The decision was made following extensive decision and strategic review by the board of ABP.

In a press release, Doug Roxburgh, chair of ABP, said national organizations like the CCA must deliver value to Alberta’s cattle producers.

He said ABP has high standards for fiscal transparency, governance and communications, and they expect the same from the organizations they are involved with.

“The CCA does not meet those standards,” said Roxburgh, who raises cattle near Bentley.

“After seeing no meaningful progress or willingness to change, we’ve made the decision to withdraw our membership,” he said.

Roxburgh said ABP has a duty to Albertan producers to make sure their dollars are invested in organizations that reflect and advance the beef industry’s values.

ABP will continue to be fully committed to representing Alberta’s cattle producers and ensure that their interests are advocated for at the provincial and federal levels.

Brad Dubeau, general manager of ABP, said the organization will continue to deliver strong representation for Alberta’s beef industry.

“In light of the board’s decision, we have mapped a strong path forward to ensure Alberta’s voice continues to be heard — provincially, nationally and internationally,” he said.

ABP will fulfill all its financial obligations to the CCA until the conclusion of the agreement on June 30, 2026.

ABP currently funds over 50 per cent of the CCA budget through the $2 Alberta service charge. ABP’s decision to withdraw from CCA will not affect funding to the Canadian Beef Check-off Agency, or its service providers, which include Canada Beef, Public and Stakeholder Engagement, and the Beef Cattle Research Council.

ABP’s goal is to prioritize the long-term strength and viability of its provincial operations, a decision that will continue to build a resilient, transparent and producer-driven organization that will meet the evolving nature of Alberta’s cattle industry.

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“Canadian beef has earned a top spot on the world stage because of the commitment to quality and sustainability that our producers hold themselves to,” said agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay in a news release today.

Canada Beef and the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) are receiving up to $5,865,110 and $453,364 respectively for marketing activities such as advertising, trade missions, technical training and educational seminars.

“By continuing to promote Canadian beef in key foreign markets, we can make the sector more competitive, put more money in the pockets of producers and drive demand for our world-class Canadian beef,” MacAulay said.

Expanding and opening new markets requires proactive relationship-building, said Canadian Cattle Association president Nathan Phinney in the release.

“These local, national and international relationships open doors to trade and collaboration and the AgriMarketing program support will help to ensure Canadian beef producers are represented at these global tables.”

“This funding will support initiatives that increase awareness of the value proposition of Canadian beef and veal exports in international markets vital to the success of Canada’s beef industry,” said Eric Bienvenue, president of Canada Beef.

The funding comes via the AgriMarketing Program, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (S-CAP). The initiative is intended to increase and diversify exports to international markets and seize domestic market opportunities.

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The money will be used “to ensure the beef industry has the necessary resources to seize new export opportunities, to remain competitive and continue to be a sustainable driver of economic growth,” said a release from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Some of the money will be used for training and e-learning activities at the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence in Calgary.

“These activities will help industry increase knowledge around the advantages of Canadian beef, enable it to promote the excellence of Canadian beef and help to increase public trust in beef products,” the government release said.

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When scanned with a smartphone, the codes (either the UPC code or a QR code) brings up a “digital profile” that offers recommended cooking methods, recipes and cooking videos, and nutritional/food safety/storage info.

The goal is threefold, says the marketing agency: boost demand for less popular cuts of beef (80 per cent of consumers buy the same few cuts “over and over”), draw in younger shoppers (who typically “have less experience cooking beef”), and boost buyer satisfaction via recipes and cooking instructions.

For more on the initiative, visit canadabeef.ca/stakeholder-gateway.

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The organizations involved in Canada’s National Beef Strategy — the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Canada Beef Breeds Council, Beef Cattle Research Council, Canada Beef, The National Cattle Feeders’ Association, Canadian Meat Council and Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef have announced new 2030 goals.

Goals have been announced on three topics so far — greenhouse gas and carbon sequestration; animal health and welfare and land use and biodiversity — with another four topics to come next year.

Strategy organizations have set a goal to “safeguard the existing 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon stored on lands managed with beef cattle,” on top of sequestering an additional 3.4 million tonnes of carbon every year through grazing management and a focus on soil health.

Those gains would reflect the change if all tame pasture and hay acres sequestered carbon at half of the 70-year historical rate, the team developing the goals have said.

The goals would also see the industry’s greenhouse gas emission intensity drop by 33 per cent.

