Six months pregnant with her third child, Laurelly Beswitherick was driving from her Austin-area farm to a doctor’s appointment when she heard the news on the car radio.

A case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy had been detected in an Alberta cow.

Laurelly’s husband Lyndon was flagged down by a neighbour as he was out seeding the same morning.

“I remember thinking, oh, I hope nobody else hears about this,” said Laurelly, laughing at her initial reac- tion a few months later,and holding their newborn daughter on her lap.

That was May 20,2003,the “what- we-were-doing-when-we-heard” day that remains fixed in their minds as it does all Canadian cattle produc- ers. It’s the day they began to reck- on with an unprecedented market catastrophe.

But months later,the couple firm- ly asserts BSE might hold them back,but it won’t drive them under. They’ll just figure out how to do things differently — again.

The Beswitherick’s are known for that.
Earlier that same month of May, the young couple had received a prestigious award — Manitoba’s Regional Outstanding Young Farmer Award. It’s sponsored by the Junior Chamber of Commerce and offered each year to Canadian farm cou- ples, under age 40, who exhibit innovation and exceptional vision for their farms. One award per province is made, with a national competition held later in the year.

The Beswithericks shone, 2003’s Manitoba judges said,as an example of young farmers trying something new on their farm, and in so doing, adding value to their production.

The Beswithericks operate B2 Cattle Company, a feedlot custom feeding their own 140 cow-calf oper- ation, plus about 400 head of back- grounders. Other farmers in the area bring in their animals to B2 Cattle Company for the Beswithericks to background.They keep a full slate of records of feed and treatments for all animals in the feedlot.

The idea behind the company is to find a more effective way of mar- keting cattle by providing a quality guarantee backed up by records to buyers.

Laurelly said it began as a way to sell their own cattle, but soon became a way to more effectively market neighbours’ cattle too. It also provides value to cattle buyers interested in quality assurance pro- grams.

“It grew into providing the best care for our customers’ cattle as well,” says Laurelly. “Everybody that participates in this program, whether it be the people bringing their cattle in,or the people buying the cattle from us, we feel is a win- ner... because there is a guaranteed standard of quality.”

They’ve known for a long time they needed to do this,says Lyndon. The number one concern in con- sumers’ minds has become food safety. They want assurances that producers are conscientious about their production practices.

“There’s one thing that, we’re told anyway, they want,” he said. “And that is knowing that their food is safe.”

The B2 Cattle Company concept worked. Their emphasis on record keeping became a marketing strate- gy,and they commanded premiums for cattle marketed.By the spring of 2003, the Beswitherick’s had three other smaller-scale producers in the area putting their animals into their program.