The Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association is pleased to announce another great lineup of speakers for the annual Beef Industry Convention. The event will be held January 5 to 7, 2012 at the Best Western Lamplighter Inn in London. Now in its 14th year, the Convention aims to bring each sector of Ontario’s beef business together to celebrate our industry.
The Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association was honoured and humbled by the invitation to assist in the tornado relief efforts in Goderich. The “There’s No Taste Like Home,” mobile kitchen unit was dispatched to the area on Aug. 25.
We fed approximately 500 people during lunch and we also cooked beef for supper that night. Whatever was left over was used to make cold beef sandwiches. Enough beef was prepared to feed 2,000 people.
Beef producers can find out more about the Risk Management Insurance Program at a series of meetings that will be held across the province in August and September. The multi-commodity RMIP for grain and oilseed, cattle, hog, veal, edible horticulture and sheep farmers was unveiled at the end of June. The program was based directly…
It’s been ten years and counting for two meat businesses that have enthusiastically supported the Ontario Corn Fed Beef program since its inception. Norwich Packers (Norpac) was the first provincial processor to come on board while Ted Farron’s Gourmet Butcher Shop in Windsor was one of the first retailers to feature the signature brand of the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association.
The Ontario Corn Fed Beef program was launched in June of 2001.
For Ted Farron, the program represented a good news story that was needed at the time.
“The reason I came on board is we had some bad news in the meat business and negative things about Canadian beef,” recalls Farron, noting that people were becoming more concerned about the quality and safety of beef products. “I was glad to see that Ontario stepped up to come out with a real clean program; no animal by-products fed to the cattle, giving people the assurance of a quality piece of meat.”
As for his customers’ response, Farron says the reaction to the Ontario Corn Fed Beef program has been terrific.
Ontario Corn Fed Beef producers are hoping the new deal with Loblaw Companies will solidify their position in the marketplace and improve the prices they receive for their cattle.
“It’s a significant amount of shelf space for the consumer meat market in Ontario and we have the opportunity and privilege now so that we can supply that market to them,” said Dale Pallister, President of the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association.
Pallister, who farms near Dundalk, was among the first group of farmers to be certified for the program ten years ago.
A new market research program is set to measure value chain attitudes, behaviour and public opinion towards an on-farm E. coli O157 risk reduction program for the Ontario Corn Fed Beef brand.
The Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association (OCFA) has been granted funding through the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program for three years of market research on the value related to reduction of this food safety risk.
The project will launch this year with a baseline attitudes study of processors, distributors and retailers. Researchers will measure their awareness, attitudes and perceptions of E. coli O157 risk, and the value of pre-harvest risk reduction. Consumers will also be surveyed on their interest and willingness to pay for the integration of such tools into the Corn Fed Beef branded program.
As long-time advocates of Ontario beef, Zehrs Markets®, valu-mart®, Your Independent Grocer® and BloorStreet Market™ grocery stores in Ontario – corporate and franchised retail stores of Loblaw Companies Limited – have taken their current partnership with Ontario Cattle Feeders Association (OCFA) to a new level by featuring a significantly increased Ontario beef offering.
This evolving relationship between Loblaw and OCFA means that an increase from 240 Ontario beef farmers to approximately 500 farmers will be supplying Ontario Corn Fed Beef, the OCFA’s signature beef brand, to more than 150 stores.
The beef is marked with a special logo making it easy for customers to find product grown in Ontario.
“We know our customers want to buy products that are sourced locally from Ontario, so we are thrilled to be able to advance our partnership with Ontario farmers to deliver products that can meet demand and our high standards,” said Rodney Koning, vice-president of Meat and Seafood, Loblaw Companies Limited.
Ontario Corn Fed Beef is on the threshold of new growth opportunities as the program continues to make inroads in the market place.
Jim Clark, Executive Director of the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association, said various packing plants in the province are showing more interest in the farmer-owned brand.
Clark presented an update on the program to 13th annual Beef Industry Convention in London on Jan. 7. The presentation not only detailed the growth opportunities, it also identified several challenges.
Back by popular demand, Dr. Ron Hanson, an agri-business professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, brought his honest and entertaining approach for dealing with family farm succession matters to the Beef Industry Convention.
Hanson, who teaches full-time at the University of Nebraska, counsels family farm operations in his spare time.
He shared his valuable insight during his presentation on Multi-Generation Farm Family Beef Cattle Operations: Family Harmony vs. Family Conflicts.
The panel discussion at the 13th Annual Beef Industry Convention produced another lively exchange of opinions on issues likely to affect the beef business during the next year.
This year’s panelists were guest speakers Bruce Vincent, Alex Avery (director of research and education at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Food Issues) and Globe & Mail political columnist Jeffrey Simpson.
Given the expertise of the three panelists, the discussion provided some unique insight into the current political scene in North America, including the Tea Party movement in the U.S.