“We looked at what our long-term performance was in a number of areas and said, ‘What if we just continued to do what we have historically?'” said Brenna Grant, Canfax manager and one of the presenters of the goals at their launch on Wednesday (Sept. 16).

“And then we talked about some major breakthroughs — major breakthroughs in terms of technology and innovation or major breakthroughs in terms of adoption rates for certain practices.”

Those breakthrough scenarios are anticipated to create the desired emissions drop.

On animal health, organizations hope to see a 92 per cent reproductive efficiency across the industry (up from 85 per cent reported in 2018), refocus breeding on traits that support animal health such as calving ease and polled genes, encourage management strategies around things like pain relief, and create a national monitoring system to track practices. Other goals would better outline best antimicrobial practices to, “ensure the effectiveness of existing and future antimicrobials is preserved.

Other goals orient around maintaining the native grassland used for beef production and encouraging ecosystems on grazing land. The 2016 census of agriculture noted a 4.4 per cent decline of tame and native pastures from 2011 to 2016 as more producers opted for annual crops.

“We knew that we needed a market mechanism in order to achieve this,” Grant said. “So yes, focusing on economic viability of producers, but also by supporting programs that incentivize conservation and working with other crop groups across Canada to make sure that this happens.”

Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said the implementation of those goals will depend largely on increasing the efficiency of each operation.

According to documents on the strategy’s website, some of those tools include increased vaccination, the adoption of different pasture management and low-stress handling, increased extension, encouraging feed plans, body condition scoring, and feed testing, pursuing more research on pasture management, and more extension and education, among others.

“They’re ambitious goals,” Laycraft admitted. “But our producer network that we worked with when we set this up really encouraged us to follow ambitious goals. I think Canada will be one of the world leaders and, at the same time, it is our goal to make sure whenever we do this we actually make our industry stronger in the process.”

The organizations expect to launch 2030 goals on water; beef quality and food safety; human health and safety and technology next year.

For more details, keep an eye on upcoming issues of the Manitoba Co-operator.

— Alexis Stockford is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator.

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“Unlike previous disease outbreak issues, COVID-19 has not been about food safety or consumer confidence or issues with food products,” Canada Beef president Michael Young said during a recent online town hall.

“Beef demand at retail is up 50 to 70 per cent. Consumers have aggressively stocked up on groceries for home.”

Ground beef is in especially high demand, and many grocers have limited the number of packages that can be purchased at one time.

“It’s too early to know what the impact of COVID-19 will be on retail food prices,” said Young. “What we do know is that the food supply chain is working very hard to keep shelves full.

“Current prices are a reflection of a supply and demand situation, as consumers have been stocking up on food and supplies. This is expected to be short-term as the supply chain will adjust to meet demand and the case of retail purchases normalizes.”

People are also busy searching for recipes and cooking information — with Canada Beef’s website seeing a surge in visitors.

“Canadabeef.ca has seen an increase of 66 per cent total users in March, while Thinkbeef.ca had a 450 per cent increase in visits from February to March,” said Young.

A fact sheet on what the Canadian meat industry has done to protect against COVID-19 has been widely distributed here and abroad, he added.

Most of Canada’s key export markets have been experiencing similar conditions as here, with strong retail demand.

“Many of the markets are making do with dwindling supplies of imported food products, due to the impact of COVID-19 on labour availability at port facilities and transportation,” said Young.

— Alexis Kienlen reports for Alberta Farmer from Edmonton.

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The two campaigns — called The One & Only Beef, and My Canadian Beef Story — aim to dispel some of the misperceptions about beef.

Both campaigns remind consumers that beef plays an important role at our tables and in our communities. Additionally, they highlight the work of Canadian beef producers who implement the best farming practices to raise food responsibly.

To learn more, visit canadabeef.ca/MyCanadianBeef or thinkbeef.ca/Real.

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ABP and the Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association (ACFA) will be holding a plebiscite from Oct. 19 to Nov. 13 on their joint proposal for a non-refundable $2-per-head checkoff. Each year, Alberta Beef Producers refunds about $2 million — roughly a third of the total collected, with feeders accounting for the lion’s share of refunds.

The two groups conducted lengthy negotiations before reaching an agreement on a plebiscite, which the province had insisted on before considering any changes to the legislation governing checkoffs.

