Canadian Small Abbatoir Resource Directory

The Bullick Family, organized by Jackie Northey On Tuesday, January 24, 2023, Tyler Bullick was involved in a serious farm accident that has left h… Jackie Northey needs your support for The Bullick Family

Logic adds up to me!

Absolutely!

Are You Proud of Alberta Beef? Alberta Proud

If you LOVE beef... Consider signing the petition.

Free The Beef at Rebel News The Canadian government is proposing regulations that will require packaged ground beef to be sold with a health warning label to 'encourage consumers to make healthier choices.'

Giant Eagle accuses top beef packers of collusion Another collusion lawsuit against the nation's top beef packers. This time a grocery retailer names many companies.

Pass the word...

Don't Label My Beef Health Canada is proposing regulations that would require ground beef sold in stores to carry a “high in” saturated fat warning label. This could lead consumers to believe that ground beef is unhealthy when in fact, it’s a nutrient-rich, wholesome source of protein that Canadians rely on.Groun...

👌

What happened to the Very Good Butchers? Plant-based meat company closing most B.C. operations A British Columbia company that was once at the forefront of the booming plant-based meats industry is shuttering stores and production plants as it struggles to survive.

Canadian beef consumers could get a break as price fixing class action lawsuit filed

...of course bill gates would say such...

Bill Gates says "all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef" In an interview, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said rich countries "can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time."

Montana cattle ranchers struggling despite record beef prices Beef prices jumped around 20% in 2021, but many Montana ranchers—who raise the cattle that eventually end up on the dinner table—say they’re not reaping the benefits you might expect.

A recipe for your Farm Purchased beef...

SUPER EASY POT ROAST

Super tender, juicy, fall-apart crock pot roast is not as hard as you think! This slow cooker recipe uses a few simple ingredients to make the most flavorful (yet stupid easy) pot roast ever!

The Recipe ⤵
https://getrecipe.co/QwEW3

Curated Beef Boxes from Hale Ranch Beef If you're looking to top up your freezer before the holidays or gift a delicious box of Hale Ranch beef to someone you love, we've got you covered! Check out our Basics Box ($100), Family Box ($250) or our Holiday Box ($350) and reserve yours today!

MORGAN: Supply management harms animals - The Western Standard Cory Morgan writes that Canada's Soviet-style supply management system encourages inhumane factory farms.

Ensuring our pigs are happy and healthy is top of mind. This includes providing them with a warm shelter and lots of straw to bed in at night. We rarely see them burrowing under the straw because they give off so much heat when they share this space. It’s an open faced shelter so they can come and go as they please with full access to pasture, fresh air and sunshine. https://tkranch.com/shop/

Last summer the provincial government amended the meat inspection regulations to allow for the sale of on-farm slaughtered uninspected meat. Many people have asked my opinion, but I've stayed quiet because I have mixed feelings. I could write substantially more about the specifics of these amendments, but will focus on my primary concerns about animal welfare and food safety.

Covid 19 created supply chain disruptions when Cargill and JBS cut their slaughter capacity. These two companies process the vast majority of beef in Canada, 4500 head each per day, and Canadians quickly became aware of how fragile our food security had become. In response to empty meat counters, many people looked for alternatives and sought out farm direct options. At that time, all meat sold to the public had to be government inspected both before and after an animal was slaughtered. This was to ensure it was slaughtered humanely and was healthy and fit for human consumption. With few provincially inspected processors available, this caused a significant bottleneck for family farms looking to process animals for emerging markets. The government was bombarded to resolve this issue and I was asked to participate.

Most people are unaware that there are two levels of meat inspection in Alberta, federal and provincial. Federal meat inspection regulations, under the Safe Food For Canadians Act, are monitored and enforced by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). These regulations are designed to mitigate the food safety risks inherent when slaughtering large numbers of livestock daily. Processors that are federally inspected, like Cargill and JBS, can sell their meat products across Canada and internationally. Most grocery stores source their meat from these two large packers. Provincial meat inspection regulations, under the Meat Inspection Act, are monitored and enforced by Alberta Meat Inspection Branch (MIB). They were designed to offer smaller livestock producers meat inspection services to sell their meat legally to restaurants, retailers and direct to consumer. Alberta has some of the most stringent meat inspection regulations in Canada, but provincially inspected meat cannot be sold outside of the province. A lack of harmonization between the provinces prevents interprovincial trade. This bureaucratically induced economic restriction is a barrier to those of us that have invested in, and follow, stringent food safety protocols.

