Canadian Beef Breeds Council participates in Official Opening of Livestock Consultative Centre, Orenburg, Russia Vice President, David Bolduc presented an overview of the Beef Value Chain in Canada and the role of the Canadian purebred cattle producers in this chain. Also presenting were Gordon Stephenson, Canadian Hereford Association, Dr. Roger Davis, Davis-Rairdan Embryos International. The Signing of Agreement on Cooperation between the Canadian Hereford Association and the Russian National Kazakh Whgite-Headed Breeders Association, the signing of Agreement on Cooperation between the Canadian Hereford Association and the Russian National Hereford Breeders Association, and the signing of the Contract between Xports International and LLC Orenburg Ivolga for the delivery of genetics, were completed. The meetings included presentations from the following: 1) Yury Berg, Gobernment of Orenburg Oblast; 2) Fred Gorrell, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food; 3) Fedorov Nicolay, Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation; 4) Valery Kalashnikov, Academic Secretary, Department of Zooltechny, Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Academician 5) Sergey Miroshnikov, Director, All-Russia Research Institute of Beef Cattle Breeding, Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences; 6) Colin Jeffares, Assistant Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Alberta Province 7) Sergey Solovyov, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Processing Industry of Orenburg Oblast; The meetings were followed the next day with tours of cattle ranches including Kalmyk and Hereford breeds.

October 14, 2012 CBBC will be working with Agriteam Canada to develop an Updated Domestic and Export Development Marketing Plan. The plan is to be submitted to CCMDC in early January and will cover the period from April 1, 2013 to March 2014. CCMDC has approved a grant to the Council that will enable us to complete an updated Domestic and Export Marketing Plan. We have engaged Agriteam Canada to coordinate and complete the plan which must be submitted by January 14, 2013

CBBC Participates in Mission to Russia

CBBC Executive and Staff are participating in a mission to Russia with delegates from the federal and provincial governments. The purpose of the mission is to participate in the formal grand opening of the Livestock Consultative Centre in Orenburg, Russia, meet with representatives of government and industry and tour ranches. So far CBBC has attended the Golden Autumn Livestock Show in Moscow and toured Red Square. There are Russian cattle on display as well as American. It was noted that the food displays included very little beef and mostly pork and chicken. Next stop is Orenburg at which time further updates will be posted.

October 12, 2012 The Council has named chairs of five working committees and a Task Team to provide input and strategic direction for the Council. The committees and chairs are; 1. Task Force – Doug Fee 2. Communications- Rob Smith 3. Member Services Neil Gillies 4. Fund Raising – Bruce Holmquist 5. Strategic Alliances – Byron Templeton 6. Domestic & Export Marketing – David Bolduc