This is not a joke - Suspected mad cow case detected, CFIAsays

[Incognito]

Your theory lives in Joe!

[cowman]

The USDA says it isn't a problem. So does the CFIA, NCBA and our own Doug Horner. Hmmm...I wonder what R-CALF thinks? Do you think they might get out the old war chest for another court challenge?
Bez: I wonder who will pay the bills for all these culls not entering the food chain? I also wonder where all the various food service industries will get their manufacturing beef? Do you think they will just have to buy AAA steers to make their deli meats and Big Macs? Will they agree to not buy anymore cow beef from Australia? Not much sense in banning culls from the food chain if the rest of the world doesn't agree.

[Bez]

cowman - you ask a lot of good questions - and I do not have the answers - I was simply looking to see who jumped in.

The problem I have is those danged old milked out walking skeletons going through the system.

If you have ever watched old dairy cows go through the sale barn you will know what I mean.

And I bet you do!

I have a problem with that "stuff" being fed to people.

We need to be bombproof - and we are not being proactive enough about this issue in my opinion - how we do it - how ruthless we are - and who compensates - well ....

Look at these numbers:

Last year Canada gave 54.3 million to China, 62.46 million to Pakistan and 60.8 million to India for ag aid. These numbers from my local MP.

These countries have nuclear weapons programs, space programs, huge armies, navies and air forces. Their economies are larger than ours. What are we doing?

These folks should be giving aid to us!!

Anyway it's JMHO.

Cheers

Bez

[greybeard]

Changes in import rules are obviously driven by packers. Look at the original boxed beef opening. When we look back now it's amazing how quick that happened. Now it appears OTM boxed beef is going to be included in the March 7 opening. Big surprise. When bidding becomes competitive for UTM the lines switchover to OTM and buy in a Canadian only market and sell in a world market.
Not hard to see who has an effective lobby effort.

[Braveheart]

Is there some protocol I'm not aware of here? Why couldn't the CFIA have stated that the Americans were aprised of the cow before the border announcement was made? This would have helped alleviate a collective wave of anxiety that swept over many communities.

[ALICIA]

BEZ= I know what you mean, One night at the sale barn soom dairy cattle came throught and your right they shouldn't even be their. I cryed they looked so bad, they had sores on elbows, heals, hips and they sold for 19 cents a pound. This was just last year. Then my 4 year old Hereford came in the sale. She weighted 1785 and I got 19.5 cents. You can just bet that she never made it to beef, she was a cull because she started to prolaps on me, so who ever bought her to put a cheep cow in their herd is in for a big vet bill.
Most beef cull are in great shape when they go for beef, and I agree any dairy cow that is down in weight and can hardly walk because they have stood in a bale most of their life has no bisness going through the sale barn so that the general puplic can see them, they should be taken right to dead stock, and for a small fee dead stock will come and shot the animal and take her away.
Did you also notice that when they where talking about another case that most of the cattle they showed on TV where beef cattle and the general public doesn't know a beef animal from a dairy animal.
I think that all sale barns should hold at least 2 sales a week. They should specify that one sale is for dairy and one sale is for beef. The puplic should be made aware of the differences in the two types of animals and at the dairy sale if some dairy animals are fit to go in the food chain then fine but at least the difference in animals will be seen.
The dairy guys get paid for milk and their cattle have know busness being in a sale that sells beef cattle. Selling meat is our busness and that is what our cattle are for beef and dairy culls should be sold at a dairy sale or shipped to the rendering plant if they look bad. Maybe that is one of the reasons that beef in the stores is expensive, ever try to but wieght on a dairy cow, and from what I've seen most a just bones.

[ALICIA]

I think it is time that all producers of cattle realized that we have to deal with our culls in a different way, particularily those that are in very poor condition or sick. Perhaps even with the border opening the 4D program should continue for all cattle, both dairy and beef. Better to get those cows out of the system and tested.

[rkaiser]

Yeah emerald, tested and sold. I think it's a crying shame to throw perfectly good beef away, when we could be running a BSE test, and then selling the product for human consumption. Of course there are those downers, and cows that have gone too far, but those numbers don't add up to much. We always have sent those ones to the happy grazing pasture in the sky in the past; what's to stop that?

I have never sold a down cow for slaughter in my life, in fact most get the bullet before they ever reach that stage. But limpy cows, prolapses, bad feet, etc., have a place in the food chain in my mind.

[cowman]

I suppose if the government was willing to pay a good price for over thirty month old cattle, then I'd be all for incinerating them or whatever...like the UK did? The problem here is our cheapo government would probably want the cow/calf guy to pay the whole shot so the consumer could feel safe. In reality if we can't get anything for our culls then the cattle business is toast?
I wonder just how much a Big Mac or a beef sub would cost? I suspect Mc Chicken could become very popular?

[cowman]

rkaiser, you and I would never ship a downer cow, but there are those that have in the past, to get whatever they can for the animal. If the 4D program is kept in place those animals would at least be tested and the producer would get a few bucks for them, and at least they could be dispatched humanely without being loaded and hauled to some facility .