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UFA 0191 Pickseed_AFE.indd File Name: UFA 10191 Pickseed_AFE
11-10-27 10:31 AM
Project: Pickseed Image Area or Trim: 3.08” x 1.83” Publication: Alberta Farmer Express
2 shi
V o l u m e 8 , n u m b e r 2 5 d e c e m b e r 5 , 2 0 1 1
Refundable checkoff takes heavy toll on Alberta Beef Producers
plenty of room to graze
REFUNDING FEEDERS } Refunds going to
cattle feeders represented 87 per cent of the total ABP refunds returned to producers by sheri monk
af staff | pincher creek
T
he move to a refundable checkoff from a mandatory one has affected different commodities in different ways. Alberta Beef Producers has taken approximately a 30 per cent hit, with 87 per cent of the refunded dollars going to the feedlot sector. “It’s disappointing, but not unexpected,” said Rich Smith, executive director of ABP. “They (feeders) were some of the strongest people pushing for it to be refundable. There’s no question that some of them, based on their marketings, pay a very substantial amount of checkoff and so they do have the most to gain.” However, there are 20,000 producers in the province paying checkoff, with the majority of the refund money going to a handful of producers. “The thing we need to keep in perspective is that in the most recent period we had nine producers who took 38 per cent of the refunds,” said Smith. “These are producers who marketed over 10,000 head in the period, so they are very large and 22 per cent of the requests came from producers that market over 1,000 head and (together) they represent 87 per cent of the refund value. “That leaves 13 per cent of the total refunds going to everybody else who markets fewer than 1,000 head, which I think you could safely argue are likely the vast majority of cow-calf producers.”
Smith says there are approximately 300 feedlots in the province that feed 1,000 head or more and about half seem to be requesting refunds. Feeders accounted for 156 of 411 requests and 87 per cent of the dollars refunded in the period ending June 30. That compared to feeders submitting 160 of 648 requests for 76 per cent of refund dollars in the period ending last December. In all, Alberta Beef Producers refunded between $2.2 million and $2.5 million. “It’s definitely had an impact on what we’re able to do,” said Smith. The Alberta Lamb Producers were caught in the cattle industry political crossfire over checkoffs, and along with pork and potatoes, were swept up in the legislative changes making checkoffs refundable. They too are feeling the heat. “We just completed our first year of refundable checkoff because our financial year starts the first of September, so we really just have a picture of what the first year has meant,” said Margaret Cook, executive director of ALP. There are 1,800 lamb producers in Alberta, and only 12 requested a refund. “It actually amounted to almost nine per cent of our checkoff because there were two big ones,” said Cook. “Forty-six per cent of the total refund amount was refunded to one producer and 62 per cent of the total to only two producers.
Two deer find plenty to graze in windswept grain fields along the Livingstone Range, near Cowley, Alberta. Photo by Wendy Dudley
see checkoff } page 6
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m a n a g i n g y o u r fa r m ’ s f i n a n c e s } PAGE 8