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Johanns supports full cattle trade with Canada

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SASH

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U.S. agriculture secretary supports restoring full cattle trade with Canada




ST. PAUL, Minn, Jun 09, 2005 (The Canadian Press via COMTEX) -- The North American beef supply is safe, and full cattle trade with Canada should be restored, said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns at a round-table discussion here Thursday.

Johanns told the audience at the University of Minnesota that the United States Department of Agriculture's increased screening program had tested 375,000 high-risk American cattle in the past year and found no cases of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

"We believe very strongly that the North American beef supply is safe," Johanns said. "This forum is very important just in terms of getting people in the room."

The forum brought together representatives of the U.S. cattle industry. No Canadian government officials were on the panel.

Johanns said reopening the border was vital for the domestic cattle business. He said beef prices in the United States have risen too high since May 2003, when the border was closed after Canada's first case of mad cow disease.

If beef supplies don't increase and drive down prices, "American consumers will start choosing other sources of protein," he told reporters after the meeting.

The USDA had plans to reopen the Canadian border to cattle shipments in March, but they were stymied when a federal judge in Montana ruled the border must remain closed while a lawsuit brought by a group of ranchers goes through the legal system. The USDA has appealed.

Some critics lacked Johanns' faith in the current system of testing, which primarily checks animals that appear sick. Because mad cow has a long incubation period, infected cattle without symptoms could get into the food supply, they say.

"The USDA risk-mitigation factors are inadequate and deficient" compared to the rest of the world, said Bill Bullard, a round-table panelist and CEO of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America.

He said the Canadian government also needed to improve testing for mad cow disease.

Humans who eat meat contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy can contract a fatal brain disorder called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Last August, Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade, a lobby group representing cattle farmers, filed a $150 million Cdn lawsuit against the U.S. government citing a clause in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The cattle ban has had a devastating effect on the Canadian cattle industry, costing farmers an estimated $7 billion in export revenue.
 
Sash, It only makes sense that the USDA is in a hurry to open the border. If it is closed and they do find a case of BSE - THEY'LL HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME IT ON! :wink:
 
Mike said:
Sash, It only makes sense that the USDA is in a hurry to open the border. If it is closed and they do find a case of BSE - THEY'LL HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME IT ON! :wink:

That's a good point, Mike, but the Canadian and American herds ran together for years. I'm sure they could still dig up a CCIA tag if they really needed one. Good Luck.
 
Prices have risen to high how about fertilizer,fuel land rents and values taxes steel post's,wire should I continue prices are to high for who our government thats in the CHEAP FOOD business THATS WHO.Also the prices wont change once the border is reopened to live cattle ,WELL thats what ~SH~ always blows smoke about... :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Denny said:
Prices have risen to high how about fertilizer,fuel land rents and values taxes steel post's,wire should I continue prices are to high for who our government thats in the CHEAP FOOD business THATS WHO.Also the prices wont change once the border is reopened to live cattle ,WELL thats what ~SH~ always blows smoke about... :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Its always puzzled me that even though crop prices and cattle prices haven't risen with inflation. Land prices have. What is it that makes a farmer say ' Hey, I'm going to buy alot of high priced land so I can work twice as hard as I did 20 years ago for about the same money'. Until the producers start selling out and not producing, the cheap food policy will remain in place. The only other solution is to grab hold of the supply side through a marketing group and be price-setters instead of a price-takers.
 
SASH said:
Denny said:
Prices have risen to high how about fertilizer,fuel land rents and values taxes steel post's,wire should I continue prices are to high for who our government thats in the CHEAP FOOD business THATS WHO.Also the prices wont change once the border is reopened to live cattle ,WELL thats what ~SH~ always blows smoke about... :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Its always puzzled me that even though crop prices and cattle prices haven't risen with inflation. Land prices have. What is it that makes a farmer say ' Hey, I'm going to buy alot of high priced land so I can work twice as hard as I did 20 years ago for about the same money'. Until the producers start selling out and not producing, the cheap food policy will remain in place. The only other solution is to grab hold of the supply side through a marketing group and be price-setters instead of a price-takers.

