American group wins injunction to keep border closed to catt

[frenchie]

American group wins injunction to keep border closed to cattle
Last Updated Mar 2 2005 01:13 PM CST
CBC News
BILLINGS, MONTANA – The American rancher lobby group R-CALF has won a preliminary injunction to keep the U.S. government from reopening the border to live Canadian cattle.

The judge, who said he would give his reasons Thursday, told the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) they should apply for a permanent injunction.

R-CALF had argued that the border reopening – scheduled for Monday – would cause financial harm to U.S. producers, and that Canada doesn't properly test its animals for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

CBC INDEPTH: Mad cow disease
R-CALF succeeded last year in obtaining an injunction to halt a U.S. Department of Agriculture decision to allow additional cuts of meat from Canada, argued in front of the same judge.

The U.S. closed its border to Canadian beef and cattle in May 2003, after the first case of BSE in a Canadian-born animal was confirmed. It resumed the shipment of some cuts of beef that August.

And two months ago, the USDA announced that it would begin allowing live cattle under the age of 30 months across the border beginning March 7. The USDA said it recognized Canada as a "minimal-risk region" for BSE, in part because of measures taken to prevent the spread of the disease.

After the announcement, two more cases of BSE were confirmed in Alberta animals, but the USDA said it had expected to see other cases and they fell within the minimal risk definition. A Canadian-born dairy cow that had been shipped to the U.S. in 2001 tested positive for BSE in December 2003. That led to Japan halting imports of U.S. beef.

R-CALF will also argue that allowing Canadian cattle into the U.S. will impact American exports to foreign markets.

In its economic argument, R-CALF said if the border reopens, Canada will ship two million animals south in the first 12 months.

R-CALF says it will cost the American cattle industry – which was been reaping high prices for their animals since the border closed – up to $3 billion if it reopens.

Canadian officials say before the border closed in 2003, Canada shipped about 900,000 animals a year to the U.S. And with new rules imposed by the USDA regarding whether cattle will be allowed in, the animals will have to travel directly to slaughter, or to a feedlot on the way to slaughter

 

[Texan]

Oh, well. No surprise there, is it Frenchie? Let's hear some comments from you Canucks.

BTW, I'm gonna have to try that judge's methods around my place:

The judge, who said he would give his reasons Thursday......

Tell her what to do today, tell her why tomorrow? Ha! Don't think that'll work around my outfit!

 

[Bez]

Here is my opinion:

I am disappointed but not surprized. Canuck governments have insulted the Yanks, called them names, turned their backs on them when they asked for support.

The R-CALF injunction was approved by a judge who I believe was the same judge who approved the last one. In the U.S. of A. it is possible to pick your judge. In Canada it is not. This judge is an American and as such had borne the comments of the Canucks and is human - law or not, there is always the human factor. It probably made some decisions easier to make.

We have dithered on the decision as to support BMD / not support BMD. A vital interest to the U.S. of A. - national security - was not supported by the Canadian government. Our Prime Minister is known on the international scene as "Mr. Dithers".

Now you can like Bush, or you can dislike Bush - but, he is well known as a man who makes a decision and sticks to it. He does not like political double speak. Militarily speaking, nations have always been willing to go to war over concerns of vital interest. Mr. Dithers has decided that security is not important and therefore - despite "losing" more than 39,000 ordered deportees in Canada - has announced the Canucks will not even offer moral support for BMD - a vital national security issue for the U.S. of A.

Mr. Bush has an advisor by the name of Rice - arguably the most powerful woman in the U.S. of A. She does not tolerate triflers - much like Margaret Thatcher - the once Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She is considered a completely trustworthy individual by Mr. Bush. She has just cancelled her planned visit to Canada. Mr. Bush - according to Canuck media has not returned a phone call from our Mr. Dithers today - no time / not interested / tired of double speak?

R-CALF could not have timed their attack on the cattle import issue better if they had scripted it for a movie. What most people do not realize as they each strive to bring attention to their own special interest is that all events in national and international economic "games" are tied together.

While we may scrap on this site about what we want; we do not matter. It is the bigger picture that matters. To date Canucks have shown themselves as a whole to be an irritant and a serious worry to U.S. national security. As such, I believe the support by Mr. Bush for this border opening initiative has been seriously damaged.

He may now let the chips fall where they may. If I was him, I would probably do the same thing.

From the Canuck side of the house there are serious issues with free trade and softwood lumber - as well as the upcoming international gas pipeline from Alaska to the U.S. of A. - it is going to be difficult to get "crossing rights" from Canadian ranchers. This pipeline may very well be seriously delayed.

So what we have here - in my opinion - to quote the old prison warden in a Redford movie is a serious "failure to communicate".

