A gigantic beef sale that sold 80,000 pounds of beef in two days at the Northlands Farm and Ranch Show in Edmonton last week may have been the turning point for cattle producers and consumers.
For many cattle producers watching the sale, it was a realization they could sell their meat directly to consumers. Consumers learned they could buy quality beef from some place other than the grocery store.
“I think it was a very good learning weekend,” said Grant Hirsche of High River, Alta., who organized the Great Canadian Truckload of Beef Sale in Edmonton.
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“I felt it would help all farmers get the recognition and show consumers we can do it directly and we can do it safely.”
In the end, Hirsche sold the equivalent of 130 animals to consumers who stood in line for up to four hours waiting to buy beef directly from the farmer.
Hirsche thought the average sale of beef would be about $30. Instead people spent about $300 per order, and some as much as $1,500 on the more than 40 cuts of meat offered for sale.
It all started last summer when Hirsche, a purebred Hereford and Angus producer, was receiving five to 10 cents a lb. for his cull cows. Knowing he couldn’t afford to continue selling animals at that price, he went to Ranchland Ford in High River and asked to sell meat from the back of a refrigerated truck on its car sales lot.
Consumer demand
He wasn’t there three days before he realized there was a demand for more than just hamburger. He started to slaughter some of his younger animals for high-end cuts and also bought bulls from his purebred customers to turn into smokies, jerky and bologna.
Hirsche plans to open a store in Okotoks this summer and has already started plans for a similar truckload sale in Lethbridge in April.
“I don’t think it will ever go back and I don’t think it should go back. We need to buy back a bit of our industry and have a little more control over our product.”
