Anybody see this?

[cowman]

Just got back from a little trip to Montana. Caught a newscast where the ag minister from Manitoba was saying they need to kill 60,000 cows before winter. He actually came out and said it...dig the pits, shoot them and bury them! His actual words! Then they had a little bit about Shirley McClellan saying basically the same thing only she babbled on about we need to make sure we use the meat! Too bad they never asked her where we're going to get them killed?
Saw an ad for hamburger at $2.95/lb. American which works out to about $4 Canadian! I hope the Canadian consumer realizes what a good deal they're getting at 74 cents a pound!
Had a steak at a bar and grill and it was sure a good one so I guess those Americans are coping without Canadian beef!

[15444]

Yeah I heard it too. It was only a matter of time though. Everyone had this big sigh of relief when the border opened partially, didn't think they would have to do a massive cull. But 60,000 cull cows won't mean tiddly squats to the industry. They need to slaughter 150,000 confirmed bred cows in Manitoba and then start talking about a supply managed beef system and bringing the old Burns plant in Winnipeg back online.

[ValueChainFX]

Ground Beef Sale price $1.28lb
Top sirloin $3.99lb
Outside round roast $1.99lb
Eye of Round Steak $2.99lb
Inside Round Steak $2.98lb
Sirloin Tip Roast $2.98lb
T-Bone Steak $6.99lb
Anyone care to guess how much these sale prices have changed since last year at this time?????

Just so you have an insight the ground beef is down from $1.49 and the T bones are down from from $7.09.

Just a thought but something may be a little funny here and I am almost positive that it is not the producer that is havin the chuckle!

If there was ever a time for the producers to go more directly to the consumer I do believe it is now, what are your thoughts?

[rusty1]

15444 - supply managment is exactly what the packing industry wants. That's whay they keep winning about about needing to feed their own cattle. They would like to push us to the place where the pork industry is. We'll be told how many to buy at what weights so they can tell us on what days we need to ship.

[ValueChainFX]

In saying that, it's also not a good thing to have two systems, one that sets market prices and the other that undercuts them.

Before you look at supply management as a bad thing, maybe call it something else and ask yourself if this ... If you could get a premium price for a specific kind of product would I like the choice to go after that premium? I think most of us would if we knew what the product was.

So maybe supply management is not the word we are looking for, perhaps the word is “understanding the market place and controlling what we raise to meet those demands”!

[ValueChainFX]

Sorry I missed the first part of the last answer.

So put this in front of the last answer and maybe it makes more sense LOL ... sorry!

Supply management would not adversely effect a certain portion of the industry. But it's still good for you as the producer to keep some of your supply to put into markets of your choice and not let the system manage your business!

[15444]

I think supply managment would be best in our case. The folloing is how this crisis should be dealt with.

Canada destroys half of the cowherd. Every producer is mandated to do it, but the can elect which cows in the herd are to be destroyed, regardless of age, based more on quality then anything else.

The remaining cows have a quota placed on them, say $500 per cow for quota. This gives the cow/calf producer more assets when selling out. The only way a farmer can expand is by buying more quota. This idea in it self would limit the rate of growth a farm could have and, may even help keep the little guy around.

Being that there are fewer cattle, we become less reliant on export markets and build our own national niche market which bans medicated feeds and growth promotents. Having banned such products, we call on every country that exports to us to do the same or be denied import permits. We wouldn't even have to meet our WTO obligations of 74,000 imported tons of beef annually because we could say that we consider any beef with such products in them as being a risk to public health safety.

So take another look at this. We could become almost 0% reliant on export markets, boost herd health, provide more assets for the producer, and boost consumer demand by banning already controversial products used in cattle production. I think it works.

[15444]

Forgot to add that the $500 quota would be added onto the actual value of the cow. Just in case anybody is confused by that part.

[Muttley]

I do not like the thought of killing any of our Canadian cow herd!

Last spring farmers and ranchers were expanding because of the bright spot it had in agriculture (with the exception of drought area's). I still believe in the Canadian cattle industry and the fact that this BSE cow was contained before entering our food chain should be used as a promotion of our industry not as a wreck.

We all wish it had not happened but it did, do not let some yahoo's in government tell us to kill good cows. The world needs our beef and they had better get off their fat beef fed arses and get our borders opened and our industry back on track as it was a short time ago.

MY COWS ARE NOT GOING TO SLAUGHTER UNTIL I SAY SO !!!!!

[15444]

There is an article in last week's Western Producer which lays out the plans that the provinces are each going to create a provincial cow destruction program. The CCA doesn't know if producers would volunteer their cattle for slaughter, with compensation....so they are planning on letting the provinces and feds run the culling program so their is someway of making it mandatory and enforcing producers to give up cattle.