MEMORIES TRUCKER’S A VERIFIED SUSTAINABILITY IS COMING

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VERIFIED SUSTAINABILITY IS COMING
THE BEEF MAGAZINE
MARCH 2014 $3.00
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A TRUCKER’S
Laurin Dreher,
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MEMORIES
PLUS
Genomics hits the ground 32
Sharpen your HR skills 38
4:06 P
Canadian Hereford Association • 5160 Skyline Way NE, Calgary, AB T2E 6V1 • 1-888-836-7242 • [email protected]
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CATTLEMEN EDITORIAL
Editor: Gren Winslow
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Contents
CANADIAN CATTLEMEN · MARCH 2014 · VOLUME 77, NO. 3
 T R A N S P O RT
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Laurin Dreher wraps it up
after 2.4 million miles.
A TRUCKER’S MEMORIES
 M A R K ET I NG
FEATURES
President: Bob Willcox
Glacier FarmMedia
Email: [email protected]
A trucker’s memories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Common pitfalls
with semen evaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Contents of Cattlemen are copyrighted and may be reproduced only
when written permission is obtained from the editor and proper
credit is given to Cattlemen.
Droplets: A common defect
in young bull evaluations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
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How I receive grass cattle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Front load the heifers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Verified sustainability 24
is coming
This is more than a buzzword today.
 B R E E D I NG
Genomics hits the ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Sharpen your human resource skills . . . . 38
Verified Beef Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Circulation inquiries:
Call toll-free 1-800-665-1362
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Newsmakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Our History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Member
Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
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Verified sustainability is coming . . . . . . . . 24
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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, Canadian Cattlemen and Farm
Business Communications, cannot and do not guarantee the accuracy
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12
Vet Advice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Genomics hits
the ground
32
Congratulations!
Prime Cuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1
Research on the Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Holistic Ranching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Straight from the Hip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
CCA Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
News Roundup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
To our March survey winner,
Cecil Haney, Kenora, Ont.
This month’s survey is on page 46.
Purely Purebred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Cover Photo: Our photo is supplied by Dreher Livestock
Sales and Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The Markets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Market Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
C AT T L E M E N · M A R C H 2 0 1 4
3
 COMMEN T
By Gren Winslow
McDonald’s wants
verified sustainable beef
Fortunately we are well set up to supply it
H
ow does a term like “sustainability” become
an international trend with the power to
move multinational companies?
Having just had a short brush with the bare droughtblighted pastures of California and the concrete of L.A.
I can understand why Hollywood types would feel the
world is in dire shape. But selling sustainability to people
who make their living on the land is a bit like telling a
hockey player he has to learn how to skate.
Sustainability is a given for farm people, isn’t it? —
particularly those who depend on grass and native or
tame forages to raise their cattle.
At least that was what I used to believe. There was a
time my eyes would fog over whenever the term sustainability came up in meetings, as I waited for the speaker
to move on to real world problems.
Not anymore. When your biggest customer tells you
that he will only be buying sustainable beef and sets a
deadline to begin, it tends to sharpen the focus. The fact
that McDonald’s is interested in beef sustainability is not
news. The company has been heavily involved in setting
up the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB)
since 2011 along with Cargill, JBS and several other multinationals.
Now McDonald’s is committing to begin purchasing
verified sustainable beef by 2016.
There was a time when that announcement would
have sent shock waves through the industry seeing
McDonald’s purchased close to 70 million pounds of
Canadian beef last year. In fact, this news barely caused a
murmur in Canada, largely because the industry, spearheaded by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, has
been preparing for this day for some time now.
As McDonald’s Canada’s manager of sustainability,
Jeffrey Fitzpatrick-Stilwell says in this issue, “I believe
today we are purchasing lots and lots of sustainable beef.”
The trick, he says, is to find a way to verify the sustainability of those purchases. And that’s where Canada
should shine because of the number of the tools to
ensure sustainability that is already in place.
The CCA became a member of GRSB and spearheaded the formation of the Canadian Roundtable on
Sustainable Beef so it would be at the table when a final
definition of what constitutes sustainable beef is decided
a little later this year.
The Canadian beef industry’s own sustainability tool
chest is divided into three categories: social, economic
and environmental.
In the social box we have the newly revised code of
practice for the care and handling of beef cattle (www.
nfacc.ca/codes-of-practice/beef-cattle) and the Canadian Beef Cattle On-Farm Biosecurity Standard, all
4
C at t l e m e n · m a r c h 2 0 1 4 backed by the latest research available, much of it done
in Canada. There is also a network of federal and provincial animal care legislation on the books to deal with
those who don’t live up to their responsibilities.
Economic sustainability is what consumes most people’s time and is determined somewhat by market forces
beyond anyone’s control. It has also consumed a good
deal of the time and money available to producer organizations in efforts to reduce the cost of production.
Here I’m thinking of all the producer-funded research
that has gone into reducing winter feeding costs and
improved nutrition and animal health. I suppose we
could toss all the time and effort put in by industry and
government to gain greater access to foreign markets in
this envelope as well.
There was a time my eyes
would fog over whenever the
term sustainability came up…
not anymore
Environmental sustainability is where the stewardship
of cattle producers should shine. Efficient grazing management, protection of riparian areas, living in harmony
with wildlife, these are a sample of the ways cattle people
preserve and protect the environment. The annual environmental stewardship awards presented each year in
every region of the country are just a way of shining a
spotlight on these efforts.
Measuring all this may only be a matter of ensuring
that everyone lives up to the standards that most people
follow anyway. If McDonald’s requires more, the CCA’s
Verified Beef Production program would be a place to
start. In a nicely timed move Ottawa recently put up the
money to add on-farm training modules for biosecurity,
animal care and environmental stewardship in addition
to the regular food safety course.
Nearly 18,000 beef operations have already had VBP
training representing 89 per cent of the feedlot production in Alberta and 59 per cent in Saskatchewan, and
somewhere around a third of the cow-calf production.
A much smaller number is registered operations, again
heavily weighted to the feedlot sector.
In years of shrinking checkoff revenues the people at
the head of these organizations should be credited with
not losing sight of the importance of sustainability. c
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
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 THE INDUST RY
NewsMakers
Cow-calf operator Bob
Gordanier from Dufferin County is the new
president of Beef Farmers of Ontario. He is a
first-generation farmer
who operates a cow-calf
forage-based operation
near Orangeville with
Bob Gordanier
his son Andrew. Matt
Bowman, a cow-calf
operator from Temiskaming is vice-president.
Other elected directors
are cow-calf producer
Gerald Rollins of Renfrew County, feedlot
operator Joe Hill of Wellington County; backMatt Bowman
grounder Rob Lipsett
of Grey County and eastern director Rick
Hobbs of Ottawa.
Delegates to the annual meeting voted to
raise Ontario’s checkoff by $1 per head.
Dr. Peter Kotzeff of Chesley is the recipient of the 2014 Ontario Environmental
Stewardship Award, sponsored by the RBC
Royal Bank. Kotzeff, who is also a veterinarian, operates a 1,800-acre farm in Bruce
County, 700 of it in forages. He is preserving a number of riparian properties by
providing alternate water sources through
the use of wells and ponds, and fencing off
a number of waterways. He pastures anywhere from 500 to 1,000 head of cattle per
year, intensively grazing paddocks from 50
to 300 acres in size for three to five days with
a minimum of 45 days’ rest.
Paula Larson, a cowcalf producer from
D’Arcy is the new chair
of the Saskatchewan
Cattlemen’s Association.
Joining her on the executive is vice-chair Larry
Grant of Val Marie,
Paula Larson
finance chair Harold
Martens of Swift Current, member-at-large
Ryan Beierbach of Whitewood, and past
chair Mark Elford of Wood Mountain.
Melinda German is the new general manager of the Manitoba Beef Producers. German comes to MBP after serving as the
6
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 director of the Livestock
Knowledge Centre for
Manitoba Agriculture.
She holds a master of science from the University
of Saskatchewan, specializing in beef animal
nutrition, and grazing
and pasture manageMelinda German
ment. She replaces Cam
Dahl who resigned in February to become
the first president of Cereals Canada, a new
organization that aspires to offer a national
presence for the cereal sector.
Brenda Robertson and Neil Showers from
Grey County are the 2014 recipients of the
Ontario Pasture Award sponsored by the Beef
Farmers of Ontario, MAPLESEED and the
Ontario Forage Council. They farm 60 acres
of pasture and 30 of hay in the municipality of
Chatsworth with the goal of grazing 72 to 80
head per year with intensive grazing.
Page Stuart of Vegreville
has been elected chair of
the Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association. She is
well known in the feedlot community from her
many years in research
and management with
Highland Feeders and
Page Stuart
Lakeland College. She
is currently a senior animal health sales associate. Leighton Kolk, a
feedlot operator from
Iron Springs is vice-chair.
Brent Chaffee of Strathmore remains on the
executive as past chair.
The remaining direcLeighton Kolk
tors are: Jason Hagel,
Swalwell; John Lawton, Niton Junction; Lyle
Miller, Acme; Mike Sears, Nanton; Ryan
Kasko, Coaldale; John Schooten, Diamond
City; Curtis Vander Heyden, Picture Butte;
Jeff Warrack, Strathmore; Keith Ypma,
Taber and Martin Zuidhof, Lacombe.
Shannon Lyons has been appointed manager of communications with the Alberta
Cattle Feeders’ Association and the National
Cattle Feeders’ Association. She is responsible for internal and external communica-
tions and media relations. Originally from
Banff, Alta., Lyons is also a freelance writer
and editor, with a formal education in public relations, digital publishing and design.
Heinz Reimer of Steinbach is the new president of the Manitoba
Beef Producers. Ben Fox
of Dauphin is first vicepresident and Bill Murray of Makinak second
vice-president. Ramona
Blyth of MacGregor is
Heinz Reimer
secretary and Theresa
Zuk of Arborg remains as treasurer. Producers at the Manitoba Beef Producers’
annual meeting in February approved an
increase in the provincial checkoff from $2
to $3 per head.
Richard and Kristylayne Carr of Rich Lane
Farms, Marchand are
the 2014 recipients of
the Manitoba Environmental Stewardship Award. The Carrs
started their farm from
Richard Carr
scratch and built up a
business selling grassfed beef, pasture poultry
and pasture pork. They
have partnered with the
Seine-Rat River Conservation District to implement riparian area and
off-site watering projects, bale grazing and
Kristy-layne Carr
rotational grazing.
Manitoba Beef Producers presented its first
lifetime achievement
award to Betty Green
last month. Betty was
president of the Manitoba association during
the BSE crisis, sat on the
Betty Green
boards of the Canadian
Cattlemen’s Association, the Canadian
Animal Health Coalition, and Manitoba
Rural Adaptation Council and worked on
the West Hawk Lake Zoning Initiative. She
and her family run a beef operation near
Fisher Branch. c
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
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Letters
Using snow to water cattle
I’m reading all I can about bale grazing. Many times, ranchers (say)
they don’t give water to cattle and there’s no problem with that. Do
you agree? Is it possible to winter cattle only with snow with no
negative effects?
You could answer me by an article in the Cattlemen magazine.
By the way, I appreciate your articles because they
are based on facts!
Guillaume Barrette,
St-Edmond-les-Plaines, Que.
Reynold Bergen, the science director of the Beef Cattle Research
Council answered Guillaume’s question.
Some beef producers do use snow as a water source for part of
the winter. These are typically producers who use stockpiled pastures, swath grazing, or bale grazing. On winter pastures, the cattle
often need to push through snow to get to the feed. The snow gets
on the feed, and so the cattle eat some snow with the feed. The snow
melts in the rumen, and provides water to the animal.
Section 2.2 / page 12 of the new beef code of practice talks about
using snow as a water source (http://www.nfacc.ca/pdfs/codes/
beef_code_of_practice.pdf, or http://www.nfacc.ca/pdfs/codes/
bovins_de_boucherie_code_de_pratiques.pdf). It is possible to use snow as the water source for cattle, under certain conditions:
1. You need to have snow! Snow on the other side of the fence is not
good enough… the cattle need to be able to reach it.
2. The snow needs to be clean.
3. The snow needs to be loose; cows can’t eat snow that is frozen
solid or crusted over.
But there can be serious problems when relying on snow as a
water source, especially when you or your cattle are new to this program, and/or when the weather doesn’t co-operate. Here are some
critically important things to remember:
1. Check your cattle often, regardless of how you manage them in
winter. If they are standing by the gate bawling, there is a problem. If they’re hungry, they may be out of feed, or may not be
getting enough water. If they are losing body condition, they need
better or more feed. They also need to have access to natural or
man-made shelter and/or bedding.
2. Cows often need some time to learn how to eat snow (or graze in
winter), so keep a very close eye on them.
3. The cow uses heat energy from the rumen to melt the snow, so
their energy requirements will be higher.
4. Feed quality needs to be adequate if you are using snow as a water
source (see point 3).
5. Don’t use snow as the sole water source for thin cows, nursing
cows or young, growing cattle. The extra energy demands (see
point 3) will be extra hard on them.
Snow is not always a reliable water source. It is not always there,
it is not always clean, and sometimes it is frozen too hard for cattle
to eat. So if you are using snow as a water source, you need to watch
your cattle and snow conditions very closely. Dehydration will kill
animals a lot faster than starvation, so animal welfare concerns can
develop very quickly. So you also need a plan “B” — how will you
get water to the cows (or the cows to water) if the snow runs out,
gets trampled in, or freezes over?
On a related note, holes chopped in an ice-covered dugout or pond
can also be a risky water source. The ice may be thick and strong enough
8
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 to support a few cattle. But if the hole freezes over and isn’t reopened
soon enough, thirsty cattle may crowd onto the ice. Their combined
weight may cause the ice to break, ending up with drowned cattle.
Ask your provincial beef extension experts, nutritionist and/or veterinarian for advice before you start using snow as a sole water source. They
may have some specific advice for your part of the country, and may be
able to put you in touch with other producers in your area who have had
practical experience and success with this management approach.
Do you have a question? The BCRC will do our best to get you the
best answer available. Feel free to send your question to Gren (gren@
fbcpublishing.com) or contact the BCRC at [email protected].
Snow works for me
Heifers on snow for one month.
In the January issue a letter was printed that suggested that using
snow as a water source for cattle is not acceptable. My cattle have
been on snow for a portion of the winter for at least 10 years. During this time, I have selected for cattle that do well on snow, just like
I have selected for cattle that can endure our brutal winters.
I have a few suggestions to ensure you have success using snow as
a water source. If you are just starting your herd on snow, do it for
one month the first year. You will soon see the cows that don’t do
well on snow. Also, train your replacement heifers by putting them
on snow for one month their first winter. (I have included a picture
of some of my replacement heifers that have been on snow for a
month.) Any heifer that does not learn to lick enough snow to meet
her needs should be shipped. In the fall, after calves are weaned,
chop ice for your cows until there is about six inches of snow, and
then turn the cows into a pasture with stockpiled forage where they
do not have access to a dugout. As the cows graze, they will consume plenty of snow. This gets them used to relying on snow to
meet their water needs. When you start feeding hay, they will be
used to snow and will not spend much time searching for a water
source. Make sure you have a large area for the replacement heifers
and cows. I winter about 15 replacement heifers in a four-acre pasture using portable windbreaks. The cows are fed twice a week in an
80-acre pasture with lots of bush, and the feeders are moved onto
fresh snow at each feeding. My cows are on snow from the time
there is enough on the ground until at least the middle of January.
There are several advantages to using snow as a water source for
cattle. It allows you to graze and feed in fields that have no other water
source. It reduces the danger for cattle on the dugout ice as they fight
for water from the holes you have chopped. If you have cows walking
a long distance to water, it gives cows an alternative water source. Also,
if you have a major problem with your well or watering bowl and are
shut down for a couple of days, your cows will do just fine on snow.
When I was growing up, I was taught that horses do well with
snow as a water source, but cows do not. I, along with many other
producers, have proven that that is not true. The key is approaching
it properly with the right type of cattle.
Tom Treen, Preeceville, Sask. c
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
CRAPSmar14.indd 1
2/17/2014 11:46:26 AM
 OUR HISTO RY
CANADIAN EMBARGO
Reprinted from the Sept. 1947 issue
F
rom cattlemen and their organizations comes an insistent query,
“When will Ottawa permit us to
ship our cattle to the United States?” That
question must be answered unequivocally by the Dominion government. It had
authority to take away the right of private export; it has the authority to restore
it. Logic now dictates that the Canadian
restriction on private exports of cattle
to the United States should be removed.
When control of industry and prices
became necessary during the war and
when Mutual Aid and Lend-Lease were
operating the cattleman who had voluntarily surrendered his right to private
export raised no objection. He pointed
out from time to time that he thought the
southern market should be serviced with
small shipments to keep trade channels
open — other Canadian industries were
permitted to do that — but he never did
and never will agree to an indefinite suspension of one of his basic rights, namely
to market his product to his natural market or to any other market he desires.
The United Kingdom market, shorn of
sentimental considerations, is an uneconomic one for Canada’s cattleman. With
high production costs and heavy transportation charges he can never hope to
compete with low-cost countries such as
Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Australia.
The United Kingdom contract entered
into by the Dominion government without consultation with the industry’s organizations serves to channel Canadian beef
to a market which may prove in the long
run to be disastrous to one of Canada’s
basic industries and detrimental to Canada’s national economy.
Cattlemen have found that costs of practically all items used by them have risen with
no corresponding rise in cattle prices permitted. Many of the items used, ranging from
trucks, cars, haying equipment through to
citrus fruits are purchased from the South at
U.S. prices and on a free economy in which
grass steers are readily selling for 25 cents per
pound. Canadian ranchers are obliged to pay
these prices with 12-cent steers.
Today Canada is confronted with a shortage of U.S. dollars brought about by an
adverse trade balance. Defeatists are advocating the short-sighted policy of restricting
imports from the United States; others see
the necessity of increasing exports.
Some government advisers have stated that
the United States does not want Canadian cattle. This is untrue. The United States position is
clearly stated in the following from a high official of the U.S. Department of State.
“With regard to the department’s attitude
toward the importation of Canadian cattle,
it is our desire that all wartime controls be
ended as soon as the purpose for which they
were imposed cease to exist. This is in accord
with our commercial-policy objective of an
expanding international trade open to private
enterprise on a competitive and non-discriminatory basis. The Canadian government has
expressed a similar attitude. Therefore, if the
Canadian government should be willing to
allow the exportation of cattle to the United
States, the department would have no objection. Cattle imported into the United States
would, of course, be subject to import duties
as modified under the Trade Agreement Act.”
