It’s a sales ploy that seems to have worked
After an Alberta farmer advertised in a local newspaper inviting hunters to come and shoot his 17 Holstein steers, buyers came calling to buy the meat legally.
Leduc farmer Ed Wedman placed a newspaper ad that read: Hunters welcome – hunt a beef. No licence required. $500.
He said he was trying to use humour to catch people’s attention so he could sell his animals for beef, not to create an illegal shooting gallery.
“I meant it in humour. None of the cattle have been shot on the place. All are going to abattoirs,” said Wedman, who has a 40-cow dairy, raises 200 head of beef cattle and has 1,800 acres of grain land.
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Wedman said he has never had problems selling beef calves but his 18-month-old Holstein steers are worthless.
He bought the steers as young calves 18 months ago for $100 each.
That was the same month that BSE was detected in a northern Alberta cow.
At the auction market, Wedman was offered 22 to 30 cents a pound for the 1,000 lb. steers, or about $250 each. It was less than the cost of feed for the animals.
“Good calves always sell. I never worry about beef cattle. It’s always the second string calves (where) you take a licking,” he said.
Instead of $250 that he would have received at an auction, people bought all the steers for $500 each for beef in their freezers.
“They’re willing to pay me double and they know where it’s coming from.”
Wedman, the organizer of a cattle drive through downtown Edmonton in October, said city people support Canadian beef producers, but many assume the producer receives the price paid for meat in the grocery store.
The attention created by his ad has been a wake-up call for Canadians who thought producers were through the worst of the crisis, he said.
The day after his ad was reported in the media, Alberta Agriculture officials told Wedman he couldn’t allow the cattle to be shot on his farm because of health and safety regulations.
“They read me the riot act. I can’t do this and can’t do that,” said Wedman. Nor can he offer his animals for slaughter on his farm because he doesn’t have a licence for an abattoir.
“I cannot have a beef killed myself, yet the government will sell you a licence to go out in the bush and hunt down some mangy, scrawny deer, but because you bought the licence from the government, you don’t have to go through any inspection at all.”
Wedman said the attention has taught him that producers should be proactive and try to sell animals directly to the consumer.
“People, don’t be afraid to spend $5, jump in the car, drive out of the city, drive down the road where you see a bunch of cattle and stop in and ask the guy. He’ll probably make a deal.”