And in the meantime what are they suppose to do work at the gas station sometimes I think you guys are dumber than a box of smashed apples.What you are saying is as long as your in business the hell with the americans well that figures.
 
Denny said:
SASH said:
Denny said:
Prices have risen to high how about fertilizer,fuel land rents and values taxes steel post's,wire should I continue prices are to high for who our government thats in the CHEAP FOOD business THATS WHO.Also the prices wont change once the border is reopened to live cattle ,WELL thats what ~SH~ always blows smoke about... :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Its always puzzled me that even though crop prices and cattle prices haven't risen with inflation. Land prices have. What is it that makes a farmer say ' Hey, I'm going to buy alot of high priced land so I can work twice as hard as I did 20 years ago for about the same money'. Until the producers start selling out and not producing, the cheap food policy will remain in place. The only other solution is to grab hold of the supply side through a marketing group and be price-setters instead of a price-takers.

And in the meantime what are they suppose to do work at the gas station sometimes I think you guys are dumber than a box of smashed apples.What you are saying is as long as your in business the hell with the americans well that figures.

That's not what I'm saying at all. What makes you think things are any different in Canada?
 
Sash,
High priced land has a lot to do with 1031 exchanges. Urban sprawl creates high priced land for farmers owning property close to cities. They take those dollars and buy land .....at an inflated price. It has nothing to do wiht the ability of the land to produce or run cows. Not right, but that is the way it is in many cases. :mad:
 
CattleCo said:
Sash,
High priced land has a lot to do with 1031 exchanges. Urban sprawl creates high priced land for farmers owning property close to cities. They take those dollars and buy land .....at an inflated price. It has nothing to do wiht the ability of the land to produce or run cows. Not right, but that is the way it is in many cases. :mad:

I agree with you to a point on that. The other thing that seems to drive prices around here are contract crops like potatoes. But still, even in the more remote areas where urban sprawl isn't an issue, land prices are rising. My question is, if you look at a piece of land and figure in interest costs, costs of production and what the approximate yield will be off that chunk of land over the long term and its coming back negative, what would possess a person to buy it other than some sort of unbridled optimism?
 
Re; on the cost of farm/ranchland. We all cut our own and our neighbors throats. If some land comes up for sale, most of the locals bid it up, because they don't want the neighbor to own it or they believe they must get bigger to survive.

Most land in this area has always risen, since the thirties. There have been times when it was lowered, but no one would sell unless the bank forced them.

A neighbor rancher told me one time he was talking to an old Jewish man and bemoaning the fact that ranch land wouldn't "pencil". The old man told him, "When ranch land will pencil, two Jews will own it all".

We had 3 neighbors go in together and offer their ranches as one contiguis (sp) block. It would have made a nice ranch and they were asking $225 an acre for it. I asked a friend who was running on part of it, if he was going to buy it. He said he would, but he couldn't figure out how to pay for it. My reply was,"Yeah, but if you did, you'd sure look smart in a few years when it was worth $400 an acre".

We are almost to that point now and it wasn't but a few years ago that it was offered!
 
I'm surprised no one mentioned outside investors in the high land price scenario.

An out of state investment company recently purchased two parcels of land in our area.

Ted Turner recently became a "local" landowner, with no dependence on production from the land paying for it.

Not far away, land has sold for hunting purposes, with no real dependence on production to pay for it.

Hopefully, some of these "outside" landowners will rely on local farmers or ranchers to help them properly manage the land and the game populations and forages to keep it healthy for their recreational uses. More hope is that they will be good citizens in the community even if they are not living on the land. Losing families from land hurts communities with the loss of people willing to support, both financially and with their presence the special events, and "causes" that make an area truly a community.

MRJ
 

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