Canadians Infighting Over Slaughter Plant

[Anonymous]

If you wait 2 or 3 years Tyson or Cargil will own it anyway--they should be willing to give a dime on a dollar for all investments :wink: ..............
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Opposition slams cattle plant delay


Broadcast News


Thursday, June 23, 2005

WINNIPEG - Manitoba cattle ranchers will be deciding whether or not to pull out their investment in a new slaughter plant because of a snag in purchasing equipment.
The fledgling Rancher's Choice Beef Co-op was found in breach of licensing rules after buying equipment for the plant without having enough money actually in its bank account.

The glitch forced the co-op to restructure its board of directors this spring.

That gives investors the legal opportunity to remove their money and commitment to the project.

Tory agriculture critic Ralph Eichler said Wednesday he's concerned this will delay the opening of the plant in Dauphin until next spring at the earliest.

But Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk said it's just a procedural hiccup that won't harm or delay the project.

 

[don]

ot: If you wait 2 or 3 years Tyson or Cargil will own it anyway--they should be willing to give a dime on a dollar for all investments

you're a hoot oldtimer! you blame canadians for captive supply, call us packer lovers and then hope we fail if we challenge the packer power in the markets. tell us all one thing you have done to take back some of the value in your cattle from the packers. i think you and haymaker are just a couple of bitchy old women.

 

[HAY MAKER]

ot: If you wait 2 or 3 years Tyson or Cargil will own it anyway--they should be willing to give a dime on a dollar for all investments

you're a hoot oldtimer! you blame canadians for captive supply, call us packer lovers and then hope we fail if we challenge the packer power in the markets. tell us all one thing you have done to take back some of the value in your cattle from the packers. i think you and haymaker are just a couple of bitchy old women.

Gettin kinda kranky in your old age Don,none of us wish any thing bad on the canadian cattle man,when are you gonna get that through your canuckle head?...............good luck PS the way you been griping sounds more like an ole woman to me.I almost for got don,support R calf thats what we do to take back value from packers and thats why IM disappointed in you for supporting packers and captive supply.

 

[Anonymous]

ot: If you wait 2 or 3 years Tyson or Cargil will own it anyway--they should be willing to give a dime on a dollar for all investments

you're a hoot oldtimer! you blame canadians for captive supply, call us packer lovers and then hope we fail if we challenge the packer power in the markets. tell us all one thing you have done to take back some of the value in your cattle from the packers. i think you and haymaker are just a couple of bitchy old women.

don- You are wrong- I don't hope you fail- but also don't think you can succeed....And at one time I did own shares in a co-op regional slaughter house that in the long run could not compete--mainly because of distance from consumer markets and transportation costs, a limited supply of cattle that dryed up after a few years of feedlot closings that came after a couple years of bad weather conditions (drought and shortage of feed, and severe winters and blizzards causing large death losses) and low beef prices.... I've also seen many fairly big outfits with big money backers down here go under not being able to compete with the Bigboys- didn't have the money to stand up to them over the longhaul- saw one neighbor lose a couple million $.....

I'd love to see all the cattle in Canada stay there and be slaughtered- and if M-COOL was a law I'd be fighting to have the border open....But I also think many up there are dreaming if they think they can compete with Cargil and Tyson and crew---I just hope too many don't get sucked in above their head and then end up with nothing...The investments I and Dad made (a couple thousand between us- which was quite an amount in the 60's) gave us a few years of a good market for our feedlot cattle, but ended up not even paying back the proverbial dime...

Isn't even a slaughter house operating in Montana now-- few feedlots and the local ones ( a couple that feed out 10,000) don't finish- have lots closer to the packing plants and markets that finish them out....

 

[don]

ot, i know there will be no successes if nobody tries. i agree wholeheartedly with you that it will be very, very difficult. a lot of startups will fail and i think that is a big reason why some of these new plants are having trouble getting support. we know better than you the domination that cargill and tyson have up here (and canadian owned nilsson bros. is a tyson wannabe). as a grain farmer i watched the grain industry taken over by some of these same players. cattlemen do have to be proactive (like the pfizer situation on this board) and not let these guys get away with the crap. to label canadian cattlemen as packer lovers is really hitting below the belt; there are a lot more americans than canadians who believe the big guys are there to help the producer. you might feel taken advantage of but we've been raped. the biggest canadian support for the packers comes from groups or people that can be politically influenced.

 

[Kato]

We're investors, and our money is NOT coming out.

This is a cull cow plant. We don't anticipate much of a market for cull cows for a number of years. The investment in this plant is spread over a huge number of producers, none of whom have put big money into it. This kind of investor is not going to get nervous and run, because quite frankly what they have invested will not make or break them.

Also, you underestimate our 'socialist' leanings up here! :wink:

Manitoba and Saskatchewan is the land of the co-op. People here are no strangers to this form of business. Unlike the every man for himself philosophy popular in your country, (and Alberta for that matter), us poorer prairie folk have long ago discovered the advantages to working together to get things done. Americans and a lot of Albertans use the word socialist in an insulting way, but I'm not sure you really understand the reason this way of doing business came about on the Canadian prairies and is so popular here. Co-ops developed here as a result of the poverty and hard times of the depression, as a way for the little guy to survive. They have worked.

This packing plant will be the sixth co-op we have joined, and if it is half as successful as the other ones were, we'll be happy.

Call me a socialist if you like, but I'd much rather work with my neighbour than wait till one of us goes broke so the other can buy him out and kick him off the land. 8)

 

[frenchie]

I'd love to see all the cattle in Canada stay there and be slaughtered- and if M-COOL was a law I'd be fighting to have the border open

Right :roll: