Farmers warn of ripple effect of strike at Ontario’s largest beef processing plant

A strike at the province’s largest beef processing plant is having a domino effect in Ontario’s beef farming industry, experts warn.

Employees at Cargill in Guelph, Ont., have been on the picket lines as the strike goes into its second month.

Joe Hill, a producer north of Fergus and a past president of the Beef Farmers Association of Ontario, said that if the strike continues, beef farmers will run into more issues, including the disruption of cattle flow this fall.

While cattle are going to market on a weekly basis, he said there aren’t enough calves in return to replace the cows.

“If we haven’t cleared most of the backlog by that time, then it impacts our ability to replace cattle to market at the time we would normally market them next year,” Hill said.

In a statement this week, Beef Farmers of Ontario said “Cargill Guelph processes approximately 75 per cent of the cattle in Ontario.” The statement calling for a resolution to the dispute noted that beef farmers are “mitigating the impact of supply chain challenges by sourcing alternative facilities in Canada and the U.S. to process their cattle or keeping animals on farm for a longer period of time” but that both of those options “present unique challenges and additional costs.”

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Hill said there are a significant number of cattle that should be going to processing, but are not, as they’re having to ship 400-500 cattle a day to other plants, resulting in a backlog. The longer it lasts, he said, the bigger it becomes and the longer it will take to clear.

In addition to disruption, the producers have to pay out of pocket to not only hold onto the cattle but also keep them fed.

Although he’s not in bad shape financially, Hill said the local facility needs to become operational again to prevent further issues.

“We cannot move enough fed cattle out of the province to absorb all the cattle that would be going to the Guelph plant, and certainly on a longer-term basis,” he said. Fed cattle are cows leaving a feedlot that are ready to be sold to a processing plant for slaughter.

Global News reached out to the provincial association’s Wellington County district but did not hear back by publication time.

Hill said most producers are working with their regular cattle market dealers or truckers right now to come up with options.

As part of a contingency plan, Hill is on a waiting list.

“I have my name on the list so that when they have loads going to various plants, I may be able to get one of those loads,” he said.

The Dunlop facility has been on strike since May 27 after a negotiated settlement was rejected. The union negotiating committee has brought up a number of issues, including the increased cost of living.

“The decision to go on strike is never easy but these members aren’t satisfied with what the company has brought to the table,” Kelly Tosato, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 175 president, said in a statement at the time.