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President's Message
"Western Feedlots Ltd. Has a long standing tradition of facing each new challenge head on, with ingenuity and focus, producing results which have Western not only surviving, but leading the industry with innovative practices and solutions."
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Western Feedlots is the result of a vision shared by a group of ranchers and farmers back in the late 1950’s. They were looking for a better way to market their farm and ranch production, and were not satisfied shipping their calves and feed grains to eastern Canada for finishing. In 1958 they founded Western Feedlots Ltd. as a producer’s answer to the problem of needing to develop better markets for their production.
Western’s operations today are vastly more diverse than when the company was started. In addition to being Canada’s largest custom feeder, Western owns cattle in Western owned lots, as well as in other feedlots, and has other complimentary operations such as a feed grains trading division, a commercial feedlot software development venture (FeedBack), cattle & feed finance facilities, commodities consulting, corp farming, and other business activities. All of these secondary operations are designed to enhance the performance and risk management of both Western and customer owned cattle at the lots.
Long ago we recognized that not all animals produce the same qualities of beef. Also, ranchers were very interested in receiving detailed feedback on how their cattle compared to others in regards to carcass quality. We have been conducting research into production and carcass quality for over a decade, so that now, all company owned cattle have been marketed in a grid based pricing system. Customers and suppliers now have the opportunity to receive payment based on how their cattle perform on an individual animal carcass valuation basis. The emerging technologies surrounding tenderness will also be linked to the individual animal as the technology becomes standard practice at the packing plant in the future.
All of our initiatives are driven by the desire to continue the principles on which Western was founded - "applying sound management, knowledge and technology to improve the growth, quality and financial performance of cattle for all our customers - suppliers and consumers alike."
Western’s commitment to excellence is manifest in our relations and services to our feeding customers, packers, employees and communities as we all share in building the future “the Western Way!”
Dave Plett
President / CEO
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