CCA looking back on 90 years

Jan 31, 2023

A series of videos are available on the organization’s YouTube channel

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

A Canadian ag organization is celebrating a special milestone in 2023 and wants Canadians to follow along online.

The Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) is commemorating its 90^th anniversary through a series of videos on its YouTube channel.

The organization is “excited to take you on a journey of the defining moments and milestones that have shaped our organization and made who we are today,” the CCA said in a Jan. 15 Twitter post announcing the videos. “Starting this week, we are launching a series of short videos in celebration of our 90^th anniversary.”

The video entries include historical moments, like freeing Canada of brucellosis in 1985. Another video is about the history of beef grading and retail marketing.

There’s also a video about how the organization got started.

It features Chris Mills, who served as a western representative with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association from 1972 to 1981, and Charlie Gracey, who was the organization’s executive vice president from 1970 to 1990, discussing the cattle industry at the time and how the organization came to be.

“A lot of problems had been piling up,” Gracey said in the video. “But in the end, on September 16, 1968, an act was passed which created the checkoff.”

The checkoff was 10 cents per head on cattle and 5 cents per head on calves, he added.

Going back 90 years brings the calendar to the year 1933.

Here’s a glimpse of what Canadian cattle production looked like in that year.

The “total slaughterings” for that year was 996,000 cattle and 910,000 calves, Statistics Canada says.

The following year, both numbers increased to 1,135,000 cattle and 994,000 calves.

For comparison, in 2021, those numbers were 3,504,000 cattle and 213,000 calves.

In terms of exports, in 1933 Canada exported 60,134 total head of cattle and calves. This amounted to 10,010,000 lbs. of beef, Stats Canada says.

In 2021, Canada exported 644,063 head. This amounted to about 614,810 tonnes, Stats Canada’s data says.

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