Free trade is and has been for some time at risk. Mr. Dithers and his crowd fling insults at their major client - speaking in business colloquial - and expect the U.S to keep coming to the store to buy. The U.S. continues to start up law suits and impinge upon the "spirit of free trade".

Cooler heads will have to prevail to ensure we can actually get back on track.

1. Level playing field for trade
2. Tighten the lax Canuck laws in order to take our neighbours "vital interest" to heart.
3. Get back on track when it comes to NAFTA - or can it - it bugs both sides of the border.
4. Recognize that while we will always have our differences, we do share a big continent and we MUST learn to play nice in the schoolyard.
5. Above all we must remember that our histories go back a long ways and while it is sometimes difficult to be friends - when the chips are down that is when friends step up to the plate - even when they are not happy with how their friend is behaving. If we do not hang together we will hang separately.

How will this happen? Good question and I am not one to pretend I have an answer.

In fact I am not "connected" and will have no voice. Probably none who read this will have a voice either. But, I do believe if we could remove the politicians and the bureaucrats and insert some common sense farm and ranch types with their more pragmatic view of what really matters TO ALL OF US, we would get through this much faster and much more efficiently.

Regards

Bez

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

Very well said, as always, Bez.

 

[houstoncutter]

Bez, I am fairly new to this board, for abou the last year I have just read what a lot of you folks have had to say. Your post above is the best thought out post I have read on this board. I tip my hat :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[catl]

Totally right Bez.We do have a connection that has lasted for years and years and hopefully it will continue to last ,for we are great neighbors and friends.Have a nice day.

 

[ollie]

Bez , you are exactly right. Exactly. By the way Bez, I think you and I could have it worked out by noon. Do something else this afternoon.

 

[Craig-TX]

Excellent post Bez. I'll repeat what I said a month and a half ago... This whole BSE thing is a load of BS. It's probably always been there. Even if it hasn't always been there it's not a threat to meat eating humans. The border issue has much more to do with trade wars and middle-eastern wars than with public safety.

Craig-TX

 

[frenchie]

No its not very surprising Texan.. Kind of figured thats what would happen...As far as Mr. Dithers no comment on that clown...

 

[DaleK]

Hey Bez, congratulations on the column in Ontario Farmer. Didja get a chance to read it yet?

 

[Hutch]

Very well put!!!!

 

[Bez]

Dalek

Do I know you - or of you? Seems I might.

Was this the Tom Van Dusen article? Hope I spelled his name right. Or is this one written by wife and fellow board members? So many media folks!! Wife had been on radio, in print and quoted on the telly far more often than I.

I have not seen the article - if indeed it is from this place. As the poster child for broke Ontario beef operations, we are always on the phone to some reporter. Lat night it was the Ottawa Sun for over half an hour. She really wanted to know how many animals we had. Had to laugh because I said when - now or before? We have sold all the cattle that do not live on this place and trimmed here - far cry from before. We are now officially down to about 56 head total - give or take - including yearlings and bull - and I suppose that makes us hobbyists now. Far cry from the old days. I am not sure she got the story right, but she is trying - hafta' give her credit for that.

Basically the returns from our investment would have been better if we had invested 300K in the stock markets. The reason we are so popular - along with the remainder of the local farm board - we all opened our books to the public. You should have seen the eyes on the politicians and media when they were shown the no schitzen real numbers. Wife was there - I was not. She said they found it very sobering. KUDUS to those who did this - all are seriously in the hole with no relief in sight.

I suspect at least 2 dozen beef operations will cease to exist in this county - with another couple dozen that will quietly fade away. Hard to say what will happen in the province. This province is scheduled to lose almost 230 million this year in ag if you believe the latest numbers. Yet we directly affect 650,000 jobs in this province - again, if you believe the numbers

The largest operation in my immediate area is run by a multi-generation farm family. He is younger than I and he told me last week he is out. Quitting. Hopes to keep the farm if he can. Returns on cattle in good years averaged less than 100 bucks profit after all expenses factored in. Thanks to regulations and taxes and ... and ... and ... Losses have been so heavy for the past two years he is completely wiped out.

His wife provided the slush by working off farm.

Now we all fight high taxes, intrusive and expensive legislation, bankers and mortgagemen, utility costs skyrocketing and now on their way up again, subsidies that do not come to us or are so expensive and difficult to calculate that they must be completed by paying an accountant, beef prices in the grocery store at all time highs (15 bucks a pound for steak and 4 plus per pound for decent burger), low commodity pricing, debt too deep to climb out, fuel and fertilizer prices up (fert @ 400 plus per tonne), machinery prices out of line with reality and the beat goes on.

Too bad we risked improving this place at the wrong time. That is how we got hurt.

Wife has been on radio and I think television and certainly in the print media. So we never can keep up with where we are.

