What is wrong with Government buy out of old cull cows.

[grefer]

Just wondering what is wrong with the Government,whether it is provincial or federal,buying out the culls that would be normally going down the road anyway.If we are forced or choose to retain ownership of these old retrogrades it will be costly for us short term and in the future as these animals need to be weeded out.

[cowman]

Well it would be a public relations nightmare! Wouldn't look to good you know? Big pits, bawling cows, lots of shooting, blood and guts! The fantasy that we have the packer capacity to get these cows killed, processed and stored is just that...a fantasy! If they had got right on the ball maybe they could have got some old plants up and running but not now. Better to just play the fiddle while Rome burns!
And after all they know us dummies raising cattle aren't likely to let them starve or do the shootings ourselves. We might bitch a lot but that can be overcome by focussing on other things like whether Bob and Joe can get married or whether we can smoke a pound of dope or should it be less? You know the more important things in life? Not whether some dumb hicks go broke!

[rsomer]

Shirley McClellan has denounced the plan to slaughter 600,000 cows “That’s garbage — it is not going to happen here...This government has a little more imagination than digging a pit and piling valuable food product into it — the Alberta industry wouldn’t allow it.”

See: http://www.bowesnet.com/highrivertimes/times_issue/news.html

The BSE Recovery Program did pay up to 26 cents per pound on slaughter cows sold between May 20 and August 31.

I believe what was and is still being considered by some is a compulsory mass slaughter of cows over 7 years of age which were born before the ban on feeding animal protein to ruminants came into place.

It would be a shame to see good cows wasted like that.

I believe a forced cull is still being considered although the cows won't be dumped in a pit, some non food use would be found for them, perhaps fertilizer. I have seen research that suggests the folding prion responsible for BSE may survive in the soil, sorry I can find that link again right now.

[pandiana]

Letter to the Editor from Neil Jahnke, President, Canadian Cattlemen's Association


September 8, 2003

Letter to the Editor

As President of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, I’d like to correct some misinformation that’s been circulating regarding the beef cattle industry’s position on the issue of cull cows.

The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the organization which officially speaks on behalf of Canadian beef cattle producers on national issues, is committed to finding a beneficial use for cull cattle, which will help give value to these animals and encourage any cattle culling to be in response to market conditions. Canadians are proving their confidence by buying Canadian beef in record quantities. This tremendous support would be jeopardized if the cattle industry were to advocate a massive cull of cattle and removal of beef from those animals from the marketplace.

Close to 700,000 older milking and breeding cattle are culled from the national herd each year. This is a normal attrition rate. The real issue is that the value of these cull animals has taken a huge drop (from approx. $800 per head prior to the BSE announcement to an average of $200 per head today, if a market can be found) in part because the U.S. border has only opened to beef from animals under 30 months old.

A working group comprised of representatives of the cattle producer community, packers and governments is determining ways to add value to the cull cattle market. Options being examined include processing for institutional markets or food aid, development of new products through further processing, development of alternative export markets and displacement of off-shore beef imports.

Beef cattle producers are tremendously grateful for the public support they have received and do not want to see that support eroded. We do not support the idea of wasting beef from perfectly healthy animals through an extraordinary cattle cull.

Sincerely,

Neil Jahnke

President, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association

[grefer]

Cowman,I am not talking about any kind of forced cull,just the normal cull that would occur anyway.I suppose if we don't have the capacity to slaughter these animals without the blood,guts and a pit then surely some sort of orderly cull could be devised.I always have some older cows that I should have got rid of last year,sort of thing.They will not be spending the winter at least not all of it on four feet,one way or another.I would hope our political leaders would not force producers such as myself into slaughtering cows and feeding them to the coyotes when they could be used for better purpases.

[cowman]

Our packing houses can't even kill the feedlot beef...just not enough capacity. How are they going to kill an extra 700,000 cows? This is the normal cull. Do you think they take old mothballed plants and open them tommorrow? Do you think they hire hundreds of people, give them a knife and the hamburger comes shooting out the other end? The fact of the matter is there is no easy solution!
Thus we have Shirley McClellan and others fiddling while Rome burns! No to tests and no to the pit! Where then can they go?
Will they go in the pits? Very Very unlikely! They know we will hold them over come hell or bankruptcy!
700,000 more useless mouths to feed! And who do you think will be feeding them? You and I my friend, you and I.
And what happens next year? Can we add another 700,000?
I don't know about you but I'm not real keen on running a retirement home for old cows.

