A step on to Canada’s largest feedlot …and the ranchers bucking the trend to go grass

The facility goes through hundreds of tonnes of maize a week.

It’s no exaggeration to say that there are tens of thousands of cattle, as far as the eye can see, in the pens at Lakeside Feeders in Brooks, Southern Alberta.

As we are driven through the site, it just keeps going on and on, no end in sight, with pathways that go on for literally kilometres.

In fact, each year explains general manager Patrick Gummeson, staff build 15,000m of new fence as the facility converts from wood to steel pens.

It might seem like good going, but at this rate, the phased transition will still take years to complete, with 200,000m of fencing in total throughout the facility, at which photography is strictly prohibited.

As Canada’s single largest feedlot facility, it holds around 75,000 cattle at any one time, meaning a whopping 360,000 cattle pass through its gates a year.

But despite its scale, we are told that south of the border, by US standards, it would still only be considered medium-sized.

It’s a scale difficult to even contemplate. Perhaps the closest numerical comparator is that, in Irish terms, it would make up 40% of the 889,000 total suckler beef cows in the entire Republic of Ireland.

Alternatively, it’s the equivalent of around a fifth of the 1.8m cattle slaughtered in Ireland last year — a figure which also includes dairy animals slaughtered at Irish abattoirs.

The site was one of the facilities sold by JBS in late 2017 following JBS’ controversy in Brazil.

It was purchased for $40m by MCF, a subsidiary of Nilsson Brothers, an agricultural firm based in Edmonton.

Spanning 250 hectares, it includes 255 pens, the largest of which hold around 425 cattle. However, most, we are told, have capacities of between 350 and 400 and sized around 1,860sq m.

Feeding

Cattle at Lakeside Feeders are finished at around 700-750kg, with the goal to finish as early as possible, through an intensive high-maize diet.

The facility is so big that it even includes a new $2m steel flaking operation, which was finished last August, as part of its new feed mill to produce steamed corn, or cornflakes, to those of us on this side of the Atlantic.

Cattle in the lot are fed a high maize diet with corn flakes and maize silage making up around 85% of the ration. The other 15% includes protein supplements — usually canola meal — and micronutrients such as limestone and salt.

To meet demand for the maize mountain visible from the highway, maize is imported to the site by train from 1,700km away, from Minnesota, as well as North and South Dakota, in the US.

On-site, cows will eat around 14.5kg per head per day of maize or cereal silage. For calves, the figure sits around round 12kg.

Feed here has a higher ratio of maize than most feedlots will use, Gummerson states. “They seem to prefer to feed barley rather than corn. We are feeding on an energy basis — least cost energy.

“We were feeding barley and corn, and now we are feeding corn exclusively,” he explains.

Cattle are fed supplements to reduce the incidences of acidosis caused by the drop in pH levels in the rumen caused by the high-starch diet.

And new cows into the lot are fed on dry hay and transitioned up to the finishing ration to avoid stomach upsets from the sudden change.

Because of the drought, this year, the facility has been able to buy in a lot of cattle which would normally have been kept for breeding as ranchers struggle to secure enough forage for their stock.

“We’ll feed steers, heifers, and we have a bunch of cull cows in here right now, because the dry conditions we have had this year mean a lot of the pastures have been in pretty poor shape, so these cattle have come to market and we have bought a large number of them,” he says.

The facility markets all of its cows at the packing plant, and sends 800-900 head of cattle a day to JBS.

The site has EU certification allowing the meat to then be exported to Europe, but most is shipped to China and Pacific Ring Countries, with the US and Canada as other major markets.

Hormones

Cattle on the site are also implanted with anabolic steroids, a growth hormone which causes faster carcase development, a practice Gummerson says is widely accepted among consumers in Canada.

“There’s about an 8% increase in body weight as a result of using the implants,” Gummerson says.

“We follow the regulations and rules that are in place. There are withdrawal times, usually around 30 days.

“There are a number of different options and different methods of production, and it’s all cost related. If people are willing to pay for grass-fed beef, that’s great, but centralising them and having them in feedlots like this tends to reduce the overall cost of production and there’s only a certain number of people that are willing to pay in excess for production.”

The black and white dotty Speckle Park cattle, a cross between Shorthorn and Angus developed in Canada, appear to be one of the most popular breeds locally, and can be spotted in most of the pens along with Angus cattle, but Gummerson explains that meeting demand means any breed is welcome as long as they are in the desired weight range — usually around 400kg.

At the time of our visit in mid-July, a 350-400kg steer would fetch 3CAD/lb 6.60/kg.

“That’s the highest it’s been for a long, long time. Because we ship out so many per day, per week, we have got to bring a lot of cattle in every day,” Gummerson says.

“There are times when it’s challenging, and it’s reflected in the price. Because you’re in the open market.”

But what is driving prices so high? “Supply and demand. BBQ season and July 1 [Canada Day] and July 4 [US Independence Day].”

