At the Beef Farmers of Ontario’s (BFO) annual meeting in Toronto on Feb. 18, Brocklebank told Glacier FarmMedia her focus is on national delivery and stakeholder engagement, noting the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) is at a turning point following Dennis Laycraft’s retirement, after guiding the sector through crises for 30 years.

“With a change in leadership, it’s a good time to have that conversation,” said Brocklebank.

WHY IT MATTERS: Alberta’s July exit from the Canadian Cattle Association over fiscal transparency, governance, and communications issues would remove more than half of the CCA’s funding.

“CCA has a strong national and international voice built on sound principles and producer-led advocacy and policy,” she stated. “Producers who come to these boards really want to make sure the industry moves forward as a whole.”

She believes the Provincial Working Group’s unified approach supports that goal.

Provincial Working Group

The Working Group, a coalition of provincial beef associations, seeks to provide the CCA with insights to align with producers’ evolving needs while upholding national unity.

As a fourth-generation Alberta beef producer whose original farmstead was near the Toronto Airport, Brocklebank says she understands that Canadian beef production is diverse, with distinct challenges in cow-calf operations, backgrounders, feedlots, and processing.

Brocklebank noted that even though the conversations can be difficult, openness to solutions and change fosters collaboration and results.

“We’ve experienced that in the past, with policy discussion, that there isn’t always consensus,” she explained. “Generally, it comes (down to) what’s best for the long term and what’s best for the industry.”

Craig McLaughlin, BFO’s past president, sits on the working group with BFO president Jason Leblond. McLaughlin said Brocklebank’s approach to the Working Group’s concerns regarding fiscal transparency, governance, and communications is positive.

“Andrea’s a breath of fresh air. She’s open to change, and she’s certainly been having dialogue with Alberta beef producers,” he said. “She’s optimistic. The Provincial Working Group is optimistic. When you have people with that kind of mindset, you overcome barriers.”

Despite this optimism, BFO members still voiced concerns about how Alberta’s exit from the national organization could affect their CCA check-off payments.

McLaughlin suggested CCA reserves could ease transition costs, but he remains optimistic that Alberta will stay.

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“We found a very unified group that all have the same interest at heart and that’s to make a strong national committee or revamp to make it a strong one,” said Kevin Boone, British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association general manager at the Dec. 9 meeting in Toronto.

WHY IT MATTERS: Alberta signalled in August its intention to leave the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA), putting the sector’s national representation at risk.

“CCA is a pretty old, established organization, and I think that every now and again, you’ve got to step back and take a look at what you have and how you’re structured,” said Boone.

If the industry and CCA as a whole want to remain at the top of their field, the provincial members need to provide that direction, he added.

“They’re there to steer the ship, but it’s the directors from every province that are there to tell them how much steam to put in it and where and which way to turn.”

Boone said there isn’t any best time to address the potential fracturing of an organization. However, providing a toolbox of directives from members could help them build forward.

Alberta’s concerns extensive

“It started as a withdrawal,” said Doug Roxburgh, ABP chair, of Alberta’s stance with the CCA. “But I think it’s very much become more of a review.

“It’s been amazing to see what other provinces have had for both positives around CCA but also concerns.”

Alberta’s list of concerns is extensive, said Roxburgh; however, commonalities between provinces and an openness to change fostered positive discussions. The group will craft a review framework to present to the CCA, likely in the spring.

“We went into these meetings with a positive mindset, that we’re coming here to improve our organization,” said Chad Ross, Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association chair.

“It’s healthy to look at governance, communication, financial reporting and funding and find solutions that are good for everyone.”

New Brunswick Cattle chair Trevor Welch said CCA’s representation at the federal level is critical. There are no plans to eliminate the organization. Rather, they will explore restructuring options to ensure it remains sustainable, financially responsible and “more palatable for all the provincial organizations to work with.”

He acknowledged that six or seven months ago, the provinces weren’t sure what to do or how to handle the potential fracturing of the CCA. The workshop showed they were aligned on “nitty-gritty” issues and were willing to work together to find a way forward.

Ross agreed, and while hesitant to give specifics, mentioned “a-ha” moments during the day. He highlighted the need to streamline communication to ensure grassroots voices are heard and to contribute to business plans, strategies and collaborations within provinces and national organizations.

