The Rural Voice, 2003-09, Page 18BEHLEN BINS
BEHLEN STEEL STRUCTURES
BERG SUKUP BROCK GSI
PATZ JADVENT
RAD SPI
ALL SIZE BIN
FLOORS
John Baak
Construction Ltd.
R.R. 1 Hanover, ON N4N 388
E-mail: JohnBaakConstruction@sympatico.ca
Phone: 369-5478 Fax: 369-9906
FALL CATTLE SALES
AT KEADY LIVESTOCK
Tuesdays Sept. 9 to Dec. 18 ® 9:00 a.m.
1000 - 1200 local calves and stocker
cattle.
Fridays, Sept. 12 to Oct. 3 @ 9:00 a.m.
1000 - 1500 yearling steers & heifers
selling ONS.
Friday, Oct. 10 @ 9:00 a.m. 800-1000 All
Breeds local calf presort sale.
Friday, Oct. 17 @ 9:00 a.m.
1000 - 1200 Bluewater Black Calf
Producer Club kale (members only).
Black Premium vaccinated presorted
calves.
Friday, Oct. 24 @ 9:00 a.m. 1200 - 1500
Bruce Peninsula Calf Association Sale
(members only). Mainly Charolais -
vaccinated presorted calves.
Friday, Oct. 31 @ 9:00 a.m.
1000 - 1500 vaccinated local calves,
preweaned or right off cow, selling
owner lots - Calves featuring Top
Meadow bloodlines sell first, followed
by 500 Source Qualified (BIO) and
other vaccinated calves.
Wednesday, Nov. 5 @ 7 p.m. 200 - 300
black and bik. & bwf. bred heifer sale.
Friday, Nov. 7 @ 9:00 a.m. 1000 - 1200
Presort calf sale. All breeds, featuring
Charolais.
Friday, Nov. 14 @ 9:00 a.m.
1000 - 1500 Yearling steers and heifers
selling ONS.
Friday, Nov. 21 @ 9:00 a.m.
Catalogued local calf sale.
Vaccinated or unvaccinated calves.
Friday, Nov. 28 @ 5:00 p.m.
Bred cow and heifer sale.
RR 4, Tara, ON NOH 2N0
519-934-2339
14 THE RURAL VOICE
Top Meadow Farms has expanded
greatly in just 10 years with new
buildings and top genetics.
Meats, White House Meats and
Highland Farms) and health food
stores such as Baldwin Naturals as
well as restaurants."
Top Meadow has its own locker
space at the packing plant and its
meat is all kept separate from regular
production. Right now about 15-20
head of cattle are processed through
the program each week.
They also work with a small
Toronto gourmet pasta company,
Geddes says. "We supply PastaCo
and they use all our hamburger in
their lasagna, tortellini and other
frozen pasta dishes."
The branded meat idea came
from Kym and Carole's
experience with friends and
relatives in the Toronto area after
people found out they had a farm in
the country. "They were hounded and
hounded and hounded," Geddes says,
by people who said they were
dissatisfied by the meat they were
getting through city stores. There
were all kinds of issues people had
with the meat industry. There may be
nothing wrong with the traditional
beef production system but Top
Meadow decided they wanted to
make themselves unique by taking a
different path. It's a lesson that has
been reflected throughout the Top
Meadow approach.
"We very quickly realized you
have to be different," Geddes
explains. "You have to create your
own marketing program if you want
to get ahead — hence the out -cross
genetics, hence the Top Meadow
Meat program and some other
projects we're working on.
"We'd rather not focus on
volume," Geddes says. "We're not
interested in marketing three or four
thousand animals a month or every
six months. We'd rather do a smaller
number with higher returns and
higher quality.
"There's opportunity in this
province to offer some uniqueness in
the beef industry. A lot of people
think that you should just tell people
what you're doing is fine and drive
on and not worry about it. Our
thought is to give people what they
want."
"I think in the beef industry in the
next few years you're going to have
to belong to a branded meat program
to get ahead. Our meat program
we're hoping will take on some large
expansion over the next year and a
half.
"We're building our supply chain
— commercial cow -calf producers
— each season and as we continue to
build our supply chain we can take
on new (meat) customers. At Top
Meadow over the next two years
that's going to be the major goal —
increasing the number of cow -calf
operations using our bulls to feed
into the meat program."
"We offer value-added marketing
options for our genetic customers,"
he says. "Those who purchase a bull
don't have to market their calves
with us. It's just an option. Last
year's commercial calf sales received
a healthy premium."
Along the way the farm has grown
dramatically. Ten years ago there
was one old bank barn on the farm.
Today there's a new barn on the
home farm plus an extension to the
original barn and there are eight other
farms with barn facilities on them,
and several others with pasture and
hay, a total of 1,700 acres.
Some of the land is rented from