Possible Mad Cow Case In USA

[crossfield_beef]

The U.S. Agriculture Department said on Thursday that a new case of mad cow disease may have been found in the United States.
http://www.cbc.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/11/18/mad-cow-usa-041118.html

Irregardless of the outcome of further testing, this will have negative effects on prices in the short term.

[grassfarmer]

Possibly so, but my guess is that it will turn up either negative and American or positive and of Canadian origin.

[15444]

Wow, amazing grassfarmer! I just had the same premonition! Isn't it weird how Canadian minds think alike?

[kato]

Don't forget the border has been closed long enough now that a Canadian tag will be harder to find.

If it turns out to be a positive Canadian cow, I'm calling Fox Mulder.

[jensend]

kind of like last december, rules about ready, anticipation of border opening and voila - a positive; might need more time to reevaluate the situation vis a vis importation of live cattle from canada. this cow doesn't even have to be canadian to delay opening the border again.

[jensend]

this will cause at least some disruption so maybe our 'leadership' will take a page from big-c's book and feel some urgency to get on with more slaughter capacity and an independent trade and testing policy.

[tojo]

Whether American or Canadian, it IS STILL North American.....Not good news for any of us!!!!! Hope and pray it's negative or we're all going to take a tumble.... only difference is... the farmers in the USA havn't endured the past two years like we on this side of the border have. They still have lots of equity.... and on and on it goes .... packing plants have learned here in Canada how to profit from the disease...sad point is that farmers there(just like us here) are going to have to bite the bullet. Maybe the US government will have more guts then ours and be able to rein the packers in and hold them down to just a modest profit. Their windfalls here have been enormous.

[whiteface]

I sincerely hope it is negative as well for all our sakes but I will say I feel the timing is irritatingly suspicious and likely anticipated by many. Election done, progress being made, rules ready for review...
Yeah, we've been here before. Don't kid yourself Kato, if they need a tag, they'll find one, kind of like if someone important enough needs a kidney, you'll wake up one morning with a big 'ol scar on your side. I'm not trying to start a fight, I just hope there isn't a pattern developing here. We were almost starting to like each other again, we don't need more of this s***
I as well am concerned there are alterior motives at work here but will bite my tongue until the tests are final. Good luck all!

[cakadu]

News like this isn't good for any livestock producer, be it beef, lamb, bison etc.

As finding a positive would have a much more negative impact on the Americans ability to finalize the rules for resumption of export to Japan, I wouldn't be at all surprised to have it just be a false alarm - ala when the Japanese contingent were in the U.S. during the summer.

The cynicism is bound to come out here and like many of the rest of you, if it is positive I wouldn't doubt that it somehow becomes of Canadian origin - yet again.

I think the most important thing we can do is to keep focused on building the packing capacity here and look for markets other than shipping live cattle to the US. It seems to me that it is the only way that the cattle industry is going to sustain itself over the long term. The open US border will help in the long run, but it will not help in the long term for economic sustainability.

We keep hearing about survival of the beef producer, which is paramount, but don't all producers want to do more than just survive?

[boone]

Post: Speaking of mad cows, did you see Mr. Martin had to put down old bossy Carolyn Parrish today!