Grrrrr

[kato]

As far as I know, Japan has always said they would buy tested beef. That was the thing that was keeping the border closed all along, wasn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong please.

Our industry "leaders" just didn't want to do it. Probably afraid of p#%#ing off the Americans.

[kato]

Honest, I wasn't swearing there. I meant to say "putting", but my fingers slipped on the keys.

Tee..hee...hee..

;-)

[15444]

Ivbinconned:

Canada is allowed 15 animals until we lose our 'limited risk state.' If we aren't testing by then, what happens to our consumer confidence?

Kato: I agree. As far as I have ever heard, Japan has said right from the start that it will begin importing Canadian beef once we adapt their practice of universal testing. But we have too many bureacrats that are whipping boys for the Americans. No need to apologize for swearing. Your a beef producer in Canada, you have a right!

[ALICIA]

15444- I'm geeting dam sick of hearing us hobby farmers are the only ones that don't what our beef tested. Is there some limit on how much money each farmer looses before he is considered a farmer. Well I'll just tell you one thing if I'm a hobby farmer, I work dam hard at it besided doing a 8 hr job. So I do 2 jobs and you do l. I'd say I'm a better man then you are and when this is over I hope you are still above water because I know that I will be. Have a good day.

[15444]

Alicia,

Not everybody that has another job or two is labelled as a hobby farmer. Two kinds of people fall into this catagory.

1. People who have 15-20 cows or less and hold off farm jobs so they can play cowboy (This is really popular in Southern Ontario) and then whine as though it really hurts them when something like BSE hits.

2. Guys who own high end jobs so they can own a nice little ranch with 200 or so cows so they can run around in cowboy hats with modern stables and pretty $10,000 horses and half a dozen farm hands. (I know a few big purebred guys who had this mindset).

So if you are somewhere in between these two extremes Alicia, my distaste for these types of people is not directed towards you. As far as I am concerned, the way a person can personally judge if they are a 'true' farmer is look at the current beef situation. If the border doesn't open up within the next year, do you face losing all of your hopes and dreams that you have strived for in all these years? will you lose your love for the farm and for that which you produce?....If you answer yes to both of these, then say your a FARMER loud and clear for all to hear! I don't know how many true farmers that can keep on going when all the inputs for farming keep rising and the bottom starts to fall out!

[grassfarmer]

Kato, "Japan has always said it would import our beef if we tested it" did they? or was it "we won't consider buying any beef unless it is tested" there is a difference. Japan is one of the most protectionist countries in the world and prior to the US case of BSE was trying to apply additional import tariffs on US beef in an attempt to bolster their own beef producers incomes. They don't need much of an excuse to exclude our beef. Besides what are we talking about testing to appease the Japanese? will they buy over 30 month animals? If it is only under that age why bother testing as the tests will be negative anyway. Yes, they are a really scientific lot the Japanese - testing everything for BSE and still feeding meat and bone meal as far as I know.

[cowman]

Grassfarmer: The Japanese have achieved consumer confidence through their testing. Now whether their product is safer or not I don't know but they have sold this idea to the consumer. Consider this: They don't have to be bothered with all the extra expense of removing brains, spinal cord lower intestine. They don't have to worry about keeping waste separate when rendering. So what has happened is it's business as usual except for taking a sample to test. If you find a positive you pull it out of the cooler and dispose of it. I believe they have found 9 animals so far so that is 9 out of 1.2 million? It would seem to me $30/animal might be cheaper than going to all the trouble of removing SRMs and disposing of them?

[raymondb]

Right on the mark Cowman and you have not even put the losses we are experiencing today for all cattle because all prices are down and we are feeding a bunch of animals that should be culled and would have been in the marketplace.There just has to be less beef consumed globally now that the USA and Canada both have had a BSE case in the past few months or were there a bunch of freezers full of beef that are now being emptied.

My definition of a farmer does not exclude the very few who are fortunate and have enough resourses to weather the disasters we experience.

[grassfarmer]

I use 15444s quote from above "Canada is allowed 15 animals until we lose our 'limited risk state.' If we aren't testing by then, what happens to our consumer confidence?"
Japan has had 9 cases (in a fraction of the size of cowherd) thus far and is taking no precautions to prevent it what happens when they hit the magic 15 number??
I feel they are playing a more dangerous game, trying to fool their consumers and ultimately it could cost them dearly.

[cowman]

Grassfarmer: What happens when the Japanese do hit 15? Why should they care? How much do they export? The whole thing becomes academic because they now have, supposedly, safe beef.
Consider our situation. We sort of test...we get 15...we are toast! We don't test...we play the old 3S game...and maybe we pull it off? Or maybe we take it to the Japanese level...we test everything...and we declare that no matter how many positives we have all the beef entering the food chain is safe!!!
Who can argue with that? All the silly protocols go out the window because all the known science then says our beef is totally safe???
Does this make any sense?