Notes by David Kilgour

Innisfree BSE Symposium, Innisfree  

16 October, 2004

(Please note these are David's personal notes and do not constitute an exact transcript)

Approximately 125 cow-calf ranchers, feedlot operators, academics, journalists and others from both Alberta and Saskatchewan drove through fresh snow to spend most of the day discussing BSE-related issues.

Among the numerous points made by both the panellists and other participants that struck me as particularly significant:

Moderator Don Hill CBC Radio’s Wild Rose Forum

• Listeners from across the province are telling me that they experiencing “a catastrophe …. and no one seems to care.”

Professor Ken Rosaasen, University of Saskatchewan; Agricultural Economics Department, Saskatoon

• “Americans are free talkers, not free traders.”
• They imposed a 15% anti-dumping tariff on pork last week.
• Testing for BSE on each animal slaughtered is necessary to persuade the Japanese and other consumers abroad to buy beef. Let’s create “BSE free meat.”

Terry Pugh, Writer, Alberta, Saskatoon

• Last year each farmer (in this region) lost about $20 000

Barbara Duckworth, Journalist, Western Producer, Calgary

• Across North America, including Eastern Canada, few people even know about the BSE crisis in Prairie Canada.
• In the EU, farm organizations insisted on BSE testing for every animal. “We must do the same.”
• The U.S. Farm Bill essentially gave American producers what they wanted while Canada has no national farm policy.

Lloyd Snelgrove, MLA (Conservative), Vermilion-Lloydminster

• Beef products made in provincially licensed packing plants cannot be sold in the next province.

Doug Livingstone, former President of Alberta Wheat Pool

• “I’m going broke … (on) spending more than I am making for the past 16 months.”

• Recently sold a 2200 pound bull for $300.
• CAIS: “It does not deliver and the measures intended to improve it are making it worse.”
• “Six months ago, we applied under CAIS and nothing has been heard.”
• The financial institutions are now “very nervous” and will not continue to support us. “January 2005 is the crunch.”
• In Northwest Alberta, we had drought in 2002; BSE in 2003 and 2004 was the “hardest year in history.”
• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) nit picked the new operation Rangeland Beef packing plant at Salmon Arm, in BC. (Other participants also complained about CFIA being too bureaucratic)
• The greatest need is for plants to process animals over 30 months.

Ralph Ashmead – Consulting Economist, Serecon Consulting Group, Calgary

• By his calculations, the sector losses to date from BSE include:

o       Cow-calf operators equity loss of $3 billion

o       Direct losses to industry as of last fall: approximately $5 billion

o       Meat sale losses to end of August: approximately $1 billion

o       Live cattle sale losses to end of August: approximately $2.5 billion.

• The regional indirect loss to local restaurants, gas stations, etc: approximately $700 million.

o       Manitoba – Dauphin and Inter-Lake regions are the hardest hit.

o       (Suicide rates are up)

o       Saskatchewan – Meadow Lake, etc. hardest hit.

o       Alberta – Lethbridge, Fort McLeod and Northeast, hardest hit.

• Bankruptcy rates will soar in the coming years.
• The Calgary aid package, including the set-aside feature, presupposes that the U.S. border will open quickly. If it opens tomorrow, the implications for our meat sales will be small because such sales are near capacity. If live cattle are permitted to enter the U.S., it will probably be only for cattle under 30 months.

Stan Schellenberger, CEO of Rancher’s Own Beef, Spruce Grove, Alberta

• The major deficit in processing capacity is for cows and bulls; his proposal is for plant for cows/bulls (400 head daily and possibly 800 later on)
• The market has changed significantly since May 2003

1)      The Canadian dollar is up to 80 cents from 62 cents

2)      Transportation and carrier costs are significantly increased on moving live animals to U.S. plants

3)      A much larger percentage of al live animal is now unusable in the food chain

Mike Kotelko, Highland Feeders, near Vegrville

Only a handful of plant proposals are now viable because the financial institutions now require about $25 million in equity before they will take the risk. We need our cows to be part of our equity.

James Baxter Edmonton Journal, International Trade Journalist, Edmonton

• If Canada tests every processed animal, other countries which also test (eg. Japan) must accept our meat under the WTO.

Participant views indicated by show of hands:

·        Virtually all producers indicated they are suffering from the loss of their equity.

·        As I recall, virtually no one vowed support for the Calgary aid package.