0 ounces per head per daily requirement. Even if mineral is that GM food is a safe and beneficial induce any misunderstandings and concern day, but a bit to account for what mixed with grain, silage or in feed pelnovation, the country's farm minister said allows amongst participants, particularly reearlier this month. "GM needs to becalves congarding animal feed.during the the wouldGMconsume lets to ensure intake, copper deficiensidered in its proper overall context with This might be especially so if GM lasummer months. cies can still arise if other elements such a balanced understanding of the risks and beling became more widespread, it added, *Charolais Connection March 2012, page 10. Results based on Angus cowherd. says ifthe thento as molybdenum in the feed or sulphur benefits," Owen Paterson told the Steinbachs Oxford for example foodschallenge were to be labeled Farming Conference. the useto of increase GM animal feed...

To learn more the was to findshow a way the copSteinbachs drew samples on four in the water tie up the about copperCharolais so that itand what

Boluses cost him half of what it cost to treat scouring calves during the outbreak

Breed can do for you, call one of thesecalves breeders. per level in the diet. Some options that had been treated for scours can’t be absorbed. were to spray the forage with a copand four that hadn’t, which in essence Water tests taken every couple of CHOMIAK LETNIAK CHAROLAIS NISH CHAROLAIS CHAROLAIS Lawrence: (403) 575-0214 Burkeproblems & Jenny Nish in John W. & Cathie per amendment before baling, mix the represented eight pairs, or 20 per cent years didn’t indicate any Ron: 575-4183 Cardston, AB. PFRA, stay tuned.

Chomiak & Family mineral with the feed, order a custom of Mundare, the breeding herd of 40PFRA females.

All that Consort, regard. hadn’t been AB. Feed tests(403) 653-2956 AB. Community Pasture patron representatives from across Saskatchewan atWhite & Redthe Factor C: 653-7544 (780) 632-7108 mineral blend with higher consamples showed a moderate copper taken, but quickest way to identify tended a meeting last month to discuss transition of the PFRA andcopper proposed sale or Charolais Since 1966 jbnish@gmail.com C: (780) 945-1504 lease of these lands by the Province Saskatchewan to individual patron injecgroups. tent, orof copper boluses.

Copper deficiency. a copper issue is to test copper in Quality Service levels Guaranteed Ottawa's management of the PFRA pasture system will end in 2018, with transfer tions are approved for use in cattle in Ganczar says in the back of his the blood.

CO MAPLE LEAF CHAROLAIS REESE CATTLE of the first ten pastures to the Province of Saskatchewan scheduled for 2013.

Tom & CareyisStewart 780-352-5902 Barry & Simone the U.S.,Lyle butStewart not in Canada. mindReese he wasn’t really Saskatchewan surprised Minister with of Agriculture Copper stored in the liver when stated in August that the PFRA George Stewart (780) 352-4817 Didsbury, AB pastures would be sold at market valuefeeding with a preference to individual patron Force mineral with a supplethe results because from his agronomy the diet provides more copper than Falun, AB. (403) 870-3960 groups.

Stewart has since indicated some pastures are not suitable for purchase and Breeding Fullthen Frenchpulled Since 1966 to proposals be fed daily wasn’t practical for days he was aware of the defi-will alsoment required and from the liver that copper his department entertain to lease.

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Ganczar because of his full-time job, though he does mix the mineral with a bit of grain to see the herd through very cold snaps. Mixing it with the feed wasn’t an option either because they winter on hay then move to grazing corn from December 15 to the end of February. Calving starts March 5 and he sets out 10 hay bales in the corn stubble to carry them from weekend to weekend. He uses the corn stubble field specifically because it is cultivated every year to destroy pathogens.

The cost of ordering a small amount of a custom blend didn’t seem feasible and there was still no guarantee that all cows would consume their daily requirement.

That left copper boluses as the best solution in his situation. The boluses contain copper, selenium and magnesium within a substantial coating. An opening at one end allows the minerals to be released slowly over a period of six months to a year.

They are deposited into the rumen with a balling gun, which turned out to be less of a chore than Ganczar had

anticipated. It only takes 10 seconds or so per cow and he does it in November when they have to go through the chute for parasite treatment anyway.

The boluses cost $14.70 apiece including taxes, which worked out to $588 for his herd, or about half of what it cost him for electrolytes and medications to treat the scouring calves during the outbreak. He noticed a savings on the loose mineral cost as well because consumption dropped by about six bags last winter.

Steinbachs adds a note of caution.

Though copper toxicity is rare in cattle, it can happen, and the copper levels recommended for cattle can be toxic to other types livestock, particularly sheep, so you need to work closely with your veterinarian on a copper supplementation plan if you suspect a deficiency. Some indications are copper-deficient soils, general poor growth and an increase in illness. An obviB:8.625” sign is a reddish ous and fairly reliable tinge in the hair coat of black animals.

T:8.125” “It’s only been a year with the S:7” boluses, but I think I’m seeing benefits

of copper supplementation,” Ganczar says. “My 2012 calving season was amazing — no scours even though the weather wasn’t great again, the cows cleaned out faster than ever before, I had the best calves I ever produced and excellent sale results.”

The cows received copper boluses again this past fall, and he has made a couple other changes as well. He purchased a bale probe to take proper samples for feed testing and, through participating in the Verified Beef Production program, was able to construct a large all-steel quarantine pen.

Ganczar has regained his confidence and is really glad the whole experience didn’t end up with him selling out. It had crossed his mind several times that year because his best attempts to do right by his animals didn’t seem like enough. “According to my vet and my research, I was doing everything right and yet I was still living a nightmare,” he says. “A copper deficiency can ruin your farm financially, but to me, more importantly, mentally.”

C — Debbie Furber

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HOLISTIC RANCHING

Breeding/calving dates

I

s there a best date for breeding cows? The first response to this question might be “no.”

Since each operation is unique and different how could there be a best date that fits everyone? With more reflection we might change our response to “yes” there is a best date that fits everyone. I suggest that the best date to breed cows is when the cows are most likely to produce a profit.

I hope you will read and reflect on this article no matter when you breed your cows. I am presenting my ideas.

I believe they are right for my operation. They may or may not fit your operation. The important thing is to figure out your costs and your best breeding date. Don’t fool yourself. It is easy to get stuck in a rut and always do things in the same manner. We are all subject to peer pressure. Are you doing what’s best or what is the accepted norm in your area? When was the last time you figured out the difference in profitability for early or late breeding in your business? Is it possible that a change might benefit you? Wouldn’t it be great to analyze your business? Depending on the results you might maintain the status quo or you might choose to change.

Either way your decision would be backed up with your numbers. Is there any better way to make decisions?

Now the challenge arises. How do we assess different breeding dates and compare the profitability? Are there any clues in nature that might help us? Yes there are. When we observe nature we soon realize that the wild ruminants like deer, moose, elk and antelope usually have their young born in late May and June.

Why do these wild animals reproduce at this time of the year?

There are three likely reasons: 1. A higher conception rate (better nutrition).

2. A higher survival rate in the offspring (more favourable weather).

3. A higher rebreeding percentage (better nutrition).

34 CATTLEMEN / FEBRUARY 2013

These three points are all directly related to profit. A herd with a high conception rate, a high survival rate in the calves and a high rebreeding percentage is likely to be profitable.

In today’s agriculture we operate under two main paradigms. One is the production paradigm. This is strongly supported and encouraged by agribusiness, universities and government extension. It basically says, “produce at a high level, the higher the better and hope there will be some profit.” This paradigm says, “wow my calves weighed 600, 700 or 800 pounds, I must be doing a good job.” It never asks the essential question, “did my cows make a profit?” The other paradigm is the profit paradigm. This paradigm encourages us to analyze our individual businesses and to produce at a level that will make us profitable. The highest level of production will not be the most profitable. Which paradigm do you operate under? I encourage

you to consider the profit paradigm.

I believe you are too important to use any other paradigm.

Let’s return to the breeding date question and look at the advantage and disadvantages of early or late breeding.

It appears to me that a finished steer from a late-breeding herd that utilizes the long yearling phase will have a lower total cost than a similar steer from an early-breeding herd that utilizes a long finishing period.

Which of these two options is most likely to be profitable?

Things look good as we head into 2013. I hope you breed your cows when they will produce a profit for you. Happy trails.

— Don Campbell Don Campbell ranches with his family at Meadow Lake, Sask., and teaches Holistic Management courses. He can be reached at 306-236-6088 or doncampbell@sasktel.net.

ADVANTAGES EARLY BREEDING

LATE BREEDING

1. An opportunity to have the calves finished and ready for sale in the spring market which has tended to be strong over the years.

1. A lower investment in facilities.

2. A heavier calf to market in the fall which will result in more dollars per cow. This may or may not mean more profit.

2. Lower feed costs.

Marketing calves in the spring has been excellent in some years but the spring market isn’t always the highest. Does the extra cost cover the extra expense? The second point to remember is that while early breeding will give you a heavier calf on a given date (say Nov. 15) it doesn’t increase the weight per day of age of your calf. Have you considered the possibility of breeding later, weaning the calf and backgrounding to whatever weight you desire? Which of these options might be most profitable?

3. A lower death loss (calves).

4. Decreased labour.

5. Lower health costs.

6. More market flexibility (option to market calves, backgrounded calves or long yearlings).

DISADVANTAGES EARLY BREEDING

LATE BREEDING

1. A higher investment in facilities.

1. A lighter calf to market in the fall which will result in less dollars per cow. This may or may not mean less profit.

2. Higher feed costs.

3. A higher death loss (calves).

4. Increased labour.

5. Higher health costs.

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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RESEARCH

A painful subject

C

anada’s Code of Practice for feeling. Anesthetics (e.g. Lidocaine) help to reduce the pain the Care and Handling of of surgery, but wear off relatively quickly and are challengBeef Cattle lays out indusing to use. They need to be injected very carefully and pretry’s expectations about how cisely around the horn base or in the scrotum, so they may cattle should be managed to ensure require more restraint so that the person with the needle they are well cared for throughout doesn’t accidentally inject him- or herself. Analgesics their lives. This has value in explaining (Metacam, Anafen and Banamine) may be a better option and defending our industry to regulafor producers. These don’t eliminate all feeling, but do tors and the public. Canada’s current reduce the pain that occurs after the surgery. They can be code was developed over 20 years ago, injected intramuscularly and last longer than anesthetics. and industry practices, scientific knowledge and public Most of the research into pain control for castrainterest in the welfare of livestock have evolved considertion and dehorning has been done in dairy calves that ably since then. A new, updated draft Code of Practice is were weaned at birth, or in feedlot calves. Little or no available for public comment until March 8. research has been done in young beef calves in a herd The new draft code makes a much stronger stateenvironment. No one knows whether the relief that beef ment about dehorning and castration. The current code calves get when they return to their mothers and nurse recommends that producers castrate and dehorn at an may also help to eliminate pain-associated behaviours. early age, preferably before weaning, taking all precauThe benefit of analgesic drugs with different methods of tions to avoid unnecessary pain during the surgery and castration (bands versus surgical) is also unknown. This suffering during recovery. The new draft requires that is important, because the chronic pain associated with producers disbud calves as early as practically possible, banding is believed to last much longer (weeks) than the preferably while horn development is still at the horn drug (hours). Some experiments are studying the benefits bud stage. After this, producers will of in-feed analgesics, but this won’t be required to take steps, in conhelp with nursing calves on pasture. sultation with their veterinarian, to The BCRC plans to fund some mitigate pain. Similarly, it requires Common sense tells us research with Dr. Karen Schwartzthat calves be castrated before the kopf-Genswein to gather physiologage of three months wherever prac- that these operations ical, behavioural and performance tically possible, and the use of pain data in beef calves (castrated surgihurt, but pain is hard control, in consultation with your cally, with bands, or uncastrated) veterinarian, when castrating bulls to measure, especially at zero, 60 or 120 days of age in older than nine months of age. a production environment. The Producers who castrate and in prey species impact of providing an analgesic (or dehorn before two to three months not) will also be studied, as well as of age won’t be affected by this how animal responses are impacted change. These procedures are much less invasive in when calves are branded at the same time. Followup young animals. The wound is smaller, there is considmeasurements on calves from each group will assess the erably less blood loss, and young calves recover more long-term impacts of these procedures and medications. quickly. There is also evidence that these operations The results of this research will help to inform future may be less painful in young calves. revisions to the code.

