EDMONTON – It’s time for the beef industry to get into the food business, said the executive director of Canadian Beef Improvement in Calgary.
“It’s time to get out of the cattle business,” Ken Aylesworth told a group of beef industry leaders at a beef symposium during the recent Farmfair in Edmonton.
“What will beat us, I’m afraid to say, is we’ll beat ourselves. Chicken and pork are not the enemies,” said Aylesworth.
“Forget about the pettiness. Who cares? We have to be prepared to deal with competition.”
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Everyone along the chain of beef production must be concerned about consumer response if they want people to pick beef over chicken and fish at the grocery store.
Fighting for turf between producers, feedlots, packing plants and suppliers of beef creates an industry that won’t be able to compete in Canada or for new international markets, Aylesworth said.
Ted Haney, executive director of the Canada Beef Export Federation, said its goal is to export 690,000 head of cattle by the year 2000.
Lessons learned by different sectors of the industry working together for export markets must be transferred to domestic markets, he said.
In order to get a share of the international market the Canadian beef industry has modified its cuts of beef to their customer’s standards. They aren’t just selling beef the way Canadians want it.
“We have to take home lessons that we’re learning overseas,” said Haney, of Calgary.
Keith Porter, a Simmental breeder from Keep Hills, west of Edmonton, also stressed a need for a unified industry from the producer to the consumer.
“As an industry the beef chain must not be segregated,” said Porter. “We will not be competitive if we operate as individuals.”
