Branding Ruminants

[ALICIA]

I have one animal in my herd that has a brand on her hip and the only time you know that she has a brand is in the summer. Even then it is not that visible and you realy can't make it out. I think the first leter is a C but the second letter could be a N or B.

[pandiana]

One has to wonder who makes these rules? This could be because the rules are made by non-farmers, or beurocrats that have never been within a block of a sheep, or, this is a clever way show that they are complying with OIE guidelines and that sheep can be imported by the US but then they make rules are impossible to comply with.

[kato]

How about processing the sheep here and shipping the meat? Problem solved! LOL

I can't imagine how you would ever brand a sheep. I guess a black faced sheep could have a little bitty freeze brand on the cheek, but that's about it. Hardly a solution, I would think. It seems like one of those impossible requests designed to make it so difficult that no one bothers.

[cakadu]

How many federally inspected plants are there that process sheep? I know of the old Canada West, now Sunterra, here in the West. I'm not sure if any of the other Western provinces have a federal sheep facility. There was one is Saskatchewan, but last I heard it had run into trouble and I don't know if there are any others or not. There must be at least a couple out East, but where I'm not sure.

It shouldn't just be sheep that we kill here and sell across the border; we should be doing it with all the species and keeping the value of the animal here. Production is not where the money is made - it is made further down the line.

We have to start producing what will sell, not sell what we produce.

[pandiana]

I agree with your comments on processing our own, kato. But here we are back where we started from...limited packing facilities monopolized by one owner.

As cakadu said, the strength of Canadian lamb market was the the US was the major buyer. Post BSE (not post scrapie a sheep disease which is still believed not to be directly related to BSE), markets have totally collapsed. Many, many sheep herds have been dispersed with ewes going for $20.00 or so. Because this was a smallish industry it has fallen through the cracks. Sheep producers are not that important to the economy.

[cakadu]

Many of the sheep herds have gone to the auction mart for terribly low prices, as you've said pandiana. Many of the flocks were 50 ewes or less, which is most difficult to make a living from, even doing it on a direct marketing basis. Add to that the fact that there were some exhorbitant prices paid for the fancier breeds of sheep that are now worth bupkis at the auction or the feedlot or the processor and you have a very shaky sector indeed.

Many of the fancier breeds were dependent on selling expensive breeding stock and exporting the live animals out of the country as breeding stock. It didn't matter that the countries they were imported from had a far greater genetic base to choose from.

Compound that with the fact that the imports continue to flood into this country and you have an industry that is challenged at best.

An old sheep breeder once told me that if you have to pay more than $400 for a ewe, she will NEVER pay for herself in her lifetime. Is it any wonder that the sheep industry in Canada is stalled?

I have to say again that sheep should never ever have been caught up in this whole mess. If the ABP/CCA are looked down upon so much, what is there to say about the Canadian Sheep Federation and the various provincial organizations when it comes to working for the grassroots?

[WoolyBear]

I don't think that this thread was started to be directed at bashing the CSF, or the ABP/CCA....... I do have to say though that the sheep producers are represented for the most part by a very capable group of producers, who do their work (In MB anyway) without a perdiem, and without even travel allowance.

The new checkoff in MB is certainly not enough to warrant hiring a fulltime (or even pt) office staff to keep up with all the correspondence and leg work that some of us are expecting. The various sheep associations also don't have the option of building a war chest by increasing the Checkoffs like the Cattle Producers and the Pork Councils have when legal challenges are faced.

If our directors as seen as being compalcent, it is quite likely they are dealing with the problems and tasks of the day in their own flocks, and WHERE are the rest of us, sitting on the sideline complaining? If we can't offer some encouragement, then we will likely lose more if our "directors" say.........Enough.

We have to work at this together, and stop feeling left out, OR thinking about whats in it for me.

[cakadu]

Truth be told Woolybear, I am basing my observation and comparison to the ABP as an example of where people's feelings are at. If there is apathy with the big beef groups, then there is as much or more of it with the sheep organizations. Unless in Manitoba you get more information than we do here, I have not heard very much at all about what the CSF has been doing in terms of the BSE mess or any other issue.

I'm sure there are differences in the provincial organizations too and I can think of at least one example here in Alberta where there has been a lot of difficulty in producers accepting some of what the organization has done.

I don't disagree that producers have to look after their own flocks first and sometimes there isn't time for anything extra. I also agree with you in that some of the directors in these organizations do work very hard.

The point is that the other ruminant species should not have been caught up in this whole fiasco. Maybe what they should have done from the outset is band together and continually and repeatedly voice their concerns.

In any event, the sheep industry in this country is far too dependent on one market for their sales. That should definitely change, but I fear that it will be the same as in the beef industry - once the border is open then the push for increased packing capacity and new markets will fall by the wayside, which will be the biggest upset of them all.