What are the ramifications?

[cakadu]

Last night on the news they stated that of the 2,800 heads that Canada promised to test this year, only 1,000 or so had been tested to date. The reason given for the lower numbers is that producers are unwilling to pay to have cull animals taken away and sent to the rendering plant.

How valid is this reasoning? What is going to happen if we fall short of our targets?

The one problem I do have with saying it is the producer who is not sending animals is that it is the producer who pays for all these things that are supposed to be for the benefit of everyone.

Many of the things that we as producers are encouraged to buy into mean that it comes out of our pocket. It's not that I'm not for it, I just have a problem with the costs of all these wonderful things being downloaded onto the producer.

Take on farm food safety, the whole tagging issue, manure management, farm plans, species at risk and now the heads for testing. To be clear, I am not against any of these issues and in fact am in favor of them.

To me these all of these are social issues and as such should be paid for by all and not just a select group because producers happen to be where food starts.

How do the rest of you feel?

[mhartman]

I had a discussion with my vet this past week and he said that he and his associates are not getting called out to check sick cattle, so anything that is sick is likely put down on the farms and the heads aren't sent anywhere.
Cost of the vet and rendering truck likely have a lot to do with it.

[cswilson]

Here in Sask. you just call the CFIA and tell them you have a head to sample-I just did one Saturday and the vet was 100 miles away and he was here in 21/2 hours-so if we got at it we';d have our quota in no time.

[grassfarmer]

Cakadu , am I right in thinking the head testing is being administered provincially and not federally? I thought the problem was here in Alberta because the big numbers of cows are all being slaughtered at XL in Moose Jaw. For all that there must be a number of cows being slaughtered through smaller provincial plants here that presumably could be tested - I've had three slaughtered since June and hope they were tested. Relatively speaking the numbers that die on farm must be quite small.

[ALICIA]

You can just bank on that the numbers quoted are wrong. Just here in the East along their are up to 35 or more old Holsteins going to slaughter ever week just in our local stock yard. In Ontario alone I'll just bet there has been 3 or 4 times the quoita killed.

[cakadu]

You may very well be right grassfarmer. I took the story to mean federally, but now that you mention it and I think about it, it was Alberta that promised to test more heads.

Rod Scarlett from Wild Rose was asked about it and he stated that it could have some serious effects on whether or not the border would open.

Surely they would want to test more than what the renderer would normally pick up, particularly when so much is at stake.

[cakadu]

I am willing to bet that the renderers aren't picking up 50% of what they were prior to BSE.

[cakadu]

We had the head provincial Vet in Saskatchewan speak at the last three BIG C meetings about this survailance project.

The number of heads needed for testing in Canada for 2004 is 8000. This number is spread across the country according to the number of cows in each province.

First things first. The cows they are testing are what they call 4D's. Dead, Down, Distressed, or Diseased.

Next year we need to test 30,000.

I beleive he said all provinces except Alberta and Saskatchewan have met the quota. Manitoba had a program in place a while back to actually pay for the cows. This program is coming to AB and Sask. and sounds like it is better publicized in Saskatchewan.

Eastern Canada has a better handle on things because they still have at least one plant that kills downer cattle, plus the fact that more dairy cows are are processed than out west. Seems like the dairy guys don't have the same triple S policy that us boys out west do.

One option that the media could explore, rather than blame the problem completely on the rancher, is to look into why Xcel in Calgary and Moose Jaw won't kill 4D cattle.

One approach that BIG C has taken with CFIA is to work together on this producer cow plant proposal to kill 4D cattle for the survailance program. This might just require a plant with BSE testing facilities. Sounds like a marriage made in Heaven.

[pandiana]

I think you have a good agrument for getting a Canadian cow plant up and running before the need to test 30,000 cows. You still have to kill them before you can test them.

[kato]

Actually, they didn't exactly pay for the Manitoba cows. They paid Rothsay Deadstock to pick them up.

I read that they paid Rothsay $75.00 per animal, when they were charging farmers $50 previously. Why the price difference, we can only guess.

Whatever, it filled the quota pretty quickly, and I guess that's the goal.

[farmers_son]

Marwyn Peaster... Remember him? His name will live on in infamy. Of course Peaster is the idiot that sent a downer cow to a plant where she tested positive for BSE. Now I see producers discussing sending heads of dead cows to be tested. I guess you want your name to be in the history books like Peaster.
And if your neighbours turn their backs on you when they find out you send the head of a dead cow to be tested and it was positive then you asked for it and you deserve all you get. You never thought about your neighbours, you never thought about the industry. You never thought about the financial ruin that sending in the head of a dead cow would cause, that more producers will loose their farms, marriages wrecked, children not able to continue a farming tradition that had lasted for generations. You just never thought.
Well maybe you do want to think about sending in the head of a dead cow. Maybe $50 or $150 or free dead animal pickup is not worth having your entire herd destroyed and the herds of anyone who has ever bought an animal from your place destroyed. Maybe, just maybe you would have been better off if you had buried her.

[cswilson]

farmers_son quit being a bonehead and realize that if we do not meet our testing quota's for world trading rules-no border anywhere is going to open-do you actually think people are sending heads in for the $75 bucks-not hardly now quit your damn crying and stay with the tour. How can people argue for 100% testing then refuse to submit samples-I might be lots of things but I'm not a hypocrite-so maybe try a little thinking yourself.

[cowman]

Well I guess that post was tongue in cheek or something, but the fact is Alberta better get their act together and do some testing. The whole thing about no place to get the cows is sort of BS? A good portion of the cows from Alberta being slaughtered go to Moose Jaw? How hard is it to send a truck and trailer and bring back a load?
It would seem that in Alberta the testing thing is business as usual...in other words pay lip service to it and do little? But then what can you expect when the premier says to shoot, shovel and shut up?

[cowman]

Peaster could be called a dumb ass for getting greedy with his downer cow, but BSE was, and still is inevitable. Even the good old USA will find their own domestic case some day. Cswilson is right, time to deal with the present, not the past.

[farmers_son]

I think the U.S. had already found their own case of BSE, maybe as many as three or more. They just aren't owning up to it. Or worse, blame their positives on Canada.

My post was not tongue in cheek. There are very serious consequences to finding BSE positives. We cannot ignore that. Last time I checked, no country in the world was accepting our live cattle so I question what we have to loose. We have plenty to loose every time we find a positive, it makes world wide news and the cattle markets collapse overnight. Borders slam shut etc. Been there, done that.

Canada's policy is to check 4D cows, and the science says that is the way to go. But we might consider what the U.S. is doing, only checking healthy cows but checking more of them. Not good science but great marketing. I guarantee you no downer cows will be checked for BSE in the United States of America this year or in years to come. Something we should learn from?

Or do what Australia does, only check 500 head a year. That makes Australia the worlds number 1 exporter of beef. We have to wake up and smell the coffee people.

The consequences of having a BSE positive come from your herd are extreme, the international reaction is extreme. No matter what the industry tells you 3S is still the way to go. If we find another BSE positive you really do not want it to be from your herd. And that is the truth.