Canadian imports account for half U.S. cow slaughter
Farm Commodity Newsletter
Iowa Farmer Today
May 23, 2008
While the liquidation of the US cow herd still continues, a significant part of the increase in weekly slaughter is due to more Canadian cows in the mix, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange said in its daily livestock report Thursday night.
After an absence of several years (since May 2003) Canadian beef producers were finally allowed last November to again ship cattle 30 months or older to the US market. Since then, about 75,920 head of Canadian slaughter cows have been sent to US plants for processing.
This implies that since the beginning of the year, Canadian slaughter cows have made up about 2.6% of total weekly cow slaughter in the US. But how big has been the impact of Canadian cows in the overall increase of US cow slaughter numbers?
In the last six weeks, Canadian cow imports have accounted for about half of the total increase in US cow slaughter numbers. Year to date, Canadian cows have accounted for 2/3 (68%) of the overall increase in US cow slaughter, the CME report said.
marketwatchonline.com