Canada’s national beef strategy includes numerous statistics that support goals for the cattle and beef industry:

A new national beef strategy hopes to increase beef demand by 15 percent, increase productivity by 15 percent and reduce costs by seven percent by 2020.
The plan, released Jan. 7, was devised with input from national and provincial cattle and beef organizations.
It was more than a year in the making and designed to capitalize on what industry players say is “unprecedented opportunity” to increase demand for Canadian beef.
Trevor Atchison, co-chair of the beef strategic planning group, said a growing global demand for protein presents possibilities for higher production and exports, but the national herd is at its smallest in decades.
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“We’re going to need more product to maintain the markets that we have,” he said.
“It’s at the point where we need to hopefully get people to buy back in, or stay in or come back to the cattle industry to build the numbers back up in the system to allow us to have the numbers of cattle to supply the market.”
The overall mission is to position the industry “to be the most trusted and competitive high quality beef cattle producer in the world, recognized for our superior quality, safety, value, innovation and sustainable production methods.”
Co-chair Martin Unrau said in a news release that the strategy is intended to address chronic issues such as infrastructure and capacity in a more holistic way.
Atchison said in an interview that the methods to achieve that remain to be identified, but the goals will provide the direction.
The strategy examined producer investment but didn’t recommend increasing the per head checkoff to fund industry goals.
“It is recognized by all the stakeholders that it’s going to take funds to accomplish this,” said Atchison, but future meetings will determine whether check-off fees, funding redirection or government programs, for example, can be tapped to meet the goals.
“There hasn’t been an increase in the national checkoff since its inception. Now, with the increase in cattle prices, there’s more of an appetite to look at it.”
The document states that cattle marketings are the smallest since the early 1990s. A national checkoff of about $19 million, or $2.50 per head, will be needed to meet strategy goals.
The national checkoff of $1 has been in place since 1999.
“If the NCO (national checkoff) was adjusted for inflation, such that in 2014 we had equivalent purchasing power to what we had when the $1 was implemented, the current NCO would be $1.30 per head in 2014,” said the strategy document.
The strategy said reducing trade barriers, including those imposed by other countries after BSE, would increase carcass cut-out value by 15 percent.
It also wants to enhance consumer confidence in beef, promote its health benefits and publicize the sustainability of the industry.
Under the goal of competitiveness, the strategy calls for a seven percent reduction in cost disadvantages compared to Canada’s main competitors.
It said this will require regulatory co-operation with trading partners, national traceability, better access to skilled labour, competitively priced inputs and enhanced research capacity.
Target increases in productivity will require a focus on genetic selection, research and enhanced information flow, including BIXS 2.0 as the common database.
Connectivity will require attention to industry communication, both internally and with government, industry and global partners.
This goal incorporates some of the information compiled by the Strawman group, an initiative launched by industry players to identify and provide solutions to problems in the cattle industry.
He said the next steps in implementing the strategy include a face-to-face meeting of stakeholders later this month.
For more information, visit beefstrategy.com.
barb.glen@producer.com
- Canada is 11th on a list of the top beef producing nations at 1.8 percent of the global total. The United States is No. 1 with 18.7 percent, followed by Brazil at 16.6 percent.
- Every day that the grazing season is extended saves the cow-calf sector $3.6 million.
- A 30 percent increase in forage production reduces cow-calf operations’ cost of production by 15 percent.
- A two percent increase in reproduction efficiency lowers production costs by $16.50 per calf.
- Cattle industry investment relative to revenue is less than that invested by the dairy, chicken and turkey industries.
- Beef demand: Increase carcass cutout value by 15 percent.
- Competitiveness: Reduce cost disadvantages compared to main competitors by seven percent.
- Productivity: Increase production efficiency by 15 percent.
- Connectivity: Enhance synergies within industry and connect positively with consumers, the public, government and partner industries.
