6 head from case 2

[ALICIA]

I just read 6 head from case 2 are in the U. S. A.

But I also heard Paul Martin talking to the Japan about opening the Boarder to Canadian Beef.

[SASH]

I think it will be a good test of the US tracking system to see if they can find those six cows. I heard something about the contaminated feed that was fed to this last BSE cow may have come from Iowa. Has anybody else heard that or is that just more wishful thinking.

[rkaiser]

Wishful thinking Sash - - I'd say that is the understatement of the year.
With all of the finger pointing going on these days, us sad sak canucks certainly need a break.

[intr3est]

If it was US feed, do you think we would ever hear about it?

[SASH]

Things like that have a tendency to get out over time. I've become of the opinion that at this point, it probably won't make much difference whether the US border opens or not. If all the packing capacity comes online as it should, we will be better off by far than we were before this crisis. If we can move all those packer jobs north, it will stimulate the economy in some of these smaller rural communities that badly need it. We can hire workers from Mexico into our packing plants as easily as the US can and eventually, it may add young families to our communities. Let those boys from down south try and compete for our beef. All that will do for me as a producer is drive the price up that I can get at auction for my product. All the extra fees that they will have to register and brand that beef when it goes across the border will give Canadian buyers an advantage. As far as the US opening the border, we appreciate the gesture, but I think we'll be okay on our own thanks.

[ALICIA]

Yes- I Vohs and other deserve compansation in US Value Kato said that he know of a truck driver that was bringing meat meal and bone meal up from the US and a feed mill in Alberta was mixing it in the pellets. This is how the third case of BSE may of got the feed.

[kato]

Wow! Did I start one of those infamous 'internet rumours'? I am truely impressed, but it really wasn't my intention. Honest.

My point with that statement was that the only feedmills that the guy hauled meat meal to were in Alberta. Never to Sask. or Manitoba. He is a Manitoba trucker, too, so if it was coming here, I would think he would have hauled some.

What I was getting at was that meat meal was obviously a popular ingredient in Alberta at that time. Perhaps the bigger operations made more use of it than the generally smaller feed mills here did. It might help explain the trend we see in the location of the positives too.

Whatever, it'll be nice to see if this last case helps solve the puzzle.

[kato]

Of course there is the possibility that any feed that contained meat meal could have been distributed to farm stores in provinces other than AB.

[kato]

That's true.

[intr3est]

Brings a question to mind? Are feed mills required to track their feed by UPC, or other device (lot). I was reading in a food magazine a while back that they are now using RFID tags in boxes like Kraft dinner etc. I know they track lots etc, but would it not make sense to test a sample from each batch of feed and if the feed made from vegetable only feed tested for animal protein, to have a recall on it? The process of having a check in place like this would seem like a better solution than what we are going through now. I'm showing some ignorance here, but just wondering?

[ALICIA]

You can make as many rule are you want but the bottom line is you just got to trust that the rules were followed, because if they were not their is not a whole lot we can do about it.
Got a joke the other day that said more people die because of a doctors mistake then are killed by guns. Some joke.

[intr3est]

Alicia, the fact is that we as cattle producers have to keep track of every calf, but do the feed companies have to keep track of every bag of feed for easy traceback? It would not be that far of a stretch to make licenced feed companies to sample every batch of feed for testing, they already do it for protein content etc. Send it to an independent lab for anlysis and have a recall if a human "mistake" has occurred!

[intr3est]

Just wanted to add, in this country we fine people for smoking where they shouldn't, serving people underage, speeding etc. We should be able to track anything like this with the same expediancy and have them charged for "human" mistakes

[ALICIA]

intr3ist- Here is a human mistake and I know the man that made the mistake but want do you want me to do about it.
About 2 or 3 weeks just after BSE was in the new I went to the feed store and got my 6 bags of Cattle Ration Pellets, just like I've been doing for the last 4 or 6 years. Now I trust the guy that gave me the feed and I have other things on my mind so I don't check ever tag on the bag. I just open the bag and give each cow 2 scoops of grain once a day, well this day have way through I noticed that the pellets seemed rather smaller in length then normally, but I just went on and feed. Well about 2 weeks later I found a tag laying on the floor beside my bag of garbage and I picked the tag up and happen to read CHICKEN FEED. Now just whos fault is it the guy that gave me 5 bags of cattle pellets and 1 bag of chicken feed or me for not reading every lable.
I guess if I loose my cows over one bag of chicken feed, its my fault because I didn't read the lable, I trusted the guy in the feed store. But I guess he doesn't care, they are not his cows, he just wanted to make the sale.

[VETHUSBAND]

I'm not saying that every producer has to check the bag, It should be done already, by the time you get it home. they don't package these things by the minute, but by the day, let's have some accountability.