Recently persistent inquiries have been
received from the South and especially from
California for feeder cattle. The embargo
placed against imports of cattle from Mexico
because of foot-and-mouth disease in Mexican herds has deprived American feeders of
half a million head of cattle per annum. They
are anxious to purchase the healthy northern
feeder cattle. Opportunity lies ahead for the
Canadian cattlemen but this opportunity may
be realized only if the Dominion government
removes its present embargo on shipments to
the South. The time for action is now when fall
marketings are commencing and heavy supplies are in prospect. c
y! .
da ed
to it
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st s
gi g i
Re atin
Se
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 COVER STO RY · T R A N S P O RT
By Debbie Furber
A TRUCKER’S
MEMORIES
2.4 million accident-free miles was
enough for Laurin Dreher
T
he new year marked a milestone
for Laurin Dreher who retired
after 2.4 million accident-free
miles transporting livestock from his
home base, Dreher Livestock at Weyburn, Sask., to points across the western
provinces, east into Ontario and south
as far as Texas and west to Oregon and
Washington.
He so enjoyed Canadian Cattlemen’s
December heritage issue that friends
nudged him to give us a call about memorable times in the livestock transport business during his 20 years as a commercial
hauler of cattle, horses, pigs and bison.
“I didn’t get off to such a good start,”
Dreher says. “When I was 10 years old I saw
a picture in the Eaton’s catalogue of a little
black calf in a little red wagon. Well, I had
a little red wagon and we had little black
calves on the farm near Bromhead, but my
first run didn’t end up like the picture at all.
That was my first and only wreck!”
He started hauling in the local area in
the 1960s with his half-ton truck fitted
with box rails and moved up to a three-ton
with box rails before taking a few years off
to pursue other interests. He returned to
drive for local companies, including Powers
Livestock, Adventure Livestock and most
recently, the Holdstocks with R R Brady
12
C AT T L E M E N · M A R C H 2 0 1 4
Transport. During those years, the industry moved from 48-foot to 50-foot vans, or
liners, then to 53-foot tri axles. The smaller
liners had spring ride systems, but the air
ride on the tri axles was a big improvement
for drivers and cattle alike.
“Cattle walk out fresh even on a long
haul 1,800 miles into Ontario. With lots
of bedding, they are so relaxed that some
will even lay down,” Dreher says. He’d stop
every three or four hours to check his load
and get the cattle back on their feet because
they would stiffen up if they rested laying
down the whole way. Parking sideways to
the breeze to get a cooling effect on longer
stops also helped to keep cattle fresh on
long hauls.
Today’s cabs and sleepers are far more
comfortable with conveniences such as air
seats and Sirius satellite radio, which meant
he could say goodbye to the stash of tapes
he carried along for the long stretches of
countryside where regular stations don’t
come in. Other technology, like GPS driving directions, didn’t work so well for rural
destinations.
He always ran his own truck while
working for the other companies and in
2003 established Dreher Livestock, adding a second and third tri axle. Though
he was fortunate to have great drivers, the
logistics of keeping three trucks on the
road meant he spent more time organizing than doing what he loved the best —
hauling cattle.
Granted, there would have been far less
worry hauling other agricultural cargo
or dry goods, but he has ready reasons for
favouring livestock, especially cattle. “I grew
up with cattle and was familiar with their
behaviour, the money was good, and there
were no side hauls. I’d be there and back in
three or four days, instead of being gone for
two or three weeks at a time,” he says.
The busiest week on his record started
with loading feeders on Sunday morning at Weyburn for Gruver, Texas. He was
back home by Wednesday morning to load
feeders bound for Hartington, Nebraska,
returning Friday, to load for a jaunt to Liberal, Kansas, logging a grand total of 6,100
miles in eight days. Back at home, he lightheartedly reminded the company that he
ran a freightline not an airline!
The change in log book regulations
around the early 2000s made it a lot better
for hauling cattle because after 36 consecutive hours off duty the log book went back
to zero, though drivers are still limited to 70
hours driving time in eight days.
Continued on page 14
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
Project3_Layout 1 2/12/14 10:09 AM Page 1
#13, 4101-19th St. N.E., Calgary, AB, T2E 7C4
Tel: (403) 250-7979 Fax: (403) 250-5121
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.simmental.com
T R A N S P O RT
Continued from page 12
Hauling dairy cattle is unique because
there are lots of stops to milk the cows
morning and night. The seller and buyer
arrange all the milking points so his job
was to get them there on time. A haul from
Ontario to the Edmonton area required
three stops in Ontario, one in Manitoba,
and another in Saskatchewan before making it through to their destination.
Most of his 2.4 million miles were made
during daylight hours, except hauling from
auction markets during the fall runs when
as many as 20 trucks would be waiting to
load after sales wrapped up. Oftentimes
that would be well into the evening and
even later before he’d be loaded and ready
to head out.
Wait times at U.S. customs have been
greatly reduced from up to an hour in the
office filling out paperwork, to a short stop
since the ACE (automatic central entry)
system was introduced. The electronic form
with details about the licences and load is
filled out in the home office after the cattle
have been loaded. It’s sent off to U.S. customs about two hours ahead of his arrival at
the border crossing, where employees pull
it and his passport picture up on the com-
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C AT T L E M E N · M A R C H 2 0 1 4
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puter when he checks in. With everything
in order, he’s on his way in no time.
He can’t begin to count the times he has
helped rookie drivers at the border during
those long stops, often with paperwork, but
also with some basic know-how, such as not
hopping into the liner with a load of bulls!
“You never know what cattle will do
when they are in a liner,” he says. Many
young drivers today don’t have the benefit
of a farm background.
His most vivid memories have to do
with nature — sometimes the wonder of it
all and other times its fury. He missed the
Alberta flood of 2013, but came across a
similar scene west of Grand Forks, North
Dakota, when 17 inches of rain had fallen
in one night and was still flowing across the
highway when he arrived the next day. The
U.S. army was at the site working to constrain the washed-out rail bed.
A March storm that raged for 10 days
from Saskatchewan to Colorado left snow
cuts along both sides of the highway that
towered above his liner. Cattle losses in the
wake of that storm tallied up to more than
30,000 head.
Though weather forced the occasional
shutdown, luck was with him to make it to
a truck stop each time. The longest holdover was a full day and night, in which case
there’s absolutely nothing that can be done
but to keep the cattle safe and sound on the
liner. If the community happened to have
an auction market where the cattle could be
safely unloaded and contained, regulations
require that they be fed and watered.
Fighting winter weather, storms and
poor road conditions are his main reason
for calling it quits. He attributes his admirable safety record to knowing when to
pull over to get some rest — that’s what
the sleeping compartments are there for,
he adds. Driving has always been enjoyable
and relaxing ever since he learned to drive
back on the farm. He acknowledges as well,
the fellowship and support of the Holdstocks and will miss the cattle people he’s
come to know through the years.
“The most beautiful sight in all my
years on the road was travelling through
the mountains near Twin Falls, Idaho, one
December 31 under a full moon,” he recalls.
“It was so bright reflecting off the mountains on both sides of the road that I turned
off the lights for a few miles.” His grandson,
who was 10 at the time and along for the
ride, still remembers the trip, which was a
much better experience than Dreher’s when
he was the same age. c
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
2/11/14 1:00 PM
 breeding
By Roy Lewis DVM
Common Pitfalls
With Semen Evaluations
And how to avoid them
I
n the past 32 years of semen evaluating bulls I have come across many
tricks of the trade to make this procedure run smoothly.
Every situation is different and every
set of bulls unique so most of these points
involve common-sense observations that I
have made over the years.
Collecting an adequate semen sample
from a bull that is hard to stimulate is a
common problem. More often than not
the rectal probe is too small so there is not
enough contact between the probe and the
urethral muscles. This is especially true in
very large bulls. You can often increase the
amount of contact simply by lifting up on
the back of the probe as the bull is being
stimulated. This pushes the front of the
probe down onto the muscles. This extra
contact usually results in more of the penis
protruding from the sheath so it is also
easier to detect any warts, cuts or a frenulum (tie-back) that needs to be addressed.
A very small percentage of bulls are still
unresponsive to the ejaculator. If it is deemed
that they are still worth testing they can be
bred to a cow in heat and have your veterinarian draw the semen out of the vagina
using a pipette. This semen will be mixed
with the cows vaginal mucous so its motility
will be slowed a bit when your veterinarian
examines it. Generally bulls that are hard to
collect or resistant to the electro ejaculator will repeat this behaviour in subsequent
years so mark that down on the semen form.
A bull going down in the chute is
another common difficulty. It seems to
happen more often with the quiet showtype bulls so leaving their heads free with
only light squeeze restraint or tying their
head up with a halter may help keep them
up. But usually placing a bar or post behind
the bull is enough to keep him secure and
standing long enough to collect a sample.
This is especially true of large herd bulls.
Confinement in a sturdy alley may be
easier than trying to hold their heads in a
headcatch. As a safety measure I will often
have a bar behind them in case they get
their head free. In hydraulic chutes I leave
the back door slightly closed so if they pull
their head free they won’t back over me.
I find certain breeds such as Angus and
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
Simmental are easier to stimulate. In fact
I have to watch I do not overstimulate
these bulls, or do it too quickly. Ejaculators with automatic settings may need to
be put on manual so the stimulation can
be increased gradually. This is where experience can yield great benefits. When the
penis does not protrude the bull is difficult to stimulate and many will ejaculate
in the sheath but it is still possible to get
the sample. Just stop the stimulation and
massage the sheath, then collect the semen
as it runs out. These bulls will have to be
observed at their first breeding to make
sure there is no physical impairment. Your
vet may want to tranquilize them to make
sure the penis can protrude.
ven in experienced
E
hands some bulls will fail because they should
On rare occasions you may come across
bulls that consistently urinate in the sample. In these cases I have found some rest
(say one hour) followed by quick stimulation often results in a successful collection.
Again, these bulls will often repeat this
trick in subsequent tests.
Stagnant semen, which means it has a
high percentage of dead sperm, can show
up in bulls during winter or whenever
they are not actively ejaculating. In a pen
of bulls it is more common among mature
bulls. In particular the greatest incidence
seems to be found at either end of the pecking order. My theory is the dominant bulls
have nothing to prove so don’t ride and
the least dominant bulls are the ones being
ridden. In either case ejaculation does not
occur and the semen becomes stagnant.
These bulls may need to be ejaculated two
to three times in succession to get this old
semen out of their system. Subsequent
sample quality should improve drastically
if this was the only problem.
Veterinarians can often tell if a sample
is stagnant or not by the type of sperm
cell defects they find. They may also want
to retest when the defect numbers are too
high. A good management tip is to have
cycling cows close by before semen testing
to get the bulls more active.
Only minute amounts of electricity are
used to stimulate bulls so any disruption
in this current can ruin the process. One
sensible precaution is to regularly clean the
electrical ends on the probe and replace
them when they become worn.
An experienced veterinarian gives
you the best opportunity for a successful
evaluation but even in experienced hands
some bulls will fail because they should.
What you want is to ensure that each bull
is given the fairest test possible. c
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
15
 breeding
By Roy Lewis DVM
Droplets:
a common defect
in young bull evaluations
C
attle producers often question
semen evaluation forms for
young bulls that report a lot of
proximal and distal droplets.
They cause frustration because the bulls
must be retested.
Droplets are probably the most common
defect seen by veterinarians when performing breeding soundness exams in the spring.
We see more droplets on average in
young immature bulls just reaching sexual
maturity. They are less sexually active and
droplets are a frequent occurrence, especially when the bulls are not housed close to
cycling females.
Proximal droplets appear as a swelling at
the junction of the head and tail of the sperm.
Distal droplets appear farther down the tail.
It’s important to realize that all sperm start
with a proximal droplet as they mature in the
epididymis, the little knob at the bottom of
the testicle. Generally the droplet is shaken
down and eventually sloughed off as the
sperm matures and wriggles its way through
the canals of the epididymis. Sperm with
droplets are essentially not mature so fertility
is affected.
When we look at distal droplets there are
essentially two types: those severely affected
(pathologic) and those that will eventually
be shaken off, producing a mature sperm
cell (physiological).
Dr. Jacob Thundathil of the University
of Calgary faculty of veterinary medicine
found that the percentage of droplets in ejac-
16
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 ulated sperm goes down as semen is chilled
and ultimately frozen for artificial insemination. This takes about three hours.
If we assume the same thing happens in
natural breeding as the sperm is swimming
up the vagina and into the uterus a number of
these distal droplets would be shaken off and
left behind. As a result distal droplets are not as
serious a defect as proximal droplets.
Samples with a large number of proximal droplets are often associated with other
sperm defects such as deformed heads.
Droplets are usually the reason young
bulls fail their first semen evaluation, especially if it is done at a young age. This is
why we recommended beef bulls not be
tested before a year of age (18 months for
bison as they mature much later).
At 12 months old only half the bulls
pass a semen test but that increases to
75 per cent by the time they are 14 to 15
months old. Many will pass only one or
two months later.
Unfortunately veterinarians can’t predict which ones will improve faster than
others so the only thing to do is retest
them. In my opinion you can speed up the
process by housing these young bulls close
to cycling females so they are encouraged
to ejaculate their older semen.
Veterinarians document morphological
defects on the semen form so you can follow any improvement over time. I remember one young bull that had nearly 100 per
cent proximal droplets on the first test but
the percentage kept dropping over the next
several months until he eventually was producing excellent semen as a two year old.
He was a show bull so the question always
comes up, was he too fat, inactive etc.
When veterinarians encounter a lot of
droplets in mature bull semen, which is
rare, they usually assess the other defects to
determine the overall prognosis, remembering that proximal droplets are a more
severe defect that distal droplets that may be
shed before the sperm contacts the egg.
If most of the defects in a young bull
are distal droplets and he still passes his
semen test, meaning defects overall are
less than 30 per cent, then there is a very
good chance those defects will lessen
with maturity and usage.
Over the years bull sale dates have
remained largely the same yet purebred
producers are calving later which means
veterinarians are testing younger and
younger bulls.
If you are selling off the farm consider delaying the test until the bulls are
as mature as possible. It is much better to
evaluate bulls just over a year of age during warm spring weather with cows cycling
nearby than in the dead of winter. Even one
to two weeks older makes a big difference.
The pass rate will be higher and it will be
easier on everyone including the bulls.
Don’t ask your veterinarian to try evaluating bulls at less than one year of age. It’s to
your benefit to wait, and the bulls. c
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
2014
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2014-02-12 11:40 AM
grazing
By Steve Kenyon
How I Receive Grass Cattle
P
retty soon the grass will be jumping and I will be busier
than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest. Fortyfour miles of perimeter fence and 38 miles of electric
cross fence to check and repair. Water pumps, electric fencers,
mineral tubs, posts, wire, a chainsaw, and my summer cologne
— a mix of bug spray and sun block. I know spring is just around
the corner. If you did not already know, I’m a custom grazier. The cattle are
booked and my grazing plans are done. It will soon be time to train
a new set of yearlings for my grazing season. The quicker I can get
them trained, the easier my job is. It does not happen with every
herd but if possible, I like to get the animals in early and feed for at
least a week. This allows me to get them well trained to electric fence
and well trained to love me. With custom animals coming in, you
never know what you are getting. This also spreads out the spring
rush a bit. Instead of having all my herds arrive and need training on
the same week when the grass is ready, I can spread this out over a
month and train one herd at a time. I have learned from my mistakes and now when I am receiving a
new set of yearlings, there are certain steps that I like to follow. Cowcalf pairs are another story. Let me run you through a typical day when receiving grass cattle. I try
to plan to have access to the loading chute rain or shine. My advantage
is heavy-duty, self-standing portable panels. I can set up a strong corral
system just about anywhere. I try to set it up close enough that if the
trucks can’t get into the pasture because of rain, we can still unload
off the road by adding a few more panels.
Once the cattle have settled down in the coral, I can move them
into the training area. You will know when they have settled when
they are content and some may be lying down
The training area is a very visible pen with an electric wire around
the perimeter. It could be a barbed wire fence with a hot wire offset,
or a three- or four-wire electric fence. In many cases it is just one of
my watering areas. It just has to be strong and highly visible.
Inside the training area, I like to have water and a bale or two to
give them something to eat. I let them into this about 50 at a time.
This way they all have plenty of room to explore and be “educated”
to the electric fence and not bunch up.
In this pen I will introduce them to my training cans. I attach
empty aluminum pop cans to the wire around the training pen to
help speed up this “education.” You punch a hole in the bottom of
the can and run a wire through it. The wire and can is then attached
to the electric fence. This makes a shiny object that moves with the
wind that just begs the livestock to sniff.
In some cases I have a one-wire educational fence inside the
training pen as well. This is a strong one-wire electric fence similar
to the cross fences they will see out in the pasture. It dead-ends so
they can get around it within the training pen. They just learn they
can’t go through it and to visually recognize it. I may put coloured
ribbon on this fence and on the electric fence in the pasture if I am
concerned that the pasture fence is not very visible. I get credit as the “good guy” by calling the cattle into the training
pen to food and water. They have been on a truck for a few hours
18
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 Training cans are shiny objects that move in the wind
and just beg livestock to sniff.
and are hungry and thirsty. This is the first step to getting my girls to
fall in love with me. It works best if I can leave them in the training
pen for at least an hour.
From there the group is moved into the first grazing paddock
or the paddock with bale grazing. Here they see the typical electric
cross fence that they will deal with during the grazing season. I like
to have the cross fence lead out away from the gate. This way when
I open the gate and call them out, they run parallel to the electric
fence. They have a better view of it and are less likely to go through
it. If you turn them out and the electric fence is perpendicular to
how they are running, the first few see it but the cattle running
behind blow right through. The first paddock might have two wires but after that, I only use
one-wire fences. If I can strip graze down the first paddock, this
helps the cattle quiet down and get used to the fact that I am the
hand that feeds them. I call them every time I move the fence to get
them familiar with my call. One day of moving them every couple
of hours sure makes less work for the next few months. They learn
quickly to come when I call. The sooner they fall in love with me, the easier my job is. Within a
week of the cattle arriving, I am able to pull them out of any area with
just one unit of labour by calling. This comes in handy when a gate
gets left open by quaders and the cattle are in the neighbour’s wheat
field. It happens sometimes. I’m like the pied piper, they love me.
During the next few weeks I also train them to the sound of the
horn as well because later on they get into some larger paddocks and
the horn is easier on my vocal cords. Best wishes. c Steve Kenyon runs Greener Pastures Ranching Ltd. in Busby, Alta.,
www.greenerpasturesranching.com, 780-307-6500,
email [email protected].