The key to the agreement was creating an industry development fund. The fund will receive 40 cents of the $2 checkoff, which will amount to about $1.4 million annually. That money will be used for technology transfer, market development, education, consumer advocacy, and industry collaboration. Alberta Beef Producers will receive $1.35, “which is approximately the amount we currently retain after refunds are issued,” the group said in a news release. (However, part of that money goes elsewhere — 53 cents to the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and five cents to those who collect and remit the checkoff.)

The remaining amount, 25 cents per head, will go to the feeders’ association (with some of that being passed along to the National Cattle Feeders’ Association). Producers who do not want the 25 cents per head to go to the feeders’ association can have it directed to the development fund.

“I encourage all cattle producers to vote this fall in the plebiscite to decide on funding for the future of your industry,” Ryan Kasko, chair of the feeders’ association, said in the news release.

“ABP and ACFA have committed to working together on trade challenges, farm safety issues, investing in research, and many other important issues facing the cattle industry. Please get out and vote.”

“This is your decision — please make sure you vote in the plebiscite,” added ABP chair Charlie Christie.

ABP is holding producer meetings in all nine of its zones from Oct. 23 to Nov. 7. The dates and locations can be found on the home page of albertabeef.org.

The total checkoff for cattle is $4.50 as there is also a $2.50 non-refundable national levy. That money mainly goes to fund Canada Beef and the Beef Cattle Research Council.

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This increase was supported by provincial beef producers in every zone at the Alberta Beef Producers 2015 fall meetings. The increase to the national checkoff, along with the $2 provincial checkoff, will bring the total levy per head to $4.50. For more information, go to the Canada Beef website.

For information on the national beef strategy, or to learn more about the checkoff increase in Alberta, contact Alberta Beef Producers.

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“The problem for marketing to solve is how to ensure consumer and producer confidence for beef production in Alberta to 2020 and beyond,” said Dubeau, who has been with ABP for six months.

Dubeau, who worked for the Canadian Hereford Association before joining ABP, has partnered with WS, a Calgary-based marketing agency.

The ABP used research from Canada Beef, Alberta Beef Producers and social listening from WS to determine its marketing messages.

Key messages were that beef is perceived as better tasting and more flavourful than other proteins, and that Alberta beef is seen as a quality product. Even though consumers might not trust farming operations, they see producers and ranchers as good, honest, hard-working people. Producers can build a rapport with consumers by sharing values rather than feeding facts.

“Once trust is established, facts are more likely to be accepted. Positive conversations about beef versus defending negative comments has seemed to have a positive impact on sales,” said Dubeau.

Different targets

From the findings, Alberta Beef has determined the primary audience is the “well-intentioned consumer,” who makes up about 40 per cent of the urban population.

“We want this crowd to believe that Alberta beef is the best choice for their family,” said Dubeau.

The secondary audience is the “beef hedonist,” who makes up approximately 25 per cent of the population. This is followed by the “socially conscientious” and “millennials.”

As the campaign progresses, ABP will try to capture the secondary audience. But right now, it’s focusing on the first group. The primary goal is to communicate to consumers that Alberta beef sets the standard.

The new marketing campaign is called “All for the Beef,” and it’s meant to highlight the incredible talent of the Alberta beef industry.

As of 2017, ABP has already signed contracts with the Calgary Stampeders and the Edmonton Eskimos to run video and digital productions at nine home games, and on video TV screens throughout their stadiums.

“Hopefully you’ll get to experience it by going to a game or something,” said Dubeau.

ABP has also signed contracts to appear at the Calgary Stampede. Messages will appear on eight Jumbotrons throughout the park.

“The events that take place in the Agrium, that draw the largest consumer or urban audience, Calgary Stampede has agreed to put us in those venues. So again, we’re going to be hopefully talking to the producer and the consumer at the same time,” said Dubeau.

ABP will also have videos along the cattle trail in Stampede Park, has signed with Edmonton’s Northlands, and will be on the Jumbotrons in the Coliseum throughout CFR as well as the rodeo at K-Days this year.

“We’re going to be in the Northlands Expo Centre on its TV screens. I think there are about 15-20 TV screens through there. And our presence will run on those screens, basically through the middle of July until the end of November. So, any event that is taking place at the Expo Centre at Northlands Park, people will have the opportunity to see some positive messaging about Alberta Beef,” Dubeau said.

Further plans include a campaign landing site that will be linked to the Alberta Beef Producers website. Alberta Beef is also looking into partnerships with the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames, both of which have expressed an interest, as well as teams in the Western Hockey League.

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