Common sense tells us that these operations hurt, but Please read the draft Code at http://www.nfacc.ca/ pain is hard to measure. This is especially true in prey codes-of-practice/beef-cattle and give your feedback species like cattle. Predators target very young, old, sick before March 8, 2013. Comments are open to the genor injured animals, so prey species have evolved to be eral public, so it is critical that producer voices are also “stoic.” If it hurts, try not to show it, and hope the wolf heard. chooses someone else. Dr. Karen Schwartzkopf-GensVisit www.beefresearch.ca for more information wein (AAFC Lethbridge) and Joe Stookey (University of about Beef Cattle Research Council activities funded Saskatchewan) have used squeeze chutes equipped with through the national checkoff. strain gauges to measure how intensely animals struggle The Beef Research Cluster is funded by the Canadian during castration as an indicator of acute, immediate Cattlemen’s Association and Agriculture and Agri-Food pain. Chronic, long-term pain is much harder to meaCanada to advance research and technology transfer sure. Researchers have found that dehorned calves do supporting the Canadian beef industry’s vision to be recmore head rubbing, head shaking and ear flicking than ognized as a preferred supplier of healthy, high-quality calves that have not been dehorned. Castrated calves beef, cattle and genetics. stand, move and lie differently than calves that have not — Reynold Bergen been castrated. These measurements are not perfect.

Anesthetic and analgesic drugs can help control pain.

Reynold Bergen is the science director of Beef Cattle Research Anesthetic drugs (like freezing at a dentist) eliminate all Council.

36 CATTLEMEN / FEBRUARY 2013

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

management

RANCHERS NEED TO CONSIDER LIABILITY

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s we go about our daily routines on the farm we rarely think about liability until something happens. Then suddenly everyone is consulting the insurance policies and the arguments begin about how it happened and whose fault it was.

“It’s when we have incurred a loss or some kind of damage that everyone starts talking about what to do and that’s not the time to do it,” says John Stewart, who practises commercial law and is a partner with D’Arcy and Deacon LLP in Winnipeg. “Once the incident has occurred you are liable for what the law will hold you responsible for.”

Liability is defined as a legal responsibility to another or to society, explained Stewart in a talk to Manitoba ranchers on keys areas of liability that producers should take into consideration when planning a risk management strategy for their ranch.

Make sure you know what you have.

It’s important to make sure that you have a good inventory of what is on the ranch at any given time, says Stewart. Make a complete list of all your equipment, inventory and property and the condition and state of all the equipment and buildings, which should also be properly valued.

“You’d be shocked by the number of people who phone our office when a loss has occurred and don’t have a good idea of how much fence they had or what type of facility they had,” says Stewart.

Everything on your farm and land should be properly insured and there should be a provision for extraordinary expenses that could be incurred.

“You need to make sure that your policy addresses all the items you own and covers any losses you might incur if you were unable to keep operating, such as other arrangements to look after livestock while you repair or rebuild,” says Stewart.

Preserve the evidence As soon as a loss or damage has occurred the most important thing is to preserve the evidence. Don’t wait a few days until the snow has covered 38 Cattlemen / February 2013

John Stewart it or the rain has washed it away. Go out quickly to the location of the incident and take along an independent third party — like a neighbour or someone other than family or a close friend — who will be able to verify your information and confirm that you were there and saw what happened or what was left. Take lots of pictures and/or a video at the site and if the camera has a date stamp feature use it and make sure it’s set to the correct date.

Make sure you keep detailed records and documentation about any costs or expenses that you had to incur to repair or replace something because of the incident. You will need to provide all this information to the insurance company, so make sure it’s detailed, legible and organized. It’s probably a good idea to write down a chronology of what happened right away, so if six months later someone asks what happened you have a record. “The biggest problem is evidence is lost and memories fade, so you have conflicting versions of what happened,” says Stewart.

“As a result, insurance companies can be reluctant to pay out.”

When you are liable If you’re the one who causes the damage or loss to someone else the procedures are the same, but in reverse.

Firstly, make sure if anyone is injured they are looked after and that everything has calmed down and things are stabilized.

Notify your insurer as soon as possible and don’t start negotiating or talking about what happened with anybody else. “Your job is to buy the insurance policy, not to act as an insurance adjuster,” says Stewart. If you decide to start negotiating or getting into discussions with people who may have been damaged by your actions, your insurance company has the right to walk away from you as a client, because you are obviously dealing with it on your own. “Be sure that you understand what your insurance policy allows you to do,” says Stewart.

Preserve the evidence and keep documentation just as you would if the damage had been done to you or your farm. “Make sure everything has been adequately documented so you can remember it and show the losses that www.canadiancattlemen.ca

occurred and where you think they came from,” says Stewart.

Liability with employees Generally you are strictly liable for any damage that one of your employees causes, so it’s important to make sure that you have insurance covering every aspect of the job that employees may perform for you both on and off the farm. That means if an employee is hauling cattle to the U.S. as part of the job he is doing for you, you must make sure that he has a valid licence and the vehicle he is driving is properly insured, because you can be held liable if he gets into an accident.

On the other hand, if an employee isn’t in your employment at the time something happens you aren’t liable for his actions.

It’s a good idea to give all employees a complete job description and make sure they get the proper instruction and training they need to perform the duties you ask of them. This also helps with another area of liability, which is injury to an employee whilst on the job.

Having an employee benefits package with disability and life insurance, as well as other benefits like dental or health plans will certainly help if something goes wrong. In Manitoba one of the best liability protections in the event that an employee gets seriously injured, is coverage through the Workers Compensation Board (WCB).

There’s often a lot of misunderstanding about WCB coverage, says Stewart, but it’s designed to protect the employer, not the employee. “If you bring yourself under the WCB the employee is not able to sue you and there is no liability to you. It is 100 per cent taken care of by the WCB,” says Stewart.

WCB coverage in Manitoba is not a requirement and many producers are reluctant to deal with the paperwork, but as operations become more complex, producers have a lot of protection available to them through the WCB Act and should seriously consider it, says Stewart. “By not having employees covered under WCB you could be subject to a liability that could be much bigger than you think,” he adds.

Staying on the right side of CRA Another liability that you need to consider is associated with whether you call the people who work for you www.canadiancattlemen.ca

employees or private contractors. If you have employees Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) expects you to fill out monthly employee remittance statements and send it to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Employment Insurance (EI) and Income Tax deductions against each employee’s wages.

To avoid doing that some employers say that the people who work for them are actually private contractors

and they simply pay them for their services and don’t remit any employee deductions.

According to CRA guidelines, if a person is working for an employer on a regular basis, if that employer is his or her main source of revenue, if that person works for the same employer for a majority of the time, and that employer Continued on page 40

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Cattlemen / February 2013 39

Continued from page 39

decides when that person comes to work and goes home and gives instructions of what to do on a day-to-day basis, that person is an employee.

If someone is a contractor they are offering a contract “for services” rather than “of service.” For example, if someone comes to your ranch to trim hooves and then leaves, and that person also goes to lots of other farms and provides the same service, that person is a private contractor.

“If you try and claim that people are independent contractors who are actually employees you create liability with CRA,” says Stewart. “If you don’t remit employee deductions that are due and the employee doesn’t pay his or her taxes, CRA can come after you for those unpaid taxes. And they will win 100 per cent of the time.”

Make sure, cautions Stewart, that you are treating employees in accordance with the regulations to protect yourself from these liabilities.

Liability from animals The owner of an animal that causes damage or injury to people or property is strictly liable for that damage.

So if your cows get loose and cause a car accident, you are liable. Generally, says Stewart, people in Western Canada don’t tend to be very litigious, especially in these circumstances, but the same can’t be said for insurers.

Autopac in Manitoba has recently started suing producers to recover the costs to repair vehicles in accidents involving animals.

You should make sure that your insurance policy adequately addresses any scenarios that could occur with your animals and to do that you need to keep your insurance agent up to date about any changes to the operation. “Herds vary in numbers and sometimes the insurance company isn’t aware of how any animals you have, where they are and who they belong to,” says Stewart. “You need to review this with your insurance agent to make sure, if you have an issue with these animals, that you are fully covered.”

If you are commingling cattle with a neighbour you also need to make sure that both of you have additional insurance to cover anything that might happen whilst those cattle are on either one’s property.

The same thing can apply to 40 Cattlemen / February 2013

machinery or equipment that belongs to someone else that is being stored or fixed on your property. Make sure that person is named as an additional insured party on your policy so you are covered if something happens to that equipment while it’s on your farm.

The same applies in reverse if your equipment is at a neighbour’s yard.

Make sure his policy covers you for any losses or damage that might be incurred to your machinery whilst it’s on his property.

The owner of an animal that causes damage or injury to people or property is strictly liable for that damage Protect your assets In agriculture whenever producers make a new investment they tend to make the same investments in the same industries, because that’s the nature of the business they are in. That often means that every time a producer starts a new venture or expands the operation he tends to always bet with all of the assets he owns.

It’s a key difference between rural and urban businesses. In the city if someone starts a restaurant and it’s really successful and they decide to start a second restaurant, instead of having the second restaurant owned by the same company and owner, they usually establish a second company owned by someone else. If the second restaurant flops the first company has no responsibility for the second company’s liabilities. “They have separated things out to protect the first company,” explains Stewart.

Farms and ranches have not traditionally structured things in the same way, because producers are not often thinking about liability, but they should be, says Stewart. “In May 2003 (when the BSE crisis began) people who had 2,000 steers on feed and had been used to a $1.5-million line of credit suddenly found those animals worth a 10th of what they were the day before and yet they had all the same liabilities.”

As optimism is returning to the cattle industry, which is starting to stabilize and make some financial progress, producers need to think about liability and what risk management strategies they can use to minimize their exposure and protect their assets and livelihoods in the event that something goes wrong. “If the operation becomes successful and you make some equity and you have an opportunity to set aside some assets separately, that would be one way of managing risk that ranchers haven’t always thought of in the past,” says Stewart.

It’s smart to minimize taxes by taking new members of the family into the operations, but it’s also smart to separate out some portions of the operations to help protect them. “Maybe a cow-calf operation is in the wife’s name and a feeder operation is in the husband’s name and they are not connected to each other,” says Stewart.

“In the event that you have a catastrophe like BSE you will be able to select which of the two operations has the majority of the assets, like land and buildings, and focus on saving that operation, rather than something which has inventory that is worth very little and debts that are worth a lot.”

Although this kind of thinking hasn’t been popular in rural Western Canada in the past, especially among generational farmers who take great pride in the longevity of their farms, it’s a legal instrument that is there to protect against things that are sometimes just beyond their control. “When you finally get to the point where you can no longer pay the debts that ordinarily come due, or where the value of your assets is not equal to your liabilities, the law offers you some protection and it doesn’t necessarily require you to throw in everything that you and your family have worked for over the last 40 years as a result of some incident like the outbreak of BSE,” says Stewart.

