POINTS TO PONDER From the Field

Helge By

What a difference a year can make. Last year there was some guarded optimism in the air about the cattle market and the future cattle market. That has proved true and it is with great anticipation that we head into 2012 with what looks like a very bright road ahead.

In mid January the U.S feeder market was continuing higher with reports of a load of 612 pound heifers selling for $2.12/lb. Wow. Market reports show that top 500 to 550 lb. steers selling over $2/lb. fairly regularly. Also lower feed grain prices in the U.S. helped push the futures market to an all time high.

Can this last? Well, with the U.S. having to move into heifer retention and rebuilding of the cowherd, and with the lower numbers we have here in Canada and around the world, I would say that market fundamentals say this can last.

The Beef InfoXchange System is finally up and running after anticipating it for some time. Basically, cow-calf producers who want to take the time to register their calves with their CCIA tag number will be able to go in and see how those calves did in the feedlot and in the packing house. This will be great for producers to see how their cattle perform and what needs to be improved upon in their programs. In time it should add value to the quality operator as they will be able to show how their cattle have done at all levels of the beef chain. Exciting stuff if it works as well as it should with everyone involved working together. I have printed the BIXS overview from their website. If you have read it before skip over it, but it gives the outline of the program and options for those who may not be on the internet or on high speed.

Canadian beef producers have long understood the potential in capturing, exchanging and tracking the specific individual animal data and information made possible through the national animal

ID program. The Beef InfoXchange System, or BIXS, leverages that data to benefit producers by improving communications and individual animal information sharing across the entire beef chain.

BIXS is a national voluntary web-based database designed to capture and exchange data linked to an individual animal’s unique electronic ID tag number, known as the CCIA (Canadian Cattle Identification Agency) tag or RFID (radio frequency identification) tag.

BIXS is a tool to assist in the gathering, tracking and exchanging of useful individual animal information across the beef chain. The system enables participants to communicate, build business opportunities and hone marketing programs based on accurate and reliable individual animal data.

BIXS’ query function maintains cow-calf producer confidentiality yet empowers the system so beef supply chain participants can source cattle on specification and creates communication channels across the supply chain based on individual animal information.

The ability to track and share relevant animal production, performance, health, genetic and carcass data will help improve efficiencies at the ranch, feedlot and processing levels. It will also lead to more precise targeting of beef for specific domestic and international market prospects, and increase the overall quality of beef nation-wide.

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) spearheaded the development of BIXS as part of the Canadian Beef Advantage (CBA) program, the branding of Canadian beef for domestic and international markets.

The BIXS is now launched to cow-calf producers across Canada and work continues to enable feedlots to begin submitting animal data to BIXS. The system is designed to work efficiently at high speed and for dial-up users with reliable and higher connective speeds. Those users on slow dial-up are urged to access BIXS through a third party they authorize (third party authorization forms are downloadable from the main page of this website).

Interested producers can register and log on to the BIXS database program via the BIXS website by clicking the ‘Registration’ button. In addition, full instructions on how to register onto BIXS are also provided as a PDF link on the home page of BIXS. Further, links are also provided on websites of organizations partnering with BIXS, like Beef Improvement Opportunities, BeefBooster, Pfizer Animal Health’s Pfizer Gold Program, among others.

BIXS will also platform or partner on an information sharing basis with other industry participants including veterinary pharmaceutical firms, veterinarians, IT firms and more. As these agreements are completed BIXS will provide links to these partners on the BIXS main web site.

I found it interesting that total Canadian cow slaughter and cow exports were both down by 12% and 27% respectively to the 1st of December. Now does this mean that producers were selling more heifer calves because of the higher prices and keeping the older bred females? Around the country everywhere I went people were saying that many were getting out of cows and retiring and they didn’t know if there would be any cows left in their area. Well it seems there are more cows out there than most were anticipating and cows need bulls.

When you read this, the first bull sales will already be happening and in this issue you get a preview of some of the Charolais sales in particular the early ones. Last fall in a few of the sales where the bull calves were sold, we saw the best prices those producers had every seen. I think this was foreshadowing the spring sales as the demand for the good Charolais bulls will be stronger than seen for many years. Don’t be disappointed, do your bull shopping while the sales are on and don’t wait until the day you need a bull to try find one.

If you need some help in locating bulls this spring give Craig Scott or myself a call and we will help you in anyway we can.

Until next time, Helge