How high is Everest?
Does Christoph Weder worry other farmers might see Prairie Heritage’s growing success and attempt to follow suit? Not even a bit, he says.
“I’m not worried about anyone else competing with us, because not many would have the determination to get this done,” Weder says.
“Only a few people can climb a mountain like Everest,” he continues. “There are only so many people who could pull this off because it’s taken that amount of energy and determination.”
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Weder doesn’t need to actively seek out additional ranchers to help grow the business, because many interested ranchers approach him. They’re making a good choice, trying to team with a group that has already shown it can do the tough market development work.
In Canada, there are only so many premium markets out there, Weder says. “The reality is that all of those markets are already occupied. If guys are smart about it, they’d be better off to partner up with us.”
However, Weder says he’s extremely picky about who he allows into the partnership.
“I’m not interested in someone who just raises cattle, or says I want to be part of your group because you’re making more money. This isn’t just about making money. This is about producers who are proud of what they’re doing. I want the best producers, the ones who are really hungry. I’m hoping to attract some of the younger producers in this business. I’d sooner see some younger ranchers succeed because they’re still in breeding mode, making babies that’ll become the next generation of ranchers. This is really a sustainability model for agriculture.”
Weder’s marketing and sales role with Prairie Heritage is a 60-to 70-hour-a-week job that regularly takes him across our country and to every corner of the globe. Add that to the fact that he’s dad of three under-six-year-olds (wife Erika is due with No. 4 any day), an editorial writer for CATTLEMEN magazine, a farm consultant and speaker, and the operator of a 400-head cattle operation an hour north of Grande Prairie, and you start to understand why time is in short supply in his world.
When I ask him how he does it all, his answer — like all his answers — comes fast: “I don’t have hobbies.” Then, after momentarily reconsidering, he says, “I guess my hobby is selling meat.”
The fact that Christoph Weder, one of the founders of Prairie Heritage Beef talked to me for an hour a few evenings ago likely means he got an hour less sleep that night, since sleep is the only non-work time this self-confessed workaholic allows himself.
Talking to Weder is a lot like being in a whirlwind. I need to be at the top of my game to keep up with his rapid-fire responses, his multiple trains of thought, his supreme confidence in himself and his product, and his many and varied agmarketing and business ideas.
But, after reading — and writing — endless stories about declining ag markets, falling commodity prices, and increasing farming cost pressures, it’s refreshing to speak to someone who is as overtly positive about agriculture as Weder.
Weder is the primary marketer and salesman and the heart and soul behind Prairie Heritage Beef Producers, which describes itself as a “partnership of ecocommitted ranch families that work together to sustainably produce and market beef; connecting the ranch gates to the consumer plates.”
That eco-commitment doesn’t just refer to eco-logical leanings. It’s also got to
“ The reality is that all of those markets are already occupied.”
— Christoph Weder
include eco-nomic viability. As such, Prairie Heritage strives to do what many consider impossible: make beef production lucrative.
By selling a specialty “niche” product directly to retailers and restaurants, Prairie Heritage manages to lift its beef out of the commodity market, thereby escaping the tight margins, lack of sales control, and market fluctuations that plague farmers who sell to traditional markets.
Is the Prairie Heritage plan working? Weder says, “Lots of guys think I’m nuts, but the returns we’re getting are significantly higher than commodity prices a lot of the time.”
In a time when most farmers find it tough to make a decent dollar raising beef cattle, Weder isn’t one to swear that he’ll stick with beef through thick and thin, no matter what comes.
“Beef production has to be financially sustainable to survive as an industry,” Weder believes. “If we want to save agriculture and see another generation come on, it’s got to make economically viable sense. We’re not talking a champagne lifestyle, but it does need to cover the costs and make an OK income.”
Weder has real-life ag experience. He was raised on a beef/dairy farm in central Alberta, and worked for several years as a beef specialist with Alberta Ag. He’s got an impressive academic background, with a PhD in animal science and range management. Plus he’s got a strong team of Prairie Heritage ranchers, and his wife Erika who works alongside him.
Still, there’s no question that his outside-the-box way of looking at the business of agriculture has helped produce Prairie Heritage’s success.
