SALMON ARM, B.C. – Convincing British Columbia beef producers to verify the ages of their cattle might take some salesmanship.
While the provincial government has no plans to follow Alberta’s lead and make the practice mandatory, producers may be forced to record birth dates to retain foreign markets, said B.C. agriculture minister Pat Bell.
“There may come a time when a few producers will hold back the rest of the marketplace,” he said at the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association annual meeting in Salmon Arm May 25.
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He said producers have to look at the long-term picture. The province supports voluntary registrations for now, but may override that policy in future to retain customers who demand full traceability and proof of age.
The government is offering seminars throughout B.C. this spring and summer to help producers work through the program with the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency.
Alberta plans to make age verification mandatory for slaughter cattle next year and, if it does become law, B.C. calves headed east must have birth certificates.
Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president Hugh Lynch-Staunton told the group no official policy has been set on this issue at the national level.
He said he is not convinced the birth data will be made mandatory soon.
“We don’t have the mechanisms to make it mandatory in the foreseeable future even if we wanted to,” he said.
For ranchers, the requirement can mean added costs and more work with no economic benefits.
“There just isn’t any money that is going to come back to the producer from my perspective. I’d like to hear from somebody who is getting a bonus out of Cargill for these age-verified cattle,” said producer Larry Garrett.
Cargill Foods offers an extra $20 per head for birth dates, but feedlots say they can’t pay more for age-verified calves, said Garrett.
Roland Baumann of Vanderhoof, B.C., said there are not enough young cattle available for Japan where the demand is for beef from animals younger than 21 months. He sees a bumpy road ahead for producers still getting used to the transition to electronic identification and birth registration.
“It is the first attempt to make it work but there are some hiccups in the system we have to work out,” said Baumann.
Feedlot operator Bill Freding of Oliver, B.C., supports age verification.
“We should be encouraging the age verification because it will be market driven regardless of what the government does. We, as a feedlot, will not buy non-age-verified,” he said.
Roy Jackson of Kamloops, B.C., said Canada needs accountability to stay in the international market and verifying ages is not a real problem: “We are in the food industry. If we just think we are in the cattle industry, then we better have a second look at it.”
The BCCA suggests government assistance is needed to switch to the electronic tags from bar code identification. The committee proposed a $3 reimbursement per breeding female, provided tag receipts are provided. So far, government has not responded.
