XL

[rainmaker]

also heard that after tomowrow there will be no more cows killed in moosejaw...will be trucking them west...with there trucks i expect...and also a nice charge to use there yards

[kato]

Yup, they've quit killing cows again. Talk around here is that they could be "on again off again" on the cows for a while now.

[Cattleman]

Thats got to be tough on maintaining any type of customer base??! Not enough demand? Whats happening in Calgary then? More competition from some of the other cow culling plants? Or are the big packers gouging too much making the fat cattle too profitable to pass up?

[rkaiser]

Wow, Cattleman that was the biggest laugh I have had all day. A Canadian Packer worried about a customer base?

It is like a bear in a creek full of Salmon these days. If they don't like the little ones they take a bite and spit the rest out. Switch from cows to fats whenever and wherever the gravy is. No concern for anything or anyone but themselves. That is business we are told. That is what can happen in a world that has no competition and no rules.

We would all do the same if the shoe were on the other foot they say. I say not and to hell with that lame excuse for sticking it to the producer.

ABP says there is money to be made in today's market. Money for who? Money all right. Money off the backs of the poor bastard who is at the bottom of the chain, I say.

If we can't stand the heat, get out of the business they say. Great. Let's let a bunch of high rolling oil baron's run the industry, with all of their tax concessions and write off's. Most of Alberta is already that way anyway.

Want a sustainable industry with the ability to survive the normal ups and downs beyond this BSE BS; look to the cattlemen and cattlewomen of this country who know what they are doing I say.

I'm so frustrated right now, I could puke. My own verticle market is gaining momentum, but I truely want to help the primary producers of this country. What do those of us who truely want to help, do?

I can hardly watch the Cargil takeovers, the Xcel Salmon run, or the American ass kissing ABPCCA any more.
Government in Canada is put on hold while we wait to see if our Prime Minister should actually be in Jail rather than on Parliment hill.

I hope everyone is finding their own way to hold on out there,,,,,,,,,, sure don't see any help from Industry or government for a long long time.

[FRENCHMAN]

well spoken Randy

[Horse]

Randy you should know by now that you cant bad mouth the oil industry or the yanks, people dont like it.

[grassfarmer]

What are we supposed to do Randy? - be grateful for our welfare (CAIS) cheques and keep working hard producing calves for someone else to take all the profit on. I think that's the Government plan anyway.
Like you I'm clean out of ideas, in two years there has been nothing that has developed or is planned that will help Canadian producers. It is clear all levels of Government as well as most of our industry representatives in CCA/ABP are content to allow the takeover of our industry by Corporate America.

We are in a crisis scenario yet many cow/calf producers are still not turning serious thought to their predicament or possible solutions. It amazes me how many guys seem to have hunkered down for the winter hoping that next Fall run will bring better calf prices without them contributing to the discussions about the current crisis let alone actually attending meetings or putting thought into investing in processing capacity. It's like they think high or low price calf runs just happen at random like droughts - many are uninterested and uninformed about what is causing the current low prices beyond a little coffee shop banter.
Perhaps an industry of such naive and uninvolved producers will inevitably lose 50-60% of it's production base in a few short years.

[kato]

On the XL thing, word on the street around here last fall was that Nillson's were buying cull cows in a big way, and had them on feed in anticipation of the border opening. (Ya, like that happened ....)

I would suspect that they have killed those cows by now, and saw that fats were cheaper at the moment, so made the switch. You guys may not have noticed it in Alberta, but it did bring the price of Manitoba fats up out of the 60's again, so it's not all bad news. It's pretty sad when dragging fats out of the 60's is considered good, eh?

I bet there's not a lot of yelling and screaming over the current situation because a lot of people are just sitting and waiting for a good time to bail out of the cattle business. Why make a big fight to secure a better future in the cattle business, when you aren't planning on being here for it?

[kato]

Where would you even begin to comment on this load of .... except to show our government the type of misleading garbage this group is tossing about freely.

It wouldn't matter what we did in the way of surveillance or risk mitigation, they would find some way to turn things around and give them a spin. This is what they do. R-Calf was formed for the specific purpose of keeping Candian cattle out of America, so what else can we expect of them?

[Cattleman]

Maybe we could send them back to school for some math/stats lessons!! Boy there sure like to spin the numbers and misinterpet

[Cattleman]

Randy I wasn't talking about the customer as producers, I was talking about the secondary producers. If you look at the research for import replacement, local secondary processors, imported as no one delivered their specs on products, and couldn't guarantee a consistent supply year round. I wonder if XL will burn some bridges for the future if they want to get back into slaughter cows, which will be for the domestic market.