HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-12-08, Page 16PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2005.
Cargill buyers stress consistency
By Keith Roulston
Citizen publisher
2005 in Brussels,
want a tender steak
they buy one, said
Fox who has recently
The need for consistency of
carcass size and quality was stressed
over and over when two buyers for
Cargill’s new Guelph plant spoke to
100 beef producers attending Beef
Symposium
Thursday.
Consumers
every time
Stirling
transferred from Alberta to help run
the plant purchased from Better
Beef.
The plea for consistency extends
to the size of the animals being
shipped to market. “Fewer people
want to buy larger cuts of meat,”
explained Dan Weatherbie, head
cattle buyer for the plant. They
prefer animals that produce a 10-16
square-inch ribeye.
Most restaurants serve a specific
weight of steak, he said meaning
that if it is bigger area, it must be
thinner and that means it’s harder to
cook to the desired degree.
Larger cuts also don’t fit the meat
trays in the store, added Fox.
While the Guelph plant can handle
animals of all sizes, the ideal is an
animal that produces a 750-lb.
carcass, he said.
Though Cargill desires smaller,
uniform carcasses, it will continue to
accept larger animals for the time
being.
“We will give you plenty of notice
if we are going to change the size of'
animals,” Weatherbie promised.
But asked if Cargill would be
buying on a pricing grid that rewards
sellers of desired carcasses,
Weatherbie said he’s still new to the
job but “I firmly believe we will be
buying on a grid.”
Fox said the beef industry has
been plagued by “walls” between the
cow-calf producer and the feedlot
and the feedlot and the plant. “We
need to work on breaking those
walls down,” he said. Cargill’s
concern is “How do we co-ordinate
the supply chain?”
In the U.S., Cargill operates
through alliances with producers
who feed the type of cattle the
company wants with the kind of diet
that produces the kind of consistent
carcasses the company requires.
Asked how many cattle Cargill
owns in feedlots in Canada, Fox said
the number is negligible. The
company prefers to work on contract
with feedlots, he said.
Fox urged producers to register
their cattle through the Canadian
Cattle Identification Agency to
allow greater traceability from farm
to fork and to give customers
greater confidence in Canadian beef.
“Registering gives us a huge
advantage on any other competitor,”
hfe said. “If we can get people to
register their cattle Canada will be
ahead of the world.”
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High dollar kills beef profits
By Keith Roulston
Citizen publisher
could mean the difference between a
small profit on cattle and a loss, he
said.
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On parade
It was a parade with a rural twist on Saturday night when
A lot fewer cattle are heading
across the border since it reopened
to younger cattle in mid-July and
the reason could be the rise in the
Canadian dollar.
“The border is open but it is not
business as usual,” Dennis Martin,
beef feedlot specialist with the
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,
Food and Rural Affairs told 100
farmers attending Beef Symposium
2005 in Brussels, Thursday.
From the border reopening until
mid-November about 25,000 head
of finished cattle went to the U.S.
from Ontario and Quebec. That
number Is down from nearly
100,000 head in the same period in
2001 and 2002.
“Probably we’ve lost some
producers,” said Martin by way of
explaining the reduced exports. As
well, production capacity for
Canadian packing plants has
increased a lot since the border
closed in May 2003.
But over that period the Canadian
dollar increased from 70 cents U.S.
to the mid-80s, he said, making it
less attractive to export cattle.
Martin also produced tables that
showed the increase in the dollar
made it hard to produce beef
profitably. Fluctuations in the dollar
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decorated farm machinery moved down Sawmill Road for
what has become an annual tradition. There were about 16
vehicles in the parade. (Vicky Bremner photo)
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SNOW BY-LAWS
NO OVERNIGHT PARKING PERMITTED ON
ANY MUNICIPAL STREETS OR ROADS.
Every person who is the owner or occupant of a commercial
or business building located in the area designated as
Commercial shall clear away and remove any snow and ice
from the roof of such buildings and shall also clear away
and remove the snow and ice from the sidewalks in front of,
alongside, or at the rear of such building.
DEPOSITING OF SNOW ON
STREET ALLOWANCES
No person shall deposit any snow or ice upon any portion of
any highway, street or bridge located within the limits of the
Municipality of Central Huron.
No person shall move snow within the street allowance from
one side of the cleared portion of the street allowance
intended for vehicular and pedestrian traffic to the other
side of the street allowance.
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