“Then there’s funding it, and that’s always the hard question. How do we fund it all the way across Canada? It’s not going to be equal,” Ross said.

“I think there’s got to be some give and take. How do we negotiate that with the different provinces to be in the federal organization, get it funded and get it working?”

Looking for a better balance

Roxburgh said Alberta believes in a strong national organization that is appropriately funded, but “it can’t come on the backs of Alberta being underfunded within our own province.”

He doubted Alberta beef producers would reach 50 per cent representation based on funding, nor does he want to see less representation for other provinces — but he suggested that’s not the main question.

“I think the question is, how do we build this structure that’s the most effective for not just the producers today, but for our industry going forward?” Roxburgh said. “Things are changing all the time. It’s just about trying to figure out a little bit better balance right across the board.”

Beef Farmers of Ontario president Craig McLaughlin said the real challenge lies ahead — namely, in fine-tuning the funding model to ensure CCA’s sustainability without harming the provincial organization’s budgets, and negotiating representation.

“We feel there’s a time for change, and it should happen now when we’re going to get a new executive director at the national level,” said McLaughlin. “(The recommendations) will help them foster better relations across the provinces.”

Roxburgh said Alberta faced criticism for withdrawing so close to the retirement of Dennis Laycraft, CCA executive vice-president for the last 35 years.

Roxburgh said that the new CCA manager could view the current situation as an opportunity to listen, bring new ideas, explore the working group’s framework and recognize that the CCA isn’t “100 per cent where it could be or should be going forward.”

“We’re certainly going to be respectful to whoever that new person is taking that role and look forward to working with them to help shape the future of CCA,” Roxburgh said.

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The reported gains come from an update of the 2020-24 national beef strategy, a road map backed by seven major national organizations: the Beef Cattle Research Council, Canada Beef, Canadian Beef Breeds Council, Canadian Cattle Association, National Cattle Feeders’ Association, Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and Canadian Meat Council.

The update covers the final two years of the strategy.

Craig Lehr, chair of both the BCRC and the Canadian Beef Advisors group, which is responsible for moving industry toward strategy goals, pointed to Canada’s relatively recent upgrade in BSE status.

In 2021, Canada finally clawed its way to negligible risk status, setting the stage for lingering trade barriers to fall away. Singapore has since removed all related restrictions, Japan has fully expanded access and Taiwan has removed all BSE restrictions.

Asian markets also opened wider under the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, said Lehr.

“We’ve strengthened our exports. We hit over the $5-billion mark in exports, largely due to the CPTPP, and that’s without having access to China,” said Lehr. “That’s huge.”

China has been closed to Canadian beef since an atypical BSE case was found in Alberta in 2021.

The increase in exports shows demand for Canadian beef and respect for quality of the product, Lehr said.

Court of public opinion

He particularly touted beef’s improved public reputation. The industry sunk considerable resources into that effort. It partnered with conservation organizations, and projects like the short documentary “Guardians of the Grasslands” characterized cattle and cattle farms as carbon-sequestering, ecosystem-preserving tools.

“We’re part of the solution, not part of the problem,” he said. “I think it’s huge to be able to swing that narrative. It really shows the industry is doing what it needs to do. We’re proving ourselves and what we do. That’s all done on the back of producer dollars.”

National and provincial cattle organizations have fought rounds in that ring, he noted. Social media has been a powerful tool to connect with the public and to praise the nutritional and environmental benefits of beef.

From 2014-22, greenhouse gas emissions from beef production dropped 15 per cent, said Lehr.

“Emissions have been reduced through research and improved cattle management. Genetics play a huge role in reducing emissions, as does running more efficient cattle and feeding them better.”

He also noted incoming technology, such as 3-NOP, a feed additive that reduces methane emissions and improves feed efficiency. Bovaer, a commercial product with 3-NOP as an active ingredient, was approved in Canada earlier this year.

Lehr said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s readiness to explore the additive was a positive step.

Storm clouds

It hasn’t all be rosy over the last two years. The pandemic exposed weaknesses in supply chains across the economy. Beef was no exception, as processing plant shutdowns affected markets.

