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News and Information from the BC Association of Cattle Feeders

I went to Ottawa in November with other representatives from the National Cattle Feeders Association to lobby MP's directly on cattle feeder concerns.   The instuction from our board was to try to get the rules regarding ecertification changed among other things. Our board members Mike Nikoliasen and Joe Heemskerk have been attending meetings of the Cross Border Livestock Health Conference for several years and have pushed the bureaucrats on both sides of the border to make the simple switch from needing import/export papers physically signed before shipments can leave to being able to have them signed by the appropriate official and faxed to the producer to accompany the cattle.  It seemed as if the US officials were on board, but the CFIA was throwing up roadblocks.

 At the preparatory meeting  in Ottawa I emphasised the need for e certification for cattle crossing the border in either direction.  The other cattle feeders took up the gauntlet and also made it a top priority when visiting their MPs and other important government officials including the Federal Ag minister and the head of the CFIA. Not one person with whom we spoke could see any reason why the spipments couldn't be electronically certified and I am pleased to say that as a result we have been told that we will have e certification in place shortly.

Dimity 

 

Over the past year we have sponsored several projects in conjunction with Thompson Rivers University. Those projects were funded by the Investment Agriculture Foundation, the Horn Fund, the Cariboo Cattlemens Association and our association.  

The Optimising Beef project was carried out by through the Beef Research Chair at TRU and looked at indicatons that the revesterol found in red wine can decrease the e coli load in feedlot manure.  The project is not yet complete but the preliminary findings are being presented at a poster session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science which is the premiere research scientific research institute in North America.  The preliminary results will be available from the association shortly.

The other project which looked at marketing logistics is now finished.  The results were presented at our annual meeting last year and the report is available at our office.  This project was very successful in pointing out what markets might become accessibe to us locally.

This year we are following up that project with two projects funded through the Ranching Task Force. One, looking at specifically accessing Asian Markets is still in the approval process and we hope to have it underway shortly.  The other, which has been approved, is being done in conjunction with the BC Abattoir Association and  will look at access to markets in general for locally produced  beef processed by provincially licensed abattoirs.  

We are very excited about both of these projects which will secure markets for beef born, raised and processed here in BC. 

BC Certified Beef
 
We are very excited about our own BC Certified Beef.  We have had many requests from local producers who market their own product.  Our association with the BC Abattoirs is going to open up new markets!   We hope to help our producers keep 100% of their product here using the whole carcass and by accessing all kinds of retail and food service markets we believe that we are very close to being able to do that.  Cattle that are born, raised and processed in BC are the only product that can proudly carry the Certified BC Beef label.

 



 

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BC Association of Cattle Feeders * 800 15355 24th Ave., Ste 495 * White Rock, BC * Canada * V4A 2H9

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