Borders closed or what?

[rusty1]

Can someone tell me if we are still importing beef from Ontario east from the US?

[ALICIA]

yes the borders are closes
They are still killing cattle
about 400 or so with last count.
But not finding any more mad cows.
borders are to be keep close until they find the source.

[ALICIA]

one other news they think the cow may of been made into dog food and sent to the U.S. They are not sure.

[Smithy]

Does this mean that someone will have to inspect the homes of American dog food purchasers to make sure no ruminants can get at Fido's dish?
Actually that could be a problem as a lot of livestock guardian dogs are probably fed where sheep have acess to their food.

[rusty1]

Let me repeat my question - Did we shut the borders to Americian Beef. Eastern Canada imports American beef and I wonder if we have shut that off?

[charliep]

The border shut down applies to all Canada including eastern Canada. The USDA press release is at:

http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2003/05/bg0166.htm

[charliep]

I should read your question better. No restrictions on US beef imports into Canada.

[grassfarmer]

Why should the border be closed to US imports Rusty?(I assume that is what you are implying) - it's Canada that has the problem so why antagonise the Americans with trade retaliation when we have so much to lose by doing so?

[15444]

I agree totally grassfarmer. Why make this situation worse by getting into a trade war? Most people can sympathize with the Americans. It's not their fault that we came up with BSE. They are just protecting their markets which is a smart move. Let's just focus on killing all of these herds that are quarantined so we can get confidence back in our export markets. Then we can get on with raising beef, and not hell.

[cakadu]

I'm curious - do you think once the ban is lifted - whenever that is - that it will go back to business as usual, or will we be looking at an uphill battle in terms of restoring confidence in those countries that have banned our products and cattle?

I'm not so sure that things will bounce back quickly - it's going to take time.

The other question is how long is the border going to remain closed? 30 days is probably something that some of the major feedlots can handle, but 60 days is going to put a lot of stress on the whole system. Look at how things are slowing already and we are just at the tip of the iceberg so to speak.

[carebear300]

Will that country or origin labelling requirement for all meat going into the american market hurt us big time because of the mad cow disease? I hope not but think that it will for quite some time.

[lonewolf]

cakadu I attended an information session two or three years ago when BSE was in the spot light last time. the government handed out some information packets which I think I still have someplace. At that time they informed us that if Mad cow was to be found here the best case senario would be a closure of the border for two years. I do not think it will go that long but if it does I have all ready been taking steps to hold cattle for that period. Will I lose money on them. definitely, but these cattle will eventually go to market. One final note the guys that have had their herds quarrantined will probably fair better then the rest of us as the government did give us a price a guarrenteed price per cow should BSE be found in the herd.

[ValueChainFX]

At the moment I do believe the question is why did it take so long to find the problem. If you were in the countries that imported our product, what would you think? What do you think a reasonable time would be?

[ALICIA]

Sorry What can I say
selective hearing
selective reading

[cakadu]

Part of the reason it took so long to find the problem was the cow likely wasn't a priority because she wasn't in the human food chain but rather was condemned hence went for rendering.

It also depends on how many people are employed to look for these types of diseases.

Bottom line is that once the borders are open, it is going to take some time in order to restore confidence in what we are doing. I could be wrong, but I don't think it is going to be a matter of opening the border one day and we will be trading like we were before anything happened. So long as we keep moving forward, that will be the main thing.