More producers and feedlot operators needed for CETA
Discover Humboldt | 23 September 2017
More producers and feedlot operators needed for CETA
by Jessica Giles
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union, also known as CETA comes into effect this Thursday.
Under the agreement, there will be new duty-free quotas for Canadian beef entering the E.U., but the beef must certify as raised without the use of hormones.
Producers and feedlot operators need to be enrolled in the Canadian Program for Certifying Freedom from Growth Enhancing Products for their beef to be eligible in the E.U. market.
Randy Radau’s operation, Coulee Crest Herefords in Bowden, has been certified for three years now, and he encourages others to go through the process.
"It just means a bit more paperwork. Because we have purebred Hereford cattle, we’re used to track. So, it was easy for us to do the extra paperwork. If people don’t mind that, it’s not too bad. It’s just a matter of tracking what we’re doing on our cattle, and we were doing a lot of that anyway."
Radau says, by doing this process more of their cattle are available to go into premium programs, such as the E.U. program.
"We’re hoping to be qualified to have more people bidding on our cattle, so we will be able to get a premium price to Europe, and that will just get passed on through the marketing chain to us."
A local vet will come for an inspection when starting the certification process, and Radau says, they then track CCIA tags, sex, colour, and birth date of the calves.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association says they’re concerned very few producers are enrolling their cattle in this E.U. program, and they are looking for producers and feedlot operators to sign up.