C — Angela Lovell

What does strictly liable mean?

Strict Liability is a concept applied by the courts or imposed by a statute that holds a person absolutely responsible for damages without proving carelessness or fault.

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

BUILDING TRUST IN CANADIAN BEEF

B.C.’s Dominion Creek Ranch builds on BIXS, VBP The goal is to be market ready for the years ahead Look closely and you will see the future of a lot of Canadian beef-producing families in the face of Dominion Creek Ranch at Heffley Creek, B.C. It’s an established cow-calf ranching operation with a solid production history.

It’s a multi-generational family operation anchored today by Leroy and Bernadine Peters, Leroy’s parents, Betty and Norm Peters, and two grandchildren who hope to be the next generation running the ranch. While cattle are the anchor business unit, it’s multi-enterprise with sheep, pigs and poultry, locally sold meats to even out annual income flows. It’s market driven and it’s growing.

But perhaps the biggest indication this family ranch wants to survive and prosper is their commitment to use the latest information management systems. They have a practical, useful management and

recording-keeping system for today and the future. They are also Verified Beef Production (VBP) audited, and are linked to the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association’s Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS).

Records drive this business Records have always driven the ranch management program so extension into VBP and most recently, BIXS, is a natural fit says Bernadine, who oversees ranch record-keeping.

Manual records complement computerized ones. Paper records kept on chuteside clipboards in the tack and medical room, are transferred to a computerized system. It’s a system that fits ranch needs.

Paper records provide a backup if there is a power outage and are easier for people not as comfortable with computers.

“Things happen handling cattle and a clipboard can take a lot of abuse, so our paper records are our backup,” says Bernadine. “On computer we can easily compare what a cow has produced over the past four years or whether she has been treated for foot rot or other health issues.”

Weighing provides precise measures of production. Cattle are weighed when they go to range and again when they come back. This has paid benefits in that animal health treatments such as pour-on parasite controls, can be weight specific.

What BIXS brings The Peters family of Dominion Creek Ranch, Heffley Creek, B.C.

Programs such as BIXS are not much extra work and potential benefits are “pretty amazing,” says Bernadine.

“With BIXS, we put data in and we’ll receive information back on how our cattle perform when they leave our place right through the feedlot to the processing floor. We track our cattle by family lines so we are particularly interested in how various lines are performing.”

BIXS also does things like uploading to age verification automatically for you.

Looking forward, there is the option to list cattle for sale on BIXS. That could be a powerful way to link performance data with buyer need.

Overcome obstacles One thing that has characterized Dominion Creek Ranch’s approach to these new systems is a willingness to get past initial challenges.

Their mountain location meant unpredictable cellphone coverage and Internet availability, so they’ve introduced satellite Internet, working around data transfer issues with different phone options.

There are limitations in record-keeping systems out there and we know we are not quite there with meeting our needs, says Bernadine. They hope to see recordkeeping systems of the future more able to “talk” to each other seamlessly.

“For us a key is we are advancing with the technology,” she says. “There are only so many costs you can cut so you need to use technology to shave a few cents off production costs, produce the product you are proud of and capture market advantage.”

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N u t r i t i o n

by John McKinnon John.mckinnon@usask.ca

Water: An undervalued nutrient John McKinnon is a beef cattle nutritionist at the University of Saskatchewan

W

ater is a commodity that we tend to ignore, unless supply is short or its taste is unfit for man or beast!

From time to time however, it is important that we remind ourselves that water is an essential nutrient that is required by all mammals. It plays a vital role in many metabolic and physiological functions including blood flow, energy metabolism and muscle function. In addition, water quality as defined by its mineral, bacterial and potential toxin content can directly and indirectly impact the nutritional and health status of cattle.

Water consumption varies with age and type of animal, the physiological state (dry versus lactating), the environment and to some extent by the ration fed. With dry beef cows, typical intakes can range from 40 to 55 litres per day, while lactating beef cows may consume 65 litres or more. Likewise, feeder cattle will typically consume 25 to 40 litres per day, depending on stage of growth and weather. Ensuring adequate water intake is an important aspect of facility design, as reduced water intake is associated with reduced dry matter intakes and gains.

Typical water sources include ground and surface water. Quality issues vary with the source.

From a groundwater perspective, one of the most important nutritional issues relating to quality is its sulphur content. Sulphur is required by cattle at relatively low levels (i.e. 0.15 per cent of dry matter). In water, sulphur is generally found as sulphate, an oxidized form of sulphur. High water sulphate levels while contributing to the animal’s need for this mineral can also negatively influence its health and productivity. Ingested sulphur will interact in the gut with trace minerals such as copper and zinc and other elements such as molybdenum to form complexes that interfere with mineral absorption. As a result, the animal can become deficient in specific trace minerals, a situation that is further compromised if mineral intake is marginal. Sulphur-induced copper deficiency is well documented with symptoms ranging from rough, off-colour hair coats, lameness, poor growth rates and issues with reproduction. High-sulphate water has also been linked with an increased incidence of polioencephalomalacia (polio), a disease which can be fatal to cattle.

Canadian guidelines for livestock water quality indicate that sulphate levels should not exceed 1,000 mg per litre (mg/l). This value

42 Cattlemen / February 2013

should be interpreted with caution, as it is necessary to consider total sulphur intake not just that from the feed or water. The National Research Council (1996) recommends a maximum dietary sulphur concentration of 0.4 per cent (dry matter basis). While there is some uncertainty around this value, the following example shows how quickly it can be approached even with relatively high-quality water. Consider a 600-kg cow consuming 12 kg of grass hay and 45 litres of water.

If the hay contains 0.1 per cent sulphur and the water is at 500 mg/l sulphate, her total sulphur intake is 34 grams per day (12 from feed and 22 from water) or 0.29 per cent of dry matter intake, a value above her requirement but below the recommended maximum. However, double these values in the hay and the water and total daily sulphur intake would increase to 69 grams or 0.58 per cent of dry matter intake.

In such a situation where sulphur intake cannot be maintained within acceptable levels, nutritional strategies may need to be employed to minimize performance and health issues. For example, to minimize issues with copper deficiency, proper trace mineral nutrition is a must.

This includes attention to year-round mineral feeding and possibly the strategic feeding of chelated minerals. To minimize issues with polio, thiamine may be included in the diet.

A second water quality issue is the nitrate and nitrite concentration of the water. Cattle are susceptible to nitrate poisoning which occurs when rumen bacteria convert nitrates in the feed and water to nitrites. Once absorbed, nitrites reduce the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood and in severe situations death occurs.

In water for livestock, recommended maximum concentrations are 100 mg/l for nitrate (plus nitrite) and 10 mg/l for nitrite. Knowledge of water nitrate levels is particularly important when feeding high nitrate feeds.

While sulphates and nitrates tend to top the list when it comes to issues associated with groundwater quality, there are a number of other potential quality concerns including salinity (total dissolved solids), alkalinity, pH, hardness, bacterial contamination and the concentration of individual chemical elements such as arsenic, lead, copper and iron. While groundwater quality tends to remain relatively constant over time, it is always a good idea to have your water tested on an annual or biennial basis and to go over the results with your nutritionist. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

VET ADVICE

Helping old friends die — Part 2

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hose involved in raising animals destined for food recognize disease and accidents are unfortunate realities and that euthanasia under these circumstances becomes a necessity. When end-of-life decisions must be made it’s important that they be carried out in a safe and humane fashion.

Euthanasia is geared to irreversibly obliterate awareness, sensibility and consciousness by disrupting functions of the cerebral cortex and brain stem. The capacity to breathe is lost; cardiac arrest follows. Important cranial nerve reflexes like the corneal reflex, palpebral (eyelid) reflex, pupillary reflex to light, pedal and anal reflex are lost and can be used to assess the level of unconsciousness. Veterinarians can help producers understand how to measure and assess these important reflex activities and ultimately verify death.

In contemplating euthanasia the veterinarian and client must consider the peripheral issues of economics, potential salvage, food safety, welfare, law, human and animal safety, and appropriate disposal of animal carcasses. But ultimately the goal is to humanely induce death with a minimum of pain, fear and distress.

Most commodity groups have incorporated euthanasia in published codes of practice. Though an important first step, a considerable void remains relevant to critical thinking about the issue of euthanasia. David Adams, in a paper delivered on “The biology of euthanasia and humane slaughter” at the International Animal Welfare Conference in Queensland, Australia (2008) put it in perspective: “Applied ethics in the case of animal euthanasia requires the systematic application of informed, structured and disciplined thought in circumstances that impinge on animal distress and suffering.

There is always the backdrop of ethical issues that need to be addressed and, ultimately, life and death decisions made that will be judged appropriate.”

There remains abundant room for ambiguity. On one side there is almost universal consensus that suffering animals should be euthanized. Yet the concept of suffering is ambiguous. Most producers consider livestock as assets.

Some take liberty with the interpretation of welfare that collides with the belief of those with no connection to the economics of animal production. In particular, there are serious questions about the euthanasia of unwanted animals, of animals whose owners cannot afford veterinary bills, or the mass destruction of animals — especially when the premise for disease control is more political convenience than sound science.

An institutional culture of respect for animal life is critically important in livestock operations. Respect for animal life and the philosophy of compassion described in most guidelines dealing with animal euthanasia should guide the actions of owners and staff. It starts with written, clearly communicated instructions on animal care, up to and including euthanasia. Staff at all levels must be aware of how end-of-life decisions are made and who is responsible for making them.

If veterinarians are not directly involved in performing euthanasia, staff must be properly trained.

Choosing the appropriate method of euthanasia requires consideration of:

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• Human safety The method to be used should not put anyone at unnecessary risk. The potential ricochet of a bullet, reaction of other animals in confined situations and the unpredictability of a falling or thrashing animal must be considered.

• Species and age of animal • Animal welfare Animal behaviour and location often limit the choice of euthanasia methods.

• Restraint Each method requires a differing amount of restraint.

Personnel should be skilled in handling animals in an empathetic and firm manner to minimize pain and distress. For example, administration of barbiturate or use of a captive bolt gun requires direct physical contact with the animal, whereas firearms do not. Availability of cattle chutes or other forms of restraint may make certain forms of euthanasia more practical than others.

• Practicality The situation at hand will dictate the choice of euthanasia method. Euthanasia of a moribund calf in a dairy barn versus euthanasia of a fractious feedlot animal badly injured in a trailer rollover call for very different approaches.

• Skill All methods require some degree of skill or training to administer correctly. Animal owners, auction market employees, livestock transporters, and law enforcement personnel should be aware of, and appropriately trained in, at least one emergency euthanasia method.

• Cost Some methods require a larger initial investment (e.g., firearms and penetrating captive bolt gun), but are relatively inexpensive to use thereafter.

• Esthetics Some methods appear less objectionable to the untrained eye. Use of barbiturates for lethal injection, for example, may appear more pleasing than firearms. Trained individuals should be prepared to explain differences to untrained individuals observing the act of euthanasia.

• Diagnostics The need for diagnostic tissue may become an important consideration. In the event of highly infectious diseases, contamination of premises with blood and tissue during the act of euthanasia or disposal of the carcass needs to be considered.

• Targets Understanding the anatomy of the skull and relationship of the brain stem and cerebral cortex to anatomical landmarks is critical. Understanding firearms, choice of calibre, use of penetrating and non-penetrating captive bolts is especially important. Veterinarians and others experienced in euthanasia should be consulted. Published guidelines can be important aids.

