SPRING BAY—The joint Annual General Meeting of the Manitoulin Cattleman’s Association and Manitoulin Soil and Crop Improvement Association is always an informative event and this year was no exception, but a suggestion to increase the national check-off levy by more than 37 percent from $4 to $5.50 raised the ire of many in attendance.
According to the Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) website, under Regulation 54 of the Beef Cattle Marketing Act, a compulsory check-off on per head sold by cattle farmers is payable to the BFO to fund the association. Packing plant operators, auction market operators and livestock dealers are required to deduct the check-off from the proceeds payable to the seller and remit check-off fees to BFO. Breeding stock, cull dairy cows and beef calves are included. Exemptions only exist for cattle sold for the production of milk and veal.
Under the Ontario Beef Cattle Marketing Act, a compulsory check-off of $4 per head sold by cattle farmers is payable to BFO, of that $3 remains in possession of BFO to fund programs and activities and maintain daily operations, while $1 is a mandatory national levy collected to fund research and marketing activities on behalf of the entire industry. The goal of the national check-off is two-fold: to increase sales of domestic and export beef; and to find better and more efficient methods of producing beef and beef cattle.
The proposal would see Ontario’s mandatory national levy increase to $2.50.
According to Jason Reid, BFO cow-calf director, the central issue is the fact that the Alberta provincial levy is 100 percent refundable to the industry, and a large portion of the beef industry in that province claws the levy back, leaving Ontario and other jurisdictions to pick up much of the slack by performing some of the roles that in Ontario are performed by the BFO.
“The national does a lot of work (that in) Ontario (the province) would be doing,” said Mr. Reid. Although he admitted he had not brought the numbers with him, Mr. Reid advised the room that “it is huge.”
By increasing the national check-off levy, which cannot be clawed back, the Canadian Cattleman’s Association hopes to be able to maintain the research and services it currently performs.
A number of voices were raised in opposition to the idea at meeting, raising the temperature of discussion with unusual heat at the usually taciturn Spring Bay meeting. It was not the proposed levy increase itself that stirred rebellion in the cattlemen’s ranks, although it was noted that the increase was very substantial, but rather the perception that the large Alberta beef industry was taking unfair advantage by clawing back its provincial portion of the levy.
If the reaction at the Spring Bay meeting is any indication, the proposal will be meeting a stiff headwind as it is debated over the next several months.
While it was noted that there has not been a levy increase for some time, and that the national organization is feeling some stress, the question was raised from the back “are they broke?” To which Mr. Reid responded “they are not ‘broke’ yet.”
Mr. Reid noted that there were legacy funds applied to the industry by the government in the wake of the BSE crisis a few years ago “to fix the problem,” but that funding will soon run out. “The levy ends in 2016,” noted Mr. Reid. “Moving forward they won’t have the funding.”
The legacy fund may have been a mixed blessing, as it has allowed a complacency to slip in. “There is a push to fix it,” he said. “My personal feeling is that maybe we should have looked at it two years ago.”
The meeting then viewed two promotional videos from the CCA that made the case for the levy increase. Videos on the National Beef Strategy can be found at beefstrategy.com.
In response to a query as to when the increase would take place, Mr. Reid noted that the national group would like it to happen right away, but that in reality the increase is at least a year off, should it even come to fruition.
A number of questions remain, he noted, including a review of the budget and assurances on where the funds would be spent. Mr. Reid noted that the BFO is taking the issue before their membership, but that “a lot of other provinces are not taking this to their membership” and that those provincial boards are making the decision. “We are not,” affirmed Mr. Reid.
In other news presented by Mr. Reid, after a significant jump in cattle prices the market went into a period of fluctuation in the fall of 2015 and while prices appear to have stabilized, it remained to be seen whether prices are remaining positive for producers.
Mr. Reid consented to be an unbiased facilitator for the elections to the board. The new directors of the combined board included current members Brent Best, Max Burt, Jim Martin, Scott Runnals, John McNaughton, Floyd Orford, Dave McDermid and Marca Williamson, along with newcomers Chris Noland, Rob Davidson, Bruce Orford and Mike Johnston. Following the AGM, the directors re-elected John McNaughton as chair and Marca Williamson as secretary/treasurer.
In any event, the success of OBA’s corn fed program and its penetration of markets such as Japan, other parts of Asia and the European Union have the Alberta producers sitting up and taking notice. A large traffic of unfinished beef from the west are coming to Ontario for finishing and Ontario is no longer considered an “insignificant” player by the large western producers.
Mr. Reid noted that over 60,000 head of cattle cross the recently failed Nipigon bridge in Northwestern Ontario. “Most of those cattle will be going into Ontario feedlots,” he said.
In addition to Mr. Reid’s update on the state of the cattle industry in Canada and Ontario, the meeting heard from a number of presenters, including Ontario Soil and Crop field representative Mary Scott, who outlined a number of changes to programs and workshops she would be offering over the next few months, many of which are linked to successful application to funding programs. She discussed the Growing Forward II program and opportunities for producers.
Ms. Scott cautioned those attending not to rely on the information contained in older pamphlets they may have picked up as there have been a lot of changes. The online information packages are a better source of the information producers need. A key change is that farms must have an environmental farm plan that was completed in the last five years, that is 2011 or sooner, to apply for funding under that envelope.
Those changes mean that producers must approach program funding with a good deal of pre-planning in place and that work done prior to the application approval will not qualify. “You have to apply ahead of time,” she said. “There is no back dating of invoices—you have to wait for the letter. That can take four or five days to sort out, so it takes planning.”
There have also been changes as to what will qualify for the shared funding and new funding caps in place. Ms. Scott gave an anecdotal example of a new fuel system. While the new fuel tanks could qualify, the building may not.
Innovation is being highly encouraged in the amount of funding an application receives, she noted.
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs field representative Brian Bell discussed tile drainage programs and noted that LAMBAC is taking the local application to Stage II and that meetings will be taking place “sometime near the end of February.”
Ms. Williamson then gave an informative presentation on a seminar she attended with “the cattle whisperer” (don’t call him that—it’s stockmanship) Curt Pate. A number of veteran cattlemen were impressed with the presentation, noting that while much of what was presented on herding cattle were things they already do, “it’s nice to know the science behind it.” The psychology of cattle revolves, like horses, around the animal’s evolution as a prey animal, noted Ms. Williamson, and understanding how that psychology works can reduce stress in herd handling dramatically.
A video demonstration of some of Mr. Pate’s techniques can be found on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k0JGCQ1W_s.
