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Home in my heart.

Oh.

Welcome back to Real Virginia, everyone.

This week we're coming to you from the Great Big Greenhouse and Nursery in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

We'll have more on houseplants and Virginia's green industry in a few minutes.

But first, we'll explain how some Virginia cattle farmers rely on foreign trade for a big part of their annual income.

The rolling pastures of Virginia are well suited for cattle production.

Virginia farmers raise more than half a million feeder calves each year.

Since 2017, a growing number of them are being exported to Canada through a flourishing trade relationship that relies on the free flow of goods between countries.

The cattle from here in Virginia are feeder cattle that we typically sell anywhere from 600 to 1,000 pounds.

The feedlots in Ontario purchase those.

Ontario has an excellent promotion program called the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Program to verify that the farmers are feeding excellent quality feeds, and they have exported meat to the world.

We feel very fortunate that our beef is winding up around the world due to their marketing program.

Carpenter sits on the board of the Virginia Cattlemen's Association, an industry marketing and promotion group.

He remembers the beginning of the Canadian cattle connection.

About 2016, I was having conversations with a veterinarian in Ontario, and he told us that Ontario actually feeds more cattle than Quebec.

So we looked into it.

We went to the Ontario Cattle Feeders Association meeting in 2017.

And uh they were not aware of the number of feeder cattle we have to sell from here in Virginia.

So from there it was off to the races.

Carpenter estimates more than 10% of Virginia's feeder cattle are exported to Canada each year.

Jim Clark with the Ontario Cattle Feeders Association says their burgeoning relationship with Virginia cattle producers is essential to long-term success.

We're short a lot of feeder cattle, and the opportunity is Virginia has a lot of feeder cattle that fit well into what we do.

And that was one of the key parts there was just to develop that relationship, and that relationship is flourished and continues to grow as we speak.

The 500 cattle feeders Clark represents produce beef for a consumer favorite, the Ontario Cornfed Beef Program.

All those cattle are on the on a balanced nutritional diet, and we believe that uh having a high energy ration helps facilitate the marbling of cattle and the producing of top quality beef, and corn has lots of sugars in it.

And one of our successes have been with the brand is is the taste factor and the sweetness of the beef.

The branded beef is sold throughout Canada and parts of the U.S.

with some cuts being exported to foreign markets like Saudi Arabia and Japan.

The motivation for Canadian producers to buy from Virginia is proximity.

So a big thing a lot of people don't realize is we're only 10 to 15 hours away from these feeders.

Our location actually gives us a tremendous advantage.

A lot of the cow calf operations in Canada are out west, so they actually have a 30-hour drive to truck the cattle from western Canada to eastern Canada.

Whereas us with the shorter travel, it actually creates an extreme advantage where they have less money in trucking, and then it's less stress on the cattle as well.

Blake Hopkins says that his family farm in Louisa County, Virginia is benefiting from having more buyers for their cattle.

Traditionally, we've sent a lot of cattle to Pennsylvania to Mennonite and Amish feeders, and the Canadian market has opened up for us to where we get additional bidders and buyers in.

So it's been a tremendous help.

So we're planning on trying to market cattle directly to the Canadian feeders.

The calves that Hopkins sells to Canada will eat a corn-based diet for several months before they're processed.

With his customers across an international border, Hopkins says mutual respect is the foundation of their trade.

They're putting a lot of trust in Virginia cattlemans to buy cattle and export them to another country.

A lot of that starts with the relationships built on our annual trip to the cattle feeders association meeting up there.

Um, going up there and just meeting the people, getting on their farms and building relationships with them is key for this market's work.

They need to be able to trust us, and we need to be able to trust them as well.

Relationships that have turned foreign farmers into friends.

We're located so close to each other and the relationship we develop with Virginia.

Everybody who's come from Virginia when we've been received in back in Virginia, it's just like we're next door neighbors, you know.

Um, and now I see we're looking out for each other.

This partnership provides Virginia cattle producers with access to markets around the world.

Both parties acknowledge it hinges on free trade and could be lost if new barriers are introduced.

But when it works, it's a win for farmers on both sides of the border and for consumers with a hankering for tasty beef.

It's all about taste.

And people love the taste of corn fed beef.