Dr. Ron Clarke prepares this column on behalf of the Western Canadian Association of Bovine Practitioners. Suggestions for future articles can be sent to CANADIAN CATTLEMEN (gren@fbcpublishing.com) or WCABP (info@wcabp.com).

CATTLEMEN / FEBRUARY 2013 43

C C A

T Martin Unrau is president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association

r e p o r t s

he new year has started off in a promising direction, with JBS Food Canada, Inc., the Canadian subsidiary of JBS USA, completing the transaction to purchase select Canadian assets of XL Foods Inc. The new ownership will ensure feeders and producers have another buyer for their cattle, while providing consumers with a steady supply of safe, high-quality Canadian beef. The plant can now work towards normalizing capacity which in turn will help to restore normalcy to Canada’s beef cattle industry.

Growing Forward 2 (GF2) is another area where it is no longer business as usual for industry, with three new programs set to begin April 1, 2013. The AgriInnovation, AgriMarketing, and AgriCompetitiveness programs complement the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) key priorities of research and innovation, competitiveness and market development.

Industry’s ability to compete domestically and internationally is dependent on research and marketing. A united approach in support of these core areas would maximize the ability to leverage industry funding with government dollars to ensure that adequate investments are directed to outcomes that address industry priorities.

The programs ensure continuous funding for important programs like the Beef Science Cluster which allows industry to partner with the federal government to seek advancements in areas such as improved feed efficiency, improved feed, forage and grassland productivity, reduced animal health and welfare concerns, and ensure food safety.

The Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC), which is funded by the National Checkoff (NCO), plays an important role in identifying the industry’s research and development priorities and influencing public-sector investment in beef cattle research.

The BCRC plays an equally crucial role in leveraging revenue for beef cattle research using industry contributions made through the NCO to secure dollars from other funding organizations, primarily government. Every NCO dollar directed to the BCRC for research was matched by six AAFC dollars during the first cluster.

Every checkoff dollar invested in national research programs delivers an average return of $46 in producer benefits.

As a leader in the development of a National Beef Research Strategy, the BCRC encourages collaboration and co-ordination among researchers, funding agencies and industry to maximize the benefits from all investments in beef cattle research. The intent of the strategy is to improve efficiencies, ensure all of industry’s research priorities are adequately addressed, strengthen future funding requests from industry to federal and provincial governments, and support and encourage rapid commercial adoption of new technologies to sustain competitive advantage.

The value of investment in beef research

44 Cattlemen / February 2013

by Martin Unrau

will help Canada’s industry to meet global food demand, which is expected to double by 2050.

Meeting this increased need will require a 1.75 per cent increase in productivity per year. Currently productivity is increasing by 1.4 per cent per year. The ability to responsibly meet the increasing global demand for food is in part dependent on the strategic and collaborative investment in applied research that will help to maintain or improve competitiveness in the production of beef cattle by examining issues related to animal health, feed efficiency and feed grain and forage production.

Looking back is often the best argument for continuing to push forward. Feed to gain (live weight gain) was 10:1 in the 1950s. Today it’s 6:1. Another one per cent increase in feed to gain would save the feedlot industry $11.1 million.

Average daily gain has improved over the past 50 years from 1.75 lbs. to 3.2 lbs. on average in finishing feedlots. Using the same technologies today as those in the 1950s would require 45 million acres more land to produce the same amount of beef (that’s roughly the size of Alberta).

These and other advancements in production efficiencies have helped support the Canadian Beef Advantage, by supporting the value proposition that Canadian beef is a high-quality, safe, responsibly produced product deemed superior over our competitors by consumers.

These productivity and efficiency increases have clear implications for environmental sustainability.

Improvements in feed efficiency and shortening the required number of days needed to finish fed cattle reduces the amount of methane and manure produced and resources used per pound of beef.

Improvements in forage and grassland productivity lead to several environmental benefits, including increased carbon sequestration, improved wildlife habitat, contribute to biodiversity, help maintain watersheds, and reduce soil erosion.

Innovation has taken on an increasingly important role in industry competitiveness. The Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS) remains an important piece going forward. The Computer Vision System camera-derived data in BIXS includes such economically important information as hot carcass weight, yields and quality grades, marbling scores, rib-eye areas and more. This information is only available to registered BIXS users on the animals they have submitted data on in the system. BIXS is presently funded through AAFC’s Agricultural Flexibility Fund.

Now is the time to maximize on the opportunities by ensuring that industry has stable, consistent funding that will ensure government is at the table to invest in these activities. Yet the focus of too many industry partners is on who decides the direction of industry funding. Industry needs to focus on what’s important. Pulling together to enable the funds for research and marketing to realize their full potential is a step in the right direction. www.canadiancattlemen.ca

PRO-CHAR CHAROLAIS ND 2 ANNUAL BULL SALE

Sunday, February 24, 2013 • 1:30 P.M. • At the Farm, Glenevis, AB Offering: 35 2 1 14

Yearlings Long Yearlings Two year old Simmental Yearlings

Guest consignors Triangle Stock Farm Vance, Michelle, Cheyenne and Colbey Klepper Stony Plain, AB

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Johnson Charolais Herb, Brenda, Stephen and Joel Johnson Barrhead, AB

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T: 780.665.3450 • C: 780.932.1654 E: prochar@xplornet.ca • www.prochar.ca

Contact us for a catalogue or view the catalogue online at www.prochar.ca

P r i m e

c u t s

by Steve Kay

Beef’s uphill battle A North American view of the meat industry.

Steve Kay is publisher and editor of Cattle Buyers Weekly

B

eef faces an uphill battle, at least in the from 2012 while pork production might be down U.S., in capturing consumers’ dollars this 1.7 per cent. However, USDA’s latest Hogs and year. Shrinking U.S. cattle numbers and Pigs report showed the pork industry still has a overall beef supplies will force retail and large pig crop despite high feed costs, and that food-service beef prices higher again in 2013 and hog numbers are larger than analysts expected. keep them at record levels. Meanwhile, beef will In fact, productivity gains might mean about the face larger pork supplies than expected. same number of hogs slaughtered and pork proThe key question is how high beef prices can duced this year as last. go without forcing consumers away from beef.

Americans will still eat a lot more beef than Forecasts that U.S. retail prices will be five per pork this year because the pork industry exports cent higher this year come on top of a 5.6 per far more of its production than does the beef cent increase in 2012 (basis USDA’s All Beef price industry. But pork remains historically cheap at series). The big issue is whether the economy retail relative to beef and this differential is likely will improve enough to put more discretionary to widen in 2013. income in consumers’ pockets, which would Retailers will also have to find even more allow them to afford higher-priced beef. inventive ways to deal with beef cuts that are The U.S. has for now the biggest and heaviest avoided the so-called fisin history. Overall carcass cal cliff. But major finanweights averaged a record cial issues remain and Americans will still eat 802 pounds the week will likely dominate the a lot more beef than ended October 6 last year U.S. economy this year. and have scarcely declined Besides, the last-second pork this year… but pork since then. Such weights deal allows for payroll would have been unimagitaxes to increase, which remains historically cheap nable 10 years ago and will reduce consumer at retail relative to beef can be attributed to several discretionary income, factors, including: producand this differential is say analysts. tivity gains from ranch Retailers for years to the feedlot; the widehave used aggressive beef likely to widen in 2013 spread use of two betafeatures to attract shopagonists, which add up to pers into their stores. But the 2008-09 recession 35 pounds of live weight; feedlots being able to forced consumers to “cherry-pick” the features feed to heavier weights without being penalized and trade down in their beef purchases, notaby packers. bly to ground beef. The economy is now out of It’s questionable if beef carcasses will get much recession but these trends have continued because heavier this year, and some analysts have them retail beef prices have been record high. Retailers flat with last year. But retailers will still have are seeing more beef sold only on feature. One to deal with heavy boxes and large cuts. They large retailer says it used to sell about half its did a remarkable job of merchandising these beef at some kind of feature price. The amount is cuts last year and will need to do the same this now 75 per cent. year. Restaurant operators will also need to be Yet today’s retail feature prices are the same creative, to avoid the appearance that the steak as everyday prices of only two or three years ago. they’re serving people has been cut in half to fit For example, the regular price of 70/30 fresh the plate. ground beef used to be around US$1.99 per lb., with feature prices sometimes well below that.

Cattle Buyers Weekly covers the North American meat Now it is rare to see this ground beef featured and livestock industry. For subscription information, even at that price. contact Steve Kay at P.O. Box 2533, Petaluma, Calif. 94953, or at 707-765-1725, or go to www.

Supply forecasts indicate that U.S. beef procattlebuyersweekly.com. duction is likely to decline 3.5 per cent or more

46 Cattlemen / February 2013

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP

The personification of food animal

T

he discussion of food animals as being near to human has often ignited an inferno of argument from producer groups. Although it seems clear to many food producers that animals are for our use and that is respected — the use of animals for food has long been challenged and has been called an unsophisticated option to protein. How is it that society has evolved from animal dependency to animal/human equality?

To answer this question we have to look back into history and into our own North American nurseries.

The biblical interpretation of man’s dominion over animals has been argued to mean responsibility rather than ownership. It is the ownership of animals that raged for centuries in the courts and often led to a fair amount of leverage in the cruel treatment of animals. Once the idea of responsibility started to glue, the lawmakers were able to address animal cruelty. Animal rights laws were originally developed in the 1600s to address animal cruelty. In England, the animal rights legislative changes were responsible for repealing an owner’s right to attach a plow to the horse’s tail or pull the wool off a sheep as was the custom of that day.

During the 1700s men and women advocated for the protection of animals against cruelty, especially food animals, and though they were mocked, several engaging publications emerged. By the 1800s the foundational piece of legislation for animal rights was passed that heavily fined those that beat, abused or ill treated horses, mares, geldings, asses, mules, oxen, heifers or cows, sheep, steers or other cattle. This was the stepping stone to the formation of the SPCA shortly thereafter in 1824.

By the 1900s the discussion of animal rights had expanded to include animal consciousness, feeling and suffering. Ironically, the Nazis had a strong animal rights platform in which they sought to abolish the distinction between animals and humans and Hitler was a proponent of a vegan diet. This may have been the turning point for the term animal rights in our modern-day society. The term animal welfare became vogue when it was used to address the conditions under which animal research was conducted. It did not in its early life of the 1960s include animal care on farm as we know it to apply today. Despite the terminology, all roads led to ethical and responsible use of animals and respect for pets.

The rights of companion animals or pets as it pertains to cruelty has taken longer to establish and was absent from early legislation. Once the concept of ethical responsibility to companion animals gained traction it became a rolling ball and these pets became humanized. In Canada, we enjoy 1.3 children and 2.2 dogs per family and spend an average of $1,800 per dog in food

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and another collective $4.5B per year in pampering them. Pets may eat and dress better than most seniors and often carry child-like names. In the top 10 names for dogs we find Byron, Bailey, Cooper, Bella, Chloe and Abby.

The cultural shift to personify animals and the twisting of the term animal rights has left us with the current division in how animals are viewed. To fully appreciate the personification of the pet and the cow, (who is often called Betty, Colleen, Anna or Patty), we need to identify how we personify creatures to our children.

Bringing home baby may include a warm blanket with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger stretched out in a sleepy mood. The nursery may be decked with other personified creatures such as the legendary Mickey Mouse and his high-pitched playmate Minnie. They are absorbed by the child as mice in clothing, standing upright who sing songs in English. Mickey and Minnie are not on the nursery wallpaper as lab rats with probes in their skull nor is their friend Donald Duck part of a pointand-shoot scene.

