There was no doubt a recovery for Manitoba’s cattle industry after last year’s drought was going to take time.
While there are still plenty of challenges among cattle producers, including high grain prices and record amounts of precipitation since last winter, Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) president Tyler Fulton is looking ahead.
“The drop in corn and barley (prices) over the course of the last two weeks generally supports stronger prices for feeder cattle,” he said. “When we start into the fall run, I’m pretty optimistic that we’re going to see some of the best prices that we’ve seen in probably eight or nine years.”
Read Also
It’s Your Business: Canola, soybean strength could be short-lived
Spillover from a rising CBOT soy complex has helped push ICE canola futures higher, offering a reprieve — for now, at least — from seasonal harvest pressure and the absence of demand from China.
Fulton cautions that the costs of raising cattle have jumped due to last year’s drought and an extended feeding period over a long, brutal winter.
“Lots of commodity prices have seen a surge, but cattle prices are really not that different than what they’ve been for the last two years. So we’re feeling a cash crunch at the farm level,” he said.
While Fulton believes the dry spell of the past two years has ended, he has concerns about the stability of the province’s climate. Cattle producers already know they will need to adjust.
“It has not just been a wet April; it was a wet May and a wet June… The expectation is that those types of swings will be more prevalent in the future,” he said. “Now that we’re in haying season, it’s been a real struggle to get to those hay lands in order to make bales for this coming winter.
“On the flip side, there’s a heck of a crop of hay out there… If we can figure out a way to get it, we’ll be in a lot better spot than we were last year.”
Cattle producers across the country are already experiencing success this summer. After a writing campaign from the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), Health Canada announced on June 30 it was exempting ground beef and pork from nutritional warning labels on the front of packaging when they come into effect in 2026.
Fulton said the “heartfelt” public support for Canada’s beef industry reminded him of similar support shown during the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis of the early 2000s.
“I don’t think we should have had to really put up the fight and the effort to fight those proposed regulations, because it didn’t make a lot of sense to us,” he said. “But the industry and everybody that was involved with the campaign just had an overwhelming feeling of support from the public for this. They really backed beef producers.”
The CCA is also looking to a brighter future after it unveiled its new logo and officially renamed itself the Canadian Cattle Association on July 7.
Fulton said the rebranding allows for a greater emphasis on the organization’s initiatives, such as conservation and environmental stewardship, and shows that CCA is making progress.
“We believe (the name) is progressive, modern and inclusive. It represents more industry partners across the whole value chain.”
Fulton believes success for Manitoba’s cattle industry in 2022 will include recognition of its environmental benefits and funds to support its activities. Still, black ink in the ledgers for cattle operations remains paramount “to have cattle prices squarely in the profitable range, not just for cow-calf operators, but also the feedlots as well.”
