It’s been nearly five months since the Manitoba Beef Producers levy went up to $3 a head, and producers have been gathering at district meetings to hear where that money has been going.
Speaking to District 4 producers at the Grunthal Auction Mart, MBP’s general manager Melinda German explained that the increased levy — which went up by $1 in July — isn’t a reflection of increased cost so much as it is of a smaller herd.
The smaller the herd, the fewer head to collect from, German said.
“What we’re seeing is, as beef cattle inventories have dropped in Manitoba and Canada, that was affecting our ability to do a lot of the programming we needed to do on behalf of the industry,” she said. “So the increase was voted on at last year’s AGM and passed… just because we’ve seen that contraction of the Canadian beef herd and we continue to face challenges, every day there is something new that needs to be addressed.”
In Manitoba, those challenges include everything from flooding, to hay shortages and transportation issues.
“This is probably our biggest activity in this last year, dealing with excess moisture and flooding in Manitoba, I’ve heard it termed that Manitoba is the bathtub drain of North America and that’s actually kind of horrifying,” German said. “But it does seem to be true.”
Manitoba Beef Producers president, Heinz Reimer, said that ideally Manitoba’s herd would expand, but noted it had been about 20 years since the provincial levy had last been raised.
“About 98 per cent were in favour of it, they realize that our herd has shrunk in the province and our monies have gone down,” he said. “The producers understand that in order for associations like this to be strong they need to have funds to do that.”
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He added that an increasing amount of money is now going to research as well.
“We’ve been asked to do more and more research, and just trying to provide service to our producers, and of course that takes additional money,” Reimer said.
That research is heading in a slightly new direction these days however, as more focus is put on the consumer’s perception of the beef industry.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes in terms of how we work with our animals,” said German. “And the public more and more doesn’t understand what we do.”
Increasing public awareness about livestock production, promoting beef and explaining changes in the upcoming code of practice, which includes how animals are dehorned and castrated, will be supported with levy funds.
But it’s not all about challenges, German added. There are also opportunities, particularly around new trade deals such as the one Canada just inked with South Korea and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement with Europe.
Reimer is optimistic that Manitoba’s herd will again expand, providing more opportunities, but he noted it won’t happen overnight.
“They always say that for one bad year, you need three good years to make it up, so in that case we need 30 more years of good prices,” he said. “So we’re not going to see an increase right away. But I do think if the prices continue to be strong over the next number of years, we’re going to start seeing some increases going forward.”
