CALMAR, Alta. – Farmers in the audience were practically drooling as they listened to a Quebec farmer tell how producers bought that province’s largest packing plant and set a floor price for cull cows.
“It makes me green with envy,” said Bill Bocock of St. Albert, Alta., who added the story of cattle producers joining together to take control of the industry was inspiring.
“It’s very encouraging that you don’t have to be whipping boys,” said Bocock.
More than 100 people sat in the Calmar Curling Rink and listened to Ivan Hale of the L’Union des Producteurs Agricoles, a Quebec farm group, tell the story of how Quebec farmers took control of their meat packing industry.
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Hale said buying the Colbex-Levinoff packing plant didn’t happen overnight. Before producers approached the packing plant owners, they consulted with other farmers about the best way to regain control of their industry, after BSE made their cattle almost worthless.
About 40,000 of Quebec’s 44,000 farmers are members of the UPA.
In 2003, through the UPA, there was a province-wide consultation, including a discussion of a special $20 per head checkoff to raise money to buy or build a packing plant. The $20 a head would raise about $6 million, and give the group leverage at the bank. About 95 percent of the farmers agreed.
At first, negotiations to buy the packing plant were slow.
Talks with the Colbex-Levinoff families continued for 18 months with no results. A mediation and arbitration process also brought no results.
Hale said the producer group then began work on building their own plant and called for tenders for a 2,000 head a week operation. The Colbex-Levinoff plant can kill 5,000 head a week. Quebec has 2,000 head a week of slaughter cattle.
At the same time, negotiations began with the Quebec government to establish a floor price for cull cattle. About 80 percent of the cull cattle in Quebec are dairy animals.
Using the UPA’s communication network, farmers launched an awareness campaign of their situation, which explained the need for producers to gain control of the meat processing industry.
All of the tactics were designed to peak during the annual UPA convention where the minister of agriculture always speaks.
“It was a heck of an exciting time,” said Hale. “We felt like we were making history.”
During the next step of the campaign, farmers chartered buses and blockaded the Colbex-
Levinoff slaughterhouse for three days in
November.
That blockade seemed to be the turning point. The government agreed to a 42 cents a pound floor price for good quality cull cows and the Colbex-Levinoff owners agreed to sell the farmers 80 percent share of their plant.
While much of the deal is confidential, farmers will own 80 percent of the plant and after five years the deal can be renewed. The farmers’ ownership takes place Jan. 1, 2006.
Hale said it was important to keep the existing management in place to run the operation.
Under the floor price agreement, the lowest price for good quality cull cows is set at 26 cents a pound and the government tops up the price with an additional 16 cents a lb. until the $18 million government fund is used up.
Hale said during the purchase and floor price agreement it was key to have farmers unified on the issue.
“We see value in working collectively,” he said, adding no one questioned the management
capabilities of the UPA.
They even adopted their own motto, based on the popular television program Red Green. “I am a farmer. I can change. If I have to, I guess.”
