The best laid plans...

[cowman]

The best laid plans of mice and men.
Thinking that the border would probably open sometime in early 2004, I decided to keep my heifer calves. Looked like a good plan at the time. Now it would seem I'm stuck with them! Apparently feeder cattle are going to take a really ugly hit...My local auctioneer says a 40% hit! Great, I just lost some more money!
I guess if we don't get another drought this year I can hold them until fall. Sure hope we get this thing sorted out by then.
I remember Klein saying(last June) that we need to get this thing solved by August 2003 or else the beef industry would melt down. Well here we are in 2004 and things still look fairly bleak! When will we see this meltdown? How much longer can the feedlots keep going? When they start to shut down I do believe we are done?

[kato]

Don't panic yet. According to a feedlot friend of ours, either he or one of his partners talked to an Amercian vet at the border in December. At that time, the USDA vets had all the protocols and procedures set up to let Canadian live cattle in. All they were waiting for was a phone call. It was that close!

This tells me that the States had every intention of opening the border. Now that we are essentially both BSE minimal risk countries (no matter how wishful the thinking is down there), and we are both treating our slaughter animals to the same SRM removal etc., there is no legal or moral way, other than to admit to protectionism, that the border can remain closed.

Listen carefully to what the USDA is saying, they have restated over and over again that this is a North American problem. Now if we can keep the politicians out of it, maybe common sense will prevail.

[grefer]

I found it interesting today when a Saskatoon radio station was interviewing the manager from Prairie Meats.He said that since Mexico has closed its' border to U.S. beef,Mexico is buying more of its' meat from Canada.Go figure.Maybe there is hope to come out of this mess yet.

[ALICIA]

And I'f we tell Japan that we are going to start testing every animal, could we take your order Please.

The first big ship load should pay for all the testing. And if the scientests keep working the testing should get easer and maybe just involve a simple blood test in the future.