We are simply slowly going down. Apparently the government believes we have received about $2K in funding - do not remember it - but that will not pay anything of consequence here anyways. So family pumped in an extra $20K to keep things going long enough for us to get out this summer.

Some basic numbers based on one cow / one weaned calf:

Cost to keep per day - $1.50
Per year - 547.5

Cost per weaned calf - Buck a day

Cost to run place based on each cow - right around $675 - less if you go to 150 animals - but other expenses rise - and so on.

Price received per calf - 300.

Bred cows bought for second herd in '99/'00/'01 averaged just over $950

We were going to bring them here but thank heavens we did not.

Sold for survival at $330 average.

It is somewhat more complex that that in real life, but the numbers are close and can be born out on paper. This place lost $60K last year after all financial obligations factored in. Real dollars - not paper dollars.

Beef farming in Ontario is the low man on the totem pole. All provincial and federal numbers prove this. The only way to win is to go gigantic and win at the "subsidy games". None in this area have managed a win yet.

I was in Toronto yesterday and listened to a man tell me it was a smaller loss to let the land lie than it was for him to work it. Makes you think about things.

A fellow who lives in the local village came by today and was a bit short on feed - so I gave him the last of my soy beans (I bagged it for him - three bags) and some corn. Have a lot of corn, so it was no hardship for us. He only has 4 animals and he needed some help.

I'll look for the article - likely someone or three will be calling us about it.

Some day I will learn to be short in my writings. Stay well,

Bez

 

[2centsworth]

For the past few months, I didn't even want to talk or hear about BSE. It's the reason I am living in Colorado right now rather than Canada with my family. My parents asked me not to come home after graduation to help on the farm - they did not want me to put my career on hold to help them through this. They had hope that things would improve. But that hope is gone now.

The hearts and spirits of Canadian cattlemen are broken. They have been so strong for so long, but people can only have their hopes dashed so many times and remain optimistic. Yesterday was the last straw for a lot of producers.

Cattlemen selling out is the lesser of the worries at this point. We have lost friends and neighbors to suicide as the light has grown dimmer. Now the light is effectively out for many.

I still believe that the border staying closed will make the Canadian beef industry stronger in the long run. The problem is there likely won't be an industry left to worry about.

Bez, Cattle Annie, frenchie, CRR - I don't even know what to say to you, but thank you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences across Canada and with folks south of the border. And thank you for hanging in there. May God bless you and keep you.

To every single R-CALF supporter on this board and across the United States, may you someday feel the devastation of your northern neighbors.

 

[Bez]

2centsworth

Well, I thank you for your comments. I am up to 5 who have done themselves in during the past two years. Andy L. out of Fairview, Alberta was the toughest for this family - he, my oldest daughter and I canoed the Peace River for a few days with the 4H group a few years back. The industry in Canada is far smaller than that of the U.S. of A. We all tend to know many folks in most other provinces quite well. The Canadian beef folks usually have a finger on the pulse of what is happening in other provinces across the country.

Be that as it may, I have always attempted to maintain an even keel on R-CALF. I am not sure the positions would be have been different had BSE hit on the other side of the border. What I am truly tired of is all of the finger pointing. I give a damn about who says what to who about what.

My biggest concern is that we all seem to want to scream and shout and swear instead of workling together to solve this issue. It is my observation that there are more than a few on this board who agree with me. Meantime a lot of good people will go down - and through no fault of their own, and no bad management - just bad timing. As I have been quite open about it - we are in the crosshairs and someone is waiting to pull the trigger. As such I am resigned to the inevitable.

Our industry has been hit hard, but it was dealt a body blow by Mr. Dithers and his double speak on BMD - which was just one of many incidents - and the final straw. Our own leaders did us in.

The problem lies with the elites eating well, and drawing big salaries to solve OUR problems. The longer they stretch it out the more they make. It is not about cattle, it is not about the industry and it is not about the people - it is about money and power and greed and yes, self serving corruption at the various levels of not only government, but of industry, and in some cases, the very organizations that are supposed to represent us. Who do we have to blame for this? Look in the mirror.

The Canadian government and the various provincial governments will sit idley by as many of us fall - and not care. You see, food is cheap and the population does not only not know, it for the best part does not care. As long as the store shelves have food they can purchase - then the VOTES that keep politicians in power are safe.

In the end it is far deeper than just BSE. It is about uneven playing fields, it is about not-so-free trade, it is about politicians not doing their jobs, it is about media selling into hype, it is about making money for the right people. And this is being done at the expense of the farmer / rancher. And, most producers are not aware of this. Or worse, they simply hope it continues to happen somewhere else, and not in their pasture.