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
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w ew om
es eN r.c
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13-11-27 10:46 AM
 manage m e n t
By Debbie Furber
Front load the heifers
It builds up breeding momentum
B
reeding replacement heifers to
calve at least 30 days ahead of the
cows isn’t just a good idea — it’s
a must to give them a fighting chance at
rebreeding in time with the main cow
herd and establish reproductive momentum for the years to come.
“Mother Nature and math leave very
little room for error in a breeding program,”
says Dr. John Campbell, head of large animal clinical sciences at the Western College
of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon.
“The best nature can do with a perfectly
fertile cow and perfectly fertile bull in a single mating is 60 to 70 per cent (conception)
and that’s better than most other species,”
he says. Other limits nature imposes are a
gestation length of approximately 282 days
and a delay in the return to estrus after calving, which makes cows with suckling calves
20
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 physiologically unable to rebreed. This
period of anestrus is typically 50 to 60 days
for cows and 80 to 100 days for heifers.
That’s a minimum of 332 days and as
many as 382 days already taken out of a
reproduction cycle that only gives 365 days
for cows to stay on track delivering a calf at
approximately the same time every year.
If heifers calve with the cows, they’ll be
behind the 8-ball to rebreed on schedule,
whereas, calving 20 to 40 days ahead of the
cows will give them the extra time they need
to return to estrus before the start of the
breeding season for the main herd. Ideally,
they should deliver their second calves during
the first 21 days of the next calving season.
Campbell offers a strong economic case
for front loading the breeding season so at
least two-thirds of the herd calves during
the first 21-day cycle.
Sucking calves gain about 2.5 pounds a
day, therefore, a calf born in the first cycle will
have about a 50-pound advantage at weaning
compared to a calf born during the same stage
of the second cycle, and a good 100-pound
edge over calves born during the third cycle.
That’s a lot of money left on the table if you
typically sell all of your calves at weaning.
In effect, there’s a big dollar difference
between a 95 per cent calving rate with 65
per cent of the calves born in the first cycle,
25 per cent in the second and five per cent
in the third compared to the same calving
rate with a 40-40-15 distribution.
Again, Mother Nature and math limit a
herd’s ability to do much better than 65-255, given the conception rate of 60 to 70 per
cent in a single mating.
Assuming a conception rate of 60 per
cent for a 100-head herd and all cows
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
management
cycling at turnout, 60 would conceive in the
first 21 days. Twenty-four of the remaining
40 should conceive during the second cycle
and 10 of the last 16 in the third with six
open at the end of the breeding season.
“That’s if everything goes right, but it
seldom happens that way,” Campbell says.
“There are lots of reasons why that could be,
but of all things related to fertility, it comes
down to two: a cow must have a heat cycle
and she has to conceive, so the bull must be
fertile. Sometimes we forget that and look
for more complicated reasons.”
Most of the time, failure to cycle is nutrition related and that’s why there is so much
focus on body condition scoring (BCS).
During the first trichomoniosis outbreak
at a community pasture in Saskatchewan
Campbell says cows with a BCS of 2.5 or better were two times more likely to be pregnant
than those with lower BCS.
The research is equally convincing. In a
new paper based on her original study with
200 herds in Western Canada Dr. Cheryl
Waldner at the University of Saskatchewan
found cows scoring less than five on a ninepoint BCS sale were less likely to be pregnant
than those scoring five or more. Those scoring less than six were more likely to abort.
Today’s recommendation is to feed cows
and heifers to achieve a BCS of 2.5 to 3.0
(out of 5.0) by the beginning of breeding
season. This generally means sorting to feed
them through the winter because the high
demand of lactation makes it almost impossible to improve BCS significantly between
calving and the start of breeding season.
“Imposing poor body score makes the
math harder and building reproductive
momentum just won’t happen,” Campbell
says. If the reproduction cycle loses momentum, it can take years to catch up because cows
that calve later tend to get behind a little more
each year until they drop out of the herd. Add
disease or poor bulls to this mix and it could
add up to a wreck that spells economic disaster for a producer.
Any way you look at it, fertility is of prime
importance and can’t be sacrificed, regardless
of feed costs. “Yes, we always have to be conscious of feed costs, but when we look at the
economic models, reproduction is still the
most important measure that affects profitability of a cow-calf operation. It’s still better to have a light calf than no calf, but even
average reproductive performance can cost
significantly.” c
 breeding
To promote
reproductive
momentum:
• Breed heifers 30 to 42 days
ahead of the cow herd.
• Weigh heifers at weaning and
establish target weights for breeding.
• Consider pre-breeding palpitation to
identify non-cycling heifers.
• Consider an estrus
synchronization program
• Ensure body condition scoring
is part of your normal practice and sort cows accordingly.
• Be sure to feed test and feed the
heifer and cow groups accordingly.
• Monitor BCS on a regular
basis when using extended grazing systems.
• Reduce the chance of a wreck
by implementing an effective
vaccination program, establishing
biosecurity measures, and having all bulls undergo breeding soundness evaluations.
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
21
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item/model may not be exactly as shown.
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 marketi ng
By Debbie Furber
Verified sustainability is coming
This is more than a buzzword today
S
ustainability is one of the 10 most
used business words today, elevating it to buzzword status of
“green” and “eco-friendly.” It has also
reached the point where cattle producers
can no longer ignore it, even if they still
don’t know what it means.
In February at the Manitoba Beef Producers annual meeting McDonald’s Canada’s manager of sustainability, Jeffrey
Fitzpatrick-Stilwell outlined how the company’s plan to purchase verified sustainable
beef by 2016 might unfold.
“McDonald’s made a global announcement that by (December 31) 2016 we are
committing to purchase some amount of
verified sustainable beef from somewhere,”
he said. “I want to add a lot of caution on
that. At this point, we don’t know what
verified sustainable means. We don’t know
what sustainable means. We have a lot of
ideas about where it will likely lead us and
obviously, the verification piece is key to us.
There’s a lot of learning ahead.”
Fitzpatrick-Stilwell wouldn’t be surprised if the global company decides to
start in Canada because they have been
impressed by the initiatives already underway in Canada.
This isn’t a new venture for the company.
McDonald’s joined with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2008 to make a commitment to sustainable land management.
WWF did a “deep dive” through McDonald’s global value chain and identified beef,
poultry, coffee, palm oil, fibre (packaging)
and fish as priority areas where McDonald’s
has the biggest sustainability impact.
“We won’t be starting at zero,” says Fitzpatrick-Stilwell. “I believe today we are purchasing lots and lots and lots of sustainable
beef. Once we define sustainable beef and
have the key performance indicators in place
and start using programs that are already
collecting data, I am really confident that in
Canada the vast majority of beef we are purchasing is sustainable beef. You guys know
what you are doing. You have multi-generational operations, so clearly, it’s sustainable.
We just need from our end a way to verify it.”
Defining sustainability for a global
industry as diverse and broad as beef is a
challenge when it gets down to the sustain-
24
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 Dr. Kevin Ellison, World Wildlife Fund ( l to r); Jeffrey Fitzpatrick-Stilwell, McDonald’s Canada; Cherie
Copithorne-Barnes, CL Ranch and chair of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.
ability triple bottom line — environment,
economic and social.
The Global Roundtable for Sustainable
Beef (GRSB) likely needs another six months
to reach a consensus definition. Established
in 2012 by WWF, McDonald’s, Cargill, JBS,
Elanco, Merck, Walmart and Solidaridad the
roundtable has since taken in other organizations such as the Canadian Cattlemen’s
Association (CCA) and spurred the creation
of a Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable
Beef (CRSB). Groups like the CRSB help
ensure any best management practices identified by the global roundtable are workable
in the Canadian environment.
Fitzpatrick-Stilwell says McDonald’s
Canada remains committed to 100 per cent
Canadian beef without fillers and additives
in its patties. In 2013 it purchased a record
amount, close to 70 million pounds from
Cargill, its national supplier.
McDonald’s feeds 2.5 million Canadians
and 64 million people worldwide every day.
So the company has plenty of opportunities to engage with consumers, something
other sectors in the value chain don’t enjoy.
Clearly, sustainability of the beef industry is
critical to the company’s own sustainability.
“Consumers, governments and NGOs
(non-government organizations), are
very clear on what they want us to do and
what they want us to take action on, but
we aren’t the experts. We need producers
to tell us how best management practices
work, what makes sense in one part of the
country and not the other and why some
practices that seem counterintuitive to
someone sitting in an office in the city do
work,” Fitzpatrick-Stilwell says.
When asked if McDonald’s intends to
go down the hormone- or antibiotic-free
route, he says he always goes back to this
being producer led. “Even if 100 per cent of
our customers want us to do something, but
we learn it’s not the right thing to do, I am
confident as a global system and certainly
McDonald’s as a Canadian system is not
going to go down any route that producers
tell us is not the right way. We will do what
science tells us is the right thing to do. Even
before it got to that stage of 100 per cent,
we’d be using our connection with them to
help them understand that’s not the way.”
He urged beef producers to use McDonald’s and the fact that the company sees 2.5
million Canadians every day. “If there is a
message we should be delivering, use us
because we are willing to use our platform
to tell the truth.”
Environment
Kevin Ellison, a grasslands ecologist with
the WWF’s Northern Great Plains (NGP)
Program based in Bozeman, Montana,
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
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acknowledged there will be trade-offs in
finding a balance between efficiencies necessary to feed a growing world population
and the need to conserve wildlife habitat.
The NGP program’s main focus is “keeping
grasslands green side up.” Vast areas of deeded
and public grasslands spanning 180 million
acres across five states into southern Alberta
and Saskatchewan are managed by individuals and that’s why the program works with
ranchers to develop programs that will sustain
ranching and sustain wildlife.
“We can do a lot better job working
together, realizing that both of us have a
lot of knowledge to share toward what we
both want — keeping the green side up,”
Ellison says.
“It will take a lot of thinking about it, a lot
of modelling, a lot of different tools to look
at different solutions to the problems,” he
says. “Public perception is going to trump
anything that an individual knows or feels
strongly about. Regardless of how good
you think your strategy is, if what you are
doing doesn’t match the public perception
of what you are doing, you’re going to have
real problems.”
While communication and transparency
can go a long way in managing people’s
perceptions and solving some of the problems with the public, ultimately, it will take
objective science to iron out issues enough
for the public to accept it.
Social
On the heels of accepting the position of
chair for the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Cherie Copithorne-Barnes’
inaugural speech focused on why social
acceptance is important to the sustainability of her fourth-generation ranch.
Located just west of Calgary, CL Ranch is
a seedstock and commercial cow-calf operation with a backgrounding lot and grain
farm encompassing 28,000 acres, largely
leased from the Crown, First Nations and
family members. The farm is now outnumbered 30 to one by first-generation residents
in the area who work and socialize in the city.
“They’ve paid to live there and to have a
pristine landscape. They feel every right to
lead and they go to politicians and bureaucrats to explain. Ranchers don’t and the
fact is, by not going to our county and to
our communities to explain our situation
and to communicate what we do and how,
we are doing ourselves a disfavour,” Copithorne-Barnes says.
She told several stories of how quickly
land-use and property rights issues at the
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
county and provincial levels have come to
bear on the social sustainability and ultimately the economic sustainability of her
ranch. Some have worked out in her favour
because she showed up to be heard.
She took another lesson from companies such as A&W and Sobeys, that toured
the ranch to learn how cattle are managed.
Though both companies’ promotions took
surprising twists, she realizes that all they were
really doing was listening to their customers.
“They know what customers want well
ahead of what we see coming down the
pipeline. We need to become more current on how we communicate our individual situations,” Copithorn-Barnes
says. “You might think the public won’t
come knocking at your door, but the reality is our supply chain is starting to feel
that pressure. Ultimately, we are going to
see what it’s going to be like to produce
verified beef.” c
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C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
25
 Nutriti o n
By John McKinnon
A MidTerm Checkup for
Your Feeding Program
F
or cattle feeders this is a great time of the year.
Cattle are well into their feeding program,
health issues are in the rear-view mirror and
your nutrition program is running flawlessly. If you
are wondering what world I live in, you are right. Life
is never this simple. However, with current profitability in the feeding sector, it is easy to take day-to-day
management for granted. The following is a checklist to help you fine tune your feeding program and
ensure cattle are performing to expectations.
The first question to ask relates to performance
expectations. Are they being met? At this point cattle
should be gaining at expected levels whether that is 1.5
to 2.5 pounds per day for backgrounding cattle or 3.5
pounds or better for finishing cattle. Short of gate running part of a pen to get check weights, it is not easy
to judge how cattle are gaining, particularly when you
see them every day. However, one sure sign of poor performance is low and/or variable feed consumption. At
this point dry matter intake expressed as a percentage
of body weight for yearlings should be in the range of
2.2 to 2.5 per cent, depending on the ration and length
of time on feed. Similarly, cattle on finishing rations
should be eating at 2.0 to 2.3 per cent of body weight
unless they are close to market weight. If intakes are significantly lower than these values, it is a good bet that
gains and conversions are poor and it will pay you to
look for cause and effect.
Related to the above, is your roller mill stealing your
profits? Poor/variable intakes are often a function of
inconsistent grain processing, in particular overprocessing which results in excess fines in the ration. These are
very small grain particles that tend to accumulate at the
bottom of the bunk and are dynamite when fermented
in the rumen. The result is cattle going off feed for a day
or so and if the problem persists, variable intake patterns
develop. Conversely, too much whole grain simply goes
through the cattle undigested and results in poor feed
conversions. Monitoring the efficiency of your roller mill
can be one of the most cost-effective management practices you implement.
Monitoring the moisture content of silage is another
important aspect of an effective feeding program. Many
of us take for granted that the moisture content of silage
in November represents the silage throughout the winter. Unfortunately this line of thinking does not apply.
Different fields, varieties, suppliers and resulting variation throughout the pit all lead to variation in silage
moisture content. You need to be on top of this varia-
28
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 tion to ensure your rations are formulated to correct
forage-to-concentrate ratios and nutrient levels. Make
it a practice to monitor your silage moisture weekly —
it is not difficult!
How accurate is your ration mix? The first related question is have you had your feed tested, particularly your
forages? This is the only way to ensure that your rations
are balanced for the appropriate levels of energy, protein,
calcium, phosphorus, etc. and thus to ensure that nutrient requirements are met for desired performance. Other
steps include running efficiency tests on your feed wagon
and reviewing your protocol for sequencing, loading and
mixing ingredients. Issues with under- or overmixing are
more common than you think!
Are you seeing stiff cattle in the pen? In my experience this is an indication of one of two nutrition-related
issues. The first is grain overload. At some point during
the feeding period you have overloaded the cattle with
too much grain, the result is laminitis or stiff cattle. These
animals are hard to get up and move, have overgrown
hooves and are chronic poor doers. The second is due to
a dietary calcium deficiency. The difference between the
two is that correcting the calcium deficiency will reverse
the issue while cattle that are “burnt out” never fully
recover.
Is your implant program current? Cattle implanted
last fall and not reimplanted are running on empty. In
other words the original implant has paid out and is no
longer providing any performance benefit. If you are
planning on keeping the cattle for any significant time,
reimplanting with an appropriate implant will keep the
cattle gaining in an efficient manner.
Similar comments apply to feed additives such as
ionophores, antibiotics or repartitioning agents. These
products are included in the ration at defined levels for
specific reasons (i.e. feed efficiency, disease prevention,
carcass quality). Issues with mixing efficiency, ration
moisture content, forage-to-concentrate ratio all impact
the actual concentration of these products in the total
mixed ration. Attention to detail as indicated above will
ensure appropriate dietary concentrations.
Finally, while not specifically related to nutrition,
perhaps the most important question to address relates
to your current cost of gain. Everything looked great in
the fall, but what has happened since to the value of the
dollar, feed and cattle prices, labour and yardage costs?
While this past winter has been favourable for feeding
cattle, there is no excuse for not being current and reacting to these issues. c
John McKinnon
is a beef cattle
nutritionist at
the University
of Saskatchewan
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
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 vet aDv i c e
Still a Long Way to Go
A
number of recent agriculture publications has
questioned whether or not we are approaching the biological limit of individual animal
production. The big question: How might this influence
long-term sustainability of the cattle business?
To think our industry might be approaching biological
limits to how fast a feedlot steer grows, how efficiently it converts feed to meat, or the limit as to how many kilograms of
calf a brood cow can produce year after year seems daunting, especially when we are constantly reminded that the
industry’s future rests with its ability to meet the growing
demand for animal protein by building on efficiency.
One researcher goes as far as to say that finding another
Secretariat in the beef industry isn’t in the cards. Examples cited that cracks are beginning to show include
ambulatory problems in cattle on finishing rations, the
appearance of foot and leg problems in cattle on pasture,
the fact there is no credible evidence suggesting the average
weaning weight per calf has increased in the last 10 years, and
the view shared by many researchers that beef cow productivity is stagnant. Work in the U.S. looked at performance
numbers for the periods of 1991-99 and 2005-09. From the
first period of time to the latter one, average weaning weight
declined 36 pounds, average calving rate declined 1.3 per
cent, and average pounds weaned per cow exposed — a
product of the other two measures — declined 25 pounds.
Tom Field, director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska
reminds us that, “We haven’t made dramatic improvements in reproduction in any species without increasing
inputs, which works when inputs are cheap, but what
happens when interest rates increase to 10 to15 per cent,
or corn prices move from a historic average of $2-$2.50
per bushel to more than $7 per bushel?”
In my view we don’t need to worry! Even if science
might be closing in on what is biologically possible with
the domestic cow, the potential to get better is huge.
Consider an August 2012 report from the Council
for Agricultural Science and Technology that examined
agricultural production relative to land and water use.
The report points out that beef production increased 72
per cent from 1961 to 2003, while chicken and pork production increased 198 per cent and 143 per cent, respectively. Milk production increased 126 per cent.
Take into consideration some of the simple things
this industry needs to look at, things like:
• The number of cows exposed to bulls in the breeding
field compared to those weaning a live calf in the fall.
• The number of cows that fail to conceive.
• The number of calves that die between birth and weaning.
• The number of producers who neglect to manage
length of the breeding season and, over time, the impact
it has on the calving season.
30
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 • The significant percentage of weaned calves that require
treatment for respiratory disease as they enter feedlots
despite improved weaning and vaccination programs.
• The number of producers who do little about controlling BVD and Johne’s disease.
• The long-term effects of the undernourished beef cow.
