One thing that I have been puzzling about, reading this tale over and over again, is why on earth these cows were supposed to be fed a
predominantly grain diet. If Williams were actually a veterinarian, as some accounts allege, he would have known that cows -- being ruminants -- do best when their diet contains adequate cellulose, e.g., grass, hay, and other coarse forage materials. That's how their stomachs and digestive routine have evolved for thousands and thousands of years.
If cows are fed a predominantly grain or silage diet, the ingested material doesn't spend enough time being processed, and doesn't get processed
correctly (meaning there's little/no of that essential chewing of the cud). This leads to inefficient extraction of nutrients, not to mention potential infection and discomfort to the cow due to an unhealthy consistency of excreted matter.
Perhaps the answer lies in just how
All County Feed and Grains was best able to turn a profit. You can't make a killing selling hay. Darryl Williams and Mark Kuglin were, of course, also co-owners of
that enterprise. They suckered these farmers both coming and going.
End of agri-sermon.
No new news yet, just this piece below, which is a bit more in-depth than the radio snippets...
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The Sun TimesOPP charge men in beef marketing casePosted By Scott Dunn
Posted 1 day agoGrey County OPP have charged two men with 13 counts of fraud over $5,000 in what police say was a failure to pay farmers for their beef in excess of $750,000.
Police started an investigation in January after receiving a complaint alleging "farmers had not been paid for product sold to abattoirs," Const. Steve Starr said in a news release Wednesday.
The fraud is alleged to have taken place during 2008 and involved mostly beef producers in Grey, Bruce and Wellington counties. A feed supply company in Waterloo Region is also listed as a victim.
Police charged Mark Kuglin, 38, of Meaford Aug. 6 and released him on an undertaking. He is scheduled to appear in Owen Sound court Oct. 22.
Wednesday Darryl Williams, 57, of Chatsworth Township, was arrested without incident and taken into custody. He was scheduled to appear for a bail hearing yesterday in Owen Sound.
Williams was director of the Grey County-based marketing firm, Grey Bruce Beef Marketing Ltd. and associated company All County Feed and Grains.
Both men are charged with 13 counts of fraud over $5,000.
Police confirmed in February they were investigating the Markdale-based beef marketing business, which was launched in 2008 promising to fetch local producers hundreds of dollars more than regular market value for cattle raised on "an all-natural diet."
The Sun Times reported Williams was the owner/operator of All County Feed & Grain Ltd.
The story about the police investigation said Williams and his former business partner, Mark Kuglin, also ran Grey-Bruce Beef Marketing Ltd., which started in April 2008 with plans to sell local beef to Ontario stores, restaurants and food services providers.
According to an online Better Farming article, Williams was promising beef producers as much as $2,000 for a steer that would sell for less than $1,400 in regular markets. The catch was the cattle had to be on "an all-natural diet," meaning they were free of antibiotics and growth hormones and predominantly fed grain. Close to two dozen producers took Williams up on the venture by late May 2008.
Williams told the Toronto Star in July that he had secured a contract to supply 100,000 hamburgers from 85 animals to three Ottawa music festivals, a lucrative deal signed just two months after opening.
The problems, according to Kuglin in an interview in February, started shortly thereafter when the festival organizers allegedly didn't pay in full.
By September 2008, Williams had his provincial cattle dealing licence revoked for failing to pay producers, an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs spokeswoman said.
Police are still investigating. Anyone with information that might assist in the investigation is asked to contact Grey County OPP or Crime Stoppers.
Article ID# 1699156
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