In 2015 we built our own provincially inspected abattoir and for this reason I was asked to submit my recommendations on how meat inspection could be changed to better diversify the livestock and meat sector. With 25 years of experience I used logic to form my submission. I'd seen slaughter first hand and understood the controls required to ensure a humane kill was achieved. I'd also seen livestock that appeared healthy when alive, but after slaughter were condemned for underlying health issues. Based on my experience meat inspection was essential if we wanted a humane and healthy food supply. Since we already had comprehensive meat inspection regulations in place, I suggested changing their scope:

1. Federal meat inspection wouldn't change, it would continue to regulate large packers with a focus on national and international trade;
2. Provincial meat inspection would be changed to domestic to allow for interprovincial trade. This would allow for the development of diversified producer co-operatives and boost economic development. Instead of JBS and Cargill controlling the industry, producers would have several different options for marketing their livestock. This would help stabilize farm income and give hope to rural communities;
3. I also suggested the creation of a third level of local meat inspection that would allow on-farm slaughter. This would be monitored and enforced by Alberta Health Services and locally administered. It would include the services of a government trained and appointed mobile meat inspector that would be on-farm when an animal was butchered to ensure it was restrained and stunned humanely and that it was healthy and fit for human consumption.

Several weeks after I submitted my recommendations I received a letter from the Minister stating it was too difficult to deal with the regulatory challenges I suggested. Instead he amended the meat inspection regulations to allow for on-farm slaughter and the sale of uninspected meat.

I understand why some livestock producers want to do an on-farm slaughter and I don't question their motives. My reservations come from first-hand experience with slaughter and processing. What is going to ensure the animal is slaughtered humanely? There's no question that shooting an animal on pasture is the best way, but ONLY when everything goes as planned. What if the animal moves and is seriously injured, or worse, runs away? Ask any seasoned hunter who thinks they have the perfect shot only to have the animal injured causing undue suffering and diminished meat quality. Having an animal restrained at slaughter is the only way to mitigate this. Unfortunately restraining an animal is not included in the regulatory amendments. Additionally, who is going to ensure the animal was healthy and fit for human consumption? Some animals appear healthy but have serious underlying health conditions. You don't know what you don't know and without a qualified meat inspector on-site public safety could be jeopardized. Maybe not intentionally, but the end result is the same.

Our commitment to animal welfare and food safety is at the heart of everything we do on TK Ranch. We've been direct marketing for over 25 years and understand the challenges producers face. Change is good, but not at the expense of animal welfare or food safety. We wish only the best for farm families that are doing on-farm slaughter. The more livestock producers that can diversify their income and become less reliant on mainstream markets will only benefit the rural economy and help stabilize farm income. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/fbf7a40f-c04e-4db7-9b3f-9dab4b174ab9/resource/91fcf960-a033-4cd1-976d-62d21a9344df/download/af-on-farm-slaughter-factsheet.pdf

https://tkranch.com/shop/

...a little food for thought...

How would you feel if you were told you couldn't buy something because it was made in another province? Many people are unaware of interprovincial trade barriers that dramatically affect businesses like ours. Even though we meet some of the most stringent provincial meat inspection regulations in Canada, we aren't allowed to sell our products outside of Alberta. We can legally sell to stores, restaurants and direct to consumers here, but our products are considered a food safety risk once they cross provincial boundaries.

All meat sold to the public must be government inspected and there are two levels of meat inspection, federal and provincial. Federally inspected meat processors include the likes of Cargill, Olymel and Lilydale that process thousands of livestock every day. A federal license allows them to sell their meat across Canada and internationally. There are a couple of federally inspected plants that offer custom processing services, but they require large numbers of livestock to be processed at one time. For smaller companies like ours, that only process a few livestock every week, this is not feasible. Especially when we'd lose control over how the animals were handled at slaughter and how the meat was processed. No federal plants dry-age their beef, it's all vacuum packaged and wet aged in plastic bags. Not to mention how they routinely mechanically tenderize the beef they process and inject it with up to 15% ground or emulsified meat particles without having to list this on the label. For these reasons, as well as others, we don't to use federally inspected abattoirs or meat processors for our program.

In 2015 we built our own small on-farm red meat abattoir and cutting facilities so that we could slaughter our own livestock to the highest animal welfare standards as well as dry-age, cut and process our own products. We are one of the only ranch families in Canada that manages with a focus on animal welfare, environmental sustainability and quality that has their own government inspected red meat abattoir. This makes our program very popular and over the years we've received countless requests from people across the country that want to buy from us. But we're not allowed to ship to anyone outside of Alberta. Why? The provinces don't have harmonized provincial meat inspection regulations. Some have very strict standards like Alberta and Ontario, whereas others allow the sale of uninspected meat like Saskatchewan. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) regulates all meat products that are shipped across provincial boundaries. They administer all provinces to the lowest common denominator and since Saskatchewan allows the sale of uninspected meat all provinces are regulated to this lax standard.

Why not just get a federal license? We've invested thousands of hours into the process of getting a federal license. Unfortunately federal meat inspection regulations are designed to mitigate the food safety risks that large processors like Cargill pose because of the number of livestock they process every day. We have to meet the same regulatory requirements and the financial and administrative burden to achieve this is challenging at best. We are still considering this, but to date no small provincially inspected red meat abattoirs have succeeded.

Covid 19 opened the eyes of consumers across Canada to the insecurity of our meat processing industry. As a result the Alberta Government requested input on how we could make our meat processing sector more sustainable and secure. I spent 5 days writing a formal submission suggesting that the CFIA redesignate provincially inspected abattoirs as domestic and allow them to ship across provincial boundaries. This would recognize those provinces that have stringent meat inspection regulations as well as bolster economic growth and offer livestock producers across the country more markets than the current monopoly held by large meat packers. Unfortunately I heard the other day that the CFIA won't budge. At the end of the day nothing changed. If a pandemic that threatened our very food supply can't wake up federal regulators and make them see how change is needed then what will?

The Constitution Act, 1867 (Sec. 121) reads: "All articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of any one of the provinces shall, from and after the union, be admitted free into each of the other provinces." If this is what our country's economic trade was originally based upon then what happened and who do interprovincial trade barriers benefit? Considering the state of our economy shouldn't the government be promoting, encouraging and facilitating free-trade between provinces? Consumers and small scale agricultural producers want a more diversified food economy that will benefit all Canadians. Instead federal bureaucrats continue to tighten their grip and further choke the economy leaving business like ours limited to trade that is a far cry from free. https://tkranch.com/shop/

https://mackaycartoons.net/2018/07/23/tuesday-july-17-2018-2/

What does local mean to you? Driving home to the ranch I heard an ad from a Calgary grocery chain reassuring consumers that they only buy their beef, pork and chicken from local farms. I know what local means to me, but how might the average consumer interpret that message? If I had no connection with agriculture I might think they were buying from stereotypical family farms and offering something different than other grocery stores. But are they? Or are they simply using language as a marketing tool? This begs the question, what does local actually mean in this day and age?

When I was growing up in Alberta food economies were still local. Many small towns had a local creamery, butcher shop, bakery, flour mill and grocery store that bought from local farms that surrounded their communities. Farms brought their eggs, cream, pigs, turkeys and produce into town to sell. Back then our population was not as concentrated in urban centers. Everybody I knew had a relative that lived on a farm or in a small community. That was 50 years ago and things have changed.

Many towns vanished from the prairies along with their local food economies as people migrated to urban centers for more job opportunities. This population shift meant farms had to adapt too. Many farms sold out because they couldn't make a living raising small numbers of livestock or produce anymore. Farms got bigger and food became more of a commodity than an local ingredient for the family meal. Our food system shifted from local to industrial to meet the needs of growing urban populations.

The fact that this Calgary grocery chain is committed to buying local meat is definitely better than importing it from the US or Australia. But my concern is that consumers will interpret their local message to mean something else. That the meat they are buying comes from different sources than JBS, Cargill, Olymel and Lilydale that are all local to Alberta. These large packing plants source livestock from local producers which are most often large feedlots, farrow to finish confinement hog barns and poultry barns that can finish 100,000 chickens at a time. They are all local.

So when you hear the message that a grocery chain is buying local make sure you ask them what this actually means. Don't assume you are buying anything different than what they were selling before Covid 19 because likely nothing has changed. If you want to support something different then you need to look outside of mainstream grocery chains. Yes this takes more effort, but by voting with your dollars you can help change our food system.

https://tkranch.com/shop/

While the event is over.. remember to support local...

Support your local businesses and producers by coming in for steak from 5-8pm tonight!

Buying Bulk Beef? Buyer Beware

I spent the last few days building spreadsheets and researching the price of beef halves in the marketplace and it was an eye opener. It takes almost twice as long to raise and grass finish our cattle yet our bulk beef packages are selling for less than some mainstream beef. Is our beef undervalued or are consumers being taken advantage of during Covid 19? Unfortunately many people don't understand the language or processes involved in buying bulk beef and this makes it hard for them to know if it's actually a good deal or not.