An often-neglected facet of infertility is the seven per cent
of cows that become pregnant, but fail to calve or fail to wean
a calf. Open and late-calving cows remain the most costly
factor in beef production and run on average 10 per cent
in most herds. On many ranches, only 80 calves are weaned
per 100 cows in breeding herds. Then there is the negative
impact of cows that calve late in the calving season.
Pre-breeding nutrition remains high on the list of factors that affect conception rates followed by bulls that are
not in condition to breed, or are reproductively unsound.
Bull-to-cow ratios on most pastures should be 1:25, a
number often not met.
It doesn’t take long to calculate that the beef industry
may be running on about 75 per cent efficiency, and has
for many years. Add to that the vulnerability that becomes
inherent when an industry fails to diversify markets and
expand its customer base, and the constant issue of quality
— the 15 per cent of steaks that fail to provide an enjoyable eating experience. Getting better at what we do now
includes incorporating growing consumer interest not
only in meat quality, but how food is produced.
The “new kid on the block” is fetal programming. A
concept that more closely links what the brood cow experiences during pregnancy and performance of her progeny down the road will change management practices in
beef production. Recent research provides evidence that
the maternal environment of the fetus during early development, especially nutrition, can override the genetic
blueprint to affect future performance.
Over the last 20 years, a rapid change in technology, science and consumer activism has had an enormous impact
on the agriculture sector. The change brings us closer to the
limits nature decrees on all we do, and while biological limits
should be respected we cannot overlook the basics that hold
the greatest opportunity to improve beef production.
Tom Field perhaps sums it up the best: “We have celebrated per-animal production as the Holy Grail of livestock
production. It serves as the basis for our sustainability message, our pride in being productive and the pride we take in
feeding people, but we need to idle for a second, apply our
full senses to look, listen and smell, and then apply those
observations to what we know as stockmen.” c
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 ([email protected]).
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
 prime cuts
By Steve Kay
from Reputation Breeders
The COOL
nightmare
C
ountry-of-origin labelling (COOL) has become the North
American meat industry’s nightmare that refuses to end.
Just when the industry thinks resolution is in sight, hopes
are dashed and the battle continues.
Opponents and supporters have been deeply divided ever since the
idea of COOL emerged in the late 1990s. It’s remarkable that this hasn’t
divided the U.S. industry more. The reason is that the vast majority of
American livestock producers oppose mandatory COOL. Only a tiny
minority support it and they are on the fringe of the industry in terms
of influence. But the most bizarre aspect of the COOL battle is that the
minority view has prevailed where it counts, in the corridors of Congress
and in the law courts.
Remember how Canadian Ag Minister Gerry Ritz last November confidently predicted that Congress through the new U.S. Farm Bill would repeal
COOL. I hate to say “I warned you so” but I wrote in this column in December
that “it ain’t over till it’s over.” Now it seems the battle will drag into 2015.
Meat and livestock groups in the U.S. and Canada had spent months trying to persuade the Farm Bill authors and other legislators that the COOL
rule needed to be amended or repealed to avoid retaliation from Canada and
Mexico after they prevail at the World Trade Organization. But the authors
crushed hopes that the bill would contain a COOL provision.
Opponents made a solid case. But COOL never became a top priority
for the authors or other legislators. COOL got shoved down the list, as
the authors struggled to reconcile the much larger issues of food stamp
spending, dairy support policy, direct payments to farmers and others.
Neither though did the authors sufficiently understand that COOL is
already causing considerable hardship both in Canada and the U.S., and
probably in Mexico as well.
COOL and the shrinking U.S. cattle herd will claim another packing
plant casualty on April 4 when National Beef Packing closes its Brawley,
Calif., beef-processing plant. The plant has struggled with a declining
supply of fed cattle and faces operating losses for the foreseeable future,
says its majority owner. The declining cattle supply largely reflects the
big reduction last year in imports of Mexican feeder cattle. The reduction was due to the impact of COOL and a recovery in pasture conditions in Mexico.
Cargill idled its Plainview, Texas, beef plant early last year, also because
of shrinking cattle supplies in part due to COOL. It had a processing
capacity of 4,650 head per day. The Brawley plant has a capacity of 2,000
head per day. That’s a big combined loss for the region and a big blow for
cattle feeders in the Southwest.
The failure to put a COOL remedy in the Farm Bill means opponents
must now wait for the WTO to determine whether the U.S. remains out
of compliance with its WTO obligations. That’s assuming the groups fail
in their ongoing legal efforts to get the COOL rule suspended. A WTO
disputes panel met February 18 and 19 to hear continuing arguments
from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. This process will continue the rest
of the year, because one side or the other will appeal the panel’s final
decision. Canada and Mexico are widely expected to prevail. The WTO
will then allow them to apply $1.5 billion of retaliatory tariffs against a
wide range of U.S. exports, including livestock and meat, to both countries. That might start in mid-2015. Then Congress will finally have to do
what it should have done through the Farm Bill. c
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
HIGH QUALITY BULLS
MARCH 20
DIAMOND W CHAROLAIS & ANGUS BULL
SALE, Valley Livestock Sales, Minitonas, MB
MARCH 22
A North American
view of the meat
industry. Steve Kay is
publisher and editor of
Cattle Buyers Weekly.
WILGENBUSCH CHAROLAIS NORTH OF
THE 53RD BULL SALE, at the CSS Charolais Ranch, Paynton, SK
MARCH 25
STEPPLER FARMS CHAROLAIS BULL
SALE, at the farm, Miami, MB
MARCH 26
HTA CHAROLAIS & GUESTS BULL SALE,
at the Beautiful Plains Ag Complex,
Neepawa, MB
MARCH 27
ELDER CHAROLAIS BULL SALE, at the
farm, Coronach, SK
MARCH 29
GILLILAND BROS. CHAROLAIS BULL SALE,
at the farm, Carievale, SK
APRIL 1
CEDARLEA CHAROLAIS & WINDY
WILLOW ANGUS BULL SALE, at the
Windy Willows farm, Hodgeville, SK
APRIL 3
HUNTER CHAROLAIS BULL SALE, at the
farm, Roblin, MB
APRIL 7
WILGENBUSCH CHAROLAIS NORTH OF
THE 49TH BULL SALE, at the farm,
Halbrite, SK
APRIL 9
MUTRIE FARMS/BAR H
CHAROLAIS/ HAWKIN SHORTHORNS
BULL SALE, Candiac Auction Market,
Candiac, SK
APRIL 19
CORNERSTONE CHAROLAIS & RED
ANGUS BULL SALE, Whitewood
Auction Market, Whitewood, SK
For more information contact:
124 Shannon Road
Regina, SK S4S 5B1
Tel: 306-584-7937
Helge By 306-536-4261
Candace By 306-536-3374
[email protected]
Catalogues available online
a month prior to sale at
www.bylivestock.com
C a t t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 31
 breeding
By Debbie Furber
Genomics hits the ground
T
he science of beef cattle genetics has sped up rapidly since the
bovine genome was first mapped
in 2009. Now it’s time to put that knowledge to work on farms and ranches with
genomically enhanced expected progeny differences (EPDs). That was the
main message presented to producers at
a couple of recent gatherings in Regina
and Edmonton.
Genomically enhanced EPDs look and
read like traditional EPDs from your breed
association but these ones are bulked up by
massive amounts of genetic data.
Producers simply submit their pedigree
and performance data as they normally do
to their breed association. If the animal has
been previously genotyped or is related to
an animal that has been sequenced and is
in the database the genetic and phenotypic information is merged to create an
enhanced EPD.
Genotyping is commonly known as
DNA profiling because it looks at multiple
traits. The results are expressed as molecular breeding values (MBV) for each trait.
The numbers alone don’t mean much
unless they are ranked against MBVs of
other animals in a reference population.
MBVs are predictions of an animal’s own
genetic merit, which, on average, is about
half the equation in its offspring. EPDs, on
the other hand, incorporate data from an
animal’s sire, dam and their relatives down
the lineage with the animal’s own record to
predict performance of its offspring.
“MBVs are not meant to replace EPDs,
but will help make EPDs more predictable,”
says Dr. Les Byers of Vegreville, Alta., manager of veterinary services, beef cattle and
beef genomics for Zoetis (formerly Pfizer
Animal Health). Zoetis markets a highdensity (50K) genomic panel for genotyping Angus cattle.
Byers says genotyping immediately
increases the accuracy of an EPD. It’s the
same as instantly adding the records from 15
to 30 offspring (depending on the trait) to
the accuracy of a bull or heifer’s EPD before
it even produces a calf. That’s more calves
than a natural-service bull produces in a year
or one cow produces in a lifetime, he adds.
“By not using genomics, we are making
32
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 mistakes,” says Byers. In one trial, he says,
specific criteria were identified for selecting yearling bulls and potential candidates
were pulled from a group of candidate sires.
Based on their traditional EPDs, 95 bulls
met the criteria and 368 didn’t. When the
bulls were genotyped with a high-density
panel to improve the accuracy of the EPDs
only 62 of those 95 bulls met the criteria,
and 44 of those that had been culled now
passed the test. In total, they had 106 bulls
from which to choose versus the initial 95
selected using traditional EPDs.
In the same way, genotyping can be used
to select superior replacement heifers and
cull bottom-enders.
In the big picture, these genetically spiked
EPDs will speed up genetic progress on
farms and within the industry as a whole.
Byers says sales of their high-density
Angus panel to seedstock producers are
growing, and the price is coming down,
but it is the demand from commercial bull
buyers for this genetic information that will
drive the spread of this technology.
Lower testing costs and the fact DNA
can now easily be extracted from a few hair
follicles and tissue punches are behind the
increasing use of gene panels for parentage
testing. Some breeds now require DNA to
register an animal.
It is also being used in large commercial
herds to identify sires in multi-sire breeding
pastures or cleanup bulls after AI breeding. It this way it can help sort out the least
prolific sires, identify heifer bulls, and find
sires whose daughters deserve a place in the
breeding herd.
Tests for the leptin gene and marbling are
currently being used to manage groups of
calves in feedlots.
Challenges
One very real challenge to adopting this
technology is the fact that many producers
don’t yet fully understand or use EPDs.
“Some producers really dive into EPDs;
some don’t even look at them because
either they don’t care or find all of the numbers too overwhelming; and others trust
that EPDs work and figure using them
is a good way to select cattle that fit their
goals,” says Tom Lynch-Staunton, director
“By not using genomics
we are making mistakes.”
Dr. Les Byers, Zoetis
Vegreville, Alta.
of industry relations for Livestock Gentec at
the University of Alberta.
As a result the goal for breed associations
and anyone involved in extension today
is to get people thinking about genomic
improvement and how they can use a combination of genomics, performance records
and visual appraisal to find the best animals
for their operations, says Lynch-Staunton.
“The use of genomics won’t replace cattle shows. An animal could have a great
genomic profile, but not be functional.
Genomics is a complimentary technology,
not a competing technology.”
Another underlying fear is that genomics
will eventually reduce diversity within the
beef herd as it has done with dairy, pork and
poultry.
Lynch-Staunton says beef cattle are different. Those other industries were quick
to adopt genomics because of their uniContinued on page 35
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
b r e e d i ng
 produce r p ro f i l e
Putting genomics to work
Genomics was the lead-off topic at the Saskatchewan Beef
Industry Conference last month, where Darren Bevans, general
manager of Deseret Ranches of Alberta, explained the goals of
his company’s genomics program.
Deseret Ranches of Alberta is located south of Lethbridge
and is part of a string of cow-calf and stocker operations
affiliated with AgReserves Inc. Several years ago, the company
purchased a 44,000-head feed yard in Kansas to capture
full value from all the calves raised on their ranches which are
located from Alberta and Montana all the way down to Texas
and Florida. The Alberta ranch is the only one that doesn’t
funnel calves into the feed yard solely because of mandatory
country-of-origin labelling.
“The feed yard changed us fundamentally,” Bevans says.
“Previous to that each ranch ran its own breeding program and
we were marketing to capture the most value at the ranch,
which is very different from maximizing profitability over the
production life of the animal. By capturing full value, we are now
in a position to leverage significantly more investment up front
in the genetics of the cattle.”
The ultimate goal of the genomics program as it comes
together is to improve production efficiencies and garner
premiums from the packer by providing large numbers of highquality Deseret name-brand calves every week.
Performance, quality and uniformity in the beef product were
identified as priorities, but it was obvious they could never have
the exact same breeding across all ranches because of the
environmental differences with Bos indicus cattle dominating the
large southern herds and Bos taurus cattle elsewhere. All of the
commercial herds are now working toward a blend of Angus, South
Devon and Simmental genetics, with some Brahman genetics
added to the southern breeding programs to deal with the heat.
Five years ago, Bevans hoped genomics could be the magic bullet
for cattle selection — where a hair sample would reveal an animal’s
ability for many traits, however, this hasn’t come to fruition. “Each
time we peel off one layer and think we are down to the meat, we
find another layer of complexity underneath,” he says.
One major complication is that the genetic marker panels
available today are breed specific and don’t apply to the
company’s crossbred cattle. This caused them to rethink how
the current technology could be applied.
A model similar to that used in the hog industry was put in
place by centralizing the bulk of the genomic testing at the elite
level, replicating the desired genetics at the multiplier level and
leveraging that investment across the commercial operations
through to the feed yard.
The elite herds undergo intensive selection with the use
of 20K to 50K panels, primarily to determine actual genetic
relationships of progeny to generations further back and
siblings. This increases the accuracy of the expected progeny
differences (EPDs) to better predict a calf’s future performance
at a very young age.
“There are lots of traits we’d like to select for, but the reality is,
the more we select for the less progress we can make in any one
trait,” Bevans says. “The Deseret five that we actively select for
34
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 Darren Bevans
are average daily gain, net feed efficiency, marbling, tenderness
and frame. There are others we look for and won’t accept
anything below a certain cut-off level.”
The multiplier herds produce the bulls that go out to the
ranches, which rely on natural breeding alone. At the multiplier
level, the basic parentage test is used to identify the sire of
every calf. Bevans says this tool alone has enabled the company
to generate some fairly solid EPDs that provide much higher
confidence in each bull’s future performance.
The ranches are the commercial level, where it’s all about
cost of production, efficiency and spreading the progress made
across the ranches to reap the investment in genetics in the
elite and multiplier herds. The group performance of the calves
is tracked from birth to slaughter and individual performance
and carcass data are obtained on specific cattle.
Data management was another major challenge eventually
addressed by contracting a service provider for technical
expertise, data interpretation and to calculate EPDs on animals
in the elite and multiplier herds.
“Data management has been big for us to bring all of the
data down to something we can make decisions on rather than
adding to the confusion,” Bevans says.
Having come this far, the company is hopeful that with time
and more data collected it may be able to develop a low-cost,
low-density marker panel specific to the animals in the Deseret
herds to assist with genetic selection. There’s also potential to
use genetic testing to identify genes for individual traits across
breeds, such as the leptin test, tenderness (calpain/calpastatin
genes), and, hopefully, fertility.
There’s no reason why any one person or company needs to
own everything to make this model work. “Absolutely, an individual
producer can conquer this,” Bevans says. “There is huge opportunity
to form business arrangements with each other to get rid of
positioning within segments and making investment and marketing
decisions based on the profitability of one segment. Somehow, if it’s
going to happen, we need to figure out how to work with each other
and that’s the biggest opportunity I see in the beef industry today.”
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
breeding
Continued from page 32
form production systems whereas beef
cattle are raised in all sorts of systems and
environments.
Each breed has strengths in certain traits
and time will tell what value the industry
places on those strengths and what each
breed has to offer. With genomics those
strengths can be identified and preserved
through selection to maintain diversity
within breeds and purebred lines by mating
unrelated animals.
As it stands, a bull is two years old before
his first calf hits the ground; four before
those calves are harvested; and maybe seven
before his offspring add to the accuracy
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
of his EPD. By then he could be long gone
and there’s no getting back the exact same
genetic makeup.
Three steps
to getting started
Lynch-Staunton says the genomics of
tomorrow will be even more exciting than
what is available today. In the near future we
could have genetic evaluations that screen
for improved feed efficiency, immune
response and carcass traits.
To those who want to catch hold of this
future, his advice is to start slow. Don’t rush
out and have a bunch of profiling done.
Instead he suggests three steps to maximize the value of DNA testing.
Start by getting all of your paper records
into an electronic format. This electronic
data can now be used by a breed association
to generate traditional EPDs for your cows, or
rank the cows and heifers. Breed associations,
the University of Alberta, and private companies offer this service for commercial herds.
At that point you are ready to have your
DNA test results merged with your EPDs to
create genetically enhanced EPDs for your
herd to select bulls, cows and replacement
heifers that fit with your goals.
The easiest way to use this new technology is to buy bulls and replacement
heifers with EPDs and preferably genetically enhanced EPDs for the traits that are
important to you. c
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
35
 researc h o n t h e r eco r d
By Reynold Bergen
Cold Enough for You?
T
his has been an extra cold and snowy winter.
According to Environment Canada, Red Deer,
Alta. had over three times as much snow as
normal in November and December alone. Canfax
reports that low temperatures contributed to a 35
lb. drop in Western Canada’s January carcass weights
compared to January 2013. If low temperatures can
impact bedded feedlot cattle sheltered by a porosity
fence and fed a high-energy finishing diet… how has
it affected your cows?
Cold and wind: In 1970, the University of Alberta
showed that cows could tolerate -26 C without increasing
their heat production, provided they were in good condition, had a good hair coat, a good diet, and there was no
wind (Can. J. Anim. Sci. 50:563). But wind changes the
picture considerably. Cows need to produce 20 per cent
more heat at -20 C with an eight m.p.h. wind than at -26
C with no wind, and nearly 30 per cent more heat at -20
C with a 12 m.p.h. wind.
Windbreaks and bedding: In 1959, Dr. Red Williams
at the University of Saskatchewan reported that cattle
raised behind a 20 per cent porosity fence were 18 per
cent more efficient than unsheltered cattle, and feed costs
were 25 per cent lower for cattle that were bedded in winter compared to those that weren’t bedded. In 1975 the
University of Alberta’s Bruce Young reported that cows
in good to fat body condition, fed generously, bedded
and housed outside gained 42 pounds between early
November and mid-January. Cows that were managed
identically (but without bedding) lost close to 10 pounds
(Can. J. Anim. Sci. 55:619).
