Reduced Cattle Sales

[ASRG]

One of the neighbours dropped into the local auction sale at Innisfail last Wednesday. He said he got there at 10:30 AM and the sale was over! This is a pretty active auction barn and at this time of the year they usually have a pretty high volume!
He said there were some pretty grim faces in the office.
Talked to another guy at a board meeting who had about 30 culls to sell when he weans in a couple of weeks. He said if cow prices don't bounce back he will delay weaning for a couple more weeks....and hope things change! He said the XL screwup will probably cost him about $150/cow or $4500! He is not a happy camper, to say the least!
In reality I guess we all are taking a hit here due to XL and the CFIA not doing their job? We pay for their sloppy work!
During the 7 years of bad prices caused by the BSE goof up, I always said "Those cows are doing their job...I'm doing my job the best I can...the government is the only one who F...ed up"....too bad me and the cows are the only ones who pay!

[mcfarms]

I thinking Monday I will be phoning my Mp's office asking them if they want to do it
either
A) I do a deduction off any taxes owable in this fiscal year for the damages
B) Cam Pallett gets new clients and a new lawsuit against CFIA

But hey at least we have the new gutted agristabilty to save us .....

Maybe Kevin the parade marshall Sorensen will offer to pay us out of his gold plated pension for our losses.

Not bloody likely on either account.

[mcfarms]

Right I forgot Monday is a holiday , once you have cows you realise there are no Stat holidays.

[Burbert]

XL (Nillson Bros) are huge conservative contributors,
sooooo, they likely will weather this storm. Unless the
US says noooooooo, then theys dead as the doo doo
bird. XL has issued a short terse statement, admitting
no wrongs to date. Alberta Gag site is down for the
long weekend, hence no comments about the fiasco.
Cowardly way to deal with such an important issue,
eh!!!!

[loric]

Dad tells me Meadow Lake has cancelled their
sales for the time being due to prices

[ALLFARMER]

I won't be selling till the plant gets going.

So what's everyone's best guess? Does it take
another couple days or a couple weeks? If they
have to redo some drains replumb some hot
water lines??

By taking all the blame XL must be confident they
can litigate their way out of this mess. The heat
on the conservatives and Ritz is greatly reduced
with XL taking it for them. There must have been
a deal made....say it's all your fault and we ....
don't call a public inquiry.

[sumdumguy]

Wonder what kind of employees at Brooks. Hate
to say it, but Maybe employees don't know clean
because of their background.

Where would XL get that many locals?

[grassfarmer]

Mainly Sudanese and Somali workers from what I
understand. Brought in with Government assistance?
I don't think you can blame them for the mess
though. Their union has long been bringing forward
concerns that they can't do their job properly due to
the line speed and saying they were concerned
about the quality of the work they were doing due
to constraints of time and throughput volume.

[ASRG]

If XL and the CFIA had jumped on this thing right away, after the Americans shut the door, I doubt we would be seeing the reaction we are now getting?
If Ritz had got on the ball instead of diddling around for two weeks this story would be over?

In the publics mind beef is fast becoming no longer safe to eat....not just XL beef....all beef! The daily expanded recalls and ever increasing cases of sickness are sending a very clear message "BEEF IS NOT SAFE. DON"T BUY IT!"

Japan has now announced it will not allow beef from the XL plant into the country.

I know a young guy who sells food to restaurants (a company similar to Cisco)and he tells me his beef sales are drying up....lots more chicken and fish though!

I don't know if XL was any dirtier than any other plant. It appears there was a breakdown in inspection efforts. I doubt the line speed was greater than any other modern high output packing house. I would guess the ethnic makeup of the employees isn't much different at Cargill.

The fact is this was a screwup that was badly handled by the CFIA? They come across as Keystone Kops unable to do their jobs? I don't blame the public one bit for losing faith in the food safety of beef.

The unfortunate part of all this gongshow is that the primary producer is ultimately going to pay dearly for incompetent packers, incompetent inspection, and incompetent government!

[SADIE]

NOW THE MEDIA TALK ABOUT THE "ECOLI VACCINE FOR BEEF CATTLE"

WHAT THIS THING PLAY OUT AS WELL. SO FAR IT IS NOT EFFICACY VIABLE FOR USE AND WITH THE LONG WITHDRAWL TIME IS NOT PRACTICAL.

REMEMBER THAT ECOLI is a common bacteria bug that is in the intestinal tract of the animal---normal floral.

Somewhere down the road in the near future another cost to the primary producer could happen?????