SASH
Well-known member
Canada makes cattlemen uneasy
Apr 27, 2005 (Tri-City Herald - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Cody Easterday, a third-generation cattleman, said the outlook for his Mid-Columbia feedlot looks bleak if the U.S. border remains closed to Canadian live cattle.
"We've closed the gate, and we are going to lose and they are going to win," he said.
Easterday and other members of the Washington Cattle Feeders Association discussed the situation Tuesday with John Masswohl, the director of international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, over plate-sized steaks in Kennewick.
Masswohl didn't give them much good news. He said Canadian producers have suffered for nearly two years and lost nearly $5.6 billion since May 2003 when an Alberta cow was found to have mad cow disease and the border was closed.
Yet, that's about to change.
Canadian cattlemen are tired of waiting for open trade to resume, he said.
"We would like to be entirely self-sufficient and never have to rely on American slaughterhouses again," he said. "The things that the Americans are doing now are going to cause American plants to shut down."
Masswohl said Canadian packing houses are expanding and shortly will have the capacity to process most of the country's beef.
Canadian statistics say the country was able to slaughter about 72,000 head of cattle a week before the ban. But at the end of 2004, Canada had increased that capacity to 86,000.
In June, a Tyson plant in Brooks, Alberta, will complete an expansion enabling it to slaughter an additional 800 cattle a day. The plant currently processes about 3,900 animals a day.
Another major plant, Cargill in High River, Alberta, also is expected to increase its production -- by 500 head a day, Masswohl said.
Those changes, along with the addition of new smaller Canadian beef processing plants, could squeeze already-stressed Northwest packers like Tyson in Wallula and Washington Beef in Toppenish.
Cattle feedlot operators, like Easterday, who sell their cattle to Northwest packers say they already are feeling the pinch. He said there aren't as many young cattle available to buy for his operation at the prices he's used to paying.
Easterday said if Mid-Columbia packers move elsewhere to turn a better profit, business will go bad for his family and others.
"I don't think the community realizes the impact that's going to happen here," he said.
Ray McGaugh, Tyson's Wallula complex manager, wouldn't say if the company is planning a move, but he said the lack of Canadian cattle had reduced the plant's production to about 60 percent of normal.
"There just aren't enough available cattle in the Northwest to supply Tyson and Washington Beef," McGaugh said.
About 20 percent of the Tyson plant's cattle had come from Canada before the border closed, he said. The company usually hires about 1,850 workers but now has about 1,700 workers.
McGaugh said keeping the border closed eventually would hurt the entire U.S. industry.
"There is going to be an economic reckoning," he said.
But not everyone in the U.S. cattle industry is in agreement.
U.S. and Canadian government officials were close to opening the border earlier this year, but a federal judge in Montana ruled in favor of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, or R-CALF, a group of American ranchers who want the border closed until Canadians can prove their herds are free of mad cow disease.
"We want to do business with Canada, but we don't want to trade at the risk of our industry," said Shae Dodson, a Billings, Mont.-based R-CALF spokeswoman. "We don't want to introduce BSE into our American herd -- or any other foreign disease."
Dodson said she didn't believe packers would move to Canada.
"It makes no sense for these packers to threaten that they are going to move north," she said. "We've got enough cattle here within the borders."
Masswohl said Canadian producers didn't want to compete with the U.S. cattle industry for the same customers, but they weren't willing to wait any longer.
"We've had enough of this," he said. "We are making our own plans. We've got to survive."
Apr 27, 2005 (Tri-City Herald - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Cody Easterday, a third-generation cattleman, said the outlook for his Mid-Columbia feedlot looks bleak if the U.S. border remains closed to Canadian live cattle.
"We've closed the gate, and we are going to lose and they are going to win," he said.
Easterday and other members of the Washington Cattle Feeders Association discussed the situation Tuesday with John Masswohl, the director of international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, over plate-sized steaks in Kennewick.
Masswohl didn't give them much good news. He said Canadian producers have suffered for nearly two years and lost nearly $5.6 billion since May 2003 when an Alberta cow was found to have mad cow disease and the border was closed.
Yet, that's about to change.
Canadian cattlemen are tired of waiting for open trade to resume, he said.
"We would like to be entirely self-sufficient and never have to rely on American slaughterhouses again," he said. "The things that the Americans are doing now are going to cause American plants to shut down."
Masswohl said Canadian packing houses are expanding and shortly will have the capacity to process most of the country's beef.
Canadian statistics say the country was able to slaughter about 72,000 head of cattle a week before the ban. But at the end of 2004, Canada had increased that capacity to 86,000.
In June, a Tyson plant in Brooks, Alberta, will complete an expansion enabling it to slaughter an additional 800 cattle a day. The plant currently processes about 3,900 animals a day.
Another major plant, Cargill in High River, Alberta, also is expected to increase its production -- by 500 head a day, Masswohl said.
Those changes, along with the addition of new smaller Canadian beef processing plants, could squeeze already-stressed Northwest packers like Tyson in Wallula and Washington Beef in Toppenish.
Cattle feedlot operators, like Easterday, who sell their cattle to Northwest packers say they already are feeling the pinch. He said there aren't as many young cattle available to buy for his operation at the prices he's used to paying.
Easterday said if Mid-Columbia packers move elsewhere to turn a better profit, business will go bad for his family and others.
"I don't think the community realizes the impact that's going to happen here," he said.
Ray McGaugh, Tyson's Wallula complex manager, wouldn't say if the company is planning a move, but he said the lack of Canadian cattle had reduced the plant's production to about 60 percent of normal.
"There just aren't enough available cattle in the Northwest to supply Tyson and Washington Beef," McGaugh said.
About 20 percent of the Tyson plant's cattle had come from Canada before the border closed, he said. The company usually hires about 1,850 workers but now has about 1,700 workers.
McGaugh said keeping the border closed eventually would hurt the entire U.S. industry.
"There is going to be an economic reckoning," he said.
But not everyone in the U.S. cattle industry is in agreement.
U.S. and Canadian government officials were close to opening the border earlier this year, but a federal judge in Montana ruled in favor of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, or R-CALF, a group of American ranchers who want the border closed until Canadians can prove their herds are free of mad cow disease.
"We want to do business with Canada, but we don't want to trade at the risk of our industry," said Shae Dodson, a Billings, Mont.-based R-CALF spokeswoman. "We don't want to introduce BSE into our American herd -- or any other foreign disease."
Dodson said she didn't believe packers would move to Canada.
"It makes no sense for these packers to threaten that they are going to move north," she said. "We've got enough cattle here within the borders."
Masswohl said Canadian producers didn't want to compete with the U.S. cattle industry for the same customers, but they weren't willing to wait any longer.
"We've had enough of this," he said. "We are making our own plans. We've got to survive."
