Beef: Corn Fed program provides a niche for small feedlot and cow-calf operators

Monday, March 2, 2009

With the program slaughtering up to 1,700 head a week in late 2008, there are opportunities here for smaller operators

by DON STONEMAN

Once considered to be a relic from an agricultural past, small and medium sized-feedlots are on their way back in, and that's good news for small cow-calf operations.

Feedlots feeding typically 300 to 500 head are the mainstay of the Corn Fed Beef program, says Jim Clark, executive director of the Ontario Cattle Feeders Association, which sponsors and promotes the branded program.

The small yards operate with family members and little or no hired help, particularly among Mennonite farmers in the Wallenstein-Linwood area of north Waterloo. "The majority of our producers are small producers," says Clark.

"It adds up to a pile of cattle." The bigger feedlots are still important though, he allows.

Ontario cow-calf operators may find that growing demand from smaller feeding operations is to their advantage, says Paul Stiles, assistant manager, Ontario Cattlemen's Association.

Small feedlots are more amenable to buying groups of calves from smaller beef cow operations. Small operations have the labour to deal with diseases associated with mixing groups of cattle sold through sales barns, he says.

The bigger feedlots prefer larger groups of cattle from fewer sources. However, cow-calf operators shouldn't think that they can still sell unvaccinated calves, Stiles adds. He warns that smaller lots of cattle offered for sale "will be priced accordingly."

Clark says that most Corn Fed suppliers are located west of 400 Highway, but there are more than a dozen now located in eastern Ontario and interest is growing.
The stated goal of the Corn Fed Beef program is to build a brand for Ontario-raised cattle, "providing stability to the market while reducing the influence of products from outside Ontario."

Last November, the University of Western Ontario selected Corn Fed Beef as a supplier and a deal with a major food service provider is currently being negotiated. Clark says that the program slaughtered 25 head a week in 2001 and as many as 1,700 in some weeks in the last three months of 2008.

This year's target is 66.5 million pounds of beef, worth about $110 million at the farm gate. BF