“You can’t control everything, but we need to really do what we can to mitigate what can happen and have plans in place,” said Lehr.

Improvements can be made through lobbying, through investments in the supply chain and infrastructure, he added. The industry’s goal is to build more value chain resiliency.

Another big challenge is attracting youth to the industry.

“Beef producers, agriculture in general, everybody’s getting older and there’s not as much young coming up behind,” said Lehr, adding that young people may be reluctant to join the industry due to the economic climate and high cost of production.

Without family in the industry, young farmer hopefuls may not have enough capital to get started. Land prices continue to increase, and smaller ranches are disappearing as large ranches buy them up. Drought has been another serious challenge.

“Despite all of that, the industry keeps moving forward. I think that’s to be celebrated.”

Looking forward

Attention now turns to the next five years. A new national beef strategy is expected in January and will extend to 2030. Much of it will echo the last one, Lehr said, but it will be adjusted to continue growth and recognize sector progress from the past few years.

He expects it to have more focus on sector resiliency, issues brought up by COVID-19 and border shutdowns.

“We’ve also spent quite a bit of time talking about the youth as well. To me, that’s a really important part of the upcoming strategy … recognizing that we really need to bring youth into the industry and agriculture in general.”

There’s work to do, Lehr added, but the industry is “trying to do it as one voice, not 1,000 different approaches going at the same time.”

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Some of the achievements included an improvement in trade. Canada’s Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) negligible risk status changed in May 2021. Singapore removed all related restrictions, Japan expanded access to processed beef products, and Taiwan removed all remaining BSE restrictions.

Canada’s exports to Japan and Vietnam grew through the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP).

International beef demand hit a record high in 2023, and Canada exported 496,917 tonnes of beef at $5.02 billion.

There have been gains in the environmental component of cattle production as well.

The 2021 National Beef Strategy Assessment found that emissions from beef are down 15 per cent, halfway to the 2030 goal.

Since the start of 2022, the Beef Cattle Research Council has funded 87 projects.

These projects address topics such as animal health and welfare, antimicrobial use, forage and grassland productivity, feed efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Despite challenges such as rising energy, input prices, and food inflation, the groups are pleased with the success.

The Canadian Beef Advisors will renew the National Beef Strategy for 2025-2030, and it will be released January 2025.

The National Beef Strategy is a collaborative effort by the Beef Cattle Research Council, Canadian Beef Breeds Council, Canada Beef, Canadian Cattle Association and its provincial member associations, the Canadian Meat Council, the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and the National Cattle Feeder’s Association.

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While these goals may seem contentious to some producers, it’s important to show the public that the beef sector is progressive and doing its part when it comes to combatting climate change as well as protecting the environment and caring for animals, said Tyler Bjornson, chair of the Canadian Beef Advisors.

“I think that’s really critical for the industry,” he said. “We’re proactive in setting those goals, and demonstrating that we’re responsible and capable of implementing and acting on these things without either government or consumers stepping in to tell the sector how to do its job.”

Although not a well-known name, the Canadian Beef Advisors is composed of reps from the beef sector’s key players, including the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the National Cattle Feeders’ Association, the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and the Canadian Meat Council.

But despite its low profile, the group’s existence is representative of a sea change in the sector once famous for its divisions. It issued its first national beef strategy in January 2015 and like the initial one, the updated version put specific numbers on some of its targets.

Along with sequestering an additional 3.4 million tonnes of carbon every year, the new edition of the strategic plan calls for preserving 35 million acres of native grassland. Achieving that goal not only means ranchers must be good stewards of the land but that their efforts be recognized by the public and government, said Bjornson.

“If we want to maintain the 35 million acres of native grassland that is in the care of beef producers, really, we need to ensure the economic viability of the producers to be able to incentivize that conservation,” he said.

This could include participating in programs that governments might put in place as part of their climate change and greenhouse gas reduction strategies.

“I do not believe that producers have been adequately recognized as providing that public good and that stewardship,” said Bjornson. “If it is a public goal to maintain and sequester that native grassland, then I believe there needs to be that recognition built into whatever scheme the federal and provincial governments have put in place.”