Energy intake: Bob Hironaka and Hobart Peters of
Agriculture Canada published a three-year study in 1969
(Can. J. Anim. Sci. 49:323). They compared cows fed 100
per cent of their recommended energy intake all winter long, cows fed 80 per cent of recommendations all
winter, and cows fed 80 per cent for the first half of the
winter then 100 per cent for the second half. In year one,
temperatures averaged -4 C from November through
April. At calving time, the 80/100 per cent cows weighed
as much as the cows fed 100 per cent of recommended
energy intake all winter. Both groups gained weight during pregnancy. The cows fed the 80 per cent diet all winter
long did not gain weight during pregnancy. In year two,
winter temperatures averaged -15 C. In that case, the 100
per cent cows and the 80/100 per cent cows maintained
(but did not gain) weight over the winter. Cows fed 80
per cent all winter long lost weight. The third year was
warmer (-7 C), but the coldest temperatures occurred in
the last third of pregnancy. All groups lost weight during
36
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 pregnancy, but cows fed the 80 per cent diet all winter
lost the most.
There is no new news here. Cold cows need more
energy. The colder they are, the more they need. When
daytime highs drop below -20 C, Saskatchewan Agriculture recommends feeding one lb. of grain per head per
day for each additional 5 C below -20 C. That’s one lb. at
-25 C, two lbs. at -30 C, three lbs. at -30 C, and so on. If
this energy doesn’t come from the diet, it will come from
the cow’s energy stores.
This historic research was based on cattle wintered in
pens. A lot of winter feeding has moved out of the corral.
Some producers deliver hay or silage to cattle in the field.
Other cattle graze bales, chaff piles, swaths or stockpiled
forage. These systems have cost advantages compared to
traditional pen feeding. If the extended feeding program
is being managed properly and the cow’s dietary requirements are being met, all should be well. But the harder
the cow has to work for her feed, and the more exposed
she is to the environment, the more feed will go to maintaining her (or the sooner you will run out of feed).
In 2004, Duane McCartney and co-workers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lacombe research station
(Can. J. Anim. Sci. 84:511) reported that mature cows
grazing barley swaths consumed 18 to 21 per cent more
feed energy than pen-fed cows given free-choice barley
straw, plus barley silage fed every day or every other day.
Even though they ate more, the swath-fed cows gained
less than a tenth of a pound per day, while the pen-fed
cows gained nearly a pound.
Winter is not over yet. Check the body condition score
of your heifers, mature and old cows. Cows with a BCS
of two out of five will need more or better nutrition to
get them into optimal BCS (2.5 to 3.0) by calving time.
A feed test, a nutritionist, and some of last fall’s grain are
a good start. Meeting the cow herd’s nutritional requirements can be expensive, but failing to do so can have
costly impacts on reproductive performance.
Visit www.beefresearch.ca for more information
about Beef Cattle Research Council activities funded
through the National Checkoff.
The Beef Research Cluster is funded by the Canadian
Cattlemen’s Association and Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada to advance research and technology transfer
supporting the Canadian beef industry’s vision to be recognized as a preferred supplier of healthy, high-quality
beef, cattle and genetics. c
Reynold Bergen is the science director of the Beef Cattle
Research Council.
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
 manage m e n t
By Dawn Hillrud
Sharpen your Human
resource skills
Part 1, Create a plan
H
uman resources management is
imperative to a successful cattle
operation. You manage crops,
livestock, machinery, money and land,
but you also manage people. You’re a
human resource (HR) manager, whether
you like it or not.
And as an HR manager, you have to ask
yourself, are you managing this resource by
default or design? Here are some questions
to help you decide:
What needs to be done? Do you assign
and sort tasks on the fly? A job’s design
impacts your employees, and influences
their success and thus their value to the
operation. What if you need someone to
operate large machinery, check feedlot
pens, and deal with calving while you are
away? Is that a full-time job, or one full-time
job plus a part-time job? Will one employee
who is good at operating large machinery
stick around if they have to check pens or
work at night during calving? Are those mix
of skills even available in your area? These
are all things you need to consider when
planning your hires.
What does success look like? This question is seldom asked, but it might just be
the most critical one to your success as an
HR manager. Knowing what makes the job
successful will allow you to hire the right
person, provide clear expectations to them,
and assist in sound performance management practices. Knowing what success
looks like provides clarity for both the manager and the employee.
When do you need these people? The
job itself will often answer this question.
Are they needed for calving, or the fall run?
That’s step one. Deciding when to start
looking for candidates is not so easy, since
it involves your own recruitment and selection strategy and current labour market
conditions. For example, it might be wise
to start early to look for students to fill seasonal jobs, particularly when the labour
market is tight. Your own time is another
factor. When do you have time to conduct
a search? Remember, as the farm manager,
one of your assigned HR tasks is to make
sure you have the time to do it right.
What are the external conditions? Planning does not happen in a bubble. You have
38
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 “As the HR manager you
have to ask yourself,
are you managing this
resource by default or by design?”
Dawn Hillrud
Knibbs/associates HR consulting
to consider the local economy. Over the
last few years there have been a number of
dramatic changes in the labour market. In
2008, unemployment rates were very low
across Canada and it was difficult to find
workers. In 2010, the unemployment rate
increased by two per cent in some areas,
which made a difference in the number of
people available for hire in those places.
Right now, labour markets in Alberta and
Saskatchewan are extremely tight, so you
might not be able to simply post an ad to
receive quality applicants.
Compensation
Compensation is the next major question
to be answered in creating your HR plan.
What is a fair wage? That’s the BIG question. However, wages are only one part of
the employee’s reward package. Rewards,
which include wages and benefits, influence employees and should be developed
based on what motivates them. Organizations that have low turnover and contented
employees usually have a well-thought-out
reward package.
On a lazy Sunday afternoon, you can
research the many motivational theories —
Maslow, McClelland, Hertzberg, and Expectancy Theory, just to name a few. As interesting as these theories are, the key question to
ask is what do you believe motivates people:
money, a job well done, recognition, benefits,
or something else? Your beliefs will impact
the rewards you offer employees.
Employee rewards may include tickets to
a coveted game, fuel for their truck, a day
off during calving or the fall run, or simply letting them operate the silage chopper
instead of the truck. You reward employees
with more than money. Being creative with
rewards can build loyalty and motivation,
and reduce costs. Sometimes a reward that
is earned is cheaper and more valued than a
wage increase.
When considering what benefits to
offer, think about what your employees
value and what works operationally as well
as the cost. For example, employees generally value training (especially generation
Ys), and training generally benefits both
you and the employee. So it has value.
However, this benefit can create operational issues if it requires time off at a busy
time of the year or if it is difficult to find
replacement workers to keep the operation running.
You need to work out the cost/benefit
ratio to decide if training will pay. Is it a
cost, or an investment for you? Employees
with specific training related to the operation can be more productive and thus more
valuable on any farm, ranch or feedlot.
In setting wages just remember everyone
knows someone who earns more doing the
same job. People don’t talk about those who
get paid less. So wages are a prominent part of
your reward package and it pays to know where
your wage structure fits in the market. For that
you can often turn to your provincial Ministry
of Labour. B.C. 2009 wage data are posted at
www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/lss/labour/wage/;
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
MANAGEMENT
Alberta’s is at — alis.alberta.ca/wageinfo/Content/RequestAction.asp?format=html&aspA
ction=GetWageHomePage&Page=Home; a
federal government salary calculator that can
be sorted by region is posted at www.canadavisa.com/canada-salary-wizard.html. Wage
data can also be sourced through private
companies, some provide it for free, some
charge a fee. It’s best to collect data from a few
sources to improve the accuracy. Finally, take
the time to check your local market by asking other farms, ranches or feedlot operations
what they pay.
Large farms, ranches and feedlots with
a number of employees need to consider
internal fairness when setting wages. Is the
pay equitable based on the skills required
and the tasks involved? Is everyone expected
to do multiple jobs like pen checking and
processing or are these specialized skills? Are
they paid the same, should they be? Is the
spread between the pen checkers and the
manager’s job appropriate? Do people perceive the internal wages as fair in relation to
each other? These are some of the questions
you need to address when setting a wage rate.
In addition to wages, you can offer bonuses
------
and other types of profit-sharing plans. The
upside of this payment is it links rewards to
profit and outcomes. When the operation
does well, you have the capacity to share the
wealth. When there is no additional wealth to
share, the base rate does not change, so you’re
not committed to the higher wage. If you’re
considering some type of profit sharing or
bonus, consider it carefully.
You want your wages to be fair. Think
first of motivation; then think of total
rewards. A well-thought-out package
will motivate your employees and create
greater satisfaction.
This is the first in a series of three articles
on human resource management on cattle
operations. c
Dawn Hillrud is a partner in Knibbs/associates
Sourcing People and an associate of Knibbs/
associates HR Consulting that provide HR and
employee recruitment services to agricultural
organizations. Co-author Leah Knibbs is the
owner of Knibbs/associates HR Consulting
and a partner in Knibbs/associates Sourcing
People. For more information contact Dawn at
[email protected] or 306-442-7460.
GETTING OUR PIECE OF
------
Global Markets
--------------------------------------
BEEF 2014: INTERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK CONGRESS
GREENER
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Topics include: • Pasture Calculations
• Grazing Management
• Pasture Rejuvenation
• Weed Control
• Cell Designs/Water Systems
• Swath Grazing/Bale Grazing
Location: Westlock, AB
When: April 12th & 13th, 2014
Or ask us about setting up a school in your area.
Check out our website for details
www.greenerpasturesranching.com
To register please contact:
Steve Kenyon
Greener Pastures Ranching Ltd.
(780) 307-2275
www.greenerpasturesranching.com
[email protected]
Beef 2014:
International
Livestock
Conference
This year’s conference will
focus on the opportunities
of marketing the whole
carcass.
With the trends that are taking
shape today, there are many
opportunities for the future.
Hear an update on the economy
– local and globally, the market
opportunities of the whole
carcass locally and globally –
and what you can do to enhance
this opportunity and why it is
important to you.
Register at www.ilccalgary.com
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
ILC Beef 2014: Wednesday July 09, 2014
Deerfoot Inn & Casino, 1000, 11500-35 Street SE,
Calgary, Alberta
C AT T L E M E N · M A R C H 2 0 1 4
39
 Holistic R a nc hi ng
By Don Campbell
Benefiting from
Good Times
C
attle prices have trended higher since the start of the
year. This is most welcome news. But the strong market raises an interesting question. How do you plan to
spend the extra money?
The traditional response to higher prices has been to let our cost
of production rise. If we are not careful we can raise our cost of production so that there is no more profit at the higher price than there
was at the lower price. Everyone in the cow business has learned
some cost-cutting measures in the last 10 years. By and large these
things have worked. Don’t abandon them because prices are higher.
Let me suggest some ways we might take our profit and invest it
wisely to build a more profitable and sustainable business.
My first suggestion is don’t spend the money before you have it. It
is easy to anticipate a high price down the road and begin to spend
the money before we even have it.
My second suggestion is to invest in your people. This will be the
most valuable investment you ever make. The strength, knowledge
and skill of your people will determine how successful your future
will be. What this investment might look like will be as varied as
the people reading this article. It might include things like marriage
enrichment, improved communication skills, writing a will, developing a plan for intergenerational transfer, education about grazing
or financial management, low-stress livestock handling, mechanics,
welding, marketing etc. etc. the list can go on and on.
My third suggestion is to invest in improving your land. Here I am
implying working with nature to strengthen the ecosystem building
blocks (energy flow, water cycle, mineral cycle and succession). The
end result will be more production off a set land base. Investing in
your land by improving your management pays huge dividends. Let
me share some numbers to demonstrate this concept.
Let’s start with a gross profit for a cow-calf operation. The definition for gross profit is income per cow minus the variable expenses.
A variable expense is one that increases as cow numbers increase.
Overhead expenses are not considered at this time. Overhead
expenses are not related to the number of cows and will be a constant amount regardless of cow numbers.
Income: To keep this simple I will use a 500-lb. weaning weight
and a price of $2 per pound. I suggest that you don’t get hung up on
my numbers. Use your numbers and this process to arrive at your
own answer.
Variable Expense: Once again use your numbers to arrive at
your answer.
Gross Profit: income $900 minus variable costs $468 = $432.
We now have a base to work from. Each cow in our herd will generate a gross profit of $432. We will start with 200 cows. Our overheads per cow are $300 (this is an arbitrary number, use your own
numbers). Doing the math ($432- $300 = $132) we find that each
cow produces a profit of $132. We have 200 cows so our profit is
$132 x 200 =$26,400. Now let’s see what happens when we improve
our land so we can increase our carrying capacity.
As we increase carrying capacity our overheads remain constant
at $60,000 but the overhead per cow declines. This results in more
profit per cow. Increasing carrying capacity by 25 per cent increases
40
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 Income:
Weaning Wt.
500 lbs.
Price
$ / Head
Wean %
$/Cow
$2
$1,000
90%
$900
Variable Expense:
Winter Feed
$270
1,500-lb. cow x 3% BW =45 lbs./day x 200 days x $.03
Depreciation
$52
$1,400 bred heifer minus cull cow 1,500 X $.70 = $1,050
$1,400 - $1,050 = $350 x 15% (cull rate) = $52
Breeding
$38
$3,500 bull minus salvage 1,800# x $.70 = $1,260 = $2,240
plus winter feed for 3 yrs. ($2 / day x 200 days) = $1,200 cost
of bull plus feed $2,240 + $1,200 = $3,440 / 90 Hd. = $38
Salt / Min.
$28
Death
$28
Marketing
$30
Vet
$30
Total
2% x $,1400 = $28
$468
Gross profit:
# of Cows
200
250
300
350
400
Income / Cow
$900
$900
$900
$900
$900
Variable Exp.
$468
$468
$468
$468
$468
$432
Gross Profit
$432
$432
$432
$432
Overheads
$300
$240
$200
$170
$150
Profit / Cow
$132
$192
$232
$262
$282
$26,400
$48,000
$69,600
$91,700
$112,800
Profit / Ranch
profit per cow by $60. This is an increase of 45 per cent ($60 / $132).
The profit for the ranch increases even more dramatically. This is a
result of having more profit per cow plus more cows. The end result
of increasing carrying capacity by 25 per cent is an increase in profit
of $21,600. This is an increase of 82 per cent ($21,600 / $26,400).
Improving your land has more potential for profit than anything
else you can do. It is obvious that the above example will change as
gross profit and overheads change. The point is that the trend of a
large increase in profit won’t change. Improved land will mean more
profit now and far into the future. Two challenging questions arise
from this line of thinking.
One, is there any other management change you can make that
has the potential for this amount of increased profit?
Two, will you consider investing in land improvement as we enjoy
better times?
Managed properly cattle are a powerful tool to improve our land.
Improving the land will result in more profit in the short term and
sustainability in the long term.
Happy trails. c
Don Campbell ranches with his family at Meadow Lake, Sask.,
and teaches Holistic Management courses. He can be reached at
306-236-6088 or [email protected].
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
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or phone Carson Moneo 306-266-4414 Clay Moneo 306-266-4411 Email:[email protected]
REMEMBER THE DATE-APRIL 2, 2014
SELLING 205 BULLS - 130 HEIFERS
 straigh t f ro m t h e h i p
By Brenda Schoepp
Uprooting an
Economic Dependency
T
he introduction of the U.S. Farm Bill has
offered little change for most farmers with
the exception of dairy. Cool will not change
and that leaves Canada with a few options — many
of which will be discussed in this magazine. American farm insurance will be enhanced with US$10
billion going toward covering insurance deductibles.
Although the amount for food stamps has been reduced
slightly over the next decade, the majority of the Farm Bill
— 79.1 per cent or US$756 billion — will be allocated
toward food stamps. Today, 46.5 million persons in the
United States live below the poverty threshold of $23,050.
This paints a picture of economic dependency within our
major trading partner. Welfare, charity and aid have been
proven to perpetuate dependencies. Food stamps may
keep the nation fed but never motivated and current-day
U.S. is hardly the model of economic efficiency.
Looking at the whole picture, I must question whether
beef cattle don’t fall into the category of economic trade
dependency with the United States. Canadians continue
to insist on monotrade when it comes to commodities
rather than view opportunity from a global platform. We
have a trade deficit in processed food, specifically meats,
and yet continue to hope to sell a live product to a country that picks up the benefit of the value add. The globe
keeps spinning while our liners are faced due south.
In 2012, U.S. exports of agricultural products to Canada totalled US$20.6 billion. Canada is the second-largest U.S. export market in agriculture. Items destined for
Canada by leading categories were fresh fruit ($1.8 billion), snack foods ($1.7 billion), red meats, fresh/chilled/
frozen ($1.6 billion), fresh vegetables ($1.6 billion) and
processed fruit and vegetables ($1.3 billion).
Products that moved from Canada into the U.S. were
similar in trade value but differed by category. Agricultural
products from Canada to the U.S. totalled $20.2 billion in
2012. Leading categories: snack foods (including chocolate),
($3.1 billion), other vegetable oils ($2.0 billion), red meats,
fresh/chilled/frozen ($1.7 billion), live animals ($1.5 billion),
and processed fruit and vegetables ($1.3 billion). The live
beef cattle industry in Canada is nearly equally dependent
on live trade as it is on red meat trade. When you look at it
from the perspective of a trade profile, it is the only main
trade category without a value-added component.
The total of all exports from Canada to the U.S. is
US$324.2 billion. Between agriculture, mining, fuels
and manufacturing, Canada contributes 2.47 per cent of
the total world exports. And although both the U.S. and
Canada have a sticky dependency on each other, it is not
until the Americans ignite true economic growth that we
will ever see a Farm Bill that is about — farming.
Canada has one of the highest ratios of income equality in the world while the U.S. and Mexico are near the
42
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 lowest. Our stable economy allows us to be leaders in
trade and value-added marketing, allowing for an eventual trade surplus, even in red meats. And while our poverty rates continue to decline, we are for some obscure
reason putting our eggs in the basket of a country whose
poverty rates continue to increase.
We now know that aid does not help countries or the
folks in it. Africa for example, is much poorer than it was
40 years ago. By nation though, where there has been economic reform and growth, the level of baseline poverty has
dropped (in this example the base line is US$1.25 day). It
may surprise you to know that in the United States, those
food stamps and other subsidies are allocated to individuals who live on $2 per day or less if not for the intervention of government programs. At the beginning of 2011,
1.48 million U.S. households were surviving on $2 a day
or less and those households cared for 2.8 million children
equating to 20 per cent of all American households with
children living in extreme poverty, according to a Harvard
University report. It paints a grim future for robust trade
of high-quality items such as Canadian beef.