Woe to the U.S. of A. cattle industry after turning up a positive cow - especially after the hype of R-CALF. We never thought it could happen and you can be sure those with a head on their shoulders in the U.S. of A. are now really aware of what could happen to them if it occurs there. God help them if it does. I would bet you a drink in the bar of your choice that there are some in the U.S. of A. who now are very worried about the potential consequences of a positive animal.

Yeah, we are going to lose a lot of good operations and a lot of good people. I just want to tell everyone to stop the lying and posturing and solve the darned problem - I believe that will not happen for some time to come. Too many self serving schitzen kopfs in the equation.

In the end, when the producers take their hands out of the bucket of water, the hole they leave behind will represent how much they will truly be missed when they are gone.

Regards,

Bez

 

[DaleK]

I know of you indirectly. I'm about 2 hours west of you. The custom operator who did our forage harvesting just sent all his leased equipment back, sold the rest, and listed his farm with a realtor. We figure we've already lost 20-30 cow-calf operations in the county, a few dairy, and 2 dairy heifer exporters, one of whom almost took the local vet clinic and feed suppliers with him. The bank that foreclosed sold the buildings off his farm individually to be removed. We're probably going to lose another 40-50 beef operations this spring and 8-10 dairy. I know one full-time cow calf guy who has already stockpiled enough ammunition to shoot his entire herd this spring if things don't look better for him.
We took a big gamble last spring and summer and contracted all of the 470 or so acres of corn, soy and wheat we were planning on selling (out of 800 total). Sat down in December and figured out we gained $77,000 by doing it, managed to make about $1 an acre instead of losing big. A lot of the corn was contracted at a loss, but a small loss is better than a big one.

When we called around to load the buses for yesterday (my wife called 210 farmers) most either had already sold the cows or weren't going because the cows would be gone this spring no matter what prices did. I expect we'll plant a lot of bin-run barley this spring to feed the milkers and stock-pile straw.

 

[DaleK]

I was at a dairy sale between you and me in November at a farm where 2 of 3 brothers had done themselves in in the last few years and the 3rd was on suicide watch for 2 months before the sale. I've seen one neighbour's wife turn alcoholic, and another friend is smoking 3 packs a day because it helps keep him awake so he can work 12 hours on the farm then a 12 hour factory shift.

 

[2centsworth]

Bez,

You are right on with everything you said. It is not just a BSE issue. It is much, much larger than that. But this week for me, it comes down to this: The border would partially open Monday, and would have been opened last spring, if R-CALF would quit using frivolous lawsuits rather than diplomatic discussion to solve the problem.

With the cover-up and selective testing going on in the United States, I would venture to say they will never announce a positive case of BSE. If they do, it will be by accident. They have done an excellent job of sweeping the possibles and probables under the rug. But if the "wrong" one ever gets tested and the results are leaked, they will have some serious issues to deal with. If they think they have trade problems now... wait till they find a native case and have no national ID system in place to trace it. If they think the one they are working on now will suffice, they are in for a surprise.

Knowing you are planning on getting out of the business this year, I wish you all the best in your next profession. You have been a wonderful spokesman for the industry-perhaps you could go into risk management for a PR firm!

Take care. And I am sorry for your losses.

 

[houstoncutter]

2centsworth, I think we might have to disagree. The problem as some of us producers who may or maynot be members of R-Calf see it as this... We are fed up with USDA and NCBA and the heavy handed approach on many issues, BSE being just one of them. I am sorry for the suffering that is taking place in Canada, but I and others do not wish to put our markets at risk. COOL would probably solve a lot of these issues, the American consumer could decide what beef they choose to consume. Politicians and large multinational beef companies dont like that idea. Some Canadians would like to test all their beef, a idea that I and others support, but they have hit many roadblocks. Even testing of beef here in the US, that could then be sold to Japan has hit some of the same roadblocks... Ask yourself why, I dont have the answer, but I can tell you this, some cattlemen in the US are fed up with business as usual concept... So some will continue to support the efforts of R-Calf, because they are sounding a battle cry for change in the cattle industry.

 

[frenchie]

2centsworth It is not just a BSE issue. It is much, much larger than that. But this week for me, it comes down to this: The border would partially open Monday, and would have been opened last spring, if R-CALF would quit using frivolous lawsuits rather than diplomatic discussion to solve the problem

Unfortunately money rules......

2centsworth....wait till they find a native case and have no national ID system in place to trace it. If they think the one they are working on now will suffice, they are in for a surprise.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't
live long enough to make them all yourself.


Lets use their mistakes to our ends

 

[CattleAnnie]

Yes, this is disappointing, but really who was suprised with the ruling? I sure never expected any differently once I heard R-CALF had a hearing date.

I've said it before and yeah, it's repeating myself, but I doubt the US border opens to Canadian live cattle (UTM) in the next six months; and that's a modest 'guesstimate'.

Jaded? You bet.

Take care.