Loblaw Partners With Cattle Feeders To Offer Ontario Beef

Rodney Koning

Loblaw Companies and the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association have teamed up to boost sales of Ontario Corn Fed Beef across the province.

Several Loblaw executives and members of the OCFA were on hand to officially introduce the new partnership during an event on May 25, at Tremblett’s value-mart in Toronto.

The deal involves more than 150 Zehrs Markets, valu-mart, Your Independent Grocer and Bloor Street Market grocery stores in Ontario.

“While we have always supported Canadian beef, this new partnership means the vast majority of beef available in these 150 stores will be produced by farmers from Ontario,” said Rodney Koning, vice-president of Meat and Seafood Procurement for Loblaw.
“Consumers will now be able to easily identify and purchase Ontario beef.”

Koning said the Ontario Corn Fed Beef program offers several benefits for both the retailer and consumers.

Play Clip:

Or download clip: Rodney_Koning

Agriculture’s Time To Shine

Alastair Summerlee

The president of the University of Guelph says it’s time for agriculture to take centre stage to face the significant problems of a changing world.

Dr. Alastair Summerlee was the keynote speaker at the Southwest Agricultural Conference in Ridgetown Jan. 5.

Summerlee says food production must increase by 100 per cent in the next 50 years to meet the demands of a growing population.

Play clip:

Or download clip: summerlee1

Furthermore, he says the challenge to double food production comes at a time when urban growth is reducing the amount of agricultural land available for growing crops and raising livestock.

Summerlee says seventy per cent of the new food will have to come from innovation as well as increasing production and yields across the world.

Play clip:

Or download clip: summerlee2

He says farmers, the agriculture industry and universities will have major roles to play in meeting the challenges.

Summerlee also says agriculture is ushering in a new era as people are realizing the importance of farming in the developed world.

In Ontario, he says agriculture is a key economic driver, surpassing manufacturing and health care as the province’s largest employer.

Ignatieff Talks Farm Policy at Ag Fair

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff at the Comber Fair

Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says he wants to partner with Ontario to design farm risk assurance programs.

He made the comment during a brief stop at the Comber Agricultural Fair August 8.

Ignatieff and an entourage including Quebec MP Justin Trudeau visited the fair as part of the Opposition Leader’s bus tour that has been going across Canada this summer.

“We want to design risk assurance programs from the farm gate up, as opposed to from Ottawa,” he said. “The thing I keep saying across the country is we need flexibility.”

Besides the RMP, Ignatieff said the country needs a national food policy “that puts more Canadian food on Canadian plates.”

Ignatieff’s comments on farm  policy can be heard in the following clip:

Or download clip: michael_ignatieff

Ignatieff’s informal visit to the Comber Fair lasted about an hour before the tour moved on to Windsor.

Besides the customary routine of chatting with the crowd and posing for pictures, Ignatieff started a heat for the demolition derby and presented ribbons to 4-H competition winners.

Beef Producer Wins Premier’s Award

Scott Bothwell, a technician from Beef Improvement Opportunities, performs ultrasound scans on the herd at Buis Beef Ranch

Putting ultrasound technology to good use has earned a Chatham-Kent beef farm a Premier’s award for innovation.

Mike and Joanne Buis have been using the ultrasound to determine the best marketing dates for their on-farm beef retail business.

The system allows a “best before” date to be assigned to each animal at birth, and this knowledge is helping the producers increase control of their product at all times.

It has also enabled the farm to reduce overall feeding costs and inefficiencies and boost retail sales and customer satisfaction.

FarmzOnWheelz A Hit With School Groups

Students try out an IPod, powered by manure, in the FarmzOnWheelz exhibit, under the watchful eye of Project Manager Sue McLarty

The FarmzOnWheelz project of the Ontario Farm Animal Council received an enthusiastic response from school groups during its recent stop in Ridgetown.

The traveling exhibit, built by the Ontario Science Centre, was on display at the Ridgetown District High School from April 28 to May 1.

It features several portable kiosks that are “wheeled” out of a trailer, which are then set up at various events and locations.

Equipped with interactive displays, fast-paced videos and large touch-screens, the kiosks showcase many aspects of agriculture – from local food production to renewable fuels.

The concept is to make the educational messages about agriculture more appealing to young people and teenagers.

Chatham-Kent’s Local Food Promotion On The Web

A new web site promoting local food and other farm products in Chatham-Kent is now on-line.

The site – buylocalbuyfreshchathamkent.com – was officially launched Tuesday (March 23) at Smith and Wilson Estate Wines in Cedar Springs.

It is an extension of the Buy Local! Buy Fresh!  maps that were first distributed in 2007.

