Agriculture committee  For certified organic beef production, all the feed has to be certified organic. We will use whatever is available at a given time, whether it's corn, or barley, or oats. It will always be certified organic. We're working on a separate line, which is our grass-fed line. That's c

Agriculture committee  With grass or with grain?

Agriculture committee  With grass they're much smaller. We tend to use more of what are considered the British breeds—the Hereford, Angus, Shorthorn breeds—which finish well on grass and are a smaller carcass size. The ones that go through a feedlot and are fed organic grains will be about 1,300 pound

Agriculture committee  It takes a little longer. Then the challenges we run into, of course, are with the SRM now. We have to be very careful we don't exceed 30 months. I'd say, on average, we're looking at about two years.

Agriculture committee  Yes. The cows would never be considered organic. You can't make organic an animal that's already been treated with an antibiotic, hormone, or something just by letting it sit for three years. Generally the cow herd would not be considered organic, unless you could prove that dur

Agriculture committee  Bone meal? I've never used it. I don't know. I would hesitate because that's what's been identified as causing a lot of the food safety issues we have today. I'd be much more apt to promote proper composting of manure and use that as a fertilizer, or use crop rotation.

Agriculture committee  There is some added cost to the processor. Both of our slaughterhouses do further processing for us, breakdown of carcass.

Agriculture committee  There will be a break in the line there, so that adds an extra cost.

Agriculture committee  It’s not so much a separate line as more a break when the last of our animals is done. The last pound of beef has to be completely through the process—

Agriculture committee  —before the next, so that there's no chance of mingling.

Agriculture committee  The other thing I've noticed is that organic and natural consumers are becoming more aware of animal welfare. We've incorporated a series of audits, in both our natural and organic rearing, that involve animal welfare. We look at transport times, the handling of the animals—all t

Agriculture committee  We manage all of that ourselves, in large part, to ensure authenticity and also the controls required in working with both small customers like home delivery, which we do a lot of, or larger customers like a Loblaws.

Agriculture committee  There's a bit of both. There's also some private branding now being done. We have customers buy our product and then brand it themselves, which always adds an extra challenge—to make sure that authenticity is there because ultimately we're responsible for what's inside. With our

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  No. Our natural brand—which is the Toyota in my car example, as it were—that's where we do allow private labelling. We'll work with a company like Loblaws who will have their own line of natural, but it'll be our meat.