OTTAWA, Ontario – The Canadian Cattlemen's Association received an additional $3 million (US$3.03 million) from the Canadian government to spur improvement in the Canadian cattle industry's profitability and competitiveness. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced the investment during the Canadian Cattlemen's Association 2012 annual general meeting on March 8.

The Canadian beef industry generated $6.2 billion (US$6.26 billion) in 2010.

"The new investment will further improve the flow of information across the beef value chain, leading to better management decisions, greater production efficiencies, reduced costs and improved overall competitiveness of the Canadian cattle industry," Ritz said. "The great work the cattle industry has done on traceability has built a strong platform for the Beef InfoXchange System and this investment will further improve the system."

In March 2011, Ritz announced an initial investment of $5.3 million (US$5.34 million) for the Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS). The system allows the seamless transfer of animal and carcass data from producer to processor. The additional funding will enable the CCA to improve the quality of information available through BIXS and facilitate the transmission of electronic data from packing plants to the BIXS database.

"The flow of fundamental information to the BIXS database will enhance the completeness of the data and reinforce the value of the BIXS program offering," said Travis Toews, president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. "I thank Minister Ritz for ensuring the BIXS database is as robust as possible."