Last week members of Manitoba Beef Producers voted in favor of implementing mandatory livestock inspection with a strong majority vote at their Annual General Meeting in Winnipeg.
Manitoba's neighbors to the west have had mandatory livestock inspection for quite a number of years, but our cattle producers were skeptical about receiving value for the investment. However, with healthy markets and the increase of cattle theft and fraud over the past few years, having this legislation in place makes sense.
Executive Administrator for the Manitoba Livestock Marketing Association, Rick Wright, says the issue been on the table for quite a number of years, but this was the first year that the MB Beef Producers received solid direction from the membership with a majority vote of close to 90% in favor.
"It was pleasantly surprising that things went as positive as it did and now, for the first time in ten years Manitoba Beef Producers have a very strong directive as to what their membership wants them to do, and that's to move forward with mandatory livestock inspection," shares Wright.
"We need to make it clear to the producers that this is not brand inspection, it's livestock inspection..."
Given the green light, discussions to develop Manitoba's mandatory livestock inspection have begun, with representatives of the Province being in attendance during last week's AGM.
"We need to make it clear to the producers that this is not brand inspection, it's livestock inspection at point of sale," explains Wright. "And it's going to be tied in with movement reporting and transfer of care documents. They're going to put together a program to present to the provincial government a 'made in Manitoba' program for Manitoba producers that will generate some good synergies and values in the industry here in our province."
Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC all have brand inspection, but their programs are not tied into movement reporting and transfer of care documents, so Manitoba cattle producers are hoping to take it one step further, to include these pieces into the plan to give good value for the cost that is going into the program.
Wright says the best thing is to build on existing infrastructure, and being as Saskatchewan is our nearest neighbors, and already have livestock inspectors in our province at the point of sale when cattle are moving in or out of Manitoba from the west, they can learn from the many years of experience to develop a program that will work here in Manitoba.
"... benefits include increased confidence from our neighboring provinces..."
Benefits to Manitoba having mandatory livestock inspection include neighboring provinces having greater confident in our province.
"Right now, our infrastructure for our feeding industry is based on backgrounding cattle and we've had a lot of out-of-province investors that have bought cattle and put them on custom feed here," explains Wright. "We have lenders that lent money to producers to background cattle and to purchase cattle and there's very little security on those cattle in Manitoba. And there have been some concerns especially on the investor's side. You know, how secure are their cattle in Manitoba without livestock inspection?"
"So, that will build the confidence of both the lenders and the investors and that should keep it sustainable moving forward," he adds.
"Also, our reputation in Manitoba," he adds. "Our reputation in the west, they think that we're a dumping ground for stolen cattle because there isn't any livestock inspection here," says Wright. "That's not really the case but it's certainly something that we have to deal with."
"Between fraud and theft over the last 3 years we've had some major issues here in Manitoba, totaling in the millions of dollars..."
Manitoba's livestock inspection would help to thwart livestock theft and fraud, and the key is that the program is mandatory.
"Between fraud and theft over the last 3 years we've had some major issues here in Manitoba, totaling in the millions of dollars. So, certainly it has shaken the confidence of the lenders and the investors in the province of Manitoba. And with the value of the cattle, the cattle are at an all-time record high and we're going to see more cattle disappear, we're going to see more theft, we're going to see more fraud, just because of the value that we're dealing with now compared to where we were 5 years ago."
"Overall, there'll be a little bit of pain along the way," says Wright, "and it's not going to happen overnight. This could take 2-3 years because we have to have change in legislation from the provincial government, we have to make a deal with the Saskatchewan livestock inspection agency or start our own inspection agency."
"So, there are a lot of building blocks and a lot of pieces to the blueprint that have to be put together before this will actually be functional here in Manitoba," he adds.
Please listen to Rick Wright below to hear more on this story!