Who you buy from depends on your preferences and there are many different options to choose from. From feedlot finished on grain to grass-fed and finished on pasture and everything in-between. Make sure you ask a lot of questions so you can compare apples to apples. If you're concerned about hormone implants or feed antibiotics make sure you ask if they were used.

The most common way that beef is sold is by the hanging half. Simply put, after an animal is processed (skinned and eviscerated) the carcass is hung up on a rail and split into two equal portions. This is done because it's easier to handle and cut that way, hence a hanging half. In addition, the beef is usually sold by the hot hanging weight (also called the rail weight or dressed weight). This is the weight of the half taken right after processing while it is still warm and hanging on the rail. Ranchers and/or butcher shops sell beef this way so that they are paid for the carcass before it naturally shrinks during the aging process which can be about 8%.

After weighing, the half is moved into a cooler and left to dry-age (hang) for 7 to 21 days. This process allows the beef to dry and relax adding tenderness and flavour to the final product. When the half is finished aging, the butcher will call and ask you for cutting instructions or how you'd like it cut up. This can be puzzling at best if you don't know where certain cuts come from on a carcass. A great resource is Canada Beef where you can find a detailed chart that will assist you with the process. It's also important to understand that a carcass consists of about 35% waste that is discarded. So while you might have paid for a 400 lb half, the meat that actually goes into your freezer is significantly less. To determine how much beef you'll actually receive takes a little math, but it's relatively simple. Add the shrink of 8% to the waste of 35% and you get 43%. Multiply this by the hot hanging weight of the half, we will use 400 lbs, and you get 228 lbs. This is called the lean meat yield and is what actually goes into your freezer. It's usually based on everything you receive being boneless. This might change a bit if you like some bone-in products, like Prime Rib Roasts, but the final numbers will be close. **IMPORTANT** many butchers combine the trim from all of the beef they are cutting in a day to be made into commingled ground beef, they don't keep it separate. So your premium ground beef might be mixed with old cow or bull trim if you don't ask for it to be kept separate. You'll also be asked what portion sizes you'd like so it's worth thinking about how much you and your family consume at one meal. The beef is then cut and wrapped to your specifications, boxed and frozen.

Most farm families will ask you to pick up your beef at the butcher shop where it was cut and packaged. Usually you'll pay the farmer for the beef and the butcher shop for the cutting and wrapping. What a farm charges for their beef can vary dramatically depending on their management. Some that finish their beef in large feedlots will often charge the average weekly dressed weight. This week's average price is $2.35/lb on the rail for mainstream beef. Other farms who are organic or grass-fed and finished will charge anywhere from $4.50 to $6.25/lb on the rail. So the cost of a half can vary from $940 to $2,500. Most butcher shops charge an average of $1.00/lb on the rail weight for cutting and wrapping. Some charge extra for grinding or cutting stew meat and all charge extra for value added products like patties or sausages. So if a half weighed 400 lbs you would be charged $400 in processing fees (+extras).

So when I started comparing prices last week I was astounded. Several butcher shops are selling beef halves for $4.75/lb on the rail that they likely purchased from feedlots for $2.35/lb, plus their cutting and wrapping charges. This equates to approximately $2,500 for a 400 lb half. We are selling our dry-aged grass-fed and finished beef halves for $2,147. This includes cutting and vacuum packaging. Based on this information it's imperative that consumers ask what they are actually buying so they can make an informed decision.

So if you're looking to fill your freezer with quality dry-aged beef that's been raised to the highest animal welfare and environmental standards then look no further. When we sell our customers a beef half, mixed quarter or mixed eighth we charge a flat price which includes dry-aging, cutting and packaging. This way you don't have to worry about the math. Our packages consist of a lovely selection of well trimmed roasts, steaks, stew, stirfry, patties and many other delicious items. Everything is vacuum packaged to extend freezer life, this makes thawing simple and mess-free. All of our cuts are also individually labeled so you know what's in your freezer. We only add a few every week, so if we're out of stock check back soon!!

https://tkranch.com/shop/index.php?l=product_list&c=140

End to slaughterhouses would benefit workers, consumers — but it's unlikely even COVID-19 will force change | CBC News There could be benefits to rethinking Canada’s reliance on a few massive slaughterhouses, but building local capacity for processing meat isn’t an easy task — especially in Manitoba, where most beef farmers rely on plants elsewhere.

