LEDUC, Alta. – In fashion, green is the new black.
In livestock, “Baa is the New Moo.”
The Alberta Lamb Producers is using the new logo as part of a campaign to let other livestock producers know the sheep business is booming.
“We have demand and we need more people,” said executive director Margaret Cook.
“Sheep producers need to be proud of their market.”
Alberta’s 1,800 sheep producers can’t keep up with the demand for fresh, local product. Alberta producers supply less than half of the domestic demand; the rest is imported from countries such as New Zealand.
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“We could double our production overnight and still have more demand,” Cook said during the launch of the new lamb marketing campaign at the Alberta Sheep Symposium.
Jannette Anderson with Prairie Sun Creations, the marketing company that developed the campaign, said the goal is three fold: attract new producers; encourage existing producers to expand and encourage other livestock producers to diversify their operations to include sheep.
“We want to acknowledge and celebrate that lamb producers are leading the way in profitability and in using technology,” Anderson said.
“We wanted to reinforce that sense of pride.”
Part of the campaign is a video with sheep producers talking candidly about their industry on their farms.
“We wanted to give a sense of their passion for the industry,” said Anderson, who hopes to make the video available to government and other producer groups.
“The ad campaign features real producers doing real work in the real world.”
The unscripted video was also a matter of money.
The Alberta Lamb Producers operates on less than $200,000 a year and couldn’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on flashy videos.
“There was no scripting. We phoned them one day and the next day we were out videoing,” said Anderson, who hopes having producers talk about successful operations will attract other producers.
Cook said she receives calls from cattle and hog producers who want to diversify into sheep.
Until recently, marketing work focused on encouraging consumers to eat more lamb. With demand outstripping supply, the focus is now on increasing supply.
“Now we have too much demand. We want to focus on production, attracting producers and increasing production.”
Cook also hopes the new marketing campaign will raise awareness of what the organization does for producers.
With a new refundable checkoff, Cook said the group wants to encourage producers to continue providing their checkoff to the group..
