April 19, 2004

Canada Livestock Co-Op To Implement Mad Cow Testing

Being one of the smallest slaughterhouses in Canada hasn't stopped a new Peace region livestock co-op from planning to revolutionize the way beef is marketed in North America, according to an article in the Grande Prairie Herald-Tribune newspaper, in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
 
Peace Country Tender Beef Co-op has announced its plans to test 100% of its slaughtered cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad-cow disease, and include a bar code on all products to allow consumers to track their meat online back to its home ranch.
 
Co-op Chairman Neil Peacock in the article said the "unprecedented beef testing and tracking methods" are an attempt to answer North American and international consumer cries for increased accountability and safety.
 
The North American cattle industry has lost more than C$2 billion due to a drop in national sales and international market bans since mad-cow disease was first found in Alberta last May and then again in Washington state in December.
 
"Customers are calling for revolutionary changes and these should provide exactly that," said Peacock, who hopes to implement the changes by late 2004.
 
Currently governmental bodies in Canada and the U.S. test only a small fraction of the country's cattle for the mad-cow disease, individual beef producers do not test for the disease and none offer such complex tracking options to consumers.
 
With the latest North American marketing studies showing a growing consumer demand for improved cattle testing and tracking methods, beef marketing expert DeeVon Baily is predicting the co-op's bold changes should be successful.
 
"Studies show there is a market out there who will not only buy the product, but pay a premium for it, if offered 100% testing and improved traceability," Baily, a University of Utah State marketing/economics professor who only weeks ago completed a study on beef consumer demands, said in the article.
 
"I think for an individual firm, such as this, it makes a lot of sense to answer what the market is now calling for."
 
Livestock economist Harlan Hughes added the co-op's increased accountability movement could lead to industry-wide changes - if Canada allows them.
 
"I think consumers feel more comfortable with BSE-tested beef and will like to know they can identify the ranch that produces it," Hughes, who works for Western Edge Consulting in Wyoming, said in the article.
 
"If the testing and tracking changes get past the Canadian government, the costs for providing the changes aren't significant and consumers flock to the product - the industry will be sure to follow," Hughes said.
 
Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials have stated it is unlikely they would follow in the footsteps of its southern counterpart - the U.S. Department of Agriculture - in banning individual companies from testing their own cattle for mad-cow disease.
 
Last week, the USDA rejected a request by Kansas-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef to test all cattle slaughtered at its Arkansas City plant for the brain-wasting disease.
 
Numerous North American governmental and cattle industry officials have opposed individual companies testing all their cattle for mad-cow disease over fears it would make it more difficult for Canada and the U.S. to convince international customers, such as Japan, to reopen their borders to less than 100% tested beef.
 
Canada has been locked out of most international beef markets since an
infected Holstein was discovered May 20.
 
The co-op, which officially came into existence earlier this week after reaching the 600-member mark, expects to slaughter 30,000 cattle annually in addition to an undetermined number of sheep, buffalo and elk.
 
The co-op will begin building a new $4.2 million rancher-backed slaughter facility, with a $350,000 private on-site testing laboratory, as soon as a location is determined. Its products are expected to hit the store shelves by early 2005.
 
Helping with the co-op initiatives is also a "big-time distributor" Peacock declined to name. The unnamed distributor, he said in the article, has agreed to buy all beef slaughtered at the facility - selling the product within only Alberta to begin with.
 
"Times have changed due to mad cow and we as an industry have to change along with them," said Peacock, a second-generation rancher and owner of Sweet Brier Farms in Sexsmith, Alberta.
 
"The North American cattle industry has to wake up and realize if we don't respond to demands for testing and tracking, customers will walk past the beef aisle and buy something else," Peacock said.
 
Canada and the U.S. have promised multimillion-dollar campaigns to step up mad-cow testing since the disease was found on North American soil.
 
The Canadian government has committed spending $92.1 million over the next five years to increase the number of slaughtered cattle tested for mad- cow disease annually from the current 5,500 to 30,000.
 
The USDA has vowed that beginning in June it will test at least 220,000 animals for BSE.
 
Last year it tested about 20,000 animals.
 
Before the discovery of BSE on North American soil, Canada and the U.S. tested only a tiny percentage of their cattle for BSE.
 
Japan tests every cow before it is slaughtered and the European Union tests an estimated 25%.
 
Alberta, which is home to nearly half of Canada's cattle, is also increasing what it spends on mad-cow testing.
 
The province recently committed $15 million for a new livestock testing facility, upgrading of current facilities and enhanced surveillance programs.