Inking “Real World” for this late fall issue, I find that those of us who live in the real-world producing food for the nation can be frustrated by our political leaders. This past election proved nothing except that the Western Canadian provinces have little to no clout in national economy decisions. As we try to put covid behind us, climate and environment has hit center stage. As leaders from around the world gather in Glasgow to make plans of how to change the environment and who’s to blame, they are promising huge amounts of funding… funding that they do not have thanks to the pandemic. Consider alone that these officials did not carpool… each seemed to have their own luxury equipped aircraft and entourage support staff… now that’s leading by example! But here in our real world, the market is steady as this hardy group of producers have adapted their programs to move forward after a hot summer with little rainfall. Canadians are sourcing and consuming more Canadian beef. The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef reported that certified sustainable beef had an increase of 17% over the previous year. The rapidly increasing demand by Mrs. Consumer to know where and how her food is produced and sourced, is more and more common place each year. No doubt, the pandemic has driven most families to “at home dining” and that leads to exploring different types of meat for protein. The over-the-counter price of beef has skyrocketed while farm gate prices remain the same but that’s a topic for a later date. The consumer requires taste and tenderness which goes hand in hand with carcass quality. As beef producers we have little to no control of what happens to our stockers when they leave the farm gate and go to feedlots and processors. But farmers and
ranchers do have control and influence on the type and kind of livestock we raise. In the years to follow, carcass values will be a huge marketing factor. Over the past few decades, beef breed associations along with government and university support have designed expected progeny differences (EPD’S) which estimates an animals genetic merit as a parent. To most breeders, EPD’s are not new and today many commercial producers use them as a sire selection tool. In the early stages of the development of EPD’s, calving ease, birth weight, weaning and yearling weight, milk and total maternal were looked at… as British breeds slanted to maternal traits while exotic breeds looked more at performance. Carcass EPD’s have rapidly moved to the forefront in the past decade or so with the American Angus Association and their CAB program the leaders. Here in Canada, carcass values in EPD’s do not have the accuracy merely because of numbers as to those of our friends in the south but this will rapidly change. Simply put, we as producers will have to increase rib-eye and marbling in our product using a bull and a cow, if we want to retain Mrs. Consumer’s loyalty to the product we produce. Hopefully this long warm fall has helped everyone get ready for the climate change coming in the next four months. Now is a great time to evaluate your cow herd, bull battery and program especially if you have marketed your calves. The hot, dry summer has helped shrink our national cow herd numbers even more and replacement females will become dearer in the years to follow as we will have to restock inventories. Your cow herd evaluation should lead to tax planning… we all know how much we would like to send to Ottawa.
Today’s Angus Advantag e 19
TAA_LF_insides21.indd 19
2021-11-16 10:05:34 AM