The 2020-2024 National Beef Strategy has goals (to be achieved over the next decade) for three areas: Greenhouse gases and carbon sequestration; animal health and welfare; and land use and biodiversity. (Four other sets of goals will be released next year: Water; beef quality and food safety; people, health and safety; and technology.)

Goals in the animal health and welfare area include further reducing the use of antimicrobials (by encouraging best practices and also quantifying “baseline antibiotic use practices in Canadian feedlot production”); attaining 92 per cent reproductive efficiency in beef production (up from 85 per cent in 2018), and adopting “management and breeding choices that support animal welfare” (such as breeding for calving ease and increased use of pain relief).

Along with protecting native grassland, the land use and biodiversity goals include supporting research on how grazing management affects things such as carbon sequestration and water filtration. It also calls for getting a better handle on the amount of grazing land being lost to crops, noting “satellite monitoring would provide greater accuracy than survey results.”

The national strategy demonstrates the increased collaboration between the different organizations in the sector, said Saskatchewan rancher Ryan Beierbach, chair of the Beef Cattle Research Council (which along with Canada Beef Breeds Council and Canada Beef are the other members of the Canadian Beef Advisors).

The organizations are now more aligned, and will work together to make the beef sector more profitable and sustainable, he said.

“When we look at what we’re going to fund in terms of research and projects, this would direct what projects we’re looking at funding,” said Beierbach.

“If we’re lobbying for policy or trying to get rules into place so they work better for producers, this would help guide that type as well.”

The strategy calls the new targets “ambitious stretch goals.”

Some are more targeted than the previous strategy, such as the 92 per cent reproductive efficiency goal, which would boost profitability for producers, said Beierbech, who sat on the producer task force that helped create the goals.

“I think there are things that can be implemented that can help producers meet these goals,” he said. “These are not easy goals (but) in a lot of cases, there are benefits for producers.

“We’re not trying to put goals that are onerous on producers. We’re trying to put goals that are going to move the industry forward to make producers more sustainable and more profitable.”

Boosting reproductive efficiency, using better genetics, and implementing better management practices will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.

Sharing best practices will be key to those efforts, he said.

“Some of it’s extension,” he said. “How do we share best practices?… The second part of it is obviously working with our industry partners. That’s the great thing about the National Beef Strategy. We effectively have everyone together, so there’s a stronger information loop through this system.”

The strategy calls for improvements in a number of production areas, including increased vaccination and wider adoption of progressive pasture management strategies, low-stress handling, body condition scoring and feed testing.

Some of those tools might meet with some reluctance at the farm gate, given additional cost and tight profit margins, Laycraft acknowledged. But they pay off in the longer term, he said.

“At the end of the day, the main reason for vaccinating or for all of these practices should be to improve the efficiency and health of your herd and, by doing that, it should improve returns back,” he said. “We’re looking, with all of these things, trying to create the win-win environment.”

And making cattle production more profitable can go hand-in-hand with increasing public trust in the sector, both Beierbach and Bjornson said.

“We recognize that our ability to be successful economically into the future requires that we have the public’s confidence,” said Bjornson. “Building public trust is based on doing the right things for our land, our animals and our environment. That’s precisely what these goals are meant to demonstrate.”

“We want the public to see it too, and say that the beef industry has a plan,” added Beierbach.

“We’re not forcing this on producers. It’s all work that we’re doing to help producers be more successful.”

The national strategy was designed to work in tandem with the new sustainability plan of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which will be released shortly, as well as the 2023-2028 research and extension plan of the Beef Cattle Research Council.

The entire strategy can be found at beefstrategy.com.

– With Glacier FarmMedia files

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As of June, 15 per cent of outcomes have been completed; five per cent are in progress (have an end); 61 per cent are ongoing (and expected to continue); seven per cent have not been started (primarily due to funding constraints); eight per cent need modification; and five per cent have mixed status (due to multiple objectives at different stages).

“The industry set a number of specific, ambitious goals for itself to increase demand for our products globally… and we’re making good progress,” said David Haywood-Farmer, chair of the Beef Advisors and president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.

