Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) members will vote on a $1.50 check-off increase in February at the annual general meeting.
Inflation, maintaining current services and aligning Ontario’s support of national groups with other provinces are the catalysts for the increase, explained Craig McLaughlin, BFO president, to attendees of Beef Day at the Grey Bruce Farmers Week on Jan. 8.
“We’re there in front of government. We’re there in front of consumers. We’re there in front of animal welfare people who want to put an end to your industry,” he said. “(Like businesses), we have felt the inflationary pressures. We are running deficits (and) current spending means we will have to make program cuts.”
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Why it matters: Based on expected marketings, the BFO anticipates the increase to Ontario’s check-off would generate an estimated $1.2 million in additional revenue.
Despite Ontario cow herd stabilization and a three per cent rise in heifer retention, marketing larger carcass weights but fewer animals has resulted in flat check-off transactions. Last year, the sale of BFO’s research cow herd cut the 2024 deficit by approximately half, compared to the projected total for 2025 forwards.
“We technically owned the herd, and the research was being done, but any sale from the offspring was just turned back to cover their costs,” he explained. “It was a paper asset. We weren’t making any money on this cow herd.”
McLaughlin said the forecasted two per cent year-over-year increase to operational costs from 2025 to 2029, combined with research commitments and maintenance of current programs and services, would result in an unsustainable half-a-million-dollar deficit.
If approved, the BFO programs, services and admin would see a funding increase of 67 cents, 30 cents for the Ontario Beef Marketing Development Program, 23 cents for the Beef Cattle Research Council, 15 cents for the Ontario Cattle Feeders Association/Ontario Corn Fed Beef and seven-and-a-half cents each to the Canadian Beef Check-off Agency and public and stakeholder engagement.
BFO members last approved a $1.50 increase in February 2019, with 25 cents applied to BFO producer and consumer engagement and the remainder earmarked for an ambitious industry-wide Ontario beef marketing effort, growing Ontario beef exports to Japan, Vietnam, Korea, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
McLaughlin said raising Ontario’s national check-off portion to $2.50, in line with other provinces, would trigger the National Import Levy, which has been applied to all beef, beef products and live cattle imported into Canada since 2013 and collected by the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-off Agency.
“Currently, every province sends to the national check-off agency $2.50, but Ontario’s still at one dollar, and if we do that, we increase the levy on imported beef,” he said.
McLaughlin explained that 78 per cent of imports are boxed beef products, pointing out that “in Eastern Canada, we import a lot more (boxed) beef products than Western Canada.”
