Beef industry bids farewell to Charlie Gracey

Glacier FarmMedia—The beef industry has lost one of its most influential industry builders and analysts, as Charlie Gracey succumbed to a heart attack in late May.

Charles Gracey was born to Edith (née Down) and Garfield Gracey in 1935 and grew up in Curries, Ont. His interest in the livestock industry was sparked in 1947, when his father’s small dairy herd was depopulated during the national bovine TB eradication program.

Gracey graduated from Guelph’s agricultural sciences program in 1959 and started his career at the Kemptville Agricultural School. Later, as the secretary-manager of the Ontario Beef Improvement Association, he pushed for beef cattle performance testing and a cattle marketing check-off. Similar check-offs were adopted by other provinces, which led to funding for a national beef producers’ association.

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In 1970, Gracey joined the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), as it was then known. Serving as the association’s executive vice president, he advocated for Canfax, which provided information on cattle prices and future market outlooks. Gracey worked closely with Canfax’s founder, Chris Miller, and developed analytical programs still used within the agency. During his time at the CCA, he also focused on animal health issues, including the eradication of brucellosis in the Canadian herd.

Gracey also helped develop standard dressing procedures at packing plants and spent much of his career creating and refining carcass grading systems. He also helped establish the Canadian Beef Grading Industry, the Beef Information Centre as well as a national cattle identification program for cattle, leading to the creation of the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency.

Global trade was another primary concern for Gracey. Upon joining the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, he adjudicated everything from international trade disputes to complaints around government procurement.

Getting good information into the hands of beef farmers and ranchers was always near the top of Gracey’s list. In 1978, he created BeefWatch, a market report produced by Canfax and published in Canadian Cattlemen magazine twice yearly to this day. He helped establish the Beef Information Centre to link the beef industry to the public. He contributed to several farm magazines throughout his career and into retirement, publishing with Canadian Cattlemen as recently as 2022. Asked about invoicing for his work, he responded that he was “careless about being paid” for his “scribblings” and was motivated primarily by his concern for the industry.

In retirement, Gracey still devoted much of his “leisure time” to industry issues, and believed in freely sharing his analysis with the public. On his personal website, Gracey wrote that carcass grade information “should flow freely to producers so that they can use grade information for its intended purpose of improving the product.” A “lack of individual animal ID” once obstructed that flow, he added, but that obstacle was removed years ago. His website includes grading information, articles and analyses, plus a downloadable spreadsheet that demonstrates the cattle cycle’s effects on the national cow herd.

Gracey’s dedication to the industry and thoughtful, frank analysis of the issues inspired the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to nominate him for the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame, and he was inducted in 2001.

Gracey was survived by his wife, Donna (née Luce); his sister, Evelyn O’Leary (Bev); brothers, David (Coline) and Donald (Nancy); his children, Laurel, Patrick (Barbara), Darren (Anna), and Matthew (Jennifer); and grandchildren, Peter, Noah, Catherine (Aaron), Madison, Fiona, and Alec. His family will hold a celebration of life this summer.

The closing lines of his obituary were fitting to those who knew him.

“Though his heart failed him, it never failed us. In lieu of flowers, support your local butcher.”