Pretty tough solution

[cowman]

I believe the government, as usual, is kind of behind the times. I think we all realize a major portion of the cow herd has got to go. Yes, move the young quality cows out but basically we need to slaughter mega numbers of cows. Why couldn't the federal govt. put a floor price under these cows...say 40 cents. Buy them up, get them killed, freeze the meat and send it to Africa. They intend to send massive food aid so why not send them our excess cow meat? I would imagine those old boys might just enjoy biting into a Big Mac! Better than sending money which could be used to buy guns so they could continue to slaughter each other!
I suspect the government doesn't have a clue of the wreck that is coming down the line! They talk of a one third reduction in the Alberta cow herd...which would be about 660,000 cows but I think it might be closer to 75% in the drought areas! In some areas like east central Alberta the cow could become an endagered species!

[leland]

Good point. The first step would be to stop the inflow of Aussie beef which is a direct competitor to cow beef. If we have a sudden surplus of cow beef why keep importing. Whenever Australia/New Zealand has a drought they quickly export over their quota's to us. Now that we have a drought we should step up to the plate and stop this unneeded product to shore up our prices.

[cowman]

Australia and New Zealand can do this because their money is a joke! Yes, even worse than the Canadian dollar! Without a doubt they have some other advantages...don't have 8 months of winter! Basically what they export is manufacturing beef comparable to our cow beef. Never underestimate the political power of the meat trade in Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa. This is what really matters to our federal government in regards to the meat trade. Keep the deli operators happy! And why not? They vote for the liberals everytime! How many old redneck cattlemen ever vote Liberal?
I well remember the Irish beef scandal in the early eighties. Cows were scarce and the Canadian price was rising dramatically. In came the Irish beef. The CCA got on the feds case and revealed the subsidy paid to the Irish farmer was more than the price of cows. The government finally stopped the Irish beef but not until they had totally destroyed our domestic market! So the deli owners had the best of both worlds!