In the cattle industry we have also seen consolidation
of poverty which was borne by the cow-calf operator
in 2003 because of our economic dependency on live
trade. The opportunity to stretch trade and to work with
other countries presented itself but truthfully Canada
defaulted back to live trade with the U.S. Minister Ritz
has stepped to the plate and started engaging countries
in beef trade. Today, our feeding industry really feels the
need for live trade to reign in the basis. Let us step back
and look at it from a food-processing perspective and the
potential for a created or eliminated basis.
Today, we have the opportunity to uproot the beef
trade though the CETA and other proposed agreements.
It would mean a focus on product differentiation to the
buyer’s specifications and open the door once again to
value-added product. The dollar is working in our favour
from the perspective of a global trading platform. This
may be the only way to keep our calves competitive at
home while allowing for the feeding industry to prosper by value adding to grain and the packing industry to
prosper by value adding to cattle. Canada need not have
an economic dependency on live cattle. Climb down
from viewing that southbound liner and spin the globe,
opening up a world of possibility. c
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. Brenda Schoepp 2014
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
BUILDING TRUST IN CANADIAN BEEF
on-farm biosecurity: keep it practical
A veteran vet’s advice for cow-calf producers
I
t’s not hard for on-farm biosecurity
to get complicated. But when you’ve
been around the industry like Dr.
Tom Pittman of the University of Calgary, you get a clear idea of what works.
Having complicated biosecurity protocols without practising basics just does
not make sense, he says. The target should
be to be practical, not onerous. The goal
in most cases isn’t sterilizing, just gross
decontamination.
From his years as a vet, educator and
industry adviser he offers these tips to
do that.
Have a boot-cleaning kit. Footbaths
have their place but for most cow-calf
operations they aren’t practical in freezing temperatures or muddy conditions.
And dipping boots in them doesn’t allow
enough contact time to penetrate mess.
The most important thing is removing mud and manure from boots. A
high-pressure washer works, but just as
effective is a good brush, scraper and pail
of hot, soapy water. Once cleaned, use a
spray bottle to thoroughly apply a solution of household bleach as a last step.
Simplify disinfectant use. There are
many good disinfectants but the best
option is one that is readily available and
will be used. “The more expensive the
product, the more the tendency to skimp.
Everyone has household bleach and will
not be afraid to use it.”
Guest clothes make sense. Have extra
boots and coveralls for visitors. No need to
manage footbaths and wash-up protocols
or tell people they need to clean up.
For footwear that has been on other premises, scrub first, then apply a solution of bleach.
Wash your hands. “We don’t wash
hands enough. If you don’t like disposable
gloves, use alcohol-based hand cleaners.”
Have dedicated equipment. There are
two biosecurity goals in calving season.
Don’t introduce anything. “Avoid buying
little calves from the auction and know
where your colostrum is coming from.”
And manage what’s on your farm. “For
example, mark and keep colostrum feeder
bags separate for healthy and sick calves.
Saliva and milk fats are sticky. Clean bags
with hot, soapy water, rinse and disinfect
with bleach solution. Then hang to dry.”
Healthy animals first in farm chores.
Treating healthy animals first, then sick
maximizes the time between when you are
last in contact with sick animals.
Clean ear tag equipment. Even small
amounts of blood on tagging and tattooing equipment can transfer disease such
as bovine leucosis.
Fresh needles make sense. Use detectable needles and try to use a fresh one for
every animal. Good needles cost only a few
cents compared to the cost of the product.
Manage bull entry. Best advice is to
buy bulls with known health records and
keep them separate from other bulls for a
period of quarantine time.
Protect
the beef showcase
“Every visitor to a farm or ranch is a
chance to showcase Canada’s beef industry,” says Pittman. “The best biosecurity
options allow producers to manage effectively without scaring people off.”
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REV-XS Canadian Cattlemen QSHere.indd 1
13-07-24 14:49
 CCA repo rts
By Martin Unrau
finishing up
T
here is certainly a lot to reflect upon in this,
my final column as the president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA). The
past few years have been filled with many successes,
including landmark achievements in market access
and trade. In the last two years in particular, as CCA
president, I have been busier than I ever anticipated
I would be going into this job, but the hard work has
been incredibly rewarding.
When I began my term I had my sights set on resolving four long-standing issues. I wanted a Canada-EU trade
deal, Japan to move to accept under-30-month beef, cattle
price and basis insurance expanded to a national program,
and to successfully resolve U.S. mandatory country-oforigin labelling (COOL). The CCA achieved three of these
goals in that time and we’re still working on the fourth.
COOL is the most difficult file to negotiate and is even
more politicized now, but the CCA is right to continue
its efforts to resolve COOL and its discriminatory effects.
Since November, the revised rule has more than doubled
COOL’s negative impact to over $100 per head. Canadian
producers continue to receive less money for their animals than their U.S. counterparts and the financial damage COOL causes to the processing industry and jobs has
resulted in plant closures and layoffs.
The CCA of course has achieved many more successes in this time. The Code of Practice for the Care
and Handling of Beef Cattle was released. Code guidelines are requirements and recommended practices that
balance practicality, public concern and science. Producers can defer to the code knowing the contents are
based on the latest knowledge and science. The development of BIXS 2 got underway and the system continues to improve as it evolves.
The CCA has also made great progress in addressing
emerging issues like sustainability. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Foundation and the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef were launched and continue to progress. The
CCA is involved in the effort to define sustainability along
with industry stakeholders to ensure that producers are
represented and that the good practices they already use
are part of the equation, and that the definition is practical and makes sense.
The CCA was approved for AgriMarketing funding
under Growing Forward 2 of $717,500 to add modules
for biosecurity, animal care, and environmental stewardship to the Verified Beef Production program.
We also welcomed the $14 million in funding for
the Beef Cattle Industry Science Cluster under Growing Forward 2. Combined with industry contributions,
the cluster will invest a total of $20 million to support
strategic research.
44
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 The CCA is involved in the development of a five-year
strategic plan for industry and has co-ordinated issues
management among stakeholders as we work towards
a plan that will ensure the industry is well prepared to
respond appropriately when such situations arise.
By any definition, the CCA’s track record is remarkable and reflects the high level of work the organization
does. I attribute the successes of the past few years to the
work of an extremely capable staff whose dedication,
experience and professionalism represent producers so
well. The relationships with governments, value chain
partners and stakeholders is what continues to make the
inroads that result in the high-level achievements that
enable long-term industry competitiveness that benefits
producers.
The agreement in principle for a Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
is a good example. Once finalized, CETA will provide
Canada’s producers with another market to pursue
and helps to increase the value of every animal produced in Canada.
The removal of long-standing barriers in the CETA
deal will enable producers to benefit from new duty-free
access for Canadian beef valued at nearly $600 million.
There is renewed optimism around achieving a
Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Korea has
an FTA with the U.S., the EU and Australia. The CCA
continues to urge the Government of Canada to quickly
conclude an FTA with Korea so that Canadian beef can
continue to compete in that market.
CCA attended the TPP trade ministers’ meeting in
Singapore in early December. A final TPP agreement
was not reached at that time and much work remains on
negotiating the market access commitments. The CCA,
as part of the Five Nation’s Beef Alliance (FNBA), established a set of core principles for the TPP and emphasizes
that tariffs on all products should be fully eliminated
without recourse to quotas or other safeguards and
emphasizes the importance of addressing non-tariff barriers. The CCA was present for the next meeting, in February 2014, also in Singapore.
Japan remains a subject of interest in terms of the TPP
negotiations. The CCA also strongly encourages a JapanCanada Economic Partnership Agreement to provide
full tariff-free access for Canadian beef.
The timeline to conclude many of these outstanding files is uncertain at this time. This includes Canada’s
COOL challenge at the WTO and the outcome of the
coalition lawsuit in the U.S. While many of these issues
might not be resolved in the few weeks that remain of
my term, I am confident they will be resolved and to the
benefit of our cattle producers and industry. c
Martin Unrau
is president
of the Canadian
Cattlemen’s
Association
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
 THE IN DUST RY
NewsRoundup
Associations
Larson wants a stronger voice for SCA
Paula Larson, the new chair of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association (SCA), hopes
the association will gain a stronger voice
within the industry during her term in office.
“The SCA is still a young organization
and I would like to see it become stronger
with harmonious representation to speak on
behalf of the province’s cattle producers,” says
Larson. The SCA was officially established as a
development commission in February 2009.
Her focus addresses several core strategies laid out in the SCA’s strategic plan
adopted last year. In addition to improving
board unity, it calls for better communications with producers, and implementing a
beef industry public relations plan.
In response SCA’s communications
committee formulated an overall plan
and attended several major industry and
consumer trade shows last year with the
assistance of their new project manager
Patty Englund. They also organized a tour
of print, television and radio journalists to
a cow-calf operation, a feedlot and a beef
research facility, and set up meetings with
reporters from the Saskatoon and Regina
dailies to establish SCA as a reliable source
of information on the beef industry.
Research remains a high priority for the
SCA, says Larson, pointing to the organization’s backing of the Saskatchewan Forage Network and the University of Saskatchewan’s new
beef cattle research and teaching unit. The SCA
committed checkoff funds of $200,000 per year
for five years in support of the U of S beef unit.
The first instalment was paid in 2013. Another
$43,000 per year for three years has been earmarked for forage research projects recommended by the forage network.
At the January meeting SCA members
carried a resolution backing an industry
strategic plan being led by the Canadian
Cattlemen’s Association and Canada Beef.
The motion was prompted by concerns
that a competing straw man strategic plan
put forward in December could end up
competing for checkoff dollars with the
SCA-backed plan.
Discussion on a resolution to work with
the provincial government to establish a
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
producer patron’s assurance fund dominated discussion during the resolution part
of the meeting. It narrowly carried with the
added provision that it be voluntary.
Following up on a resolution from the
2013 annual general meeting, the SCA has
had a working committee exploring the
concept of a producer assurance fund along
the line of what’s available in Alberta and
Ontario. The program’s intent would be to
protect sellers from non-payment by dealers licensed in Saskatchewan, including
auction market and packing plants. It is felt
the current bond system doesn’t adequately
protect sellers.
Sellers would pay a levy at the time of
sale and be eligible to apply to the fund to
recover 80 per cent of the value of the sale
price upon non-payment by a dealer. The
suggested initial levy is 25 cents a head,
which could be reduced once the fund has
accumulated a reserve. The levy would be
non-refundable, but the program would
likely include an opt-out clause.
The concern regarding a voluntary program is that it could take a long time to
build the fund to an effective level.
Some members expressed reservations
about implementing something that’s not
clear in terms of the conditions surrounding payouts from the fund, such as terms
of extending credit and time of possession,
in light of the various ways cattle are sold
today. It was noted that big numbers with big
money attached are common today, unlike
days gone by when a sizable lot was 50 head.
Other suggestions revolved around looking at alternative ways to protect sellers such
Continued on page 46
 calving ease
 grass-based
 strong maternal
 longevity
 moderate frame
BULLS LIKE THIS
FROM COWS LIKE THIS
Shellmouth, MB 204-564-2540
Be sure to check our website to find out
about our current heifer promotion!
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sold private
treaty off the
ranch!
www.nerbasbrosangus.com
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
45
News
Roundup
Continued from page 45
as a review of bonding procedures, verifying dealers’ ability to pay, requiring dealers
to have a line of credit with the government,
tightening up the existing regulatory process and making an effort to hold those who
default accountable so they can’t be back in
business within a short time.
The working committee will take these
suggestions into consideration in deciding
how to proceed with this initiative.
Members readily carried a resolution
calling on SCA to establish a liaison between
law enforcement and Livestock Services of
Saskatchewan Corp., the new non-profit
organization recently formalized to take
over administration of brand inspection
services from the provincial government.
The SCA annual report and resolutions
will be posted on the website at www.saskbeef.com.
Associations
Manitoba approves checkoff increase
Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) wrapped
up a productive year at its February annual
general meeting setting the stage for the
association’s 36th year of operation.
In the past year the MBP, working with
governments and other industry groups,
saw renewed support for the verified beef
production program, the start of a co-ordinated approach to tuberculosis surveillance,
the introduction of a much-improved forage insurance program and the province’s
entry into the new western livestock price
insurance program.
The meeting started with a strong show
of support for the association’s work when
members voted to raise the provincial
checkoff by a dollar to $3 per head. The
increase will take effect at the start of the
new fiscal year July 1.
Treasurer Theresa Zuk said checkoff revenue declined 11 per cent from the five-year
average in 2012-13. The drop was six per
cent more than the previous year. Without
the increase, MBP would have been facing
another 15 to 20 per cent decrease in rev-
enue in 2014 based on projections of a continued decline in provincial herd size.
Despite cost-cutting measures of the past
three years that included slashing $85,000
from total expenses last year, the association ended the year with a deficit of $4,718,
compared to a small surplus the year before.
Resolutions to make the provincial levy
or part of it non-refundable were soundly
defeated.
On a positive note, checkoff refunds
declined by about two per cent to 15 per cent
of the total collected as the association took
the initiative to meet with producers who
requested refunds to solicit their support.
MBP president Heinz Reimer says one
immediate concern for the association as the
summer grazing season draws nearer, is to
obtain support from the provincial government for the revamped community pasture
program. MBP was instrumental in bringing together representatives from the former
federal pasture program to get involved in
the formation of the Association of Manitoba Community Pastures to help oversee
the management of these pastures.
It’s been well organized, says Reimer, but
everything remains in limbo until the prov-
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Calving Issue (Jan.)
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N EWS ROUNDUP
ince makes a definite commitment to provide the interim funding
to get it off the ground.
Members carried a resolution to lobby for the removal of the
school tax rebate cap on community pasture land on the basis that
the new program continues to provide ecological services.
Unanimous approval to push for a full accounting and audit of
all activities of the Manitoba Cattle Enhancement Council (MCEC)
from its inception to the end of the MCEC checkoff on September 1,
2013, makes this a priority issue as well. MBP lobbied for an end to
the $2-per-head MCEC checkoff that was to go toward establishing
a federally inspected packing plant at Winnipeg. Producers paid into
the fund for eight years.
Members also want MBP to continue lobbying for informed access
to Crown leases. Producers who operate on Crown land have long
been concerned about the safety of people who enter a lease where
cattle are grazing. The other concern arises when people neglect to
close the gates when they enter the lease. Now that producers are taking steps to implement biosecurity measures to reduce the spread
of animal diseases and noxious weeds on these pastures, producers
believe they should be notified before someone enters the lease and
that they be allowed to refuse permission if the risks are high.
Issues related to compensation for the 2011 Lake Manitoba flood
remain top of mind and producers showed unanimous support to lobby
the provincial government to meet its commitments to compensate producers for ongoing losses beyond 2011 and take measures to ensure levels
on Lake Manitoba and the Shoal Lakes remain below damaging levels.
Continued on page 48
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C AT T L E M E N · M A R C H 2 0 1 4
47
28th AnnuAl Edition
News
Roundup
Continued from page 47
Date: Sat. April 12, 2014
Place: Eionmor Stock Farm (The Morison’s)
Time: Viewing of the Cattle at 10:00a.m.
Dinner @ noon, Sale @ 1:00 p.m.
On Offer: 30 yearling bulls, and
20 - 25 open purebred yearling heifers.
At the farm 26 miles west of Innisfail, watch for signs
Consignors:
Eionmor Stock Farm • Shepalta Shorthorns
www.shorthorn.ca
or for more info, call Ken @ 403-728-3825
sale day: 403-877-3293 . 587-876-2544 . 780-679-4719
PRAIRIE GRASS
RED ANGUS BULL SALE
24TH ANNUAL
SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2014 1:00 P.M.
The Bull Pen Arena
Thorlakson Feedyards
Airdrie, Alberta
4.5 Miles East of Airdrie on #567
& 2 Miles North on RR 284
Inte
rn
Avaet Bid
ilab din
le g
www
.dlm
s.ca
80
SELLING:
PERFORMANCE
TESTED
YEARLING BULLS
Bulls can be viewed at
Thorlakson Feedyards
View Color Catalogue & Video Preview Online at www.dlms.ca
B
a
Peter & Maxine Schmaltz
R.R. #2
Airdrie,A B T4B 2A4
(403) 912-1025
48
RED ROCK
RED ANGUS
BEISEKER RED
ANGUS
John, Karen, Jim, Laurie Brigan
& Families
RR #2, Site 8, Box 8, Airdrie,A B T4B 2A4
(403) 948-5215
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4 (403) 948-5412
Producers also support lobbying the province and Manitoba
Hydro to improve emergency services in rural areas. Reliable power
is important for personal safety and the care of livestock.
Looking ahead, Reimer hopes to see an MBP communications
plan in place that will incorporate the use of social media. “We need
to educate consumers that we are doing a great job of what we do
and that raising cattle is good for the ecosystem,” he says. “As individual producers, we go about doing our work every day and don’t
think to stop and tell our stories.”
The MBP annual report is available online at www.mbbeef.ca.
insurance
Western price insurance, at last
Manitoba producers had to wait a few weeks to join the party but
after a couple of provincial byelections were decided provincial
Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn signed Manitoba into the new
Western Livestock Price Insurance Program (WLPIP).
At press time western producers outside of Alberta were waiting
for the details to be announced so they can start figuring out if they
should sign up for the four-year pilot program that insures against
unexpected price declines.
The program is fully funded by producer premiums with the
federal and provincial governments covering administrative and
delivery costs for the pilot program. The federal government provides deficit financing.
This is the long-awaited regional expansion of the Alberta program
that has been covering various classes of cattle and hog production
since 2009. The details of the regional plan are not expected to vary
much from Alberta’s scheme. As such producers would buy insurance on an insured price they select from available policy options and
coverage levels. Participation in the program will be voluntary.
Alberta’s Agriculture Financial Services Corp. (AFSC) which
runs the CPIP program in Alberta will be the central administrative body for the regional program. Cattle producers will be able
to opt to insure their calves, feeders or fed cattle under one of three
separate programs, or to select only basis protection for fed cattle. A
settlement index will be created to represent western regional markets for feeders and calves.
health
More money for BSE testing
Federal Budget 2014 contained a number of commitments for
the beef cattle industry, including a proposed $205.5 million over
five years to continue routine bovine spongiform Encephalopathy
(BSE) programming.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said the funding is
needed to reach negligible risk status as early as next year and to
maintain effective surveillance and prevention measures.
Surveillance is required for Canada to demonstrate that its control measures are effective and working toward eradication of the
disease.
