Manitoba and Saskatchewan would like to stop the exodus of their cattle, mainly to Alberta and the United States, but without major feedlots and packing facilities, it’s hard to slow the migration.
Heartland Livestock plans to build six feedlots of around 10,000 head each in the two provinces, but there will still be a lot of calves leaving every year.
Alvin Downie, who feeds cattle at Perdue, Sask., has mixed feelings about expanded feedlot space in Saskatchewan. Feeder calves and barley should be cheaper for such ventures because freight rates are lower.
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However, “I’m concerned about where the calves will come from.” He also wonders how the lots will be staffed since farm laborers are in short supply.
“We can’t get enough staff who are capable,” he said.
Corporate ownership of a feedlot also leaves him with questions. While corporations have the financing, they take away from the independent operator.
“If that is what it takes to get things going maybe that is the way to go,” he said.
Figures from the Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association indicate about 250 lots in the province are feeding 400,000 head. About one third of them are custom lots. The rest are smaller home-based lots.
Western Canada Beef Packers in Moose Jaw, Sask., slaughters about 40 percent of the province’s cattle. Another 35 percent is sold into the United States and 15 percent go to Alberta packers.
The latest figures show that in 1996, 896,820 feeders were marketed. Of that number, 553,730 were exported, with 370,000 shipped to Alberta.
“Five semis of barley followed every calf,” said association manager Sharron Johannesen.
In Manitoba, cattle feeding is a shadow of its former self compared to 25 years ago when it was the hub of Canada’s slaughtering industry.
“With things changing, such as the grain transportation policy, economic theory says we should have a competitive advantage,” said Rob McNabb, beef specialist with Manitoba Agriculture.
Yet, the lots stopped filling their pens and one packing house closed after another. Maple Leaf Foods was the final straw when it stopped its cattle line last November.
Last year the provincial kill was 26,000 compared to 581,000 when Manitoba had a Canada Packers, Burns, Swifts and East West Packers in the 1970s.
Canada Packers killed about 40 percent of the cattle at that time, said Janet Honey, of Manitoba Agriculture’s statistics branch. That kill number is likely to drop again in 1998, she said.
The province hasn’t kept statistics on the feedlot industry in six years. There are a number over 1,000 head but almost none with more than 5,000 head.
“They’re competing against Alberta feedlots who are feeding 25,000 head. If they can come in and buy our feeders for more than feedlots here can pay for them, obviously they’re not going to be fed here,” Honey said.
Getting back into the feedlot business would take new managers and lots of money.
“We’ve probably lost most of that expertise,”McNabb said.
Manitoba is experiencing an explosion in the hog industry which is absorbing a lot of barley. Yet, there is plenty of marginal land growing grain that could better support forage crops and pastures for cattle, he said.
“I can’t think of a reason other than the entrepreneurial spirit that is holding back the feedlots,” he said.
