Alberta beef producers waiting for foreign governments to reopen the border to their product want to build their own packing plants to find markets for their cattle.
Across the province, farmers are gathering in coffee shops and community halls listening to proposals to build a series of small packing plants as a way of saving their industry.
Stan Schellenberger, a farmer and promoter of the idea, said he expects 700 people at the first formal meeting of the Ranchers Own Meat Processors to establish a new generation co-op packing plant outside Edmonton. Half the producers at the first four informal meetings have given a written commitment they will buy shares in the packing plant when the memorandum of offering is presented in six weeks.
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“They’ve got to try and change to something positive so there’s some reason to hang on,” said Schellenberger during a meeting in Camrose where more than 75 producers listened to two packing plant proposals.
The Ranchers Own group wants to sell 3,000 to 4,000 shares at $5,000 each to raise $20 million to build a federally inspected packing plant that will kill 500 to 600 head a day.
Officials at Beaver County have dusted off a 15-year-old packing plant proposal and also want to build a new generation co-op plant to help producers get rid of the beef excess and develop jobs in rural areas.
“We all realize to do nothing is not an option,” said Vern Hafso with Beaver County.
Another group of farmers called the Rangeland Beef Processors hopes to have the Blue Mountain Packers plant in Salmon Arm, B.C., operating by May to slaughter bulls and large-frame cows. They are asking farmers to buy a $5,000 share that would allow them to send 25 animals to the plant to be processed.
The MGI meat processing plant in Kitchener, Ont., is expected to open again this spring and Sunterra Foods has announced it plans to build a processing plant near Calgary.
Byron and Vicki Hart drove more than two hours from Vermilion, Alta., to Camrose to listen to the packing plant proposals.
The discovery of BSE in Canada was a wake-up call to producers that they could no longer dump their calves at the auction market each fall and let someone else worry about the next step in the process. Producers need to take an interest in the animal from the farm to the grocery shelf, said Byron.
Not having ownership in a packing plant is like General Motors building half a car and giving it to another company to finish, he said.
“We should be investing money in the processing end. It’s just having to decide what plant.”
Orvin Boettger of Kingman said he’s willing to put money into a processing plant, especially one that will slaughter cull cows. While the American border is open to boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months, few producers believe the border will ever be open to older animals.
“I think it’s a good idea, especially for the need right now. Right now we have a product we can’t market,” said Boettger, referring to meat from the growing number of older cows.
Building a packing plant can assure the short-term future of the industry, said Lowell Hostetler, a Tofield, Alta., farmer who said he’d be interested in investing.
The overwhelming interest in building packing plants is an indication of how serious the problem is in rural Alberta, said Hafso. A packing plant is something producers can see and they don’t need to wait for science or government officials.
The common denominator in most of the proposals is a plan to produce a product for a niche market and not be in direct competition with the Cargill and Tyson meat plants in southern Alberta that kill the majority of beef animals in Canada.
The proposals involve plants that produce beef that’s hormone free, antibiotic free and tested for BSE.
“We want to tap into niche markets,” said Schellenberger.
Not competing directly against the large packers is key to survival if and when the border reopens, said Rod Hunter, who used to work for Dominion Hides and has been asked to advise some of the groups on what’s needed to make a successful venture.
“You can’t go up against the boys down south. Those guys are so big,” said Hunter.
