Alberta seminars to address beef cattle market outlooks

Cow-Calfenomics events scheduled for November and January

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

Alberta beef producers can gain insights into the cattle market during upcoming seminars.

The 7^th Cow-Calfenomics events, which begin in mid-November and run periodically until the end of January 2018, provides beef producers with opportunities to learn from, and network with, peers and industry experts.

“This series has brought a lot of ideas and opportunities for producers to add to their management toolkit to make better choices based on better information,” Rick Dehod, a farm financial specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, told Call of the Land on Thursday.

The seminars will cover business structures for new entrants into the beef industry, the value of having a mentor, and a farmer’s guide to agricultural credit.

And Anne Wasko, a marketing analyst with Gateway Livestock Exchange, will discuss the current beef cattle market and its potential in 2018.

The presentation will touch on Canadian, U.S. and international beef issues, she said.

“I’ll talk about supply, which – in Canada – hasn’t seen a big change when you consider the U.S. has aggressively rebuilt its beef herd,” she told Farms.com today. “I’ll discuss pricing impacts and how the Canadian dollar and basis (the difference between the Canadian price and the U.S. price) … can impact price.”

Anne Wasko

Currently, the Canadian beef market is performing favourably, Wasko says. Canadian beef exports to the U.S., Japan, Mexico, South Korea, China and Hong Kong are all up compared to last year.

“The entire beef sector has had a pretty good year from a margin perspective on average,” she said. “It’s a good barometer because, if one sector is doing well, (the success) is passed onto the next sector.”

The first Cow-Calfenomics seminar is scheduled for Nov. 14 at the Heritage Inn Hotel and Convention Centre in Brooks, Alta.

Producers must register to attend. The registration deadline for November meetings is Nov. 7 and the deadline for January meetings is Jan. 16.

Cow-Calfenomics Seminars
All seminars run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.