JEFF KROL>> Hi, my name is Jeff Kroll and I'm responsible for the supply chain and quality
systems groups at McDonald's Restaurants of Canada.
We're here in Southern Alberta to show you what a farm looks like, and how they operate
and the conditions that the animals are under.
And I am here with Bob lowe who is the co-owner of Lowe Ranch.
And Bob our first questions is from Gee L. from kingston, ON.
"Maybe you could post a picture of these happy 'Family farms' in which you say your animals
are raised with the best care?"
BOB LOWE>> Our farm is 3 generations- my father, my brother, myself, my nephew, my son.
We just raise cattle the way, the way they're supposed to be raised, I guess.
If you're a cow, it's pretty idyllic.
The mother cows are on pasture year round.
The calves, after their weened, will go into the feedlot.
JEFF KROL>> And what do they feed on when they are here?
BOB Lowe: Grass- just grass.
JEFF KROL>> And how big is this area we are looking at?
BOB LOWE>> Well, this particular field is 320 acres.
We've got pastures in the mountains that are 24,000 acres.
JEFF KROLL>> Wow.
That's a lot of pasture
BOB LOWE>> Yeah.
hahaha
JEFF KROL>> You mentioned a feedlot.
Would we be able to actually go out and see a feedlot?
BOB LOWE>> We can do that.
We have a feedlot as a part of our operation.
JEFF KROL>> Fantastic.
BOB LOWE>> As you can see, that's my house over there.
It's 200 yards from the feedlot.
I can walk to work.
My kids, when they were little, could come over and see me anytime.
It's important to me that the consumers are told the truth about where their food comes
from.
We aren't trying to gloss anything.
What we do- we are proud of what we do.
WE, what we produce in this feedlot and I wouldn't try to sell it to somebody else if
I wouldn't eat it myself.
JEFF KROL>> So Bob, where are we now?
BOB LOWE>>Right now we're at the feedlot, it's another division of our farm.
This is where the calves will come after their weened.
JEEF KROL>> And would this be the average size for a feedlot?
BOB LOWE>> We're 4000 head capacity.
We're probably considered a medium sized feedlot in Alberta.
JEFF KROL>> How many months will they actually be here.
BOB LOWE>> The ones that are going back into the breeding herd will be here about 5 months.
The ones that will go into the food chain will be here about 8 months.
JEFF KROL>> Our next question is from Squid N. "What do you feed your animals?".
So Bob, what is actually in the feed?
BOB LOWE>> We feed a mixture of straw, silage, grain and a mineral pack.
The straw is this.
As you can see it's from a mature plant.
This is barley straw.
Silage is just an immature plant.
It is green.
The nutrient content is spread through the whole plant instead of just in the seed head.
The barley seed from the mature plant looks like this.
This is the milled barley.
That just basically means it's crushed.
The reason we do it is to improve the digestion.
We do feed analysis on all our feed and where it's lacking in vitamins and minerals we get
custom formulated mineral pack.
This is a sample of the mixed ration that comes out of the feed truck.
The silage the straw, you can see some grain kernels in there.
That's just, that's what the cattle get to eat.
JEFF KROL>> Our next question is from Emily.
"Does the animal feed contain any antibiotics?".
I'm here with Calvin Booker, who is a Vetrinarian in Souther Alberta and actually Bob's local
Vertinarian.
And Calvin and Bob I'm hoping we can answer Emily's questions.
CALVIN BOOKER>>So, Jeff some of the feed we feed animals, Cadilac seed, does contain antibiotics.
Depends on what stage of the production cycle the animals are in and what particular diseases
they might be susceptible to at that point in the production cycle.
We would look to on of the licensed anti-microbial products in Canada to try and prevent and
control diseases that might occur in the cattle population.
Cattle are- in some ways- a lot like people.
They get sick from a lot of different diseases.
Some of those are infectious diseases like the common cold and others might be metabolic
disturbances or digestive disease like when we have an upset stomach.
For the animal health products that we use in Canada, their approved and regulated as
to how we can use those by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency or the Vetrianary Drugs
Directorate Division of Health Canada.
Included in that would be