Maritime cattle producers working to beef up industry with new strategy

P.E.I. cattle producers and their counterparts in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have developed a new strategy with the Maritime Beef Council to grow the beef sector by an additional 20,000 head of beef cattle in the Maritimes by 2027.

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The Maritime Beef Council — an industry partnership of the Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island cattle producers — said the strategy is designed to take advantage of regional opportunities and to meet market demand.  

"We know that Atlantic Beef Products is predicting strong growth over the next several years, and will require an additional 10,000 head per year," said MBC chairman Nathan Phinney in a news release. He also said the Ontario corn fed beef program continues to expand, creating market demand for Maritime cattle. 

There's a lot of demand for beef and there is a low inventory of beef across North America right now.— Rinnie Bradley, P.E.I. Cattle Producers

Rinnie Bradley, executive director of the P.E.I. Cattle Producers, said the industry would like to see that 10,000 head demand from ABP be filled by local farms. 

A work in progress

Bradley said it's too early to tell how many more animals there would be on P.E.I., but said herds will have to grow about 20 per cent, or new herds will need to be started, to meet the goal. She said the plan is a work in progress and will take time to get off the ground. There is hope for federal and provincial funding to support the strategy. 

Bradley said the strategy includes looking at a number of areas of production including genetics, feeds, and farm management — and trying to provide supports to farmers so they can increase their number of cattle. 

She said there is also demand as the industry continues to recover from the BSE scare.

"For many years the industry has kind of been in a tail spin from BSE. We're approaching a regrowth," said Bradley. "There's a lot of demand for beef and there is a low inventory of beef across North America right now. So someone needs to produce those animals and we would like to be involved in that by increasing our production."

A delegation from the MBC presented the Maritime Beef Growth Strategy to MPs in Ottawa in early March and the group said it has worked to ensure that the strategy supported the goals outlined in the Atlantic growth strategy developed by the Atlantic Liberal caucus. 

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