TROY LANDREVILLE
Times Reporter
Otter Co-op is celebrating its 95th year, and a big part of the Co-op is animal feed.
Situated on the east side of 248 Street, right across from the grocery/hardware/clothing store, the the Co-op鈥檚 Feed Division produces food for pets, livestock, and zoo animals across the Lower Mainland.
鈥淲e manufacture all sorts of feed, and all different types of feed for whatever animal you can imagine,鈥� explained Vafa Alizadeh, the feed division manager with Otter Farm &Home Cooperative.
鈥淒omestic animals, to (the Greater) Vancouver Zoo, pet food, birdseed for wild birds, chickens of all sorts, dairy cattle, sheep, mountain sheep, goats, giraffes, hippos, camels, llamas, alpacas, ducks, geese鈥︹��
The feed division employs 57 people at its two locations, which include its plant and warehouse in Aldergrove as well as a dairy feed plant in Armstrong, B.C.
The Aldergrove plant annually manufactures 75,000 tons of different kinds of animal feed with $42 million in total sales.
If nature continues on its regular course, it鈥檒l be business as usual at both operations.
鈥淎s long as people eat, we鈥檙e going to have demand for feed, too, because you鈥檙e feeding the animals,鈥� Alizadeh said.
The Aldergrove plant is also 鈥渉eavily involved鈥� in the local equine community, Alizadeh noted.
鈥淲e make horse feed, too,鈥� Alizadeh said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e working very close with Thunderbird (Show Park). We are the sponsor of their feed.鈥�
One thing that has changed over the years is how the feed is processed.
鈥淭echnology has changed a lot,鈥� Alizadeh said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot more computerized, a lot less labour intensive. I remember even 10 years ago we used to stack bags of feed manually on pallets. Now it鈥檚 all robotic; it鈥檚 all automized here.鈥�
Alizadeh said the tonnage of feed that鈥檚 produced is very steady from year to year.
鈥淢ost of the market for the dairy and chicken layers, and meat birds, are controlled by the marketing boards and a quota system that they have in place,鈥� Alizadeh said. 鈥淪o that pie is not really growing as much. It鈥檚 not a free enterprise kind of a thing.鈥�
One aspect of the industry that is growing, is pet food and sacked feed.
鈥淲e are a big provider of sacked feed in the province,鈥� Alizadeh noted. 鈥淎nd also, we鈥檙e dabbling a bit into fertilizer and bird feed and supplements for animals.鈥�
Alizadeh said the future of the feed industry is 鈥渒ind of guaranteed,鈥� unless the North American Trade Agreement is reworked or ripped up altogether.
鈥淚f something happens to our marketing situation the way it is, and the quota system, obviously the farmers are not going to be guaranteed and protected,鈥� Alizadeh said.
鈥淪o it would be a U.S.-style of free-for-all.鈥�
If this happens, prices wouldn鈥檛 be protected.
鈥淪o the consumers maybe in the short term benefit a little bit, but the problem is the farmers don鈥檛 have a sustainable business, so they cannot operate,鈥� Alizadeh said.
鈥淭hen, when that happens, the bigger outfits would dictate the prices.
鈥淥ur customers are not going to be guaranteed for their income, therefore we wouldn鈥檛 be guaranteed that they鈥檙e going to have the money to pay our bills.鈥�
For the time being, Alizadeh pointed out, as long as there is population growth 鈥渨e鈥檙e going to have growth of our product being sold to the farms.鈥�
95 YEARS AND COUNTING
The Otter Co-op was incorporated in 1922, under the Provincial Societies Act, as Otter District Farmers鈥� Institute, with 25 members from the Otter region.
The aim of the institute was to promote agriculture and agricultural knowledge, to work for farm legislation, to improve farm conditions, and to buy supplies, at cost, for members.
During its first five years, the institute provided a wide variety of services including: meeting on potatoes, poultry, and pruning; a bull was rented from the government for herd upgrading; petitions to government for daily mail service; and 10 cent bounties for crows.
An original bylaw said that one of the aims of the institute was 鈥渢o improve conditions of rural life so that settlement may be permanent and prosperous.鈥�
This and many other bylaws remained in effect until June 22, 1979 when it officially became a co-op.