President of the Kent Federation of Agriculture Louis Roesch hopes the new web site will help expand the market for local food.

Play clip:

Or download clip:Roesch

Roesch agrees with the notion that the local food movement is not just a passing fad. He says more consumers are looking to make a connection with their local producers.

Play: 

Or download: Roesch1

The new web site features 41 members that are part of the Buy Local! Buy Fresh! program in Chatham-Kent.

The site is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’  Market Investment Fund as well as local sponsors and partners.

It was designed by Rob Armstrong of the Chatham-Kent Daily Post.

News Roundup – November 16

Former Food Entrepreneur to Lead Ontario Green Party

The new leader of the Green Party of Ontario has strong ties to agriculture.  Mike Schreiner, who helped establish Local Food Plus, has taken the helm of the party.

Local Food Plus is a non-profit organization that certifies farmers and processors who produce food in environmentally and socially responsible ways.

See story
 

Red Cowboy Boots and Meat Sales

Although it’s a commentary rather than a news story, an editorial written by Steve Cornett, editor emeritus at Beef  Today, reveals a remarkable lack of interest by American consumers in the U.S. Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) law.

Cornett also uses his purchase of high top red cowboy boots, made in China no less, to effectively demonstrate that certain product attributes can  have more sway with consumers than country of origin.

Also of interest to Canadian producers,  he believes a voluntary traceability system is a superior food safety tool  when compared with a mandatory labelling regime.

Click here to view the full editorial  
 

Animal Health Awareness Campaign Launched 

Ottawa has launched a national awareness campaign for farmers to help keep animals healthy and safeguard the Canadian food supply. 

As part of the Animal Health Awareness Campaign, producers across Canada will receive tips and information about biosecurity measures. Producers will be encouraged to revisit their biosecurity plans, continue to observe their animals for  signs of illness and regularly consult with their veterinarians on the health of their animals.

More

News Roundup – November 12

 

 

Dr. Ron Pitblado

Remembering A Dedicated Agricultural Scientist and Leader

 The following is from a statement released by the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus:

It is with great sadness that the University of Guelph’s  Ridgetown Campus announces the passing of Dr. Ron Pitblado (age 63), former Associate Director Academics, Research Scientist and global agricultural extensionist. He lost his battle with cancer on November 11, 2009.

Ron’s distinguished 34- year career is unparalleled.  His unstoppable passion to investigate new possibilities for agriculture, particularly for Ontario’s fruit and vegetable industry defined his extensive teaching, research, and extension career,” stated Dr. Art Schaafsma, Campus Director at Ridgetown. 

Ron’s research achievements include the development of TOM-CAST, a weather timed pesticide spray program used throughout the world in processing tomato production. The writing and delivery of countless scientific papers and publications was only seen as successful to him if it was useful for growers.

Ron helped to develop the Ontario Weather Network (OWN), a project to assist growers with the timely application of irrigation and pest management products in several crops. 

Sharing his understanding of mushroom production, Ridgetown Campus boasted the only mushroom education facility in Canada and when he wasn’t teaching students at Ridgetown, Ron taught mushroom production to countless farmers around the globe.

Also gifted with management and administration talent, Ron welcomed several leadership positions including Horticulture Section Head, Associate Director Academics, and Acting Campus Director during his time at Ridgetown. 

Ron retired from Ridgetown Campus in summer 2007.

He is a native of St. Catharines, Ontario, and is survived by his loving wife Diane and two grown sons, David and Doug, and their families.

Visitation information:

Sunday, November 15, 2009 from 1:00 – 4:00 PM and 7:00 – 9:00 PM at McKinlay Funeral Homes Ltd., 459 St. Clair St. Chatham.

The Pitblado family will be holding a private family service on Monday, November 16, 2009.

 

Survey Reveals Ontario Food Labelling Lacks Clarity

Another survey is showing that Ontario consumers care about their food and the people who produce it.  They care enough to want more knowledge and information about the food they buy for their family, where it is from and whether it truly is from Ontario.

Brian Sterling, CEO of OnTrace

The study was done by Ontario’s traceability organization OnTrace, in collaboration with the Toronto-based research firm The Strategic Counsel.

OnTrace was looking for insight into how consumers perceive the brands for Ontario products and what assurances Ontarians are seeking about the food they eat.

“We have intuitively felt that having a reliable way to verify the source of food products is important to consumers,” said Brian Sterling, CEO, OnTrace.

“What we found was that a large majority of consumers feel that a simple and consistent “gold seal” that is backed up by a trusted standard would be of great value to them. The challenge for OnTrace is obviously how to help industry address this opportunity.”

