Beef producers at a tipping point, discuss challenges during summit

The beef industry in Alberta is at a tipping point.

Battling a number of factors that have squeezed the economic life out of the sector, Melanie Wowk, chairperson of the Alberta Beef Producers, is calling for government intervention in support of risk management programs.

The drought this past year, mixed with supply chain issues and increasing costs of inputs have dealt a major blow to the industry, which she estimates has resulted in a loss of 17 to 25 per cent of the national herd. This fall, it could get even worse.

“If our numbers continue to decline, then what’s that going to mean for the consumer? It’s going to mean that beef is going to get even more expensive,” said Wowk while hosting government officials and industry partners in a summit in downtown Calgary on Thursday.

The summit was a first for the group during the Calgary Stampede and was a rare opportunity for MPs and other government officials to make the trip out from Ottawa to gain a better understanding of the situation beef producers are in.

Callum Sears, president of the Western Stock Growers Association, said he was on the brink of selling this spring when the rain finally began to fall. He called it a “billion-dollar rain.” It was enough for him to keep going forward, but he knows other producers who still made the choice to sell even after the relief from Mother Nature.

“It’s tedious and stressful. Until it rained in the first week of June. I mean, we didn’t know what we were gonna do,” said Sears. “You can sell your cows but that’s selling your factory. You have to buy your factory back to make a living at some point.”

He said it goes beyond just the finances, becoming an animal welfare issue when dugouts run dry and the feed supply runs out. This was the situation last fall and this spring, especially in the southern part of Alberta. Producers were forced to ship feed in from the U.S. just to get through which sharply increased costs.

Marie-Claude Bibeau, federal minister of agriculture and agri-food, said the federal government is working closely with the different sectors within the industry on the high cost of inputs, including tweaking advanced payment programs.

“It gives them more flexibility and relief, it’s direct money back in their pocket,” she said.

Many producers wound up selling cows or breeding stock early because they could no longer support their herd.