|
This article appeared in the February 2026 Edition of the Branding Pot Monthly. If you want the good stuff first, saddle up and join the newsletter—it's where the secrets drop before they hit the corral. Announced just last month the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef shared they will be providing CRSB certified operations with $400 automatically in 2026. Now, I am certainly not here to tell you what to do on your farm, rather share one producer's experience with another. As a business owner its up to you to determine the value (or lack thereof) to your operation. Personally, I find the best knowledge nuggets (what to do and what to avoid) by listening to other ranchers. So here's what I know. You decide the value. The Process Because it can be a process, if I am being honest. Full transparency we started this process 7 years ago when the incentives were different (and maybe more lucrative?), but continued as its not terribly difficult and we have seen ROI (some years). In order to be CRSB Certified and get that $400 carrot they're dangling, you need to be certified first by one of their approved certification bodies (VBP+ or Where Food Comes From). We have went through allllll of the iterations of VBP+ (before it had the “+”!) but the jist is that to check the VBP+ box you will watch a webinar or do the reading on industry standards, keep records (you're already probably doing) and then invite an auditor to your farm for a walk through every 5 years. The kicker is that it now costs $250/yr (for a cow/calf operation) to participate. Next steps in the road to CRSB Sustainable Beef certification are to email a copy of that VBP+ certificate to CRSB, age verify cattle born on your farm through CLTS (you may already be doing this or programs like HerdTrax or AngusWorks will automatically do it for you) and give CLTS permission to share your CCIA information. DONE (phew- that seemed like a lot, no?). The Value Now, you've got those hurdles mastered, you may be asking yourself how does this certification actually bring VALUE to my farm? I'll break down the monetary opportunities, but you decide if its right for your operation. For very real but hard-to-measure value around industry stewardship, marketing opportunities, employee training, consumer demand and a whole lot more, visit CRSB and VBP+. I'm just talking cash money here. 1. NEW (Feb 2026): CRSB Certified Producer Incentive $400/year from CRSB just for keeping up to date with your certification 2. CRSB FCC Sustainability Incentive If you have loans with FCC, they will give you up to $4000/year (based on the size of your loans) for being a CRSB certified operation. 3. If you participate in the AAFC AgriInvest program and your farm reaches a certain allowable net sales ($1Million +) you are now required you to do an Agri-Environmental Risk Assessment. The easiest way to satisfy this component is to either have a valid Environmental Farm Plan or be CRSB certified. 4. VBP Incentives: Depending on your province, you have access to funding opportunities just for being certified with VBP+. Applicable expenses include certification costs or biosecurity and animal welfare improvements like RFID tags, panels, fencing, oilers, calving cameras, chutes, scales, maternity pens, remote watering surveillance and much more
5. Cargill's Beef Sustainability Project: A per head payment (around $18/hd) for each animal that is processed at Cargill whose identity has been verified as certified sustainable throughout its entire life. This means that if the ranch where the animal was born was CRSB certified, as well as the feeder, finisher and any other stakeholder, you get a quarterly cheque for ~$18/hd (changes each quarter).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |