Duncan Porteous says he entered the purebred beef business at the best of times. Now, he is leaving the industry he loves at the worst of times.
The longtime general manager of the Canadian Hereford Association retired on July 31.
During his career, he has seen million dollar deals sealed with a handshake and watched helplessly as friends struggled with the financial ruin from BSE. But the lures of visiting grandchildren scattered from Regina to New Zealand, and taking it easy back on the farm, made the decision to leave relatively easy.
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Porteous has multi-generational connections to agriculture and the cattle industry. His father was a prominent Hereford breeder who strived to improve a herd established by Porteous’s great-grandfather in 1912. Born in Regina in 1942, his family moved to Dog Pound northwest of Calgary in 1946 where he grew up. Like many prairie villages, Dog Pound is little more than a spot known by locals and is scheduled to become another “rurban” housing development.
As a boy he was an active 4-Her. His grand champion steer at Calgary sold for $1.10 per pound. As general manager of the Hereford association he did not own cattle, perceiving it as a conflict of interest.
When it came time to leave home, Porteous knew he did not want to be a cowboy.
“I didn’t like calving cows, actually,” he said. “I enjoyed working with cattle and machinery, but farming didn’t seem to be in the cards.”
He attended high school in Red Deer and graduated from Olds College in 1962 with no particular career plans. He was assistant secretary for the association in 1964, working on promotion and maintaining breed integrity. He later worked for an insurance company. Porteous joined the association as manager in 1975, starting off as a host for the world Hereford conference held in Banff. He was later named secretary of the World Hereford Association, which represents 20 Hereford societies around the world. He finishes that job at the end of 2004.
The years taught him this is a people business. When he took over as manager, purebred cattle breeders were in a heyday with plenty of money, socializing and friendly competition.
“It was a really exciting time. It was day after day of production sales and every sale was full of people. People were doing business and making money.”
The changing rural sociology has dampened some of that enthusiasm. There are fewer farmers with less hired help. Producers are making less money, forcing many to work off the farm to maintain their operations. They are not able to provide as much customer service because they do not have the time.
“It’s a pretty serious situation for primary agriculture production,” Porteous said.
To infuse some new blood into the Hereford organization, a strong junior association for young people under 21 was formed in the mid-1960s. He helped extend the program to the provincial level. It provided a national leadership school, donated Hereford semen and organized Bonanza, a major national cattle show for juniors. Many former members are still farming or involved in agri-business.
Porteous has worked with 29 different association presidents. Each brought strengths to the board table but the growing emphasis has been on forming partnerships with commercial beef producers. The Canadian beef industry has thrived using top quality purebred bulls that carry strong pedigrees and well-selected genetics, he said.
“The Canadian cattle industry has really improved significantly in being able to provide the packer with an animal that fits their needs both in size and quality.
“We’ve got two U.S. packers here for a good reason. We have very good cattle.”
Porteous also believes the consumer will be more important. The next step for the purebred and commercial business is correlating good breeding with carcass data measurements to gauge taste and tenderness of beef.
During his tenure the association moved forward. At one time the Canadian Livestock Records office in Ottawa handled pedigree registration and Agriculture Canada managed record-of-performance programs.
The Hereford association was among the first purebred organizations to assume record keeping in 1980. To build better genetic records, Porteous helped establish the total herd evaluation program in 1981, a forerunner of the complete cow herd reporting systems used by all major breed associations in Canada. In 1989, the association started producing sire summaries with the University of Guelph.
“All we’re trying to do is support cattle breeding and be able to provide producers who want to use the information with additional tools.”
Starting in 1993, a close relationship began with the American Hereford Association to get Canadian expected progeny difference data, or EPDs, recognized by breeders in the United States.
They used the same computer data system to record standardized information on genetic outcomes that would be recognized internationally. It was good business.
“It put us on a level playing field and really helped build a lot of exports to the United States,” he said.
Until recently, Canadians were exporting 2,000-4,000 Hereford cattle per year. Closing borders due to BSE has been a tragedy for seed stock producers of all breeds.
“There are guys who have 60 coming two-year-old bulls still in the pen. What are they going to do? They are worth nothing. It is extremely concerning. Nothing comes close to the impact it has had,” he said.
Porteous hopes some behind-the-scenes persuasion with fellow breeders in the U.S. may have some influence on opening the borders.
The genetics business is an international endeavor and Porteous has had an opportunity to see the world and visit farmers everywhere.
He travelled to six continents and eventually made more than 25 international journeys promoting the breed, with his most recent trip in China to assist with negotiations to import Canadian genetics.
Last year Canadian Western Agribition gave him the Jim Lewthwaite award for his contributions to cattle exports.
