A cull slaughter plant proposed for Manitoba will be vulnerable to a takeover by a large packer without a mandatory, non-refundable beef levy, says Fred Tait, Manitoba regional co-ordinator for the National Farmers Union.
Tait insists that the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association had a role in scuttling efforts to ensure the Ranchers Choice slaughter plant would have solid financial underpinnings.
Among other things, Tait points to the MCPA rejection of three resolutions at its January 2005 annual meeting in Brandon.
Those resolutions, deemed out of order by the association’s executive, sought support for a $2 per head checkoff to help fund the Ranchers Choice project.
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“At that level, at that time, it was deliberate,” said Tait in a recent interview. “I didn’t see a marked change of policy since that time. I thought there was a deliberate effort to stifle producer support and financial support for Ranchers Choice through a producer checkoff.”
He suggested the decision of MCPA directors at that time was influenced by economic considerations, particularly for anyone wanting to sell cattle directly to packers.
“You’re on a custom raising basis largely now for the packers and you don’t want to anger them. I think there were some people there with good intent, but the economic repercussions helped stifle any control from those people.”
The MCPA’s current president, Ken Crockett, said Tait’s allegations are unfounded. He said his association is in favour of slaughter facilities being built in Manitoba, including Ranchers Choice, but it cannot endorse one initiative over another.
“That’s why we could not let those resolutions go forward” at the 2005 annual general meeting,” Crockett said.
One of the resolutions deemed out of order at that meeting called on the MCPA to lobby the provincial government to implement a new $2 per head mandatory, refundable checkoff on all animals going through public auction for three years, or until $2.5 million was raised for Ranchers Choice.
Two resolutions called on the MCPA to support a mandatory, refundable checkoff to help fund Ranchers Choice for up to $2.5 million or three years.
Tait said the MCPA misconstrued the intent of the resolutions.
“They interpreted it that the resolutions were asking the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association to become involved in marketing, and they didn’t ask for that at all.”
Attempts to establish the Ranchers Choice Beef Co-op began three years ago after the value of cull cattle in Canada plummeted in the wake of BSE.
The Manitoba government recently implemented a $2 per head beef levy on cattle marketed in the province to raise money for increased slaughter capacity. However, the province backed away from making the levy mandatory and non-refundable, and instead made it refundable.
It was a significant about-face for the government. Agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk had previously been adamant that the levy would be non-refundable.
Tait said he was among those who met with the minister in the fall of 2003 and urged her to implement a mandatory, non-refundable checkoff in Manitoba to support increased cattle slaughter, but only after holding a producer plebiscite.
He was confident that producers would have endorsed a new checkoff to support Ranchers Choice if a vote had been held at that time.
“Contributions would be recorded as equity in the company and those sorts of things so that the producers had a direct ownership in it. This way we don’t. What we’ve come out with now, we’re just contributors. It’s discouraging. It’s very, very discouraging.”
Tait said the new beef levy does not ensure that Ranchers Choice can fend off large packers capable of outbidding them for cattle and leaving them financially vulnerable to a takeover.