Management

Where possible, stock from the same farms are kept together.

“Then we can evaluate the performance — it means I know if I should be paying you just a little bit more,” Gummerson says.

However, he adds that some of the stock are divided into pre-selected weight groups.

“But we also monitor their feed quality using NIRS, and we also monitor the manure to determine what nutrients are in the manure.”

The lot also uses a colour-coded tagging system, with three tags – the lot number, individual animal ID, and the third one is an electronic tag, RFID.

With so much going on and through every day, three computer systems are used to manage the site: One for herd health, one for feeding and a third for accounting.

Staff include a consultant vet, 10 pen riders — cowboys on horseback who work the livestock and look out for sick cattle — and six health crew members.

“We don’t tolerate a lot of things,” Gummerson says. “There are people who have lost their jobs for not following the rules.”

And what’s not tolerated?

“Abusing animals, whether it’s a horse or cat or dog, or an animal in one of the pens,” he says. “Any type of harassment. Not following the safety rules or not wearing hi-viz vests — but they have no choice. It’s my way or the highway.”

Calves on the feedlot

The business is officially classed as a “restricted feed lot”, a designation which allows the business to bring cattle in from the US, but means cattle can’t be sold on from the site to farms.

But an added complication with so many cows coming and going from so many different sources is that occasionally cows calve on the feed lot, and some calves are visible during our visit.

“It’s is not what we want because they don’t survive well here,” Gummerson said.

“Because we are a restricted feed lot, we can’t sell any cattle out of here.

“In my mind, we are not raising cattle, we are producing food. So we have to treat them extremely well, feed them well, and take care of them and make sure that they are healthy.”

Regulations

But it’s not just Gummerson’s rules that the site needs to meet; federal and provincial rules dictate the nitrate and phosphorous loading.

All the manure produced on the site is composted and sold to other farmers as fertiliser.

Gummerson says manure from the site is exported to farms in the form of compost as far as 50-60km away.

“The farmers will actually pay for that,” he said.

With so many cattle on one site and the arid climate, another of the biggest concerns is dust.

“We water the roads with trucks and sprinkler guns to keep the dust down and have fitted sprinkler guns on the fences to keep the dust down,” he says.

As we get back to office, the cat remark suddenly makes more sense — a long, hairy tail slinks around an internal door jam as we enter.

“Pest control,” Gummerson says. “Everything has to pull its weight here.”

Swapping grain for pasture at Gemstone Grass-fed Beef

Meanwhile, 30 miles away in Gem, Alberta, Canada, the Doerksen family are shifting from traditional ranching to regenerative agriculture as the next generation takes over the family farm.

Although dad Arno admits he doesn’t use the term often as it can mean so many different things to so many different people.

“It’s really a case of what’s old is new again. It’s about recognising the life in the soil and feeding that life,” he said.

The farm extends to 2,500 acres made up of 160-acre “quarter sections”.

Arno’s grandfather was the first in the family to farm in Gem, arriving in 1932, originally from the former Soviet Union, in what is currently Ukraine.

He’s said to have picked the spot because there were thistles growing — a sure sign of good ground.

The family have become prominent ranchers in the area. Arno is a former Alberta Parliamentarian and chairman of the Canada Beef Export Federation and chairman of the Alberta Beef Producers, a tenure which included the 2003 BSE outbreak.

He farms with his brother Tim and three sons Daniel, Lorin and Barry, who split the different divisions of the business between them and are using skills they have learned from their previous off-farm careers to forge a new path for the ranch.

As a result, the family are stepping away from the intensive, high-grain feed lot style finishing systems common in the area towards almost a more Irish-approach, promoting their grass-finished cattle to a premium niche market.

“This grass-finishing project has only been going for around four or five years,” Arno explained.

“It started very slowly, but the guys are now up to marketing 15 head a week, so there’s a lot of logistics; there aren’t the same economies of scale.

“There was an opportunity. We knew there was an abattoir that was looking for some grass-finished beef. We had dabbled a little bit in it in the past when I was growing up.

“Feed lots established in Alberta and across North America in the 70s — and they really took off after that.

“And that is just how beef production here has gone.”

Although in recent years, there has been a shift back to forage-finishing.

“There is a dynamic to it. It takes a little longer, so beef has a little more culture and flavour since the cattle are older.

“I’ve always been interested in direct marketing— but we hadn’t done much of it, so it’s a new challenge.

“But when the boys started to get interested, we thought it was worth a try.

“Our operation has changed a lot in the last three to four years and is still in transition to accommodate forage-finishing cattle. I think we have the genetics that accommodate that — breeding cattle that put on fat easily and finish easily.

“We have a small feedlot as well and we still feed grain in there, and our cattle will finish easily on grain.

“But it’s a little more of a challenge when you’re not using starch or grain.”

Irrigation

Drought is one of the biggest challenges for farmers in the area, particularly for those relying on grass production.

