• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Ranchers.net

Expanded Canadian cattle imports just days away
Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 1:12 PM

by Peter Shinn

Over the next several weeks sale barns across South Dakota will be holding benefit auctions. The purpose? To raise money for the lawsuit filed by R-CALF USA and other groups aimed at blocking the USDA rule that will allow virtually all Canadian cattle born after March 1st of 1999 into the U.S.

R-CALF is calling on Northern Plains ranchers to donate a cull cow for auction. Alan Lund, a beef producer from Selfridge, North Dakota, already has. He told Brownfield the border re-opening comes just as many producers are planning to sell their culls. And according to Lund, it's having a negative price impact in advance.

"I think it's probably already started depressing our market probably a month back just because of speculation," Lund said. "The cull cow runs have been very large the last two weeks."

Still, USDA spokeswoman Karen Eggers told Brownfield the Agency has already been working with companies who import Canadian cattle in anticipation of the rule's implementation. And she said the Canadian border re-opening is currently on schedule for next week.

"We are still slated to have this rule go into effect on Monday, November 19th," said Eggers.

And Lund said that's why he was happy to donate a cow cull for auction in support of legal action against the rule, known by USDA as the minimal risk rule II and by its opponents as the over-thirty-month rule. As far as he's concerned, the case against the rule pending in a South Dakota federal district court looks to be the only way to stop a surge of Canadian cattle into the U.S.

"There probably isn't any options if legal actions fails," Lund conceded.

In the meantime, Lund said he’s hoping to get 40 to 50 cents a hundredweight for his cull cows going to market this week. But he expects an influx of older Canadian cattle to drive that price into the 20 to 30 cent range.
Top