Livestock Sector Looks to the Federal Government for Help

Apr 28, 2020

For the past couple of weeks, Canada's livestock sector has been asking Ottawa for help to get through the current crisis with COVID 19.

Many packing plants where livestock producers usually send their animals, are either closed or at reduced shifts because of outbreaks among workers. That's been especially troubling for the pork industry, where hogs need to be shipped to market once they've reached the proper weight.

According to Dennis Laycraft of the CCA, agriculture has been moved to the "top of the list" when it comes to funding priorities for the federal government. The prime minister also hinted at that during one of his daily COVID update on the weekend. The PM said his government is looking at additional ways to support agriculture in the coming days.

If packing plants remain closed for too long, producers could lose hundreds of millions of dollars, and consumer will notice fewer meat choices at their grocery store.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.