Later in toddler years, Max and Ruby, rabbits in coveralls, soothe tired minds and teach little lessons. In the blink of an eye the children are associating with Adu and superheroes of the animal kingdom that wear hats and boots (Puss in Boots) and other fun creatures that dress like we do. This humanization of animals is part of the North American culture. We raise children in an environment that assumes the human-like quality of animals and gives all animals a name and a personality.

The personification of animals is new to this century and proves to provide a better environment than those previous years of cruelty. The term animal rights has been taken out of context but it is not fair to point to the animal rights groups and say they are the only troops who personify animals. Putting a character or name to companion and food animals is a cultural norm. One could argue that the current use of animal rights is an extension of the subconscious and comes from a place long ago when we surrounded ourselves with animal characters. One could also argue the biblical context and continue to govern them as we see fit.

Or we cease arguing and simply point out that we practise animal rights and implement animal welfare in an ethical and respectful way that allows those who choose to eat meat to enjoy it and the host of manufactured byproducts that enrich their lives.

— Brenda Schoepp Brenda Schoepp is a Nuffield Scholar who travels extensively exploring agriculture and meeting the people who feed, clothe and educate our world. A motivating speaker and mentor she works with young entrepreneurs across Canada and is the founder of Women in Search of Excellence. She can be contacted through her website www.brendaschoepp.com. All rights reserved.

CATTLEMEN / FEBRUARY 2013 47

NEWS ROUNDUP PACKERS FOUR MORE PACKERS APPROVED TO SHIP BEEF TO CHINA The Chinese government has approved Les Viandes Laroche of Asbestos, Que., Ryding Regency Meat Packers and St. Helen’s Meat Packers of Toronto and Canadian Premium Meats of Lacombe, Alta. to export under-30-month (UTM) deboned beef to China, bringing the total number of eligible packers to seven.

All four are smaller plants that have indicated an interest in serving the Chinese market, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) noted in a separate release. “These facilities may have the flexibility to meet the Chinese requirement that beef be produced from cattle that have not been fed beta-agonist growth promoters such as ractopamine.”

“From a Canadian beef brand,

Two year old Limousin Bulls Top Genetics and Top Quality

marketing and promotions perspective, we are pleased an increased number of exporters will now be eligible to ship to this promising and valued market,” Rob Meijer, president of Canada Beef, added in the release from the producer-funded export development agency.

“Being able to match demand with supply from a larger complement of federal abattoirs is one of the primary means to ensure Canada will be competitive internationally.”

China agreed in June 2011 to allow imports of Canadian UTM deboned beef, making Canada the first country that’s had confirmed cases of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in domestic cattle to regain access for beef to China.

The approvals to date are part of a staged access agreement China and Canada reached in June, 2010.

Canada Beef estimates the Chinese market for Canadian UTM deboned beef to be worth about $20 million a year. Full market access for Cana-

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

dian beef and cattle in China, when reached, is expected to be worth about $110 million per year.

With these approvals in hand, the CCA said its priority for China will shift to further expand access to include bone-in UTM beef.

“Canada has shipped enough highquality beef to China that meets their current specifications and we can do the same with bone-in UTM beef,” CCA president Martin Unrau said.

“Canadian producers are eager to tap this market, although volumes will likely continue to be impacted by the barrier around ractopamine, despite the establishment of an internationally agreed maximum residue level (MRL)

by Codex.”

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, the United Nations-sponsored body whose standards are the commonly accepted international reference points for food safety, last July approved MRLs for ractopamine in beef and pork as well as an acceptable daily intake (ADI) for cattle and hogs.

Top Quality Yearling Black Angus Bulls

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Catalogue online @ www.murphyranch.ca and www.coyotepub.com 48 CATTLEMEN / FEBRUARY 2013

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Packers JBS makes it official The Canadian industry breathed a huge sigh of relief Jan. 14 when JBS Canada officially exercised its option to purchase the XL Foods plants in Brooks and Calgary along with the 70,000-head feedlot and 6,600 acres of adjacent farmland.

The mothballed plant in Moose Jaw is not included in the deal, nor are any of XL’s debts or liabilities. The option values the total assets to be sold at US$100 million, to be paid half in cash and half in JBS shares.

The Brooks plant has a slaughter capacity of about 4,000 head of cattle per day. The Calgary plant has capacity to handle about 1,000 head per day but has been offline since May 2011.

JBS said it is awaiting a regulatory review by U.S. authorities before it would exercise the part of the option covering XL’s two U.S. facilities: a beef-packing plant at Omaha, with capacity to handle 1,200 head per day, and the Four Star Beef plant at Nampa in southwestern Idaho. The Nampa plant was idled indefinitely in June, 2011.

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

The two U.S. plants will continue to be operated by XL Foods during the option period.

Writing in the January 11 issue of the C anadian C attle B uyer , beef industry analyst Kevin Grier offered some predictions on how JBS would fit the Canadian plant into its expanded North American operation.

“JBS Brooks and JBS Hyrum are not going to compete with each other.

JBS has no interest in spiking the local basis. Its main interest will be in a predictable, stable market in Alberta.

While it may run counter to conventional wisdom regarding plant management, JBS does not need to run the plant to its listed 4,000+/day capacity.

It may see the plant as a 3,000-headper-day plant, or less. In addition, cows are likely to play an even more important role in the kill mix.

“JBS is not going to make waves in Alberta by running full out at a time of sharply diminished supplies in both Canada and the U.S. Instead the plant can be used as a tool to balance supply and demand. The goal is likely to be a predictable, steady Alberta basis and a managed allocation between Brooks Continued on page 50

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News Roundup Continued from page 49

and Hyrum. That should be fine with Cargill too.

“There is plenty of concern that it is going to be a major cattle-feeding competitor in Alberta. I don’t think so.

There is no reason for it to wade into feeding cattle in Alberta, other than its own yard at Brooks, of course.

“The key will be how the cattlefeeding sector adapts and whether the sector can discipline itself on the feeder side. That discipline however, is not likely to be the case. That is all the more reason why JBS will not get heavily into feeding cattle.”

It could also have an effect on the trucking industry since JBS-US has a large fleet of both cattle and refrigerated trailers.

Up to now JBS in the U.S. has used Prairie-based agents to procure western cattle for Hyrum and to a lesser extent for Greely but the company now has its own cattle buyers at Brooks. “The question then becomes whether it is going to use its own

All catalogues will be online a month before the sale at

www.bylivestock.com 50 Cattlemen / February 2013

Safety BRING A SAFETY DAY TO YOUR COMMUNITY Progressive Agriculture Safety Days and other school- and communitybased programs in Alberta recently received $1.2 million from Albertabased Ag for Life to deliver rural and farm safety programs and promote agriculture awareness.

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buyers or its current traders to get the supplies for the U.S. plants. Similar interesting questions could be asked about how it is going to keep its Brooks feed yard supplied.”

While XL Foods was focused on the Canadian market, he suspects JBS is not likely to have the same concerns regarding Canadian product for the Canadian market. “If there are market share goals, it is likely that they will be met with a mix of both Canadian and U.S. product. JBS can supply Canada with JBS product but it will come from the plants that generate the best returns. It has flexibility that XL did not have and it will use it.”

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The safety day program was developed by the Progressive Agriculture Safety Foundation (PASF), headquartered in the U.S. and introduced to Canada in 2002. Since then, the program has reached 56,000 rural children and participants at more than 400 safety events in nine provinces, says Michelle French-Lancaster, communications officer with the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA).

Safety days are geared toward children eight to 13 years of age, but can be arranged as family or community events, she explains. The unique aspect of safety days is that organizers can customize the event by choosing topics relevant to the community.

The PASF has developed lesson plans for 27 safety topics. Overall, the top 10 most popular topics in 2011 were: ATV,

The

fire, first aid, electrical, farm equipment, chemical, water, animal handling, lawn equipment and sun safety.

Participants are divided into groups to rotate through as many as 10 stations. The formal presentations take only a few minutes with the remaining time at each station spent exploring the topic through hands-on activities, questions and sharing experiences.

CASA and Alberta Agriculture have developed interactive displays that are available for safe days and any groups for safety education purposes. CASA’s teaching kits include items such as a gravity flow wagon, stop-drop-and-roll vest, gelatin brain model, digital fire simulator and chemical look-alike kit.

Raelyn Peterson, farm safety coordinator with Alberta Agriculture, says her goal is to have ready-to-go

resources for safety day presenters so that every group isn’t trying to create something from scratch. Among the displays are a product that glows under ultraviolet light to demonstrate that chemical residue can be transferred by touching a jug or walking through a field; an interactive hazard hunt set up on a farm-scene play mat gets discussion going on what’s safe behaviour and what’s not; and the message about preventing head injuries comes through loud and clear with egg helmets that protect the egg from breaking when dropped.

Peterson attributes the overall success of the safety day model to community involvement. Once the safety day co-ordinator decides on the topics to tailor the day to the commuContinued on page 52

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Cattlemen / February 2013 51

WELSH BLACK Bulls for Sale • 29th Consecutive Year Testing Bulls • 24 Select Bulls On Test Chosen From Over 250 Brood Cows • 10 Different Sires • 100% Polled or Scurred Bulls • 82.5 lbs. Average Birth Weight

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52 Cattlemen / February 2013

News Roundup Continued from page 51

nity, many others are drawn into the fold as presenters and volunteers.

“It’s awesome to see people come out and teach with the kids,” she comments. “The kids have fun while learning important safety rules and they see why they are important.”

The path for lifelong learning is set when children see that safety is important to people in their communities and there’s a trickle-up effect because they’ll take those safety messages home to their parents. They won’t hesitate to point out unsafe behaviour and parents can’t argue because they know it’s true and want to set a good example.

It’s as easy as applying to the PASF to bring a safety day to your community, but you’ll need some lead time because applications are accepted until July 15 each year for the following year and the lead co-ordinator must take a twoday training course. They are generally offered each fall at several locations in Canada. Any individual, community group, business or public-sector organization may apply for a safety day and take the training.

Ann Pudwell, a health promotion facilitator with Alberta Health Services, has co-ordinated safety days in the rural Medicine Hat area for four years now and taken the training course five times. She says PASF requires coordinators to take the training every year they want to lead a safety day, but every third year it can be taken as refresher via the Internet.

“The PASF makes it pretty easy to be successful,” she says. “They provide all of the resources right down to scripting for the stations and walk you through the planning timeline.”

The model she likes to use is to partner with schools and

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hold safety days every other year at each school. This won’t exhaust your community volunteer base, but more importantly, it provides the opportunity to repeat the safety messages, which is key to the learning process.

She has also found that a full day split between Grades 1 through 3 in the morning and Grades 4 through 6 in the afternoon works well.

Community arenas are her facility of choice because the stations can be set up in separate dressing rooms and other areas. The school gym or community hall will work, though the noise level and so much activity in one area can be distracting.

Pudwell suggests going with a halfdozen or so stations because too many gets to be too much of a rush. She also works with other groups that have appropriate displays, such as emer-

gency responders and wildlife organizations.

She says the schools have been very receptive and having lots of community partners will be helpful, making it possible to present a safety day with virtually no budget required.

More details about safety days and how to apply for one is available at www.casa-acsa.ca. For more information about AgforLife, visit www.agricultureforlife.ca.

Identification Tags may someday keep tabs on your cattle Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags may be useful for keeping track of your cattle on the ranch as

Friday

Continued on page 54

March 8 at the Ranch

Wulfs Waldo T928W

well as identifying them as they move through the supply chain.

