EDMONTON – A marketing dispute between one of the nation’s largest beef processors and a 140 member cattle producer marketing organization has ended.
Recently, packer XL Lakeside of Brooks, Alta., informed Northwest Consolidated Beef Producers that it would no longer bid competitively against the other major buyer of fed steers and heifers if the group did not stop marketing its members slaughter cows.
Vern Lonsberry of Northwest told his members that XL intended to start bidding attractively for individual member’s fat cattle in attempts to undermine the producer group’s collective marketing strength and potentially break up the organization unless it ceased representing the group’s cull cows.
The Strathmore, Alta., group is the largest marketer of fat cattle in the province with 150,000 head sold annually. Its members have the capacity to feed 250,000 each year.
Terry Schetzsle of Northwest said the organization’s board was relieved that they and the Nilsson brothers owned company were able to come to a marketing agreement that would include fat cattle and butcher cows.
He said the resolution of the dispute between the packer and the four-year-old collective marketing group shows the strength and role of that an organization like Northwest plays in looking out for producer interests in agricultural markets.
Lonsberry said with only two large buyers of cattle in the region marketing choices are often limited and Northwest allows its members to consolidate their cattle marketing which improves price discovery.
Schetzsle agrees.
“It makes marketing difficult at the best of times,” he said.
