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Mad cow options to top the agenda at ag ministers mountain
CALGARY (CP) - Canada's agriculture ministers will get a look
Wednesday at "disaster scenario" plans that may have to be
implemented if a Montana judge extends a live cattle ban to boxed
cuts of Canadian beef.
The "worst case" includes a proposal to immediately
concentrate slaughter capacity on cattle under 30 months, which
would mean up to 18,000 older animals a week would be bound for
rendering plants.
"This is the major red meat cuts, the bulk of which are
typically ground into ground beef that would be diverted at least
temporarily into rendering or, once that system is full, for
disposal," said Ted Haney of the Canada Beef Export Federation,
part of the beef round table which drafted the proposals.
Contingency plans for the mad cow crisis are Wednesday's main
agenda item for agriculture ministers who begin three days of talks
in the Rocky Mountain resort village of Kananaskis west of
Calgary.
The controversial disposal move is described as a short-term
solution until other markets could be found for older beef. Haney
said Canada would have to cope with the more than 30,000 tonnes of
meat that have been moving across the U.S. border each month, worth
an estimated $135 million.
The options were hammered out June 22 at an Ottawa meeting.
Canada's beef industry has endured more than $7 billion in
export losses since May 2003, when the first of three cows with mad
cow disease was found on an Alberta farm. Just as the U.S. border
was poised to reopen to live cattle in March, a Montana judge sided
with a U.S. ranchers group and temporarily extended it.
Last week, it was confirmed that the Americans had their own
homegrown case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy - the scientific
name for mad cow disease - in a 12-year-old Texas cow. But no one
is clear on how that will impact court cases where a U.S.
protectionist group will argue the Canada's three cases of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy mean northern herds are unsafe.
"They're no longer BSE-free, for sure, and the likelihood of a
total closure to me seems one of the least likely scenarios to come
back," said Alberta Agriculture Minister Doug Horner, whose
province has been hit hardest by the international bans on live
cattle.
Horner says many of the ministers are aware of the suggested
scenarios, but it will be the first time the plans will have been
formally laid out.
"We're looking at things like retention programs, (or) other
markets where we'd be looking to put beef in a hurry - albeit at
probably depressed prices," he said.
"Is that palatable to the industry, is that palatable to the
rest of the country? These meetings will give us an opportunity to
bounce this off the other provinces."
Next week, an appeals court in Seattle hears a U.S. government
appeal of Judge Richard Cebull's decision to temporarily extend the
ban. A separate hearing on the long-term fate of the border will be
conducted by Cebull on July 27 in Billings, Mont.
Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman said he wants
Ottawa to have a plan in case a U.S. court imposes new restrictions
on Canadian beef.
"If the decision goes in the worst possible way - closing the
border to meat as well as live animals - there are going to be
huge, huge challenges," he said from Regina.
"This is clearly a trade issue and we truly need the federal
government to come and pick up the cost."
Other options to be discussed will be keeping calves born this
spring out of the market system until January 2006 and implementing
BSE tests on all animals bound for international markets.
The testing option is the only one which would not come with a
huge cost to taxpayers.
Also on the ministers' agenda will be discussion of dwindling
farm income, international trade concern and securing improvements
to the Canadian Agriculture Stabilization Program. The impact of
spring flooding on the prairie crops is also expected to be
discussed.
CALGARY (CP) - Canada's agriculture ministers will get a look
Wednesday at "disaster scenario" plans that may have to be
implemented if a Montana judge extends a live cattle ban to boxed
cuts of Canadian beef.
The "worst case" includes a proposal to immediately
concentrate slaughter capacity on cattle under 30 months, which
would mean up to 18,000 older animals a week would be bound for
rendering plants.
"This is the major red meat cuts, the bulk of which are
typically ground into ground beef that would be diverted at least
temporarily into rendering or, once that system is full, for
disposal," said Ted Haney of the Canada Beef Export Federation,
part of the beef round table which drafted the proposals.
Contingency plans for the mad cow crisis are Wednesday's main
agenda item for agriculture ministers who begin three days of talks
in the Rocky Mountain resort village of Kananaskis west of
Calgary.
The controversial disposal move is described as a short-term
solution until other markets could be found for older beef. Haney
said Canada would have to cope with the more than 30,000 tonnes of
meat that have been moving across the U.S. border each month, worth
an estimated $135 million.
The options were hammered out June 22 at an Ottawa meeting.
Canada's beef industry has endured more than $7 billion in
export losses since May 2003, when the first of three cows with mad
cow disease was found on an Alberta farm. Just as the U.S. border
was poised to reopen to live cattle in March, a Montana judge sided
with a U.S. ranchers group and temporarily extended it.
Last week, it was confirmed that the Americans had their own
homegrown case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy - the scientific
name for mad cow disease - in a 12-year-old Texas cow. But no one
is clear on how that will impact court cases where a U.S.
protectionist group will argue the Canada's three cases of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy mean northern herds are unsafe.
"They're no longer BSE-free, for sure, and the likelihood of a
total closure to me seems one of the least likely scenarios to come
back," said Alberta Agriculture Minister Doug Horner, whose
province has been hit hardest by the international bans on live
cattle.
Horner says many of the ministers are aware of the suggested
scenarios, but it will be the first time the plans will have been
formally laid out.
"We're looking at things like retention programs, (or) other
markets where we'd be looking to put beef in a hurry - albeit at
probably depressed prices," he said.
"Is that palatable to the industry, is that palatable to the
rest of the country? These meetings will give us an opportunity to
bounce this off the other provinces."
Next week, an appeals court in Seattle hears a U.S. government
appeal of Judge Richard Cebull's decision to temporarily extend the
ban. A separate hearing on the long-term fate of the border will be
conducted by Cebull on July 27 in Billings, Mont.
Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman said he wants
Ottawa to have a plan in case a U.S. court imposes new restrictions
on Canadian beef.
"If the decision goes in the worst possible way - closing the
border to meat as well as live animals - there are going to be
huge, huge challenges," he said from Regina.
"This is clearly a trade issue and we truly need the federal
government to come and pick up the cost."
Other options to be discussed will be keeping calves born this
spring out of the market system until January 2006 and implementing
BSE tests on all animals bound for international markets.
The testing option is the only one which would not come with a
huge cost to taxpayers.
Also on the ministers' agenda will be discussion of dwindling
farm income, international trade concern and securing improvements
to the Canadian Agriculture Stabilization Program. The impact of
spring flooding on the prairie crops is also expected to be
discussed.