Bradley Smith, a livestock technology specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, took up the idea after completing a three-year project in the Pole Haven Community pasture where we were reading cattle with active RFID tags up to one-half of a mile away with a hand-held directional reader. “When the project was finished, I started thinking about using these emerging technologies to identify where cattle are in real time and then have that information posted on Google Maps.

“We began investigating methods of tracking cattle movement. A contact at IMSAR, a radar technology company, suggested that we could fly over

Over 20 Waldo sons sell Selling 75 bulls (35 yealings & 40 grass born 2 yr olds) and 30 Open Heifers Limousin (Red & Black) Limflex and Angus

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Cattlemen / February 2013 53

Better Bulls...Better Results.

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News Roundup

MARKET PLACE

Continued from page 53

the pasture, which would be too costly and would be limited to the time of CANADIAN HEREFORD the flyover. From there, we considered ASSOCIATION stationary towers. A topographical 5160 Skyline Way NE map was developed as well as a map Calgary, Alberta T2E 6V1 Phone: (403) 275-2662 Toll Free (888) 836-7242 to identify the triangulation coverage Fax: (403) 295-1333 Toll Free: (888) 824-2329 of five towers in the pasture. The poswww.hereford.ca sibilities looked promising.”

More Efficient Means More Hereford Partnering with SAIT’s RFID specialists, the project began in earnest ✷ ✷ D ON’T MI SS in the spring of 2011. With approval, “THE WELSH BLACK the team started erecting towers on the Pole Haven Community pasture. In ADVANTAGE” the spring of 2012, the project received Canadian Welsh Black Cattle Society CSA Bus. Jan04 12/9/03 11:21 AM Pagefunding 1 additional to complete the Box 546 Trochu,Card AB T0M 2C0 Ph/Fax: (403) 442-4372 www.canadianwelshblackcattle.com towers and base station along with the ✷ ✷ required electronics.

Once all of the equipment was installed and online, they began trackUnbeatable Maternal Performance ing animals in real time and posting their movement on Google Maps.

“The tracking system did come with Canadian Simmental Association its challenges. The triangulation wasn’t 403-250-7979 13 - 4101 19 Street, N.E. Calgary, AB working as it did at the test sight and, www.simmental.com at times, the website showed cattle in unlikely places from Glacier National Park and Pincher Creek to Cut Bank, Mont. We also had occasional data communication outages; however, by the end of the grazing season, many of the bugs were worked out and the tracking system was running well enough to identify the location of animals with an acceptable level of accuracy.

The tracking system benefited the livestock owners by locating their livestock, shortening the time needed to pull in stragglers and complete the fall roundup. A few animals that got out of the pasture were located online and returned.

This year, the project will focus on improving the accuracy of iden-

tifying the movement of individual animals so they can remotely analyze the health, predation and foraging patterns of the herd.

“We are just beginning to discover some of the benefits that active RFID tags can have for the future of the livestock industry,” says Smith.

policy Canada, U.S. agree on livestock disease zoning Canada and the United States have agreed to maintain livestock and meat trade during animal disease outbreaks using a new system that targets trade bans more precisely by region, according to Reuters.

Under the new system, which won’t take effect until after consultation with industry groups and details are worked out, each country would only restrict trade within designated disease-control zones where the animal disease breaks out.

If such a system had been in place in 2003, the U.S. would likely only have restricted imports of beef from Western Canada, not the entire country, Ritz said at a press conference.

“The new agreement will help prevent or limit the introduction of highly contagious foreign animal diseases from one country to the other,” he said. “At the same time, this agreement will help avoid unnecessary trade disruptions.

“This is a sensible approach.”

In practice, under this arrangement, if Canada’s government were to set up a disease control and eradication zone anywhere within Canada, the U.S. Department of Agriculture would continue to allow imports of live animals, animal products and byproducts from disease-free areas of Canada.

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Matchmakers Select 1-888-916-2824 www.selectintroductions.com Customized Service, Guaranteed Membership, Thorough Screening Process Est. 13 Years, Rural, Agriculture, Remote

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Once Canada released the zone, the U.S. would allow trade to resume from that area.

Reciprocal arrangements would apply in the case of zones established anywhere in the U.S., the federal government said.

Along with BSE, other animal diseases with potential to disrupt trade include foot-and-mouth disease, H1N1 flu and avian influenza.

The system comes out of a U.S.-Canada agreement in December, 2011 to align regulatory systems in order to increase efficiency, reduce manufacturing and retail costs, and boost North American trade.

Marketing Canada Beef introduces producer website The Canada Beef Inc. has a website geared to producers offering market information, merchandise, photos and other resources that may be useful when selling, discussing or promoting Canadian beef at the farm gate, farmers’ market or farm website. Links are also available to CBI’s newsroom, Beef Ambassadors and The Brand newsletter.

The Resources tab provides a direct link to CBI’s image libraries, industry fact sheets, recipe booklets and other industry information.

The site also provides access to some of the Canada Beef social media networks. There are many ways to tell your story to consumers and other stakeholders.

For more detail visit www.canadabeef.ca/producer. C

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

LLB

27th AnnuAl

Spring Spectacular

Angus Bull & FEMAlE SAlE MARCh 16, 2013

at the farm Erskine Alberta

Offering over 700 head of Quality Angus Cattle Canada’s largest Angus Production Sale

150 yearling bulls • 100 two year old bulls • 150 yearling heifers • 300 commercial heifers •

Canada’s Quality Angus Seed Stock Source

Lee, Laura & Jackie Brown Trish, Tim & Luke henderson Box 217 erskine, aB T0c 1G0 Fax: 403-742-2962 llbangus@xplornet.com

catalogue online www.llbangus.com

Phone: 403-742-4226

Cattlemen / February 2013 55

purely purebred Suggestions are always welcome.

My phone number is 403-325-1695 Email: deb.wilson@ fbcpublishing.com

another chance to identify them. I am going to go out on a limb and say Agribition 1976,” said Lyle Heiberg. I can’t verify whether Lyle is right about the year but I am guessing he is close if he isn’t dead on.

The picture that I have for this month

Deborah WILSON

◆ The Canadian Limousin website

◆ Well folks, the picture from the

now offers a listing of breeding stock for sale. The listing includes a brief description of the offering, a link to your website and/or ad/flyer/sale catalogue etc. Submit your listing to aburgess@limousin.com.

Supersize Calving Issue in January featured a group of individuals at the Toronto Royal Steer show in 1972.

The steers stood 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in a class of 30. The individuals in the is one I received a few months ago. Can you identify any of these individuals?

◆ Everyone at Canadian Cattlemen

picture are (l to r): Bud Boake, Lynn Armistead, Gavin Hamilton, Jamie Hamilton, Tom Ericson, and Craig Flewelling. Thanks to Mabel Hamilton for digging this great picture up and taking the time to send it in to me, so we can all appreciate it.

◆ The picture in the Dec. and Jan.

7 issue garnered some emails. Randy Mader identified all three first but then I got an email shortly after from Lyle Heiberg. “The judge Bud McBride, the Salers Queen Barb Judd, the guy with one leg and a tilt in his back is Raymond Depalme. I was glad you had

magazine congratulates the Canadian breeders who made the trip down to Denver in January, to the Northwest Stock Show. After looking through the show results online, it would be safe to say that the Americans would have felt the Canadian presence! Thank you for doing such a great job of representing our Canadian cattle and below I have listed some of the highlights I noticed and that were available at press time.

◆ Congratulations to Grant Hirsche and family, Hirsche Herefords Ltd., on winning the Reserve Grand Champion Horned Hereford bull at the National Western Stock Show in Denver recently, with UPS Uptown ET. This is the same bull that won the Supreme Champion bull title at Canadian Western Agribition in November, 2012.

◆ Six Mile Red Angus of Fir Moun-

tain, Sask., cleaned up in the bull division of the Red Angus show in Denver winning both Grand and Reserve Champion Bulls — outstanding! Congratulations. Results like this take hard work and a great program at home.

Some of the other Canadian Red Angus breeders that had cattle in the show were Northline Angus, Ardrossan, Alta., Blairs.Ag Cattle Company of Lanigan, Sask. and Lazy MC Red Angus of Bassano, Alta.

◆ Reserve Champion Senior Bull in the 56 Cattlemen / February 2013

Gelbvieh division of the show at Denver, was won by Rodney and Tanya Hollman of Royal Western Gelbvieh, Innisfail, Alta., with RWG Xtreme Traction 0521. The Hollmans, as well as the Davidson families, Davidson Gelbvieh and Lonesome Dove Gelbvieh, of Ponteix, Sask., were prominent in the Gelbvieh show at the Northwest Stock Show.

◆ Manitoba Youth Win Purebred

Heifers — Jared Preston, a 17-year-old from Ste. Rose du Lac, Kolton McIntosh, a 17-year-old from Eriksdale and Rachel Howatt, a 15-year-old from Manitou, are the Jared Preston 2012 recipients of the Grant Moffat Herdbuilder Award. Each was awarded up to $2,000 toward the purchase of a heifer calf selected from a Manitoba purebred sale. Jared Preston Kolton McIntosh purchased a Charolais heifer, Kolton McIntosh a Simmental heifer and Rachel Howatt a Red Angus heifer.

Grant Moffat, Holmsyde Charolais, Forrest, went missing in August, 2006. Rachel Howatt The funds generously donated by cattlemen, friends and relatives across the country were offered as a reward for tips leading to his whereabouts. After a year, a committee handling the funds made a decision to channel the money to Manitoba youth for the purpose of starting their own purebred herd. More funds were raised at auctions during a couple of Manitoba Beef Producer’s Annual Meetings 2010 and 2011 making it possible to continue this worthwhile www.canadiancattlemen.ca

cause in his memory. Grant invested a lot of energy in actively helping youth get started in the business and this seemed the most fitting way to utilize the funds. Over 20 applicants submitted essays, making the selection exceptionally difficult. The participants were evaluated on desire, need and previous expression of interest in the industry.

The Grant Moffat Herdbuilder Awards will be presented again in 2013, with the application deadline being September 1. For application and donation information, visit www. grantmoffat.com.

◆ The Canadian Hereford Association

would like to inform the membership that Jeff Hyatt has resigned effective February 1, 2013, from the position as the Hereford breed improvement coordinator with the Canadian Hereford Association. He has accepted a position with another breed association taking on responsibilities of a similar nature. Please join the staff of the CHA in wishing Jeff all the best in his new endeavour.

◆ Many breed associations are look-

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

ing to collect semen samples to DNA sequence the most influential animals in their herd book for the Genome Canada project. The project is an international endeavour to build a database for the training of MBV calculations for genetically enhanced EPDs and imputation calculations so that for younger animals there can be smaller and less expensive genomic tests and therefore more accurate EPDs. Contact your breed association to see what bulls they are looking for semen from.

If you have semen on any of these bulls and would be willing to share a straw for this extremely exciting project it would be much appreciated. A tax receipt will be available for your contribution to this project.

