CCA Says Hay West Program Is Key

Dec 23, 2021

The President of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association says 2021 was a rough year for agriculture.

Bob Lowe says fires in BC the drought from western side of Ontario West took up a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of mental anguish from producers.

"We're all familiar with droughts but not one that basically covers western North America. So it's not a matter of going 100 or 200 miles to find feed you go to the Hay West program from the East Coast, and we're bringing corn up from Iowa."

He says the Hay West Program has been very beneficial for producers.

"If you were one of the people that got some hay it may have made the difference between selling off part of your herd or all of it."

So far, the Hay West Program has resulted in feed for just under 17 thousand cows already, with another 100 million more pounds of hay from Eastern Canada lined up for delivery to the West.

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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.