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
N EWS ROUNDUP
Canada is obliged to test 30,000 samples per year while classified as a controlled risk country. According to the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency, falling short of this target could have an
impact on Canada’s ability to apply for negligible risk status by
next year, and receive that status in 2016, the first year of eligibility.
While the number of samples was down significantly in 2011
and 2012, specifically in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the trend was
reversed in 2013.
In the first five months of 2013, Saskatchewan and Alberta
reported a year-to-year increase in surveillance samples.
A total of 31,021 BSE samples were tested in 2013. Fortunately all
of them were negative. This turnaround in the number of samples
being submitted has partly been attributed to enhanced communications through the industry promoting the importance of continued BSE surveillance while Canada is a controlled risk country.
The Future is
NOW
here!
COME ON DOWN TO THE 10TH ANNUAL
“Buy the BEEF Bull Sale”
April 1, 2014
1:00 p.m., Neepawa Ag Complex
Neepawa, MB
trade
COOL back to WTO
The Canadian contingent in Geneva for the February 19 WTO
panel hearing on the U.S.’s so-called fix to its country-of-origin
labelling (COOL) law was pretty happy with the way Canada’s position was presented.
Canadian Cattlemen Association president Martin Unrau says
U.S. officials conceded that the amended COOL measure has not
eliminated the detrimental impact on Canadian and Mexican
JASRed Angus
Continued on page 50
Guest Consignors: SUNSET RIDGE ANGUS
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
Doug & Jason McLaren
Ph: (204) 476-6248 or (204) 476-6723
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
49
CGA where ad #6_Layout 1 2/18/14 11:57 AM Page 1
News
Roundup
Continued from page 49
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Gelbvieh Advantage Bull Sale
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Saskatoon, SK
Looking for someone you
cannot wait to see again!
Mary is 43 with one son Zack who is 12. He is the love of my life
and we are very active. Mary is divorced, she is upbeat, positive,
active with her son, outdoor activities, horse-riding, fishing,
football, and movie nights. I have a great desire to retire on a
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livestock. “This means that the U.S. position is, as long as consumer information is
a legitimate objective, they can discriminate against their trading partners.”
“The blatant protectionism of the U.S.
position was clear throughout the hearings,” said Jean Guy Vincent, chairman of
the Canadian Pork Council. “It was very
satisfying to hear the chairman of the panel
tell the U.S. lawyers that big countries and
small countries in the WTO have the same
obligations. It is taking much longer than
we believe it should but we are confident
that we will prevail,” he said.
The panel is comprised of the same three
panellists whose finding that COOL discriminates against Canadian live cattle and
hogs was affirmed by the WTO Appellate
Body in 2012.
The panel is expected to make its confi“Lincoln Reds - Not following any fads, just focusing on quality.”
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N EWS ROU N DU P
140
More on the web
those s”
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dential report to governments in June and
then to the public probably a month later.
Of course, that decision is likely to be followed by an appeal.
If this process continued fully to its conclusion, Canada could be authorized to
impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports
sometime in the first half of 2015.
The CCA says the amended COOL regulation is now costing Canadian producers
over $100 per head. c
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51
 NEWS AB OUT YOU
By Deb Wilson
PurelyPurebred
Suggestions are always
welcome. My phone
number is 403-325-1695
Email: deb.wilson@
fbcpublishing.com
n The Canadian Welsh Black Cattle Society held its annual meeting in Olds, Alta.
on February 10, 2014. One of the items
on the agenda was the technical problems
they have been having with their website.
It is now back up and working, but they
are continuing to make changes. You can
check it out at www.canadianwelshblackcattle.com. The 2014 board of directors are:
president: Randy Scott, Hanna, Alta.; vicepresident: Jim Blanke, Pilot Butte, Sask.;
secretary/treasurer: Arlin Strohschein, Trochu, Alta. and directors John Buba, Spruce
Grove, Alta.; Peter Froland, Hughenden,
Alta.; Randy Kaiser, Caroline, Alta. and
Tyson Mitchell, Kitscoty, Alta.
n Here is an oldie pic you might enjoy. Recognize any faces??
n Michael Latimer, executive director of
Canadian Beef Breeds Council (CBBC),
attended the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association (NCBA) Conference in Nashville last month along with CBBC past
president Byron Templeton, and several
other Canadian beef industry representatives, including myself. Some 8,000 people
registered for the four-day event, and it
was great to see so many Canadians in
attendance. The primary discussion point
at formal and informal meetings was the
passing of the U.S. Farm Bill. The NCBA
opposed the Farm Bill because it did not
put an end to the mCOOL legislation, even
though it contained several positive pieces
of legislation for cattlemen such as a disaster assistance plan. If you have never been to
one of these conferences, I would encourage you to attend. It is a blend of meetings,
networking, trade show, entertainment and
keynote speakers.
n Templeton and Latimer also attended a
roundtable at the National Western Stock
Show, in Denver, with members of the
Colorado cattle industry to discuss the
implications of border restrictions and
particularly mCOOL on the economies of
Canada and Colorado.
n Congratulations to Don and Mindy
Good, of Acadia Ranching who celebrated
their 40th wedding anniversary on February 16. Don and Mindy are longtime Charolais breeders, and Mindy also has her own
Angus herd, which she took over from their
son Ashley, after he passed away several
years ago.
n On January 16 STARS Air Ambulance
received a generous donation from three cooperating organizations: Canadian Western
Agribition, the Canadian Bison Association
and Bouchard Livestock. Extensive fundraising activity held at the 2013 CWA generated $30,125 for STARS.
n Canadian Western Agribition also
donated $1,733 to Ronald McDonald
House of Saskatchewan. Funds were raised
6’ 6” high - 113 1/2” wide - 37’ long 4,600 lbs
www.realindustries.com 1-888-848-6196
call for a sales outlet near you
52
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
Classic Portable Handling System designed for safety
3 year structural warranty
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
PURELY PUREBRED
through a Chuck for Charity contest as
part of Agribition’s annual five-day rodeo.
Rodeo fans purchased toy footballs with a
chance to win prizes.
n Bridget Wilson is the 2014 recipient
of the 4-H Canada AgriVenture Global
Scholarship. She plans to live and work on
a New Zealand dairy farm for six months.
The $3,000 scholarship will be applied
towards the AgriVenture program fee. She
is a fourth-year university student pursuing an agriculture degree in animal science,
genetics and molecular biology at Dalhousie University. The AgriVenture scholarship
recognizes 4-H members who are leaders in
their club and community. Victoria Kyle of
Drumbo, Ont, the 2013 recipient, worked
for four months with sheep on the island of
Gotland, Sweden.
n The 10th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production
(WCGALP) will be held August 17-22,
2014 at the Westin Bayshore Conference
Center in Vancouver. This is the premier
conference for livestock geneticists.
n Saskatchewan Angus Association general
manager Belinda Wagner received special recognition and a standing ovation on the 25th
anniversary of her service to the Saskatchewan Livestock Association at the recent Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference.
n Hamilton Farms of Cochrane, Alta., won
Reserve Early Calf Champion Pen of Three
Bulls at the 2014 National Western Stock
Show’s Angus Carload and Pen Show, January
18 in Denver. The January 2014 bulls posted
an average weight of 1,317 pounds and are
sired by HF Rebel 53Y and HF Tiger 5T.
nCattlemen’s Young Leaders:
— Claire Windeyer of Didsbury, Alta.
Mentor: Cherie Copithorne-Barnes is a
fourth-generation rancher living in Jumping Pound, Alta. just west of Calgary. She is
the CEO of CL Ranches Ltd. and a director
of the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency.
Claire grew up in Nova Scotia and attended
the University of Guelph’s Ontario Agriculture College and Ontario Veterinary College
(OVC). She practised in southern Alberta
before returning to OVC to do graduate
y
d
d
a
D
r
u
o
Y
Who’s
11th Annual
Bull Sale
Thursday April 3, 2014 – 1:00 PM
Saskatoon Livestock Sales, 306-382-8088
training in ruminant
health management
and work in ruminant
field services. Her
research investigated
pre-weaning vaccination against respiratory disease in dairy
calves. Claire won the
Claire Windeyer
D.F. Forster medal for
academic achievement, motivation, leadership, and citizenship. She then volunteered
in Nepal, working with rural dairy farmers
through Veterinarians Without Borders. In
2011, Claire joined the University of Calgary’s
faculty of veterinary medicine as an assistant
professor in production animal health. Her
interests are: cow-calf health management,
epidemiology of infectious diseases in ruminants, pain and animal welfare, and sustainable development of health and production
of ruminants in developing countries. Her
current projects include: a cow-calf health
management survey of producers in Alberta,
and an investigation of Mycoplasma bovis in
Continued on page 54
WE KNOW OUR BULLS
HAVE TO BE BETTER JUST
TO GET YOUR ATTENTION!
That’s why we cull hard and only sell 50 bulls
a year. These are the top cut from over
400 purebred Shorthorn cows. Thick, rugged,
BEEF BULLS that are bred to handle the harsh
conditions of Western Canada. Also on offer a
select group of flush and embryo lots.
For more information or a catalogue contact:
Saskvalley Stock Farm
Carl Lehmann 306-232-3511
www.saskvalleyshorthorns.com
Bell M Farms
Richard Moellenbeck 306-287-7904
www.bellmfarms.com
Muridale Shorthorn
Scot Muri 306-741-6833
www.muridale.com
Sale is broadcast by
Cattle In Motion at
www.cattleinmotion.com
Catalogue online at all three websites
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
Sale bull videos at www.youtube.com/whosyourdaddybull
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
53
PU R E LY PU R E B R E D
Continued from page 53
farmed bison. Claire works in the Distributed
Veterinary Learning Community with CowCalf Health Management Services and was
selected for the Canadian Veterinary Medical
Association’s Emerging Leaders Program in
2012. She lives in Didsbury, Alta., loves riding
her horses in the mountains, and hopes to one
day have a cow-calf operation.
n The Cattlemen’s Young Leaders (CYL)
program has announced the 26 semifinalists vying for 16 mentorship positions in the
2014 program year. The semifinalists were
selected from a pool of nearly 50 applications, a response which CYL programs
manager Jill Harvie said reflects the ongoing
popularity of the youth mentorship program. “The program continues to attract a
great set of beef and cattle enthusiasts every
year,” she said. “We likely saw the most consistent set of applications to date — all of
the applications were strong.”
The 26 semifinalists were selected based on
their online applications which were evaluated by a panel of judges. The finalists will
be selected at the CYL Spring Forum, March
21-22 in Calgary.
The 2014 CYL semifinalists are:
• British Columbia: Erin Durrell, Williams
Lake.
• Alberta: Jill Burkhardt, Gwynne; Stacey
Domolewski, Taber; Laura Ecklund‚ Olds;
James Jenkins, Okotoks; Tessa Nybo, Sundre; Stuart Somerville, Endiang; and Colin
Verbeek, Sturgeon County.
• Saskatchewan: Tyson Buyer, Saskatoon;
Shari Beamish, Maidstone; Jessica Hextall,
Grenfell; Lauren Ovinge, Scandia; RaeLeigh Pederzolli, Saskatoon; Brandon Sparrow, Vanscoy; and Rob Voice, Bradwell.
• Manitoba: Kristine Blair, Woodside;
Andrew Kopeechuk, Brandon; Brett
McRae, Brandon; and Neil Overby, Ste.
Rose du Lac.
• Ontario: Elliot Armstrong, Cayuga; Scott
Boese, Marysville; Amanda Broadhagen,
Guelph; Kevin Hood, Feversham; Jaclyn Horenberg, Stratford; Elliot Miller,
Auburn; and Elizabeth Stubbs, Caledonia.
After final selection, CYL candidates
will be paired with a mentor for an eightmonth mentorship in the CYL Professional
or Industry Leader categories. The professional mentorship gives candidates an
opportunity to pair up with agricultural
professionals to get a jump-start on a beefrelated career of their choice. The industry
leader-type of mentorship pairs finalists with
54
C at t l e m e n · m a r c h 2 0 1 4 the appropriate industry representative in a
specific policy area of interest, such as animal
health, international trade, international and
domestic marketing, environment, research
or advocacy. The CYL program is a national
youth initiative of the Canadian Cattlemen’s
Association (CCA). Visit www.cattlemensyoungleaders.com for more information.
n Justamere Ranch of Lloydminster, Sask.,
won Reserve Winter Bull Calf Champion
honours at the 2014 National Western
Stock Show Super Point Roll of Victory
(ROV) Angus Show, January 15-17 with
Justamere 406S Big Gun 414A.
n Six Mile Red Angus Ltd. of Fir Mountain, Sask., won the Grand Champion Red
Angus Bull with Six Mile Taurus 519A, a
junior bull calf at the Denver Stock Show.
Six Mile Red Angus Ltd. also won Reserve
Champion Junior Bull and received Premier Breeder honours as a result of their
and other breeders’ success with Six Mile
genetics throughout the show.
n Gentec and Cattleland have signed a
partnership agreement to use the Cattleland facilities for research. Collaborations have included the Canadian Cattle
Genome Project, developing an EPD for
residual feed intake for the Canadian Hereford Association and a continuous search
for genomic markers. The deal begain in
2009. William Torres, Cattleland’s cattle
and research manager is originally from
Texas and had been using his American connections for research up to now
because he had been unable to find the
right contacts in Canada. He eventually found John Basarab at the Lacombe
Research Station who passed on Torres’s
name to Gentec’s Clint Brons. “Clint put us
in touch with Gentec, Genome Prairie and
more scientists than I have time to visit.”
The company’s research program functions on two basic principles: it must
improve the bottom line and it must benefit
the Canadian livestock industry. The average age of Cattleland’s employees is impossibly young. Torres, the veteran, barely has
a grey hair on his head. The three full-time
scientists whose daily challenge is to raise
the standards in the industry average 26
years of age.
“That’s why we work well with Gentec,”
says Torres. “We feed off each other’s ideas.
Everybody needs a fresh pair of eyes at some
point. If we didn’t do research, we’d have to
wait up to two to three years for research
to be published. Instead, we get that much
head start on new knowledge.”
With a capacity of 25,000 head, Cattleland Feedyards is the largest for-profit beef
research facility in Canada, using some of
that capacity for up to 17,000 research animals at a time.
“Our 138 pens of various sizes are in
high demand,” says Torres. “Clients book
them up to 18 months in advance. Only if
we don’t have research booked will we open
the pens for regular commercial feeding.”
This diversity of operations makes
Cattleland Feedyards an unusual operation. A typical feedlot in Western Canada
has about 8,000 animals of one sex, all
of the same age that two to three people
can manage, feed the same diet, check for
health and do the repair/maintenance. On
any given day, Cattleland feeds 42 different
diets to twice the number of animals, who
may be there for vastly different trials.
The Saskatchewan Livestock recently presented honour scrolls to Glenn and the late
Bev Bender of Neudorf; Tom and Karen
Grieve of Fillmore; John A. (Jack) McDougald of Maple Creek; and Barry and Marj
Young of Carievale in recognition of their
contributions to the industry. Complete
biographies are available on www.sasklivestock.com. c
Sales results
For more details see
www.canadiancattlemen.com.
Peak Dot Ranch Bull and Female Sale
Dec. 5, 2013, Wood Mountain, Sask.
149 Older bulls, gross $739,900, av. $4,966
127Commercial bred heifers, gross $189,300,
av. $1,491
276 Total, gross $929,436, av. $3,367
M.C. Quantock Livestock
“Canada’s Bulls” sale
Jan 25, 2014, Lloydminster, Alta.
360 Bulls sold, av. $4,573
$5,300 and over bulls, av. $6,048
$3,800 and under bulls, av. $3,274
Lazy S Ranch Bull Power Sale
Jan. 25, 2014, Mayerthorpe, Alta.
204 Black and Red Simmental, Angus
and Beefmaker bulls, av. $4,732
Back to the Basics Bull Sale,
MJT Herefords and Angus
Feb. 8, 2014, Edgerton, Alta.
74 Black Angus two-year-old bulls, av. $4,677.82
32 Hereford two-year-old bulls, av. $5,184.44
Gross, $512,06
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
 Market Su mma ry
By Debbie McMillin
TheMarkets
Fed cattle
Fed-cattle prices exploded into 2014. Fed
steers jumped almost $12/cwt in the first
four weeks to average a record breaking $142.50 before tailing off to $135.09
by mid-February, which was still better
than $20/cwt above last year at this time.
Tight supplies of market-ready fed cattle,
a lower Canadian dollar, a rally in the cutout price, plus smaller carcass weights and
good post-Christmas demand, all added
fuel to this price bomb.
While prices remain high in 2014, the
basis remains frustratingly wide, holding
at -17.70/cwt at mid-February. The average cash-to-cash basis during the first six
weeks of 2014 was -19.45/cwt, versus a
five-year average that is closer to -9.
The total on feed in Alberta and Saskatchewan on February 1 was 979,133
head, up 10 per cent from last year
fuelled by a 93 per cent increase in placements year over year in January. Domestic steer slaughter was also up 10 per
cent to 153,356 head and heifer slaughter
increased by 17 per cent to 77,660 head
at mid-February. Not surprisingly given
the weak basis and low dollar U.S. buyers
pushed feeder exports up by seven per cent
at the same time.
Feeder Cattle
Feeder cattle prices have moved right
along with the fed cattle so far in 2014. A
high fed market combined with a 45 per
cent drop in barley prices, strong export
market and four-year-low Canadian dollar shoved 550-lb. Alberta steers to $198/
cwt at mid-February, an increase of $26.50
from January 1 and $41.50 better than a
year ago. Auction market volumes were
very large throughout January and early
February as cow-calf producers and backgrounders took advantage of the strong
market. The 850-lb. steers averaged $165/
cwt at press time, up $16 from the start of
the year and $36.84 better than last year.
As with the fed cattle, the feeder basis in
2014 continues to disappoint. The current
850-lb. feeder basis is -$23.12/cwt while
the five-year average for the current week
is closer to -$13/cwt. The wider basis and
low Canadian dollar have attracted U.S.
buyers. To date they’ve bought 24,378
feeders, an increase of 62 per cent from the
same period in 2013.
Non-Fed Cattle
The strong fed market also drove up
prices on cows and bulls but while the
fed market slipped back in February cow
prices continued to surge ahead. D1,2
cows averaged $88.42 by mid-month, a
gain of nearly $9 from Jan.1 and $14.52
ahead of last year. The release of U.S.
inventory numbers showing another year
of decline in the U.S. cow herd pressured
buyers on both sides of the U.S./Canada
border. So far, the U.S. buyers appear
to have the upper hand. Domestic cow
slaughter is down seven per cent at 9,473
head to date while exports are up 14 per
cent as 33,457 head crossed the border.