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In addition to presentations on genomics, the national beef strategy, and market outlook, Ryan Kasko (Kasko Cattle Co.) and Leighton Kolk (Kolk Feeders) will discuss Allied Marketing Group’s first year of partnership with Certified Angus Beef. AMG’s five members collectively manage 11 feedlots with a capacity of 110,000 head.

For more information on the conference, visit cdnangus.ca.

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Jeff Warrack, National Cattle Feeders Association past chair, on working together:

“We’ve been criticized in the past for being fragmented as an industry. We’ve got to start connecting along the various segments in this beef industry. The strategy is pretty ambitious, but to me, that’s the No. 1 thing we have to start to do. One of the things that we’ve done in that direction is the establishment of this beef advisers’ committee.

“What we’ve boiled it down to is that we need to focus on some key areas — like labour recruitment and retention, emergency preparedness, social licence to operate, and the sharing of information through the chain.

“We’re asking people to keep investing, and we need to make sure we target these investments appropriately, and we’re also making sure that these investments are targeting their desired outcomes. This is also part of the role of the beef advisers.”

Dave Solverson, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president, on competitiveness

“We need to make sure that we have a regulatory environment in Canada that does not burden us. In order for the industry to be competitive, it’s necessary to have that regulatory system that supports the industry, encourages innovation and efficiency and doesn’t add unnecessary costs. The current federal government’s focus on regulatory reform is positive for our industry. They have a one-for-one approach now where one regulation is removed for every new regulation introduced. We support that, and we will be holding them to that if we can. The government’s current focus on regulatory reform is a significant step to producing more industry competitiveness moving forward.

“The strategy will also address regulatory co-operation with our major trading partners, which is also essential to the future and competitiveness of our industry. The reduction of regulatory barriers would not only have benefits to the cost of production, but it could also result in enhanced food safety, and animal health. This is about the relative cost of our inputs, so the prices we pay are not artificially inflated by our regulations. It’s a cumbersome approval process we have, and the lack of access to new and more innovative products has held us back in the past. Some of the changes in Bill C-18 should give us more access to products.

It’s very important that we have access to those competitively priced inputs.”

David Bolduc, Canadian Beef Breeds Council president, on productivity and efficiency

“In the purebred sector of our industry, it’s very exciting. Never before have we had the tools to improve the cattle that influence every segment of this industry so much. This strategy has a set of benchmarks to get to an improvement of 15 per cent in production in the next five years. I think a significant amount of this increase in production will be generated by the seed stock sector in improvements in genetics. The main area of improvement is going to come from genomic evaluation, and our ability to evaluate these cattle for what they have. It’s far beyond what we’ve seen in the past.

“Projects that will make a difference include bovine respiratory disease research. Essentially, we’re going to be able to genomically select cattle that have a resistance to BRD. This could be significant from a feedlot perspective and could result in a huge reduction of antimicrobial use. This will be acceptable to consumers, since it relies on natural selection at an accelerated pace. So much of this technology will put our industry in a sustainable light.

“We’re also looking at things like feed efficiency, which will have a tremendous economic impact. The big challenges include education and adoption of this technology and this is going to take funding. Already, we’re seeing increases in the purebred industry of membership fees.”

Tim Oleksyn, Beef Cattle Research Council chair, on research benefits

“We’ve had some real value by having a national beef research strategy. Provincial, federal and even global governments have supported this document and the organizations in it, and this has led to taking some leadership and moving things forward in a collaborative nature.

“The strategy will help us prioritize. There are so many decisions made by researchers on an ongoing basis, and research touches so many things in the strategy, like the expansion of the productivity demand and how we move forward on that, to the forages and grains efficiencies. It also touches on the need for information on antimicrobials, and dealing with the food safety aspects.

“Our role is to identify brilliance among groups of people and get those collaborations going and moving forward to help with the demand side and increase productivity.

“Right now, we’re at this tipping point where we can really move things forward, in terms of decision-making and data collection and where it ties in with social licensing and the ability to transfer information.”

Jack Hextall, Canada Beef Inc. chair, on consumers and checkoffs

“Everyone knows that consumers make choices based on many things, including loyalty. We’re not the only protein choice out there and we’re not the only beef choice out there. An aligned industry can help us meet consumer expectations of confidence, and expectations of how our beef is produced, raised and sold across the country.

