Hey you Canadians............

[Anonymous]

You should support R-CULT on "M"COOL.

Label your beef "Source verified product of Canada", age it, explain the lengths Canada has gone to address BSE on the label, and take R-CULT's "PERCEIVED" trade barrier club and hammer them over the head with it.

Make sure you set aside enough cash to advertise your product and to buy adds to offset R-CULT's lies about the safety of your product. Let the consumers know that it's inspected twice.

Also make sure that sales are accountable to show the R-Culters how Canadian product sells as compared to U.S. product.

The only way I would ever support "M"COOL would be from the standpoint of introducing the import blamers to their own ignorance regarding the sales of imported beef vs. generic U.S. commodity beef.

Since these import blamers continually accuse the U.S. packers of trying to hide inferior imported beef under the USDA label, it would be bitter sweet to see R-CULT proved wrong once again.



~SH~

 

[Broke Cowboy]

The vast majority of people do not read the label - just buy the product.

While there is a big discussion on this topic here, Mr. and Mrs. Apartment dweller in the city of your choice simply want to buy that steak or burger at a price that is acceptable to them.

They believe that this product will be safe because it has been allowed to be sold in the store by "whatever agency".

M COOL is low on the priority list for the person who opens his wallet and finds 10 bucks when he needs 20 bucks.

All of the discussion I have seen and read here is from people who:

a. Have a different thought process from those in the city.

b. Do not have to go to the store on a regular basis to buy food.

c. Were taught a very different set of basic values.

Price 2 - 10 pound lots of burger at the store. Put the U.S. flag on one @ 3 dollars to the pound and call the other USDA inspected Brazilian beef @ 2 dollars to the pound.

I know which one will get purchased by the housewife who is running a tight budget.

I suspect others do as well.

I say put a flag on everything - COOL all products. In the end, the consumer will buy the cheapest product on the shelf.

Price drives everything.

B.C.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Every box of beef that leaves Canada has" Product of Canada" stamped on it. What can we do if the Americans are so envious of our GOOD beef that they put their name on it when it gets there.

 

[SASH]

I've always been of the mind that the US COOL law will only help us be more competitive. The costs of COOL will be borne by the producer as they are the only price-taker in the system. We, as Canadian producers, already lose the costs of that COOL labelling when we ship to the US. I say 'go for it'. Any advantage that helps us be more competitive is a good thing.

 

[Sandhusker]

SH, "Label your beef "Source verified product of Canada", age it, explain the lengths Canada has gone to address BSE on the label, and take R-CULT's "PERCEIVED" trade barrier club and hammer them over the head with it. Make sure you set aside enough cash to advertise your product and to buy adds to offset R-CULT's lies about the safety of your product. Let the consumers know that it's inspected twice. '

What? Now you're advocating differentation of product and advertising to promote your product exclusively? :shock: What makes you think that will work for Canadians but not the US? :???: What about all those costs associated with labeling? :???: Why would the Canadians go to all the bother when US consumers are not demanding it? :???:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[BRG]

I never get into these bullsession arguments but I read them everyday. I am not a R'calf or NCBA member. I think both have good and bad points and that both need to work at them if we ever want to get our problems answered.

But I had to say something here and standup for the cattle rancher where ever he lives. SH, when said and I qoute "generic U.S. commodity beef" that really got to me. We sit out here and work our tales off and try to make the best possible product we can, and it is a good one, and people like you label it generic. What would you say if I came into your office and called all your work cheap and told you that you can be replaced very fast and your work doesn't really matter. I don't think that would go over very well. So try not to forget that we are all trying to do the same thing and that is feed Gods people.

I just had to get that off of my chest. Thanks and hopefully I didn't affend anyone.

 

[SASH]

Why would the Canadians go to all the bother when US consumers are not demanding it?

If we're paying the cost to label it anyway. Why not use a label that points out all of these value enhanced features. Makes sense to me.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I never get into these bullsession arguments but I read them everyday. I am not a R'calf or NCBA member. I think both have good and bad points and that both need to work at them if we ever want to get our problems answered.

But I had to say something here and standup for the cattle rancher where ever he lives. SH, when said and I qoute "generic U.S. commodity beef" that really got to me. We sit out here and work our tales off and try to make the best possible product we can, and it is a good one, and people like you label it generic. What would you say if I came into your office and called all your work cheap and told you that you can be replaced very fast and your work doesn't really matter. I don't think that would go over very well. So try not to forget that we are all trying to do the same thing and that is feed Gods people.

I just had to get that off of my chest. Thanks and hopefully I didn't affend anyone.

BRG do you sell your calves at auction or retain ownership. Can you calves be IDed past the auction in a manner other then a brand that might be the same as used in other states. How are you to be paid for a superior prooduct if you sell to a "Generic market"

 

[Border rancher]

Excellent posts (in my lowly opinion). i know I keep harping on people I know in the US say that beef is so expensive they have forsaken beef in favor of mutton. Every country should have their beef labelled as to origin. I think producers in each country should demand that of the countries they export to. If my steer is processed and exported to Brazil, for instance, that meat should say "product of Canada"

 

[mrj]

BRG, when you criticize SH for using the term "generic U.S. commodity beef", that is exactly what COOL would make all beef produced in the USA and labeled as such.