◆ EV Kari-On 8Z was the first-ever

heifer calf to win the Man/Sask Sweetheart Gelbvieh Classic, according to some longtime members of the Agribition event. Kari-On was then sold at the Gelbvieh National sale and went to Trevor Burks of Twisted T Gelbvieh for a price of $7,750. As a side note, Burks

ALL BEEF BREED BULL SALE Saturday March 30th at 2 pm Sale includes a large showing of high quality Charolais & Black Angus bulls from Southview Farms, Courtice

(Call Terry @ 905-439-4235) To consign bulls call 705-878-2947 or office 705-439-4444

View listing @ www.klcauction.ca KAWARTHA LAKES CO-OP AUCTION MARKET

580 Woodville Rd., Woodville, Ont.

705-439-4444

Continued on page 58

Cattlemen / February 2013 57

N EO Y IO D B T VI LE MO SA E IN TL AT C

BOYNECREST / SKYRIDGE 1ST ANNUAL BULL AND FEMALE SALE

MARCH 16, 2013 – RATHWELL, MB • SOLID RED, PERFORMANCE, THICK N MEATY, CALVING EASE, BLAZE FACED, POLLED, OUR BULLS WILL FIT YOUR NEEDS • ON OFFER 45 POLLED RED & BLACK SIMMENTALS AND FULLBLOOD FLECKVIEH AND A SELECT GROUP OF 20 OPEN SIMMENTAL FEMALES • PLEASE GIVE US A CALL, IF WE, OR ANY OF THE SALE STAFF, CAN BE OF ASSISTANCE OR TO BE ADDED TO OUR MAILING LIST • ON BEHALF OF EVERYONE AT BOYNECREST AND SKYRIDGE WE LOOK FORWARD TO VISITING WITH YOU PRIOR TO AND ON SALE DAY.

BOYNECREST CAST IRON 11Z S: RFS RED IRON D.S: TNT TOP GUN

HOUSTON X APPOLLO FLUSHMATES SELL

BOYNECREST CHEVY 82Z

Mark Kihn invited Hazel George, Airdrie, Alta., out to a political Christmas gathering with Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the guest. With some cajoling, Mark got Hazel into the photo with the PM at Heritage Park.

Many folks will recall that Hazel is the former longtime Alberta Charolais Association secretar y-treasurer. She has her Sagewood Stock Farms on the go southwest of Irricana, Alta.

S: KNK/CRSR RED BULL 53T D.S: S-PAW RED SUMMIT 23S

BOYNECREST STOCK FARM Kelly & Elaine Ferris & Family Box 4, Stephenfield, MB R0G 2R0 Ph: 204.828.3483 Kelly: 204.745.7168 Nikki: 204.745.8849 Email: boynecreststockfarm@sdnet.ca www.boynecreststockfarm.com

Continued from page 57 SKYRIDGE FARM Gilles & Jeannine Vuignier Box 585, St. Claude, MB R0G 1Z0 Ph: 204.749.2183 Fax: 204.749.2306 Email: jennyv@mts.net

WATCH FOR CATALOGUE, SALE UPDATES AND BULL SALE VIDEOS AT BOYNECRESTSTOCKFARM.COM

Join us February 25th for the annual

JYF PRODUCTION SALE Offering 50+ Red and Black 2 Year Olds & Long Yearlings

JYF Yuri 13Y

had purchased a maternal bull calf, EV Mighty Dandy 8Y, earlier in the year and is on his way to Denver with both animals. Eyot Valley sold the dam of these two animals, EV 8W to Fir River Livestock in a December production sale.

Along with her first two progeny, this gal made $42,750 for the year. Pics available at www.evgelbvieh.com.

◆ The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) and the

National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) are pleased to announce the launch of the public comment period on the draft Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle. The draft code can be viewed at nfacc.ca/codes-of-practice/beef-cattle until March 8, 2013. Comments must be submitted through the online system at nfacc.ca/codes-of-practice/beef-cattle and easy-to-follow instructions are provided.

◆ It was an eventful week for Megan

Sire:Wulf’s Urban Cowboy 2149U

JYF Yaakov 506Y

Sire: AHCC Westwind W544 Kelly and Norma Yorga (H) 306-263-4432 (C) 306-642-7023 (F) 306-263-4473 norma_yorga@yahoo.ca

Box 14, Flintoft, SK S0H 1R0 jyorgafarms.com

58 Cattlemen / February 2013

Jeffrey Yorga (H) 306-531-5717 (W) 204-799-0347 (F) 306-522-2218 jeffyorga@yahoo.ca

Kemp of Pilot Mound, Man., at Canadian Western Agribition. She won Grand Aggregate in the 2012 Canadian National 4-H and Youth Judging Competition, received a $2,500 scholarship, an opportunity to judge at the First Lady Classic and a buckle. Kemp represented the Manitoba Youth Beef Round-Up Team. A total of 57 youth from across Canada competed in the Canadian National 4-H and Youth Judging Competition.

Competitors judged multiple species Megan Kemp of livestock by examining, analyzing and explaining the market qualities of the livestock. Kemp was one of three young 4-H stars of the agriculture industry who were presented with a scholarship on Tuesday, November 20. Kelsey Dale of Saskatoon, Sask., won second place receiving a $1,250 scholarship and Becky Domolewski of Taber, Alta., won third place receiving a $750 scholarship, both awarded by John Deere. The award recipients were introduced and recognized during an awards breakfast at Canadian Western Agribition.

C www.canadiancattlemen.ca

The markets

Market Summary debbie mcmillin

the border in the short term. The latest data at press time had year-end 2012 fed-steer slaughter at 1,354,578 head, down six per cent from 2011, and heifer slaughter down 10 per cent at 830,364 head.

Fed-cattle exports in 2012, according to USDA, totalled 416,374 head, one per cent ahead of 2011 but 32 per cent below the five-year average.

Feeder Cattle Fed Cattle A strong Canadian dollar, larger carry-over inventory in the U.S. and soft demand following the holidays pressed prices slightly lower in the first two weeks of 2013. The average fedsteer price decreased nearly $2.75 from the last week in 2012. The current average of $116.50 is still more than $2.50/cwt higher than the same week in 2012. Local market pressure led to a wider basis as we started 2013 but by the second week had tightened again to -6.57/cwt, which was an improvement of more than 5.0/cwt compared to a year ago.

While domestic fed supplies were tight at the start of 2013 and feedlots current, the U.S. is working through some early-drought-placed cattle that increased slaughter numbers south of

Deb’s Outlook Fed Cattle In the short term packers seem to be comfortable with the inventory available, however, the North American fed-cattle supplies will be seasonally tight heading towards spring with the demand for middle meats expected to improve. This should create a typical spring high in late March or early April. Local stability in the market will be noted with JBS taking over ownership of the Brooks plant. Ample supplies in the U.S., over the next few weeks could hold the market at bay, but by mid-February to early March the cash market may respond to some price premiums in the spring futures market.

As always we must watch for signs

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Light trade characterized the feeder market at the start of the year, however, auction markets were starting to get back into the swing of things at press time. By mid-January 550 steers averaged $155.58/cwt, down $2.67 from the end of December and $4.50 from the same time in 2012.

Last year’s U.S. drought forced a contraseasonal trend on heavy 850 steers in 2012, with a February high and October low. A more normal trend with a March low and August peak is expected in 2013, however, tight supplies will keep a floor under this market. By mid-January 850 steers were trading for $131.25/cwt, which was already $1.25 above the same week in 2012. The basis was -16.53/cwt, 0.80 narrower than a year ago.

Export demand is expected to be of strength in the Canadian dollar that would be a limiting factor and weakness in consumer spending, particularly in the U.S. where a softer economy continues to limit disposable income.

Feeder Cattle Feeder cattle prices will depend on a few factors heading forward. One is the weather. Severe drought limited upside potential last year as U.S. crops and pasture burnt up. Favourable growing conditions for grass pastures and crops would support feeder cattle prices throughout 2013.

Another is fed-cattle prices and beef movement into the spring. Fed price improvement will spur feeder prices higher as feedlots look to replace and refill pens.

Strong technicals in the futures —

strong heading into spring given the supportive Canadian dollar and basis and a shrinking number of feeders available to fill U.S. pens. In 2012 Canada exported 134,840 feeders to the U.S., up 77 per cent from 2011.

Non-Fed Cattle The strength seen in the non-fed trade early in 2013 is a seasonally normal trend that gained some added push from a strong U.S. boner cow market. D1,2 cows averaged $70 in the second week of January, steady with the same week last year but a $4.50/cwt improvement from the start of December. Butcher bull prices averaged $76.80/cwt, with sales ranging from $68 to $85. Preliminary data has 2012 cow slaughter totalling 412,390 head, down 18 per cent from the year before. Bull slaughter was down 45 per cent at 13,821 head as more cows and bulls were drawn south in 2012. We exported 203,076 cows, 49 per cent more than in 2011, and 36 per cent more bulls at 51,698 head.

— Debbie McMillin

Debbie McMillin is a market analyst who ranches at Hanna, Alta.

More markets➤ tight supplies and good buyer demand — are positives for the feeder market.

Prices should improve through the first quarter based on available numbers and demand for cattle to fill pens, however, buyers should be watching for opportunities to manage risk and lock in some acceptable coverage when available.

Non-Fed cattle D1,2 cow prices follow a very strong seasonal pattern which would suggest price improvement through the first quarter of 2013. They generally peak in late spring or early summer. Continued demand for trim coupled with limited cow numbers will support the market. In addition, U.S. interest should continue to put a solid floor on the cull cattle market moving through 2013.

Cattlemen / february 2013 59

Break-even Prices on A-Grade Steers 140

ALBERTA

170

120

100 90

Steer Calves (500-600 lb.)

180

130

110

Market Prices

190

160

western Market Summary

150 140

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

130

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

95

155

ONTARIO

145

D1,2 Cows

85

135

75

125

65

115

55

105 95 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2013

Canfax weighted average price on A-Grade steers

45

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Ontario 2012 Market Ontario prices based on a 50/50 east/west mix Summary O ntario

2013

2012

A lberta

Break-even price

2013

for steers on date sold

2013

2012

Kevin Grier2012

Market Summary (to January 12)

January 2013 prices* Alber ta Yearling steers (850 lb.)............... $131.35/cwt Barley................................................. 6.12/bu.

Barley silage..................................... 76.50/ton Cost of gain (feed)........................... 81.90/cwt Cost of gain (all costs)................... 106.48/cwt Fed steers...................................... 119.14/cwt Break-even (May 2013)................. 122.44/cwt Ontario Yearling steers (850 lb.)............... $134.53/cwt Corn silage....................................... 54.88/ton Grain corn........................................... 6.61/bu.

Cost of gain (feed)........................... 99.94/cwt Cost of gain (all costs)................... 125.34/cwt Fed steers...................................... 118.07/cwt Break-even (July 2013).................. 130.73/cwt *Mid-month to mid-month prices Breakevens East: end wt 1,450, 183 days West end wt 1,325 lb., 125 days

60 Cattlemen / february 2013

2013 Total Canadian federally inspected slaughter.................. 84,053 Average steer carcass weight............................................ 885 lb.

Total U.S. slaughter.......................................................1,675,000

2012 98,477 883 lb.

1,826,000

Trade Summary EXPORTS 2012-13 Fed cattle to U.S. (to Jan. 5).............................................. 4,322 Feeder cattle and calves to U.S. (to Jan. 5)........................... 843 Dressed beef to U.S. (to Nov.)............................... 410.50 mil.lbs Total dressed beef (to Nov)................................... 561.32 mil.lbs

2011-12 3,247 1,997 546.41 mil.lbs 682.11 mil.lbs

IMPORTS 2012 Slaughter cattle from U.S. (to Nov.) .......................................... 0 *Dressed beef from U.S. (to Nov.)........................ 336.44 mil.lbs *Dressed beef from Australia (to Nov.).................... 29.22 mil.lbs *Dressed beef from New Zealand (to Nov.)................ 43.86 mil.lbs *Dressed beef from Uruguay (to Nov.)................... 22.95 mil.lbs

2011 0 327.13 mil.lbs 19.06 mil.lbs 51.17 mil.lbs 10.59 mil.lbs

Canadian Grades (to January 12) % of A grades AAA AA A Prime Total

EAST WEST

+59% 22.6 29.1 1.4 0.1 53.2 Total graded 19,184 63,473

Yield –53% Total 11.7 55.1 2.3 40.4 0.0 1.5 0.6 1.1 14.6 Total A grade 98.1% Total ungraded % carcass basis 1,250 74.2% 21 86.8%

54-58% 20.8 9.0 0.1 0.4 30.3

Only federally inspected plants

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

market talk with Gerald Klassen

Feeder cattle expected to trend higher in 2013

I

’ve received many feeder cattle inquiries over the past lower beef production, the retail beef prices will continue to month regarding the price outlook for feeder cattle. percolate higher as the market functions to ration demand.

Values for replacement cattle have been rather stagBeef prices have to move higher in order to slow consumpnant throughout the fall and early winter. Despite the tion; therefore, the key factor will be consumer incomes lower U.S. calf crops, record high-feed grain prices along and overall spending on food products. with poor feeding margins has kept the feeder cattle market The U.S. economy continues to show signs of expansion. under pressure. In early January, 500- to 600-pound steers Consumer confidence declined in December to 65.1 comwere approximately $10 to $15 per cwt below year-ago pared to 71.5 in November due to the “fiscal cliff” worries. levels in southern Alberta. The two major factors influHowever, there is a clear trend of improvement longer term encing feeder cattle prices are the price of feed grains and since the lows of 40 in October of 2011. When consumer the expected selling price of the animal at slaughter. In confidence is over 90, this is a signal that the economy is firthis issue, I’ll briefly discuss these two influences on feeder ing on all cylinders and there is potential to reach this level cattle prices and hopefully you will have a better idea of the by the end of 2013. potential outlook for 2013.

U.S. at-home food spending during 2012 was up an U.S. corn and Canadian barley carry-outs will be hisestimated 3.5 per cent compared to 2011 while awaytorically tight at the end of the 2012from-home food spending was up 13 crop year. The feed grains market approximately 11 per cent. This is is functioning to encourage produca fairly significant climb within one tion. Looking forward to 2013 plant- In the latter half of year and overall incomes will need ing intentions, analysts are expecting the year the expected to increase to maintain this spending record U.S. corn acreage and a five to behaviour. Unemployment continues 10 per cent increase in barley acres. sharp drop in feed grain to trend lower while quarterly GDP Next fall, U.S. corn prices are expected growth has been exceeding two per to be under $4 per bushel and bar- values will cause feeder cent which is needed to signal solid ley prices in southern Alberta are also economic growth. Disposable income cattle prices to move expected to be in the range of $4 to for the average American consumer $4.50 per bushel. to historical highs during during the final quarter of 2012 was Total U.S. beef production is estimated four per cent higher in expected to total 24.6 billion pounds, the fall of 2013 comparison to year-ago levels. Londown nearly one billion pounds from ger term, the normal year-over-year 2012. In the table below, you can see the year-over-year growth rate in disposable income is approximately six per decline in each quarter, which will be largely due to lower cent which is expected in the latter half of 2013. cattle-on-feed numbers. Notice that fourth-quarter proGiven the lower beef production and growing consumer duction drops under six billion pounds, which will be the income levels, fed cattle prices are expected to make sealowest in the last five years. Carcass weights have been sursonal highs in late March or early April. We could then see prisingly high and this is something to watch longer term a light softening of the market into summer. The fall period as the feed grains complex comes under pressure. Given the of 2013 could see fed cattle in the U.S. Southern Plains trade in the range of $130 to $137 while Alberta prices would equate to $125 to $130.

U.S. quarterly beef production (million pounds) In the first half of 2013, feed grain prices will stay rather Est. Est. Quarter 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 stagnant but the seasonal rally in fed cattle should enhance feeder cattle prices. In the latter half of the year, the largest 1 6,248 6,251 6,411 6,283 6,105 influence will be the sharp drop in feed grain values which 2 6,602 6,547 6,559 6,475 6,270 will cause feeder cattle prices to move to historical highs during the fall of 2013.

3 6,690 6,768 6,737 6,584 6,240 4

6,426

6,741

6,492

6,245

5,970

Total

25,966

26,307

26,199

25,587

24,585

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

Gerald Klassen analyzes markets in Winnipeg and also maintains an interest in the family feedlot in southern Alberta. He can be reached at jkci@mymts.net or 204-287-8268.

Cattlemen / february 2013 61

SALES AND EVENTS EVENTS February

Show and Sale, Lloydminster Exhibition, Lloydminster, Sask.

6-7—Calgary Bull Show and Sale, Stampede Park, Calgary, Alta., www.calgar ybullsale. com

12-13—Western Canadian Holistic Management Conference, Russell Community Centre, Russell, Man. 13—Alltech’s North American Lecture Tour 9 a.m.-12 p.m., Canad Inn Club Regent, Winnipeg, Man. 14—Alltech’s North American Lecture Tour 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Enmax Centre, Lethbridge, Alta.

20-21—Ontario Cattlemen’s Association AGM and Conference, Doubletree Inn by Hilton, Toronto, Ont. 20-22—10th Annual Alberta Beef Industry Conference, Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Alta.

27-28—Ag Expo 2013, Exhibition Park, Lethbridge, Alta.

12-14—Ottawa Valley Farm Show, CE Centre, Ottawa, Ont. 21-22—2013 Livestock Care Conference hosted by AFAC, Executive Royal Inn, Calgary, Alta.

March

SALES

2-3—94th Annual Pride of the Prairies Bull

AD INDEX Page Agri-Industry Workforce 6 Agriculture and Agri-Food 17 Arlin Strohschein 52 Bar T5 Agra Services 54 Bayer CropScience 31 Boynecrest Stock Farm 58

By Livestock 50 Canadian Agri-Blend 26 Canadian Angus Assoc.

IFC Canadian Charolais Assoc.

OBC Canadian Gelbvieh Assoc.

37 Canadian Hereford Assoc.

54 Canadian Limousin Assoc.

32, 33 Canadian Shorthorn Assoc.

51 Canadian Simmental Assoc.

54 Canadian Welsh Black Society 54 Case-IH 10, 11 Davidson Gelbvieh 19 Direct Livestock Marketing 52 Farm Credit Corp.

15 General Motors IBC Goodview Gelbvieh 57 Greener Pastures 49 Harvie Ranching 5 Hirsche Herefords 35 International Stock Foods 54 J. Yorga Farms 58 John Deere Ag Marketing Center 23 Karawartha Lakes Co-op 57 Lakeland Group/Northstar 16 a-p LLB Angus 55 Matchmakers Select 54 Merial Canada Inc. 13 Merck Animal Health 7, 20, 21, 41 Murphy Ranch 48 Pfizer Animal Health 25 Place Your Bet 52 Pro-char Charolais 45 R Plus Simmentals 50 Rafter 8 29 Rainalta Simmentals 26 Rawes Ranche 39 Richmond Ranch 53 Salers Assoc. of Canada 54 Saskatchewan Equine Expo 54 Saskatoon Gelbvieh Bull & Female Sale 49 Spiritview Ranch 9 Spruce View Angus 30 Tru-Test 55 Viterra 27

62 CATTLEMEN / FEBRUARY 2013

25—Simmental Summit Bull and Female Sale, Beechinor Bros. Sale Barn, Bentley, Alta.

26—Rainalta and Guests Simmental and Charolais Bull Sale, Bow Slope Shipping, Brooks, Alta.

27—Erixon Simmentals Bull and Female Sale, Saskatoon Livestock Sales, Saskatoon, Sask., www.erixonsimmentals.com

28—Holloway Farms Ltd. Annual Hereford Sale, Dryland Cattle Trading, Veteran, Alta., www.hollowayfarmsltd.com

June

7-9—Lakeland College-Vermilion, 2013 Alumni Homecoming and Rose Ball — 100th Anniversary, Lakeland College, Vermilion, Alta., 780-853-8628, www.lakelandc. ab.ca

9-11—Saskatchewan Stock Growers 100th Convention and Annual General Meeting, Heritage Inn, Moose Jaw, Sask., www. skstockgrowers.com/100th

February

14—Chapman Cattle Company 7th Annual “100% Forage Developed” Bull Sale — Angus and Red Angus, Stettler Auction Mart, Stettler, Alta., www.chapmancattle.com 16—P & H Ranching Co. Ltd. and Circle G Simmentals and Angus Bull and Gelding Sale, Innisfail Auction, Innisfail, Alta.

18—Ole Farms 8th Annual Family Day Sale — Angus Bulls, at the farm, Athabasca, Alta.

18—Ulrich Hereford Ranch 7th Annual Bull and Heifer Sale, Balog Cow Palace, Lethbridge, Alta.

19—Rawes Ranches 30th Annual Charolais Bull Sale — 120 two-yr. old bulls, at the ranch, Strome, Alta., www.rawesranches.com 19—Hirsche Herefords and Angus Ltd. with Anderson Family Herefords Spring Bull Sale, at Hirsche Ranch, High River, Alta.

23—Lewis Farms 28th Annual Bull Sale, at the farm, Spruce Grove, Alta.

STAMPEDE

By Jerry Palen

28—Stewart Cattle Co. and Guests 5th Annual Black Angus Bull Sale, Neepawa Ag-Plex, Neepawa, Man. 28—J. Yorga Farms Production Sale, at the ranch, Flintoft, Sask., www.jyorgafarms.com

March

2—Davidson Gelbvieh and Lonesome Dove Ranch 24th Annual Bull Sale at their bull yards, Ponteix, Sask.

2—McMillen Ranching Ltd. 19th Annual Bull Sale — Simmental and Red Angus Bulls, at the ranch, Carievale, Sask.

2—Brandl Cattle Co. Black and Red Angus Bull Sale, Guest Consignor — Lake Bottom Simmentals, at the farm, Jarvie, Alta.

2—High Country Charolais and Angus Bull Sale, Pincher Creek, Alta.

2-3—94th Annual Pride of the Prairies Bull Show and Sale, Lloydminster Exhibition, Lloydminster, Sask.

6-7—Calgary Bull Show and Sale, Stampede Park, Calgary, Alta., www.calgar ybullsale. com

8—Richmond Ranch 16th Annual Grass Country Limousin Bull Sale, at the ranch, Rumsey, Alta., www.richmondranch.com 15—V & V Farms Bull and Female Sale, Guest Consignor — Towerview Farms, at the farm, Redcliff, Alta.

15—Reese Cattle Co. Charolais Bull Sale, Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alta.

16—Boynecrest-Skridge 1st Annual Simmental Bull Sale, Rathwell, Man. 20—Advantage Bull Sale — Simmental and Angus, Saskatoon Livestock Sales, Saskatoon, Sask.

25—Harvie Ranching Co. Ltd. Annual Bull Sale — Polled Hereford, Charolais, Simmental, at the ranch, Olds, Alta., www.harvieranching.com

29—K-Cow Ranch Family Bull Sale, at the ranch, Elk Point, Alta.

31—Saskatoon Gelbvieh Bull and Female Sale, Saskatoon Livestock Sales, Saskatoon, Sask.

April

3—Peak Dot Ranch Spring Bull and Female Sale, at the ranch, Wood Mountain, Sask., www.peakdotranch.com

4—Crowfoot Cattle Co. 21st Annual Red and Black Angus Bull Sale, at the ranch, Standard, Alta., www.crowfoot.com 6—Summit 3 Speckle Park Sale, Northlands, Edmonton, Alta.

“Aw, we’re not stuck.

Well, maybe a little…”

 Event listings are a free service to industry.  Sale listings are for our advertisers.

Your contact is Deborah Wilson at 403-325-1695 or deb.wilson@fbcpublishing.com

www.canadiancattlemen.ca

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