“It’s also about creating a good, consistent experience. Consistency means that we do what’s right every time and that can be taste, or buying experience or education, etc.

“Demand for beef is high and growing in international markets. We need to align our industry to achieve greater successes in all sectors, to capitalize on growing beef demand around the world, and increase the cut-out value.

“To be sustainable, we all have to be profitable, and that collaborates to help sustain demand. “Achieving the goals identified in the national plan are estimated to require a checkoff investment of approximately $19 million, or $2.50 per head, which is a $1.50 increase from the current $1 national checkoff. Checkoff dollars trigger significant investments at both the national and provincial level. If industry isn’t at the table, then why would anyone else want to be there with their money as well? It really boils down to an investment in our own future.”

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The strategy has three specific goals to be achieved by 2020:

1. Boost production efficiency by 15 per cent
2. Increase carcass cut-out value by 15 per cent
3. Reduce cost disadvantage relative to global competitors by seven per cent.

The plan is backed by all of the leading national and provincial industry organizations. Both the report and links to the two videos are at beefstrategy.com.

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Boosting production efficiency by 15 per cent, increasing carcass cut-out value by 15 per cent and reducing cost disadvantage relative to global competitors by seven per cent by 2020 won’t be easy.

But much of the heavy lifting towards these targets has already been accomplished during the exhaustive process that went into developing this strategic plan. Whether the sector hits these targets on the bull’s eye, falls a little short or overshoots, is less important than the fact that it has coalesced around a common vision.

Everyone can agree on the need for a dynamic profitable industry and most can appreciate the value in being a trusted and competitive producer that is recognized globally for producing superior quality, safety, value, innovation using sustainable production methods.

These goals may seem like stating the obvious, but they provide a starting point for the much more complex job of determining the ‘how’ of achieving them.

That challenge of that feat cannot be underestimated. We are after all, dealing with the cattle crowd, a group that has historically been about as easy to guide as a herd of cats.

While other livestock sectors have zeroed in on generic genetics and homogenized the primary production around specific management approaches, cattle producers remain fiercely divided by their loyalty to specific breeds — and a long list of them at that. It makes for variety in carcass traits, management requirements and production practices. And because cattle are raised outside, instead of in climate-controlled facilities used for other livestock, producers are subject to unpredictable effects of the weather on their production efficiency.

While that genetic and management diversity makes it more challenging to standardize the end-use quality characteristics, it also creates opportunity for value-added marketing in an increasingly diverse marketplace. Now that processes such as BIXS (Beef Info-xchange System) are in place to improve individual carcass feedback and communication through the value chain, work must continue toward converting that data into something that’s bankable.

It has long been recognized that the industry has been a little too focused on meeting the needs of certain commodity beef markets — namely the U.S. — at the expense of other opportunities. Not only has this approach left it vulnerable to market disruptions, such as when the border slammed shut in the BSE crisis of 2003 and when the U.S. pushed forward with mandatory country-of-origin labelling rules in 2009, it has hampered branding efforts.

Ironically, beef producers, as diverse as they are, have been among the least tolerant of alternative markets and the efforts by some to meet those demands, such as the European preference for hormone-free beef, or similar preferences by the A&W fast-food chain to differentiate itself in the marketplace. Wanting to do things differently is seen by some in the cattle business as trying to make everyone else look bad.

Despite the recent improvement in prices, the beef sector’s base for future growth is far from certain.

Inventories in this country by a quarter since 2003; new global competitors, such as India, have emerged; and many producers nearing retirement may be more focused on building back equity rather than investing in building their herd.

The National Beef Strategy acknowledges that while demand for beef globally continues to grow, it will be local concerns over environmental sustainability and animal welfare that dictate the producers’ operating environment.

That could work in the beef sector’s favour when it comes to reclaiming grazing lands lost to annual cropping. Marginal lands belong under cover. It also reinforces the reality that the shrinking cattle herd has resulted in lower checkoffs and fewer funds. Although producers are enjoying record profits, cattle cycle checkoff revenues are currently their lowest in two decades.

Bringing the sector together under a common plan is not only the wisest use of scarce resources, it is the strategy with the best chance of success. Job well done.

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