[rsomer]

Bottom line there is not going to be a market for slaughter cows in the foreseeable future. I think it is reasonable to figure on not being able sell slaughter cows before fall 2004. Anne Dunford has pointed out there will be a backlog of more than 750,000 head of cattle by the end of the first quarter 2004, most of this backlog will be cows. The problem as cowman pointed out is lack of processing capacity to kill the additional 1 million plus steers and heifers that used to go south to be slaughtered. Even if the border were to open to live cattle early in the New Year the problem is not solved. Based on the slow pace of meat exports to the U.S. to date I don’t think we will see volumes of live cattle going to the States before April if we are lucky. By then most of the cull cows will have calved.

The government solution seems to be to offer interest free cash advances but those have to be repaid and the cows still have to be fed. I don’t see the government buying our cows. The government may end up owning cows however if producers default on the interest free advance. Beyond more debt being offered by government the producer is going to have to get out of this mess himself. If you wanted government help you should have been in the feedlot business.

In the meantime, producers need to realize they have to plan on feeding their cull cows this winter. Baling straw would seem to be a good thing to do. Take some of your interest free advance and buy extra feed. This is not the year to get rid of Bessie just because she is a fence crawler or has bad teats. Of the 700,000 cows to be slaughtered many would be in calf and could be kept even if the cow is past her productive prime. We have a neighbour who used to buy these old crocks and keep them through the winter and calf them out then sell cow and calf. It looked like it worked for him. Those old girls know how to calve. It is going to make more sense to retain an open cow in your herd to be rebred next spring and sell an extra heifer calf for which there is a cash market in her place. Some of the opens will not get in calf next summer but many will. Maybe get a vet to check open cows to see if there are signs of a ongoing reproductive problem. If not, keep her.

[bombay_43]

I know many culls are a direct result of open cows, but many are just plain out said, too old to keep. Bad feet, bad eyes, bad udders, etc. Many will end up dragged out on the back 40 for coyote food! I tend to agree with cowman. I don't want to feed these cows just because they are retired! All of us are raising cattle for profit, not just for fun! Especially those of us who live only on a farm income! There are actually some who do not have off farm jobs, and cannot go on keeping old cows "Just because".

I think too much politics has entered into this BSE issue, and not just between other countries and Canada! Why are pet food plants not processing these culled cows? There is no link to BSE in Cats or Dogs. A bag of generic cat food costs $9.00! It is cheaper to shoot a cow and drag her up on the porch to feed the cats and dogs!! Maybe if we just labeled the bags it would be acceptable pet food! You know?!

WARNING! FULL OF BS....e.!!!!

[grefer]

The point that bombay-23 makes is where I am at.Most of the cows that I planned to cull just should not be here to see green grass.On top of this I am in an area is Sask that has just come through 3 very dry years.Feed stocks were at next to nothing by this spring and we had another year with very little hay.Our ceareal crops are better than last year but last year they were almost non existant.Of course pastures have been very poor and grasshoppers by the cloud.Keeping old cows just to see what next year brings doesn't seem to be an option that makes sense to me.Maybe I'll take them to a bred cow sale and see if someone else wants a go at it.

[Bruce14]

I was thinking yesterday we are lucky our cowherd is pretty current so we shouldn't have to cull many. Opens may get bred to resell.

Then I remembered all the cows we shipped last year because of the drought. They were the old ones and ones with problems and they went to slaughter not into someone elses herd.

How many people kept or bought old crocks last year? Are we now expecting the gov't to buy these mistakes from us?

[rsomer]

How many people had calves in the feedlot May 20 and everyone of those animals was a mistake. No different for a cow calf guy, no one knew this was coming. The only thing I expect from government is fair treatment across the board. I don’t think government should buy cull cows but I would point out that feedlots were paid the difference between market price and 90% of the U.S. weekly price. I don’t see that happening for cull cows. The market does need cull cows to be held back now. But I am hearing that some people are going to have to ship culls for various reasons. They should receive fair treatment