Free Shipping! 📦 🚚 Printed in Canada

Local- non stress environment raised- ethically processed...

Our dry-aged grass-fed and finished beef striploin steaks are naturally delicious. Unlike mainstream meat packers that mechanically tenderize their steaks or inject them with a tenderizing solution, we don't. We prefer to keep things as natural as possible which means we don't rely on additives or fancy technology to improve the quality of our products. They are good because of the care we take preparing every cut. When you support our program you vote with your dollars for locally raised sustainable meat products. https://tkranch.com/shop/

While not 100 percent true.. this is a good example of understanding where our food sources come from....

Province eases restrictions for home-based businesses on sale of home-prepared foods - ALBERTA PRESS The Alberta government is changing regulations to allow for the sale of low-risk, home-prepared foods without permits or inspections. Home-based businesses will not require food-handling permits or be subject to…

Buying from a local butcher shop? Did you know that most source their beef from the likes of Cargill and JBS? That's how they can offer unlimited steaks and great BBQ deals. By doing this they don't have to worry about selling the whole carcass like we do. Steaks only make up a small portion of a carcass, about 12%, and they are in high demand. Especially since we dry-age all of ours to perfection. We just added some delicious well marbled grass-fed and finished steaks to our online store. If you place an order tonight you can do curb-side pick-up at our little store NE of Chestermere just in time for the weekend :). https://tkranch.com/shop/

Check out our new merch. Become a CSARD ambassador and promote Canadian Beef that is not processed in a large facility.

Create your own Embroidered Hat | Zazzle.ca Customizable Embroidered Hat made by Zazzle Embroidery. Personalize it with photos & text or shop existing designs!

Small farmers are big players in food security during pandemic - ALBERTA PRESS The Canadian Press Every May, long-time farmer Tamara McPhail’s day begins and ends with frog song. Followed closely by the chatter of birds. McPhail, her partner and their two kids…

How do we change our broken food system? I've received hundreds of phone calls, emails and posts from consumers who don't want support the multi-national control of our meat supply anymore. They want to support local farms and ranches but don't know how. Last week my MLA called and asked me to sit on an advisory group to suggest changes to the meat inspection regulations in light of the Covid 19 plant closures. This is a complex problem because our food system has become so centralized over the last 50 years.

Big box stores have complex supply chains and most want to sell the same products in all of their stores across Canada and the US. Any meat products shipped across Canada or the US border must be federally inspected. This means the meat must be slaughtered and processed in federally licensed abattoirs and there aren't very many of these in Canada. In fact 80% of our domestic beef supply comes from JBS and Cargill alone. Federal meat inspection regulations evolved to mitigate the food safety risks that large packing plants pose due to the volume of livestock they process. Small abattoirs in Alberta are not federally licensed because of the significant administrative burden these regulations would impose on them. Instead they are provincially inspected to some of the most stringent meat inspection regulations in Canada. But not being federally licensed means these small abattoirs can't sell their meat outside of the province. This leaves the big plants, like Cargil and JBS, to control and supply the vast majority of the retail marketplace.

To make our food system more sustainable will require changing the regulatory framework to recognize three distinct meat inspection levels instead of just two:

1. Federal inspection: For large abattoirs and meat processors that supply big box stores and food service companies like fast food restaurants;

2. Inter-provincial inspection: Unfortunately there are no standardized provincial meat inspection regulations because the provinces can't agree on them. This is why we're not allowed to sell our TK Ranch meat products outside of Alberta and this just doesn't make sense. If our meat can be safely sold to Albertans why not to other Canadians? By lobbying the government to allow small provincially inspected abattoirs to sell inter-provincially we could diversify our food system. We could create food hubs to connect consumers directly with farm families to meet their needs. By doing this we can offer livestock producers a diversified marketplace instead of the monopoly they are currently facing with JBS and Cargill. The inter-provincial trade of provincially inspected meat products could also help boost our Alberta economy at a time when we really need it, and;

3. Local inspection: offer on-farm government inspected slaughter services for those producers that only want to sell direct to consumer in their local area.

Changing our habits as consumers is the first step to creating a local and sustainable food system. This will not be easy, but together we can make it happen. Please call your MLA and suggest they adopt the three levels of meat inspection listed above. Let me know what you think! https://tkranch.com/shop/

Why some think Canada's beef business needs more smaller players As big meat plants deal with outbreaks of COVID-19, industry observers, the National Farmers Union and some smaller players within the sector are asking whether Canada needs a greater number of smaller-scale processors to keep the industry strong.