When Wolseley-area cattlemen Cam Taylor and Ken Piller started working on a hormone-free beef marketing program, they soon realized the potential for a natural beef product. Among other things, they needed access to a processing facility.
“We had this dream of building our own natural beef plant,” explains Taylor. “Partway through our research, the BSE crisis started and the border closed. At that point, we found another motivation to go in that direction.”
The Natural Valley Farms beef processing plant opened on June 15 this year. It gained federal accreditation on July 11, and it is now allowed to sell beef anywhere in Canada.
“Our plant is capable of running 1,000 head a week. The 20,000 square foot facility currently employs 30 people and it is fully equipped in terms of cutting, packaging and refrigeration capabilities. We can take a side of beef, cut it into marketable parts, box them and sell to retail stores and restaurants all over.”
For Taylor, Piller and their fellow shareholders, the last couple of years have been quite a ride.
“We raised $8 million among beef producers across prairie provinces—provincial boundaries don’t matter to them. We are supplied by producers from Manitoba and Saskatchewan who otherwise would have to ship their cattle to High River, Alberta.”
There certainly is pride for many producers who can now boast they own a piece of a processing plant. At the same time, prices for boxed beef have remained relatively stable in light of recent fluctuations.
“For our suppliers, it creates a bit of stability in their farm income. For our local community, there is a certain joy in knowing that people managed to take the bull by the horns and do something to ensure the sustainability of our beef industry. Just having less of a reliance on moving cattle to U.S. plants makes a big difference.”
Natural Valley currently relies on two other Western Canadian packing plants to kill producers’ cattle and supply sides of beef to the Wolseley plant. This will continue until late 2005, when Natural Valley will complete the construction of its own beef slaughter facility at Neudorf, 20 miles from the Wolseley processing facility. An additional 40 jobs will be created at this second facility when it comes on stream.
“We are also involved with two other groups trying to create additional slaughter capacity. One project is in Neepawa, Manitoba, and another one in Saskatchewan on the Yellowhead Highway between Foam Lake and Saskatoon. This means even more producers can get their animals ready for processing at Natural Valley Farms.
“These developments have really caught people’s imagination around here. Now everybody is looking at new options to market their cattle. It’s great.”
Good news for the cattle industry can just keep coming as far as everyone is concerned in and around Wolseley. The time is right.
For more information, contact:
Ken Piller, Cam Taylor or Kathy Martin
Natural Valley Farms
(306) 698-2100
www.naturalvalley.ca
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