Only a voluntary label stating what it is that makes the product "special" enough to rate having that label raises a beef product above the "average" or "generic U.S. commodity beef" product you seem to resent it being called.

V-COOL identifies the producer and what it is about the product making it special and worth more money to the consumer, and that is not going to happen without producers putting more into their cattle than the average rancher does.

Most ranchers think we produce the best beef, so why, then, is so much of the beef available in US supermarkets labeled as "junk" or "poor quality" by many ranchers (on this site) when no more than 5% of it sold at retail is NOT raised in the USA?

MRJ

 

[BRG]

I know that one of the main reasons why the beef in the grocery store isn't as good as the home raised beef is because the packers do not age the beef like it is suppose to be. When I do buy beef from the store, which is hardly ever because I raised my own, I buy it in a vac pack and age it for a couple weeks, then it is really pretty good.

By saying that, I don't want you to think that I am a packer hater, because I am not. Not always happy with everything they do but they are our biggest customer. At my bull sale, I have to treat all of my customers with respect or they won't be my customer anymore. Same goes here.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

BRG you didn't answer my question above to you. I was just curious on how you could ID your beef from others.

 

[BRG]

We market most of our cattle through our bull and female sales. The remainder is fed out and either sold through the Red Angus grid, or sold in beef bundles and quarters. We try to market as much meat as possible and that is growing every year and hopefully someday all of the animals that are not sold as seedstock will be sold this way. Then all of our customers calves that we buy are fed at Samson-Inc in Nebraska and are sold on the Red Angus grid, unless another grid is better that day. We would like to market some through Meyer Natural Angus in the future.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

We market most of our cattle through our bull and female sales. The remainder is fed out and either sold through the Red Angus grid, or sold in beef bundles and quarters. We try to market as much meat as possible and that is growing every year and hopefully someday all of the animals that are not sold as seedstock will be sold this way. Then all of our customers calves that we buy are fed at Samson-Inc in Nebraska and are sold on the Red Angus grid, unless another grid is better that day. We would like to market some through Meyer Natural Angus in the future.

From what you have told me you don't sell much generic beef. But beef that is sold into a unbranded market can't be IDed from other beef.

 

[Anonymous]

Broke Cowboy, you are correct on consumer purchases.

My only point was that the only good that would come out of Country of Origin labeling on commodity beef would be to prove to the import blamers the exact points you make and the fact that Canadian beef would not be a consumer deterrant as they believe.

The R-CULTers need to be introduced to their ignorance at every opportunity.

Good post!

Sand: "What? Now you're advocating differentation of product and advertising to promote your product exclusively?"

No, I am advocating differentiation of Canadian product for the benefit of the Canadians due to it's rarity in the U.S. meat counter only to prove to guys like you that "M"COOL will not make consumers prefer U.S. commodity beef over Canadian beef and that our Hispanic population will not shy from Mexican beef.

That's a lesson in reality that you need to learn.

I have always been an advocate of product differentiation through source verified branded beef programs not a worthless government mandate that differentiaties foreign beef from U.S. commodity beef.

The only thing to be gained from Country of Origin Labeling on commodity U.S. beef is to prove to the R-CULT crowd that they don't have a clue about beef marketing.

Sand: "What makes you think that will work for Canadians but not the US?"

1. Differentiation of Canadian product will be paid for by the U.S. producer to the advantage of the Canadian producer.

2. Again, Canadian beef, due to it's smaller percentage at the meat case, would have a slight advantage over "born, raised, and processed in the U.S. commodity beef" from a novelty status.

Other than that, the only thing that would be gained would be to prove to the R-CULTers like you that you don't have a clue about consumer purchase preferences.

Sand: "What about all those costs associated with labeling?"

They will be paid for by the U.S. producer to diffentiate Canadian product to the advantage of Canadian beef. A rude introduction to your own ignorance on consumer purchases.

Sand: "Why would the Canadians go to all the bother when US consumers are not demanding it?"

To offset R-CULT's lies about the safety of Canadian beef.

BRG: "But I had to say something here and standup for the cattle rancher where ever he lives. SH, when said and I qoute "generic U.S. commodity beef" that really got to me. We sit out here and work our tales off and try to make the best possible product we can, and it is a good one, and people like you label it generic."

Unless your cattle are channeled into a branded beef program, "generic U.S. commodity beef" is exactly what you will be selling. Unless you are selling to a branded beef product, your cattle end up on a white styrofoam plate wrapped in plastic at Walmart right next to a package of Louisiana swamp cattle. That's the harsh reality of the commodity beef business. The marketing of your beef is out of your hands.

That's precisely why I am an advocate of branded beef programs and producer ventures such as USPB where producers own their product from pasture to plate.

BRG: "We would like to market some through Meyer Natural Angus in the future. "

Great!

That would diffentiate your product from generic U.S. commodity beef.


Unless your product is packaged and labeled different, there is no difference.



~SH~