|
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.
|
