Okay, if collusion is too strong a word, how about some culpability in the way things have come about? The packers were in no way able to set themselves up this way on their own - wouldn't they have had to have some help in this? Whether it be from incentives to locate here, organizations and individuals believing - rightly or wrongly - that this was a good thing for us to be doing.
Yes, it probably looked really good to have such a big market for our cattle, beef, culls etc. right next door for all the right reasons - they were willing to pay at least somewhat decent prices, we didn't have to work too hard at filling demands because there was sufficient demand for live animals, didn't have to look for new markets because they were a ready market and a whole host of other reasons.
What about the downside that is now smacking us upside the head? There is a big market there, but look what happens when that market doesn't want to play ball. We are faced with a huge risk right now because the border is unlikely to open before November 5th (the day after the election), if it is going to open at all. We don't have any new markets to ship to because we put all of our proverbial eggs into one basket, the basket got dropped and there is yolk running all over now.
We seemingly didn't see a need for any more packing capacity because things were working - in who's favor I'm not so sure any more because of all of this talk of price fixing and gouging by American companies.
Now we are beginning to see that we do need packing capacity on this side of the border, which will do so much more for us than just get rid of cull animals. Most importantly it will allow Canadian producers to hopefully capture more of the value that they have in the products they are producing. It will also hopefully help us to get more markets because we should not go back to having just one major market.
If nothing else, it has gotten us thinking about alternatives and that isn't a bad thing - in fact, it can only help us in the long run.
Yes, it probably looked really good to have such a big market for our cattle, beef, culls etc. right next door for all the right reasons - they were willing to pay at least somewhat decent prices, we didn't have to work too hard at filling demands because there was sufficient demand for live animals, didn't have to look for new markets because they were a ready market and a whole host of other reasons.
What about the downside that is now smacking us upside the head? There is a big market there, but look what happens when that market doesn't want to play ball. We are faced with a huge risk right now because the border is unlikely to open before November 5th (the day after the election), if it is going to open at all. We don't have any new markets to ship to because we put all of our proverbial eggs into one basket, the basket got dropped and there is yolk running all over now.
We seemingly didn't see a need for any more packing capacity because things were working - in who's favor I'm not so sure any more because of all of this talk of price fixing and gouging by American companies.
Now we are beginning to see that we do need packing capacity on this side of the border, which will do so much more for us than just get rid of cull animals. Most importantly it will allow Canadian producers to hopefully capture more of the value that they have in the products they are producing. It will also hopefully help us to get more markets because we should not go back to having just one major market.
If nothing else, it has gotten us thinking about alternatives and that isn't a bad thing - in fact, it can only help us in the long run.
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