RIMBEY, Alta. – Whole herd management has paid off for a family that raises Simmentals and were involved in shipping beef to Japan this spring.
Buyers from Rancher’s Beef approached Lee and Tina Robson of Rimbey because their 400 head feedlot had a reputation for providing high grading, age-verified cattle.
They supplied 150 head of Simmental sired calves between 12 and 15 months of age. The calves graded AAA or AA.
Lee Robson said the calves could have been on feed a bit longer but he was pleased with the experience and wants to do it again. The success of this deal dismissed the notion the Japanese only want black cattle.
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“Breed is not the issue with the Japanese people. It is the amount of fat in the muscle,” he said.
The Japanese buyer saw the live calves and watched the processing and inspection to make sure they were getting what they ordered. Every tag was checked to ensure the beef was derived from cattle younger than 20 months, a key requirement when doing business with Japan.
“I never slept the night before when our calves went down to be killed,” said Tina. “If there was a mistake it would be my fault and I would screw up the whole deal.”
Complete traceback clinched the deal.
For those reluctant to tag and age verify cattle, Lee has some advice.
“Eventually it is going to be compulsory,” he said.
“It is whatever the consumer wants and if you don’t want to do it, you better get out of the business because that’s the way life is nowadays. Supplying what people want is the key.”
Robson liked dealing with Rancher’s Beef because it is a smaller, Canadian producer-owned company willing to pay a premium for select groups of cattle.
“They’re small like me so maybe two small people can work together,” he said.
The Robsons have raised purebred and fullblood Simmentals since 1990. Lee’s father imported cattle from Switzerland in the early 1970s.
The entire operation works on tight management, precise records and long range planning.
“I am very fussy. Records are very important to me,” he said.
Tina handles all breeding, health and cost of production records.
“We need to know exactly how much money we make on our cows,” he said.
Calves from their own herd and from their bull customers go into their feedlot so they can monitor sire performance.
“That tells us if we are raising the right type of stock for what the packers want,” he said.
“When I go to town and buy calves I know where each calf has come from. I know the people we buy calves from, if they have been implanted or not implanted, what drugs they have been given, which the big feedlots can’t do.”
He does not uses hormone implants and believes that is one of the reasons his cattle marble well.
They regularly compare their grading slips against the Canfax weekly reports ,which shows about 40 percent of cattle grade AAA while more than 80 percent of the Robsons’ cattle reach that grade.
Calves are born in January and February, weaned at the end of August and go on feed in September. They are ready for market in May.
The Robsons grow their own feed on 900 acres and practise intensive grazing. West central Alberta is an area of tall, fast growing grass so pastures have been cut into 10-acre paddocks so the cows can graze intensively and keep the forage under control.
This summer Canada hosts the world Simmental congress and they plan to have cattle on display when international visitors travel through Alberta.
They are pleased with the progress of Canadian Simmentals because the cattle have changed considerably from what was originally imported from Switzerland.
“We downsized the cow and made them more moderate framed and they look like beef cattle. When they first came to Canada in the ’70s they were dual purpose for dairy and milk,” Lee said.