Six years ago, at the height of BSE concerns and at the bottom of the beef price depression, Weder decided there had to be a better way to sell beef. He figured the traditional beef model didn’t make sense.
“An average animal takes 27 months of care from conception. The day it hits slaughter, it’s a huge shot in the dark regarding what the commodity price is going to be,” Weder says.
“How many chefs tell people to come in and eat and eat, and then when the person is done eating, allow that person to decide how much to pay for the meal? Nobody does business like that, but it’s what we do in farming.”
Instead, Weder figured the only way to make real money raising cattle is to create a premium, luxury product rather than a commodity. As he explains, “for some reason, industry people think we should raise beef to feed the world. If you want to provide cheap protein to people, feed them beans.
“I believe beef is a luxury item just like a good bottle of wine. Give people what they want (in terms of quality, and eco-friendly and humane raising practices), and they’ll spend a few more bucks on a good piece of beef.”
Prairie Heritage’s specialty product is “Traditional Beef,” a farm-grown, naturally grazed, hormone-, antibiotic-and animal byproduct-free beef.
It doesn’t end there, as Weder explains. “Most people who are concerned about things like antibiotics in meat also care about animal welfare, riparian areas, etc., so we make sure our raising practices cover all those bases.
“Prairie Heritage is about creating a product that addresses the concerns consumers have. We’re creating an image about sustainability, quality and integrity.”
Prairie Heritage cattle are raised in an environmentally conscious manner, with all participant farmers going through a rigorous environmental auditing and certification process. And, because a key component of Weder’s marketing plan is to cover as many specialty criteria as possible in order to access potential markets, all of Prairie Heritage’s meat is federally inspected. It all meets European standards, and is halal certified.
How did this all start? Back six years ago, Thrifty Foods, a high-end retailer based on Vancouver Island, recognized that a percentage of its consumers wanted a specialty beef product. Weder jumped at the opportunity, working together with about a dozen ranches to raise 1,000 animals. Thrifty Foods was only interested in typical retail cuts (cuts from the hip, loin and rib), so approximately half of each carcass still hit regular commodity markets.
The learning curve was steep. Though Weder was an experienced cattleman, he knew nothing about marketing beef, how cuts break down, how to sell, and who the players are in the retail industry. “It’s a good thing we didn’t know a lot of stuff we know now when we started out,” he says, “because we probably wouldn’t have done it.”
With Weder’s sheer determination, boundless work ethic, and unflagging belief in the product, Prairie Heritage started to grow.
Three years ago, Prairie Heritage started selling to a second Vancouver Island-based grocery chain as well as to a heli-skiing resort. Two years ago it started marketing to the Middle East, and a year and a half ago it finalized a contract with Hero Burgers, a restaurant chain in Toronto that will purchase over 300,000 pounds of ground beef this year. Then last year it started selling more seriously to chefs in Europe, especially in Switzerland.
To date Prairie Heritage is comprised of 22 ranches raising just shy of 5,000 animals. Is Weder content with that level of success? No way, he says. He clearly subscribes to a “go big or go home” outlook and now has his eyes on even bigger marketing opportunities.
“For our business to be sustainable, we need a budget of $400,000 for the overhead costs of accounting, marketing and sales,” Weder explains. Given that the participating ranchers pay $40 per head for overhead costs, Weder’s magic number to ensure sustainability is 10,000 head.
Prairie Heritage launches with Sobeys’s Quebec in five weeks, and — as the only Canadian exporter to Europe — plans on exporting significantly more volume overseas.
A key goal is to better utilize its lower cuts of beef, much of which are still being sold into commodity markets. Given that Weder is a guy who clearly likes to have multiple lines in the water, I’m not surprised when he says, “there’s a few things we’ve got in the works to get more value for that beef.”
New partnerships with Freybe Fine Foods and Costco also point to the future. Each is in the process of developing specialty products — such as Heritage Angus beef sausage, brisket, Montreal smoked beef, and pastrami — from lower-end cuts of Prairie Heritage beef.
As Weder explains, “nobody in Canada is doing natural deli-type products from beef. If there are people who will spend extra dollars on specialty-type larger cuts of beef, there’s no reason they wouldn’t want some of the lower cuts of beef too.” CG
