Not Just R-CALF

[Willowcreek]

Not sure what all your babbling about cowman--Kind of sounds like you stayed to long with the gin bottle...LOL

Montana has NO slaughter houses-- they all closed down after the passage of NAFTA- and the glut of cheap Canadian beef...All Montana cattle go out of state for slaughter...

And if the border opens and the US cull prices drop like I think they will- it will again be a big recruitment tool for new R-CALF members...

[farmers_son]

I recently had an opportunity to speak with a cattle producer who has ranches in both Alberta and Montana. It was his view that R-Calf does not represent the views of the majority of cattle producers in the United States. I have on previous occasions pointed out that the problem is not R-Calf, the real problem is the United States which is ignoring the science of BSE and continuing to unfairly block trade in beef and live cattle for what is perceived to be the U.S. best interest. I would respectfully suggest that the restrictions in live cattle trade have been more in the interest of the U.S. packing plants than producers on either side of the border.

I would remind Willowcreek that when the border was closed to our under 30 month steers and heifers it caused the closure of numerous small packing plants in the Pacific North West and now U.S. cattle producers have to haul their livestock further at a direct cost to them. Of course, even those U.S. plants that survived their own governments blockade of the border suffered huge economic loses with layoffs affecting entire communities.

However I wonder how Montana would view Canadian live cattle if a packing plant were built in Montana that served the needs of cattle producers on both sides of the international border. Although on this side of the border I think there would be a concern that our access to such a packing plant could be restricted for whatever was the political reason of the day, such a packing plant would be a perfect example of how producers on both sides of the border could benefit from cooperation instead of conflict. I understand that labour is cheaper in Montana than in Alberta so it is not a huge stretch to think in terms of a packing plant in Montana, assuming trade barriers were not an issue. I would further point out that such a packing plant would provide competition to Cargill and Tyson, win/win for producers in Canada and the U.S. There can be no doubt that the present situation, where producers in the United States and Canada are divided by a trade barrier, benefits the large packing plants. United we stand, divided we are easy prey for the packing plants.

Cowman: Once trade in live cows resumes we Canadians would see an immediate increase in our live cow prices. I would not expect a decrease in U.S. live cow prices of more than one cent per pound. It is important for U.S. producers to understand that the increases they have seen in their live cattle prices have had almost everything to do with the decrease in their dollar versus world currencies and little to do with volumes or lack of volumes of Canadian live cattle. In fact the restrictions of live Canadian cattle caused the closure of a number of U.S. packing plants which would have certainly decreased the value of live cattle in those areas of the U.S.

[coppertop]

farmers_son, your comments are based on reasonable common sense thinking, and unfortunately that is not what the US has done!

If the dollars lost in communities in the US when plants closed were added up, I think the R-Calf deciples might realize just what their continued pressure on their government is costing their own countrymen. I am sure that each one of those plants paid taxes to their municipality and employed people.

[Willowcreek]

farmers_son---I think at one time many were optomistic that a true FREE and FAIR trade working could be done with Canada...I actually even thought NAFTA could work-- and that Canada would become the feeder country of NA with their ability to raise cheap grain--that cattle and beef could freely move back and forth-which would/could be great for Montana-- until Canada decided it would rather be in the cattle baron business- overexpanded their herds and put artificial trade barriers on US cattle calling them "ALL DISEASED" to block them out...

From then on the handwriting was on the wall- Canadian greed would not allow a working relationship....And now when the health trade barrier precedent the Canadians set comes back to bite them in the butts-- they whine and cry about it being unfair...LOL

[cowman]

Willowcreek: Once again you need to meet the enemy? It is yourself...the American citizen!
Why do you think we expanded the cowherd? To get rich?
No! Because your government "ran us out of the export grain trade"! If your government hadn't insisted we kill the CROW...we never would have had a calf that needed a home!...while you poured subsidies onto your grain!
American subsidies forced the Canadian farmer to switch to cattle....that is just a fact? And fools that we were, we believed when a government signed a trade deal...they lived up to it? We didn't know you were a bunch of liars! silly us.
I am sure you don't get it! You probably have no clue why people are flying airplanes into your buildings and pissing in your food at foreign restaurants! Everyone hates a bully?