The survey revealed several points about food marketing that add up to a confusing experience. OnTrace says that together, these results suggest that one of the barriers to purchasing Ontario produce and meat products is a lack of clearly identifiable labels to let people know which foods are from Ontario.

Ontario consumers expressed frustration they cannot easily identify food grown and produced  in Ontario. Moreover, the study found that there is an absence of a powerful “Ontario brand” in the  marketplace – one that people think of spontaneously when they think of Ontario-grown foods.

• Ontarians tend to be unaware of most of the Ontario food and wine logos, although when prompted they do recognize the Foodland Ontario and VQA logos.
• Ironically, the marketing logos and slogans used by food producer and processor organizations to promote themselves and Ontario food, seem to confuse and frustrate consumers.
•  It was clear that there is a growing appetite for a gold seal or umbrella logo to replace or supplement the many Ontario food logos being used today. Consumers stated, this would make shopping easier and they would have greater confidence that the source of food was verified.

The research included  eight two-hour discussion groups across Ontario in four cities: Toronto, Windsor, Sudbury and Kingston; and a survey of 1,000  Ontario grocery shoppers conducted in early October.

More details about the research are available at the OnTrace Web site.

Investing In Farm Safety

The federal government is investing more than $5 million to improve the safety of farmers and farm workers by funding the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association(CASA).

Formed in 1993,CASA helps producers recognize and manage risk in the agricultural workplace. This investment will create safety exhibits, web resources and training material to help farmers spot and remedy hazards.

Funding will also be used to support CASA’s award-winning Progressive Agricultural Safety Days – day-long events held throughout the country to make rural youth aware of the hazards on the farm and in a rural environment. CASA will be coordinating 75 such days in 2010.

The funding was announced November 12 at CASA’s annual meeting in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

More

Preparing for Traceability

Handheld computer, equipped with RFID reader

With customers becoming more interested in tracking a beef product from the farm to the grocery store, Ontario Corn Fed Beef Inc. is developing a simple traceability system that could also help producers add value to the product.

“We are working towards the day when a plant or retailer says to us, ‘We want Ontario Corn Fed Beef, but we want more information on the cattle from the time they were born.’ And we would have a system in place at a significant number of feedlots so that we could provide that information electronically,” says Dave Murray, quality compliance manager for Ontario Corn Fed Beef.

As part of the development process, Murray has been testing a system using equipment from Merit-Trax Technologies. The Montreal-based company has been involved with information technology in the food industry for the last 25 years, but has specialized in traceability solutions since 2000.

“We take the approach – especially for producers – that the solutions we build have to be designed to help them make more money,” says Merit-Trax president Michael Miskin. “It’s not just collecting information for the sake of collecting, but what we allow them to do with it so it helps them make more money and save time.” 

In this case, Murray has been tracking cattle that were bought from the pre-conditioned calf sales at Keady Livestock.  Using the RFID tags, the cattle were scanned with a Merit-Trax hand-held computer/scanner unit at a feedlot.

“We wanted to make sure the cattle we expected to be there, were actually there,” explains Murray. “And now those cattle are starting to go through the plants and we can get information back on an individual carcass basis.” 

In essence, Murray says the tag can be tied to carcass data, which could then be relayed back to the cow-calf producer.

“And that has always been a concern; guys never get information back on their cattle. We’re trying to make traceability more of a possibility for learning as well as for food safety related issues.”

Murray says an immediate benefit relates to age verification. Provided the cow-calf producer age-verified the calves, a feedlot producer could scan the tag and quickly know the age of the animal.

“Animals over 30 months old are worth much less than those under 21 months. We want to know how old it is when we get it to the farm so we know what to do with it,” says Murray, referring to potential marketing scenarios.

Another short-term benefit of the system is to improve the record-keeping aspect of the Ontario Corn Fed Beef program. Murray says the system allows producers to record production information such as treatment and feed data.

“We can do a lot of the records required for our program audits with this system. That’s why we’re customizing it so that we can get the records we need from this very easily.”

Murray adds that the goal is to develop a system for producers that will work comfortably with the Ontario Corn Fed Beef program, with the hope that farmers can benefit from the ever-increasing investment by government in food traceability systems.

(The above article is from the latest edition of the The News Feed, the newsletter of the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association)

Creating Value With Traceability

Having the ability to trace food along each step of production is becoming more important as consumers are showing more interest in where their food is coming from. While traceability can play a key role in providing that information and building confidence in the food supply, there are other benefits for food producers and processors. Brian Sterling, CEO of OnTrace – the organization that leads food traceability programs in Ontario -  says some of these benefits can be demonstrated in a pilot project involving Ontario Corn Fed Beef.   Click  the play button below to hear the details.

Or download file: Audio-OnTrace Webcast

Brian Sterling, CEO of OnTrace