The strong Chinook Winds — a warm air stream coming out of the mountains — can radically increase temperatures on the prairies and can also cause weather shock for livestock.

“This is an irrigated area. But this year, you’ll have noticed the dried-out crops in the area,” Arno says.

“We live in the desert here; our average precipitation is 12-14 inches. There’s a lot of talk and concern about the current drought, but it’s not uncommon. We only manage two tonnes of hay an acre because of irrigation.”

It means that the farm has to rely on irrigation mainly powered by a canal running around four miles west of the main yard. The reservoir sits higher than the surrounding land, powering most of the pivots without the need for pumps.

We are told one of the biggest examples visible from the roadside is half a mile long.

Water rights are measured in the number of inches of water depth each landowner can extract from the river.

Normally, the Doerksen family can pull 16 or 18 inches from the nearby Bow River, but this has been reduced this year because of the drought.

Pasture management

It also means the boys have had to look outside the traditional perirenal ryegrass varieties for their pasture-based system.

The principles are to rear cattle in a sustainable, low-intensity way, without growth hormones or antibiotics — an approach far closer to what Irish readers will be used to than the norm in big beef country Alberta.

Multispecies swards — or “polycrops” as they are also called in North America — are deeper rooting, and aerate the soil, meaning it is hardier in arid conditions and also have nutritive benefits as well.

15 different species of plants including plaintain, forage radish, ryegrass, legumes, brassicas, peas, turnips.

The mix, which is made up entirely of annuals, offers higher proteins and sugars to compensate for the low-intensity grain-free diet the cattle are fed, will be cut for silage in August.

“We are adapting to try and grow crops that will help finish cattle without grain, and that’s very much a niche market here,” Lorin explains.

“It really doesn’t require much fertiliser because of the legumes in there.

“And that’s really part of the whole regenerative agriculture principles that we’re working towards.”

Fields are strip grazed with cattle moved daily to reduce the selective grazing of multispecies sward pasture.

“They really enjoy it; It’s like cow candy to them,” Arno says.

Explaining the mob grazing system, and how cattle are moved on to a fresh strip every day, Lorin says: “It’s not as intense as what you can get, but I want them to have what they want to eat available and in front of them when they want to have it.

“We supplement them with a little bit of alfalfa hay but they don’t get any concentrates at all. Our slaughter weights would be a little bit lighter, but our slaughter window is a wider, so we can slaughter anywhere from 20 to 30 months of age.”

By comparison, intensive feedlots in Alberta can finish cattle in as little as 16 months of age.

Antibiotics are avoided at all costs.

But in the event that an animal is sick, and there is no alternative, it can move into the family’s conventional beef herd if needed.

“We have noticed they don’t get sick as often, but there are a couple of contributing factors for that; For example, the diet here is much lower in starch, so acidosis is less likely,” Lorin adds.

“We haven’t been doing it long enough to know if the herbal leys are reducing sickness, but I do know that they are higher in Omega-3. We work with a nutritionist who takes samples and makes sure everything is getting the right balance in its diet.”

The family also grow around 250 acres of barley silage, which is used as winter feed for the grass-fed cattle. The crop is undersown with ryegrass for autumn grazing.

“It’s easier; it’s lower cost. It doesn’t produce quite as well as corn silage, but it’s more of a forage than corn would be,” Arno explains.

Cow Management

It’s also meant a shift in genetics on the farm, using a combo of pure-bred Hereford and Angus cattle, the family have moved towards breeding a “moderate” sized cow.

“Cows have got really big in North America, for example, a mature cow size of 1,600-2,000 lbs is fairly common,” Arno said.

“We’re targeting 1,100-1,200lbs. I’m not saying we’ve arrived, but in terms of profitability, if the cows are smaller, they need to be able to wean 50% of their body weight.

“Well, in a 1,500lb cow that becomes a challenge — that’s a 750lb calf. And you can do it with supplements, but with forage, that’s harder to do.

“But that goes against the grain a little bit.” It’s almost the opposite of the direction of travel here on the Emerald Isle, where the direction of travel is towards a shorter, more intensive finishing period.

“We’re pushing that back as far as we can,” Arno says. “The best of them might be ready at 20 months but even 30-40 months is pretty good beef. It’s got more flavour, more character.

“And Andy, who runs the market in Calgary has done an excellent job of marketing that for us. It’s a growing business and it has to grow some more,” Arno adds.

“But I think it’s exciting from my perspective to watch the next generation take off with it. We don’t have any meat cutters in our family, so they have had to learn a lot in the last few years.”

But unlike the new Irish Grass-Fed Beef PGI status, which requires cattle to get 90% of their feed intake from grass and be out at grass for 220 days or more a year to be considered grass-fed, there are no regulations defining what can be labelled as ‘grass-fed’ in Alberta.

“What we communicate with our customers is exactly what we do,” Lorin says.

“That’s all we can do and hope that they can trust us.”