More sales barn closures in Ontario

[dalek]

Lindsay Sales Barn, serving about a 5 county area, closed last Friday. Also employees at Kingston Stock Yards are getting very nervous that it will close very soon. Between the two it would take close to half of the sales barn capacity out of Eastern Ontario.

Weekly Ontario market prices

http://www.cattle.guelph.on.ca/markets/reports_db/weekly01.htm

[15444]

That must make Carson's one of the biggest livestock auctions down there now eh dalek?

[grassfarmer]

It certainly has picked up in the last two weeks - of course you are right this is all about price fixing. There has been an element of speculation too as feedlots held cattle back and bought calves strongly in anticipation of aid coming, it will be interesting to see how it pans out in the next few weeks. I can see Lakeside etc being strong buyers of smaller feeders given they are eligable for this aid like anyone else.
I think from experience with this kind of scheme that primary producers should claim their $200 and then sell the cattle - they will be discounted by the buyers but if you sell cattle unclaimed expecting to get a $200 premium you will be dissapointed.

[dalek]

Carson's are more like Southwestern Ontario, the two biggest (and almost only) barns east of Toronto are probably Leo's and Hoard's. Hoard's is right between the two so they'll be swamped.

[Horse]

Sad to see them all go isnt it we have a small mart that sells anything like chickens and rabits and junk a few pigs and afew cattle but they will close and then its only cattle in the Nielson Bros hands. I dont supose it will ever turn back like it was to bad.

[BFW]

Grassfarmer, although it is not clear in the backgrounder provided by the Alberta government, I doubt that anyone but the primary producer will be eligible for the $200/hd. I don't think that this program is all bad, it is not perfect but it does show that industry and governments are coming to terms with the fact that it may be some time before we see live cattle being exported to the US. The set-a-side programs (for both feeders and fats) are an effort to increase the price of live cattle while new processing capacity comes on line. They are realizing that these new facilities need help in the form of loan gaurantees and will begin to assist the beef industry in developing new products and markets. Overall a step in the right direction and certainly much better than doing nothing!

[CattleAnnie]

We may be losing the only sale barn up here in Northern BC.

Peace Country Auction Market in Dawson Creek burned down to the ground a few weeks back.

It was an old building, and most likely the wiring. Went up like a dry pine tree. Within twenty minutes of catching the whole joint was ablaze. Nothing the firefighters could do.

I hear that the owner is still waiting for the insurance company to let him have the go ahead to rebuild, but the poor man's mother is very ill with cancer, so God only knows if he'll have the inner strength or will to rebuild.

Another family operation out the window?
Maybe. Can only hope not.

Take care.

[cowman]

I have to agree with you BFW. Finally there seems to be a shift in thinking and a realization that the US isn't going to play ball. I would think a WTO challenge should be filed right away also? In lumber, grain, hogs we've won everytime and kept them honest, so why not beef? I know our leaders had hoped the Americans would do the right thing and we wouldn't have to go this route, but it is a good thing that we've finally realized that the USA is blatantly protectionalist and not interested in playing fair?
It is interesting, when you talk to people, about the border crisis how the attitude towards the US has changed? There used to be a lot of blaming Japan but that is no longer the case? We now know who is giving us the shaft...and it is the States!
I guess they take Canada for granted and figure they can treat us like their idiot cousin or something? For a lot of Canadians(especially farmers) this whole thing has been a revelation about what a bully the US is? Maybe helps us understand why most of the world hates Americans with a passion?

[cowman]

Grassfarmer: Just playing the devils advocate here or something...but what is to stop a person from putting in the RFID tags and collecting the $200 and then turning around and cutting some out and putting in "non-subsidized tags"? Tell the powers that be the darned calves must have died in the bush or something?
Now I'm sure we are all upstanding law abiding fellows here and would never consider doing anything like that...but I'm sure there are some old rascals who would? Are there any safeguards to prevent this sort of thing from happening? Are there any people hired to enforce this scheme?

[cowman]

I guess I should be thankful I have two very well run marts so close to me. And yea, one is owned by Neilsons! My experience with them has always been positive.
The other mart is owned by the Daines family and they do a good job. Both of these marts have been hit by this thing and there are less people working there than in the past. Both are pretty committed to the cattle business.
On rare occasions I have sold my calves privately but I like the auction system. Just makes sense to me to have many bidders rather than just one! Gives me an idea of where I'm going and if I'm doing it right.
I've made a lot of friends over the years at the mart. I had one guy (Dave Larkin) buy my steers every year for several years. Rick Pascal and Gary Kelsey bought a lot of my cattle, as well as the Purdy family at Red Deer. Today, none of these buyers are around but I sure enjoyed their company and business when they were! I always make it a point of thanking the guy who buys my cattle and talking to him! You would be surprized by how the next year they will bid on your cattle and remember you. Cattle buyers are people too!

[cowman]

Excellent point cowman. Looks to me as if this thing is somewhat based on integrity. We all know how that integrity thing worked in the last set aside program; trading cattle etc. I guess if it doesn't involve cashing in on another producers back like most of the other bailout money........ go for it.

[cswilson]

Cowman I think they'll probably resort to the same archaic way they identified the set aside cattle last summer-a 'Brand'. It's funny whenever the kaka hits the fan out come the hair detectives to sort things out. I agree with the idea completely of the I.D. tags but the @#$^^&*&$##$^*$% things just don't stay in. I've picked every make, model and size off the ground. Case in point I bought 100 slickhided heifers last spring(really smart in retrospect). They all had the proper tags when we branded-by breeding we replaced some-more at preg test-more again at calving. In the event of a disease outbreak as far as anybody knows those heifers that last tags came from my place. There's thousands of arguments against branding but the irrefutable truth is-if done right (we clip first) it is permanent and readable.

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, I've no idea how they intend to enforce this program but I assume some level of accountability will be insisted on by the AB government at least - they supposidly did checks on the last schemes didn't they? I mean checking on individual farmers of course not at the real thieves Cargill and Tyson - that would have been too easy.
Cswilson, I don't know why people have such problems with tag loss. We put in allflex tags on the calves at birth
(medium size ones) and have lost less than 1% thus far. The RFID's are so much better too as they don't have a dangle part. We had this problem in the UK as well when compulsory tagging came in first and there are definately 4 or 5 tags that have 98-99% retention if properly applied. I think in the case of your purchased cattle that lose tags you are supposed to note that down and the fact you replaced it with one of your own. In case of a trace back this information would help out.

[grassfarmer]

BFW, As you say the rules don't look too clear as yet on the calf hold over scheme but rule 7. "Who is eligible to receive payment on these animals?" says
"Owners of eligible animals who are Alberta taxpayers are eligible to receive payment under this program." I guess if a feedlot buys a small calf that hasn't already been entered in the scheme they are now the owner of an eligable animal. Looking again I note it says that it may be necessary to enter as much as 40% of 2004 calf crop in this scheme - no mention of limiting it to 40% of an individual producers output. This could make it look a very different scheme if feedlots can cash in directly. Lot's of questions for Alberta Ag on Monday morning!.

[cswilson]

So I make a note when I replace the tag but what good does it do unless the original owners brand is on it. I'm sire CFIA is going to buy the story that this animal with only my brand and my tag came from somewhere else. We buy cattle from quite a few guys and you can't tell me they allput tags in wrong. Maybe I'm a dinasaur here but never had a brand fall off yet.