Western Canadian Lamb Cooperative aiming to ‘straighten market out’

By Samantha Johnson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on June 8, 2023.

reporter@medicinehatnews.com

The Western Canadian Lamb Cooperative was started in early April following a change of ownership of the plant in Innisfail, AB. Producers signed contracts with the new owners, but those were later cancelled after a group of middlemen started buying up livestock in Alberta and Saskatchewan and prices plummeted.

President Phil Andree explained, “they control the price of lamb by going to every auction sale and buy everything going,” said Andree. “There were lots of us large producers who said this is not working. We are going broke doing this because these guys are controlling the price. They are buying cheap and selling high.”

Born and raised in Ontario, Andree started contacting some of his cohorts out east along with sending emails to some of the plants. He wasn’t expecting much but, “‘lo and behold, the owner of the company phoned me back the next day and said I’ve been waiting for you guys to get a hold of me because you are going broke and we absolutely need the supply chain from the west.”

The idea was to organize liners and ship the animals east to the plant direct.

“It really started that innocently, and it just exploded overnight to 20,000 people following my page. We have members right from Ontario to BC. I couldn’t get off the phone for a month. It grew exponentially and I couldn’t keep up.”

Liners are going all the time and if a producer feels inclined to use the co-op, it only takes a phone call to find out where the nearest one is and the route it’s taking through Alberta before heading out east.

“The Ontario pricing is always more than what we are being offered here. We are the second or third largest producer of lamb in the country so we are an important part of the puzzle and we have to be competitive.”

The co-op offers another option to producers, giving them more control and allowing them to ship lambs on their own terms while bringing some competition back into the Alberta market.

“All I do is arrange the trucking,” said Andree. “They ship their lambs and the plant pays them and they get everything except the trucking fee.” As every farm and individual is different, the co-op is simply suppling information and allowing them to make up their own minds.

The biggest issue right now is Andree has his own farm along with 500 ewes and is burning the candle at both ends trying to keep up with the demands of the co-op. As a result, they are currently looking at hiring someone to take on the administrative aspects, which is a full-time job in itself.

“We want to straighten this market out. What we think we are doing is helping. We are doing it for nothing but eventually there will have to be some sort of an administration cost to help with the process of this,” said Andree. “I’m just a farmer doing my thing and trying to help the industry. The co-op is there to try and shore up the break-even point and try to put a little bit of profit back into the producer’s pocket. We can’t make them rich, but we can certainly help ensure everybody is getting fair market value for their lambs.”

For more information or to become a member, visit https://www.westcanlamb.com/.

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