Tech company partners with beef industry at Agribition

Canadian beef could be getting better.

Dave Sibbald, the president of the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, announced a partnership Thursday involving an Alberta tech company and ranchers throughout Saskatchewan and Western Canada.

Sibbald says the data collected by Xerris Inc. will help ranchers better understand their cattle’s genetics.

“This is really about how do we improve on the great things that we have today,” Sibbald said. “The beef value chain is a strong one here in Canada; this is just allowing us to be stronger by sharing the valuable data that we have with one another.

“It’s actually revolutionary because no one else is doing it.”

Sibbald says this kind of partnership is the first of its kind in the world.

He believes the real winner of what he is calling a “revolutionary” partnership is the consumer.

“If we have all of this linked and basically from birth to consumption, we have a trail,” Sibbald said. “I do believe our customer at the end — which is quite frankly the most important component of what we do in this food production world — they have a pretty good path from start to finish.

“Hopefully, that creates even further confidence in what we’re producing here in Canada.”

Matthew Duffy, the chief digital officer at Xerris Inc., said he’s excited to see what is learned when it comes to different cattle breeds throughout the prairies.

“We recognize the potential for data insights to unlock the value of genetic data, as well as the benefit of building a foundation and defining a strategy to make technology work for the benefit of building a foundation and defining a strategy to make technology work for the benefit of all member organizations,” he said.

“We are excited to contribute to the genetic improvement in the beef production chain in Canada.”

How the data will be collected was not announced, but Sibbald did say it will be a long-term project.