Policies Affecting the Efficiency of Beef Production in Alberta: A Supply Chain Analysis

Shoppers face high beef prices at the supermarket, but those prices are not a reflection of what Canadian farmers and ranchers earn from their cow-calf herds. 

In the past 30 years, the average beef producer’s operating margin has never reached $50,000, despite the fact that the average beef farm’s asset base stands at more than $2 million.

Better access to export markets, including the U.S., South Asia and North Africa, would help to remedy the producers poor returns. Export prices would need to cover production costs, the largest of which is feed for the producers’ cattle herds, accounting for 77 per cent of the average ranch’s cash costs.

By Derek Gerald Brewin, PhD

Published June 2024.