Bull prices follow a similar trend posting
a mid-month average of $91.36/cwt. Bull
numbers are always small this time of year
with a domestic slaughter of 416 head,
although that is three times what it was
last year. Export shipments of bulls were
down seven per cent at 5,319 head. c
Debbie McMillin is a market analyst
who ranches at Hanna, Alta.
More markets 
 DE B’S OUTLOOK
Fed Cattle
While the fed market has corrected
slightly from the highs seen a couple
weeks ago fundamentally it is still poised
to remain strong moving forward. North
American supplies should remain tight
for the next couple months as the
seasonal spring demand for finished
cattle starts to grow. In Canada, we
currently have the lowest Canadian
dollar seen in over four years and carcass
weights averaging 38 pounds lighter
than a year ago. One factor to watch
will be the reaction to the higher beef
prices as they get passed along to the
consumer at the retail level.
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
Feeder Cattle
Feeding margins remain profitable
and feeder cattle are still trading
in a range where feedlots have an
opportunity to hedge a profit. Current
grain prices and cost of gain support
feeder prices. Feeder volumes have
been large to date in 2014, and as
the supplies tighten moving forward
demand for the cattle will pick up
some strength, particularly for the
lighter feeders. Grass buyers will still
be looking to fill their requirements
while the lower Canadian dollar and
wide basis will keep U.S. buyers active
in this market. Heavy feeders will
retain good support, just not as much
as the grass cattle. Overall expect a
strong feeder market as we move into
spring.
Non-Fed Cattle
D1,2 cows generally strengthen at
this time of year as producers finish
moving the open or management
cows to clear some pens for calving
season. The demand for cows will
remain strong, particularly cows in
good condition. U.S. buyers facing a
tight cow supply at home and a low
Canadian dollar will continue to put a
solid floor under this market.
C a t t l e m e n · m a r c h 2 0 1 4 55
M A R K ETS
Break-even Prices on A-Grade Steers
150
ALBERTA
140
155
110
145
Steer Calves (500-600 lb.)
185
165
120
155
195
175
130
100
Market Prices
145
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
ONTARIO
135
135
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
95
D1,2 Cows
85
75
125
65
115
55
105
95 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Canfax weighted average
price on A-Grade steers
Break-even price for
steers on date sold
2014
2013
2014
2013
February 2014 prices*
Alberta
Yearling steers (850 lb.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $158.80/cwt
Barley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.44/bu.
Barley silage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.00/ton
Cost of gain (feed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53.63/cwt
Cost of gain (all costs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.00/cwt
Fed steers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138.52/cwt
Break-even (July 2014) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129.02/cwt
Ontario
Yearling steers (850 lb.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $161.67/cwt
Corn silage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.28/ton
Grain corn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.41/bu.
Cost of gain (feed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69.32/cwt
Cost of gain (all costs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95.26/cwt
Fed steers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142.29/cwt
Break-even (August 2014) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134.19/cwt
*Mid-month to mid-month prices
Breakevens
East: end wt 1,450, 183 days
West end wt 1,325 lb., 125 days
45
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Ontario
Alberta
2014
2013
2014
2013
Ontario prices based
on a 50/50 east/west mix
Market Summary (to February 8)
2014
2013
Total Canadian federally inspected slaughter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294,531. . . . . . . . . . . 275,839
Average steer carcass weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848 lb.. . . . . . . . . . . . 886 lb.
Total U.S. slaughter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,189,000. . . . . . . . 3,508,000
Trade Summary
Exports
2013-14
2012-13
Fed cattle to U.S. (to February 1, 2014) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,861.. . . . . . . . . . . .28,708
Feeder cattle and calves to U.S. (to February 1, 2014). . . . . . . . . 24,378.. . . . . . . . . . . . 15,059
Dressed beef to U.S. (to December 2013). . . . . . . . . . . . . 435.60 mil.lbs.. . . . . 435.14 mil.lbs
Total dressed beef (to December 2013) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615.72 mil.lbs.. . . . . 597.55 mil.lbs
2013 IMPORTS 2012
Slaughter cattle from U.S. (to December) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0
*Dressed beef from U.S. (to December) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363.04 mil.lbs. . . . . . 374.14 mil.lbs
*Dressed beef from Australia (to December) . . . . . . . . . . 38.92 mil.lbs. . . . . . .34.58 mil.lbs
*Dressed beef from New Zealand (to December) . . . . . . . 33.75 mil.lbs. . . . . . 46.46 mil.lbs
*Dressed beef from Uruguay (to December) . . . . . . . . . . . 27.43 mil.lbs. . . . . . . 24.62 mil.lbs
Canadian Grades (to February 8, 2014)
% of A
grades
+59%
54-58%
AAA
24.0
21.9
AA
28.6
9.6
A
1.4
0. 1
Prime
0.2
0.4
Total
32.0
54.2
EAST WEST
Total graded
67,958
223,271
Yield
– 53% Total
9.8
55.7
1.9
40.1
0.0
1.5
0.7
1.3
12.4
Total A grade 98.6%
Total ungraded
3,300
2
% carcass basis
76.1%
88.6%
Only federally inspected plants
56
C at t l e m e n · m a r c h 2 0 1 4 www.canadiancattlemen.ca
 market ta l k
By Gerald Klassen
Feeder Cattle
Market Outlook
C
anadian feeder cattle prices have traded at record
highs over the past month due to lower feed grain
values and historically strong fed-cattle markets.
Cattle inventories continue to shrink in Canada and the
U.S. and the market is functioning to encourage expansion
which has also contributed to the higher price structure.
The market can become extremely volatile at extreme highs
whereby values from week to week can be quite variable. We
all know how the market dynamics can change within a short
period of time and the financial risk has certainly increased.
I’ve received many inquiries in regards to the price outlook
for feeder cattle as calving season starts for another year;
therefore, I thought this would be a good time to provide an
overview of the market influences which will be driving the
feeder market throughout 2014.
The two most important factors influencing prices of feeder
cattle are the price of feed grains and the expected selling price of
the finished animal.
The December 31 Statistics Canada grain stocks report was considered supportive to the market and suggested that 2013 barley
yields may have been overstated. Statistics Canada estimated domestic feed barley usage from August 1 to December 31 at 3.7 million
mt, up from 2.9 million mt during the same period of 2012.
Wheat used for feed consumption for the same period was
estimated at 3.6 million mt, compared to 2.9 million mt last
year. Combined domestic feed usage of wheat and barley was up
nearly 1.7 million mt during the first five months of the crop year
which is a bit high given the cattle-on-feed inventories and overall hog numbers.
I’m still projecting a Canadian carry-out of nearly 2.8 million
mt which is up from a 10-year average of 2.1 million mt so stocks
will remain burdensome until the end of the crop year.
Looking forward, the industry is anticipating a marginal yearover-year decline in Canadian barley acreage. For 2014-15, the
carry-out will likely finish closer to 2.4 million mt which is closer
to the 10-year average. Barley prices in Western Canada stabilized
during late winter and appear to be trading in the range of $150 to
$156/mt delivered the feedlot in southern Alberta.
The main point is feed grain prices are not getting “more bearish” but rather neutral for the time being and then, depending on
the upcoming crop size, we could see slightly higher prices in the
fall given the lower production. This will temper the upside potential in the feeder market.
Fed-cattle prices also reached record highs in late January
which resulted in very strong feeding margins and provided some
breathing room on buying replacement cattle. Fed-cattle prices
in the U.S. peaked out at $150/cwt while Alberta values topped at
$148.50/cwt.
At the time of writing this article, the Alberta market has
dropped to $139/cwt. Seasonally fed-cattle prices generally stay
firm into the March period and then come under pressure as sec-
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
u.s. quarterly beef production
(million pounds)
Quarter
2010
2011
2012
2013
Estimated
2104
1
6,251
6,411
6,283
6,172
5,825
2
6,547
6,559
6,475
6,517
6,260
3
6,768
6,737
6,584
6,608
6,235
4
6,741
6,492
6,571
6,420
6,030
TOTAL
26,307
26,199
25,913
25,717
24,350
ond-quarter beef production increases. In past years actual beef
production tended to come in larger than projected which further
weighs on prices once these supplies materialize. Carcass weights
have been running above year-ago levels and this will likely continue into the summer.
Consumer spending also tends to top out in March and eases
slightly into the summer. Adverse weather in Eastern Canada and
the eastern U.S. seaboard has caused restaurant traffic to come in
lower than expected and weather conditions will continue to be
a main factor for restaurant demand during the spring and summer. For 2013, American “away from home” food spending was
up 13.3 per cent over 2012 while “at home” food spending was
up a marginal 3.3 per cent. It’s important to note that disposable
income has not increased for the average consumer so it will be
difficult to sustain higher values at the retail level. It usually takes
about four months for restaurants to adjust menu prices.
I’m expecting Alberta fed-cattle prices in the summer months to
drop to the range of $125 to $132/cwt. Break-even values on 850pound steers bought in early February are in the range of $129/
cwt to $132/cwt. While feeding margins have been quite healthy
through the winter, we can expect margins to narrow in the summer and fall period. This will also weigh on feeder cattle prices.
In conclusion, I feel that feeder cattle prices have likely topped
out. Values for replacement cattle are expected to stay firm through
March and then start to trend lower into the summer following the
prices of fed cattle. Narrower feeding margins will weigh on the
price of replacement cattle in the second and third quarters.
Canadian barley and U.S. corn production will have a large
influence on feeder cattle prices during the September through
December period. Cow-calf producers will want to be more
aggressive sellers in the short term. If you plan on selling calves
in the summer, it would be prudent to have some price protection in place. Backgrounding operators should also have some
price insurance on current purchases. We all know how the market
behaved back in 2011 and 2012 and buying feeder cattle in late
winter or early spring can be very risky. c
Gerald Klassen analyzes markets in Winnipeg and also maintains an
interest in the family feedlot in southern Alberta. He can be reached at
[email protected].
C at t l e m e n · M a r c h 2 0 1 4
57
 GOINGS ON
 A DV E RT IS E R IN DEX
Sales&Events
Events
March
13
anadian Beef Breeds Council Annual
C
General Meeting, Calgary, Alta.
21-22 Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Spring Forum,
CCA Offices, Calgary, Alta.
26-27 Alberta Farm Animal Care — 2014
Livestock Care Conference, Four Points
Sheraton-South, Edmonton, Alta.
28-29 New Brunswick Spring Beef Conference,
Crowne Plaza, Moncton, N.B., www.bovinsnbcattle.ca
29-31 Farm and Ranch Show, Expo Centre,
Edmonton, Alta.
April
5-6
S askatchewan Beef Expo, Prairieland
Park, Saskatoon, Sask., www.
saskatchewanbeefexpo.com
11
Canadian Western Agribition Annual
General Meeting, Evraz Place —
Queensbury Salon, Regina, Sask.
28-29 Advancing Women — Women in Ag Life
Skills for Leadership Conference & Casino,
Deerfoot Inn, Calgary, Alta., www.advancingwomenconference.ca
June
5-7
13-14
16
18-20
18-21
22-26
27
anadian Angus Association Convention,
C
Temple Gardens Mineral Spa, Moose Jaw, Sask.
Canadian Shorthorn Annual General
Meeting, Elkhorn Resort, Riding Mountain
National Park, Man.
Canadian Beef Breeds Council Golf
Tournament, Heather Glen Golf course,
Calgary, Alta.
Canada’s Farm Progress Show, Evraz Place,
Regina, Sask.
Beef Improvement Federation Symposium,
Cornhusker Marriot, Lincoln, Nebraska
World Congress on Conservation
Agriculture, Winnipeg Convention Centre,
Winnipeg, Man.
Canadian Charolais Association Annual
General Meeting, Renfrew, Ont.
July
4-6
9
Quebec Junior Beef Show, Brome, Que.
International Livestock Congress 2014,
Deerfoot Inn, Calgary, Alta.
17-19 Showdown 2014 — Canadian Junior Angus
Association National Show, Virden, Man.
17-20 Alberta YCSA Classic, Lacombe, Alta.
24-26 Canadian Junior Limousin Conference,
Saskatoon, Sask.
25-27 2014 Canadian Simmental Association AGM,
Elkhorn Resort, Riding Mountain National
Park, Man.
25-27 YCSA National Classic, Elkhorn Resort,
Riding Mountain National Park, Man.
30-Aug. 2 Saskatchewan YCSA Classic, Prince
Albert, Sask.
August
1-3
1-3
58
anadian Junior Shorthorn National Show,
C
Neepawa, Man.
Manitoba All Breeds Youth Round-up,
Neepawa, Man.
C at t l e m e n · m a r c h 2 0 1 4 Page
Advanced Agri Direct
21
10
Advancing Women
Airdrie Trailer
51
19
Beefbooster
11
Brett Young Seeds
By Livestock
31
47
Canadian Agri-Blend
Canadian Angus Assoc.
51
OBC
Canadian Charolais Assoc.
Canadian Gelbvieh Assoc.
50
Canadian Hereford Assoc.
IFC
Canadian Limousin Assoc.
26, 27
Canadian Red Angus Promotion Society 9
35
Canadian Shorthorn Assoc.
13
Canadian Simmental Assoc.
Case-IH
7
Double D Custom Hats
51
48
Eionmor Stock Farm
Farm Credit Canada
14
Flying K Ranch
47
Greener Pastures
39
Hi-Hog Farm & Ranch Equipment
51
39
International Livestock Congress
International Stock Foods
50
JAS Red Angus
49
John Deere Ag Marketing Center
22, 23
Justamere Farms
37
14 a-p
Lakeland Group/Northstar
Matchmaker Select
50
51
Mel Stewart Holdings
43
Merck Animal Health
Nerbas Brothers Inc.
45
North American Lincoln Red Angus
50
Peak Dot Ranch
41
51
Plain Jans
52
Real Industries
Red Rock Red Angus
48
Right Cross
20
Riverside Welding
50
47
Royal Manitoba Winter Fair
51
Salers Assoc. of Canada
Short Grass Sales
33
The Cattle Range
15
Tru-Test Inc.
49
IBC
Vermeer Corporation
Who’s Your Daddy Bull Sale
53
Zoetis Animal Health
5, 17, 29
17-22 10th World Congress on Genetics Applied
to Livestock Production (WCGALP) Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, B.C.
21-22 Maritime YCSA Classic, Truro, N.S.
November
24-29 C
anadian Western Agribition, Evraz Place,
Regina, Sask.
Sales
1
avidson Gelbvieh & Lonesome Dove
D
Ranch 25th Anniversary Bull Sale, Bull Yards, Ponteix, Sask.
Belvin Angus Bull Sale, at the farm, Innisfail, Alta.
In Pursuit of Perfection Bull Sale — Spring
Creek Simmentals, at the farm, Moosomin, Sask.
Richmond Ranch 17th Annual Grass
Country Limousin Bull Sale, at the ranch,
Rumsey, Alta., www.richmondranch.com
Harvie Ranching Bull Sale — Polled
Hereford, Charolais, Simmental, at the ranch, Olds, Alta.
Triple V Ranch — Red & Black Angus twoyear-old Bull Sale, at the ranch, Melita, Man.
North Alliance Bull Sale — Aumack
Simmentals, Spiritwood Stockyards,
Spiritwood, Sask.
Reese Cattle Company — Charolais Bull
Sale, Innisfail Auction Mart, Innisfail, Alta.
28th Annual LLB Angus Bull & Female Sale,
at the farm, Erskine, Alta.
Spruceview Angus Bull Sale, at the ranch, Killam, Alta.
Pugh Farms Spring Bull Sale, Dryland
Cattle Trading Corp., Veteran, Alta.
Bar 3R Limousin 19th Annual Bull Sale,
Crossroads Centre, Oyen, Alta.
Braun Ranch & Bar CR — Ranch Ready
Bull Sale, Heartland Livestock, Swift Current, Sask.
Maple Lake Stock Farms — Kick Off to
Spring Bull Sale, Grande Clairiere Hall,
Hartney, Man.
Right Cross Ranch 3rd Annual Red & Black
Angus Bull Sale, at the ranch, Kisbey, Sask.,
www.rightcrossranch.com
10th Annual Focus on the Future Bull Sale,
Wheatland Cattle Co., Alameda, Sask.
Summit 3 Speckle Park Sale, Northlands,
Edmonton, Alta.
Anderson Cattle Co., at the farm, Swan River, Man.
March
4
6
7
10
12
14
14
15
19 19
20
20
21
26
27
29
29
April
1
2
2
4
5
J AS Red Angus — 10th Annual Buy the Beef
Bull Sale, Neepawa Ag Complex, Neepawa, Man.
Peak Dot Ranch Bull and Female Sale, at the
ranch, Wood Mountain, Sask.
11th Annual Who’s Your Daddy Bull Sale,
Saskatoon Livestock Sales, Saskatoon, Sask.
Northern Progress Bull Sale — RSL Red
Angus and Stittalburn Farms, Red & Black
Angus Bulls — two-year-olds and yearlings,
Saskatoon Livestock Sales, Saskatoon, Sask.
Lauron Red Angus & Guests 23rd Annual
Bull Sale, Cow Palace, Olds, Alta.
5
8
9
9 11
14
14
18
19
19
rescent Creek Angus 16th Annual Bull &
C
Female Sale, at the farm, Goodeve, Sask.
Rodgers Red Angus/Lone Tree Ranching
41st Annual Performance Test Bull Sale,
Perlich Bros. Auction Mart, Lethbridge, Alta.
Rivercrest — Valleymere 11th Annual Spady
Bull Sale, Rivercrest Ranch, Alliance, Alta.
Flying K Ranch Bull Sale, at the ranch, Swift Current, Sask.
Johnston — Fertile Valley Bull Sale,
Saskatoon Livestock Sales, Saskatoon, Sask.
Justamere 19th Annual Bull Sale — 60 Black
Angus Bulls, at the farm, Lloydminster, Sask.
Moose Creek Red Angus Sale, at the farm,
Kisbey, Sask.
South Shadow Angus — Your Choice Bull
Sale, Cowtown, Maple Creek, Sask.
Shortgrass Angus Bull & Female Sale, at the ranch, Aneroid, Sask.
WRAZ Red Angus — Cornerstone More
Bang for Your Buck Bull Sale, Whitewood Auction Mart, Whitewood,
Sask. c
 Event listings are a free service to industry.
 Sale listings are for our advertisers.
Your contact is Deborah Wilson
at 403-325-1695
or [email protected]
www.canadiancattlemen.ca
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