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Ranchers.net

The last cattle auction of the year for the area had better results than many were expecting, but ranchers still call this fall's beef market collapse a staggering situation.

"The situation is worse than the BSE crisis," said local rancher Dan Willmann. "You can't make it with 90 cent (per pound) calves and 30 cents (per pound) for cull cows. A good cow should bring $1,400 to $1,500.

"These prices are back in the '70s. All our costs, though, have gone up and things like fuel and fertilizer have skyrocketed."

Willmann is one of many ranchers across Western Canada that have made a gamble. They are holding most of their herds hoping for better prices in spring. It means they have to feed the animals costly hay and grain through the winter and if prices don't rise, they are stuck with the losses.

Henry Dyck, manager of Vanderhoof Auction Mart, said his sale on the weekend went surprisingly well and was later in the autumn than his sales usually go. About 500 cattle were sold at the event, the last until spring.

"I would say prices were probably up a nickel, on average," Dyck said. "Cows were went for about 25 to 30 cents per pound. Heiferettes were up to 60 cents. Bred cows went for $4.85 to $7.50 but there weren't many of those, most guys were keeping them back. For the 500 to 600 weight steers the prices were 95 cents up to $1.05 and for the 400 to 500 weight steers they got up to $1.16. That's not bad. We had good buyer support this year."

Dyck admits though that the markets all over Western Canada are hurting ranchers and the prices have not kept pace with the cost of raising beef. He said the high Canadian dollar has likely been a factor, as is the new market for grains to make ethanol-blended fuels. That has driven the price of grains up sharply, he said.

Good old fashioned greed is also playing a role in cattle prices, said Willmann.

"Why is the price so low in Canada? Food prices in the store keep going up. But the guy at the farm got none of that," Willmann said. "The big packing plants based in Alberta -- Tyson and Cargill -- are gouging. Simple as that. They are making nothing but money. All during BSE, the prices in the stores for hamburger stayed the same but the price we got at the farm gate dropped.

The guy in the middle, the packers, made nothing but money at our expense. That's what's going on now. The major slaughterhouses in Alberta aren't playing fair. They are so big and powerful because there is nowhere else to go to. "

What is needed is a number of large, independent packing plants to be established, Willmann said, especially if they could be located in B.C.

Willmann said the large meat conglomerates also put downward pressure on local beef producers in another way. They insist grocery stores and butcher shops use only their large cuts of meat or else they would refuse to supply these stores with the specialty meats they need to satisfy their customers. It is a form of blackmail preventing local meat from being sold in stores in our area.

Dyck said the crash in prices is hitting ranchers hard, and most of them are older couples who were already in the final stages of their farming life. He is hearing from a lot of them that the farm is probably going to be sold off.

The squeeze on ranchers is going to force them to quit the business and close their land to that type of work, Willmann said.

"Who's going to produce your food? Where is it going to come from for your kids when they grow up?," said. "The government knows what's going on, they have to do something. Don't they have a plan? This is our food source."
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