I would like to respond to a letter in the Open Forum on Sept. 15 (Sask. plant needed). I know I’m a bit late but I’ve been busy. Nonetheless, I think somebody should respond.
To the best of my knowledge, Nilsson Bros. back in 2000 purchased the Moose Jaw plant. I understand it sold fairly cheap, remodeled it and put it back into production. They were new in the business but they seem to learn fast. BSE came along, they bought a lot of cheap cows and hopefully prospered. They didn’t stop there. They bought the Lakeside plant in Brooks, Alta., and increased the production.
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This part is not rocket science. Looking back, we cattle producers can definitely see that we over supplied the beef market. We were supplying more than we were selling, therefore holding the prices down, regardless of the BSE crisis. In other words, our supply and demand was way out of whack.
In the last four or five years I’ve seen good, honest, hard-working cattle people go out of business, retire, give up and go broke. A lot of our coffee shop ranchers, drugstore cowboys, and opportunists have fallen by the wayside. It’s fairly evident that we’ve probably lost between 30 and 40 percent of our production.
Nilsson Bros. kept right on buying, processing and selling a good portion of this overproduction. As a result, they’ve helped bring higher live cattle prices in the last six months of 2010. …
There’s been a lot of work done to improve our marketing of beef by the provincial government, Alberta Beef Producers and other organizations. Some of it was money well spent and some definitely not. Hopefully this will help regulate the supply and demand problem.
I know this letter doesn’t cover all the ins and outs of the beef packing industry but throwing stones at Nilsson Bros. after what they’ve helped accomplish, and it isn’t over, seems rather unfair.
I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Nilsson Bros. would have decided to stay out of the beef packing plant business.…
Don Plante,
High Prairie, Alta.
