Mandatory Age Reporting In Canada

[DiamondSCattleCo]

I just got off the phone with the CCA, and apparently there is going to be a vote at their next meeting on whether or not to press for mandatory age reporting.

Currently, the some selfish larger producers and packers have local producer associations buffaloed into believing that leaving things voluntary is the proper step to take right now. As I called my local CCA reps, I was somewhat staggered by their reasons for NOT pressing for mandatory age reporting. In the interests of full disclosure, I'll lay them out for you:

1) Current premiums would disappear. Right now, on age verified cattle, there can be an up to a 5 cent/lb premium through the barn or on direct sale to the feedlot. Unfortunately, this is only a premium that larger producers can get access to. Why is this you ask? Most barns these days, at least in Saskatchewan, are selling pre-sort. This is a proven way to sell, and generally nets the producer more money than 24 hr stand. Anyway, calves/bankgrounders are sold in lots of 10 commonly weighted and framed animals. If a producer sells 50 or so calves, it would be common for them to see 20 or MAX 30 of their calves able to be grouped together. The rest would get slotted into other pens with other producer's animals. So, if you have age verified cattle, you may see the premium on 20 animals, possibly 30, but all of them. The sale barns DO NOT have time to pre-sort age verified cattle as well, but are willing to announce age verified on easily sorted pens, such as all producer owned.

Your next option is to direct contact the feedlots and sell them you age verified cattle. This is certainly an option, however I think it defeats the price discovery mechanism of the sale barn, and ends up lowering prices. I have yet to have a single feedlot make an offer on my calves that matched what I got at the market when I sold the calves.

2) It would be impossible to ensure producer compliance and some producers would report inaccurate or purposely false birth dates. To this I say, huh? Even if a producer doesn't want to age verify, and he reports a birth date thats 1 month off, this hardly defeats the age verification mechanism. Currently, under the voluntary system, there is MORE impetus to cheat the ages because of the short term premium on selling price.

3) Even if you don't get a premium at the barn, the packer does get a premium when he sells the age-verified beef on the export market. This premium eventually makes its way back to the producer. We won't even bother with this one. Even if the packer sends a PORTION of the premium back in the form of increased bids on fats, the producer has had to do ALL the work and effort, only to receive a PORTION of the premium?

Why do I feel that mandatory age reporting is of benefit?

Right now, on the world stage, Canada is being out-marketed by smaller countries who utilize RFID tracking, age verification, even animal information records. These countries are shipping relatively small amounts of inferior product and have not yet truly begun to hurt us.

We're on the verge of some truly massive markets opening up. Lets use China as an example. While they may not be asking for it right now, China will follow Japan's lead and require age verification on beef shipments. This is not something that any sane or reasonable person will debate.

Current estimates at getting an infrastructure set up to handle mandatory age reporting stand at a little over a year. This includes training new staff and setting up computer hardware to handle additional load. If the tagging system roll out is any indication, we're likely going to be closer to two years. This is not an insult to the people who are doing the work, but simply an unfortunate reality when dealing with systems.

As Canadian producers, we need to be concerned about our export markets. 60% of all calves born on Canadian soil end up outside Canada. The American market is no longer safe for us. Even if the border is fully open, we've seen how quickly it can slam shut at the snap of a lawyers fingers.

I think Canadian beef is the best in the world. Its time our marketing caught up to the producers. Please, protect your export markets, call your local reps, whether they be CCA or provincial beef associations and ask them to represent your interests. Ask for mandatory age reporting.

Rod

[Econ101]

Now wait a minute, Rod. Are you going so far as suggesting--no further than that-- saying that cattle producers are being duped into voluntary age verification based on an incentive for that information and then they are not being handed the benefits of it?

That is incredible!!! I thought that all additional profits are automatically handed down to producers by margin operators.

[Big Muddy rancher]

No Econ he is saying he wants every producer to be forced to do with no benefits passed down to the producer.
Rod , Mankota Stockmen's Weigh Company is having a Age Verified Angus calf sale this fall. Maybe you should get a group of producers to work with the auction barn you deal with and put on a age verified sale in your area. Reap the rewards.

[Econ101]

[Mike]

Econ, don't you understand? If it's made mandatory and everyone does it......there won't be premiums anymore. Makes you wonder if the premiums are being paid by the one's who don't comply and given to the ones that do.

That way, the packer is not paying the premiums at all.

[Tam]

[Econ101]

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Actually Econ, its much less political than that, although I certainly don't feel the small producers have been educated to the long-term value of Mandatory Age Reporting and larger producers/packers are able to reap gains of this ignorance.

[Big Muddy rancher]

Rod do you have horns on your cattle? I just got in from dehorning some cattle that my father bought and is now sending them to a feedlot. Some of these cattle had horns and were bought at a discount. The producer could very easily taken these horns off as calves. I know they were from smaller producers. Why couldn't a smaller producer do just as good a job as manageing his cattle as a larger producer. We have had the horn cattle penalty for years. It costs the producer twice . Once for the horn tax and again when the cattle are sorted into the second cut pen. When age verification becomes the norm those that will do it will reap the rewards.
As we move forward with this RFID tag more sale barns will have readers and will be able to pull up that info. The packers and feedlots can't access the owners of those cattle just the birth dates. The privacy of the tags was a main selling point of M'ID.

[DiamondSCattleCo]

BMR, thank you for a civil debate, however horned, dehorned or polled cattle have absolutely no bearing on our ability to export livestock. Its a management issue, plus ALL cattle producers can easily dehorn their livestock, whether they be large or small. Small and average producers do NOT have easy access to the benefits of age verification. I haven't had a chance to complete my poll of all the Saskatchewan sale barns, however there is only 1 who is currently offering a specific age verified sale, 5 who would be willing to do one, as long as a minimum of 2000 animals were guaranteed to be there. All 6 barns are unwilling to sort stock by age verification during standard OR pre-sort sales. By the way, by the time I was done shipping my stock to the single age verified sale I could find, the trucking fees would have killed the premium.

If the cattle associations are unwilling to support the average sized producer with mandatory age verification, then at the very least, the associations should provide the necessary tools and manpower to the auction barns so that ALL PRODUCERS have equal access to age verified premiums.

Just like ALL producers can dehorn their livestock.

And no-one has yet to refute my arguement about us needing Age verification to export to overseas markets. Since the impetus is not there for the MAJORITY of cattle producers to age verify, we still cannot guarantee our access to the overseas markets next year, or the following year. All this risk to our industry to preserve the premium of a few producers who have access to it?

Rod

[Tam]

[DiamondSCattleCo]