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Canadian cattle industry still feeling the effects of BSEBy Doug Rich "We have to talk about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) if we talk about Canada," Hugh Lynch-Staunton said. Many of those attending the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA) annual meeting agreed with Staunton, who is president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. Nearly all of the slides that Staunton showed during his presentation revealed the pre-BSE and post-BSE condition of the Canadian cattle industry. "We discovered our first BSE cow on May 23, 2003," Staunton said. "We had way more cattle than our packers could kill and way more than our market could absorb. Thank goodness you opened your country to boneless beef in September of that first year. It gave us the breathing room we needed to recover." Canada established their first feed ban in 1997 in an attempt to eradicate BSE from their national herd. "During this period of time our packers had the best of both worlds," Staunton said. "Selling cattle in your market and buying them in our market." Even with an enhanced feed ban in place they are still finding a few cases of BSE. Staunton said it looks like most of the BSE that is amplified is amplified through feed exposure. "It is probable that when we find new cases they have been infected through feed," Staunton said. "It is probable and perhaps likely that a number of cases are found spontaneously, but it is most likely feed." Staunton said they would likely find more cases based on patterns in Europe and other countries that have had a BSE experience. The feed ban reduces the amplification dramatically but it keeps popping up from time to time. "For sure we are through the old feed supplies," Staunton said. "The new feed ban means that all specified risk material is destroyed. It does not get into any food chains. The purpose of doing that is to increase the speed at which we become BSE free. You eradicate it because you further reduce the risk of cross contamination. It will gradually dwindle to nothing." Staunton said the current liquidation of the cowherd in Canada could be traced back to their BSE experience. "There are a lot of older people who would have been getting out of the business but with BSE they could not, of course," Staunton said. There is pent-up desire to get out of the cattle business. Liquidation that would normally have occurred over a three to four year period is happening all at one time. "A number of producers want to grow grain more than cattle anyhow," Staunton said. Domestic consumption of beef went up in Canada after BSE. Staunton said this was the first time a BSE nation actually increased the rate of consumption. "Our citizens supported us and were able to believe in our product," Staunton said. "Our price was so cheap they almost had to eat it." Domestic consumption has leveled off and declined a little bit since that time. Staunton suspects that a lot of that meat went into freezers and has not been eaten yet. Canadian beef exports peaked in 2002 prior to BSE at 59 percent. Today they export 50 percent of their production. Exports to the U.S. are up 3 percent this year and up 53 percent to Japan. Staunton said 53 percent of not much is still not much. Canada only sends about 3,000 tons of beef to Japan. Mexico is a substantial market for Canadian beef at 45,000 tons and 18,000 tons is shipped to Hong Kong. "We try to export across the world but we suffer the same market access woes as you do," Staunton said. "We imported a lot of product before BSE and now that is climbing again," Staunton said. "In 2007 we were up 26 percent on imports." Up to 112,000 tons of those imports come from the U.S. "Our industry has never done well without access to your markets," Staunton said. "Our vision is one of an integrated North American market with integrated production systems. Historically our prosperity has been linked to the U.S." Staunton said Canada and the U.S. are about as close as any two nations in the world can be and they would like to keep it that way. Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com.
12/10/07 Date: 12/6/07
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