Feeding space available in Canada

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ccstockfarms_2003":yd36dtco said:
Does anyone know where we could advertise our feedlot space for anyone in the US wanting to background or finish calves?

Kinda hard for you to guarantee delivery, isn't it?
 
ccstockfarms_2003":10ls15zo said:
For anyone wanting to invest and feed calves in Canada
I believe this is the best route for you Canadians to take however after reading all the posts I would hate to be looked at as the problem and have cattle on that side of the border that I can't get slaughtered. I am not a member of R calf but next it may be all american owned cattle.
 
Our problem is not with Americans in general. I have many friends that are American and we still enjoy talking about lots of things including cattle. For the most part, they've been pretty sympathetic to the plight of us Canadians. We also understand that with the election coming up that Bush is not going to risk losing just so he can open the border to Canadian cattle. That said, it would have been alot better for us if the US government would have just said that the border won't be open until next year instead of telling us it would be open soon. That has been the biggest problem because we've lost about 9 months that we could have been using to do some contingency planning. There has been alot of frustration over this because we were told by the Ag minister up here that August was the date the border would open. Now we are in big trouble because we have all these cattle that guys have been holding onto based on the fact that the US border was going to be open in August. I have read, however, that if all the slaughter capacity comes online that is supposed to come online in the next while, the backlog should be gone by next fall.The challenges that I see are:
#1-Feeding all these extra cattle through our cold Canadian winter. It has been the coldest summer on record here in Manitoba and I think its going to be a long, extremely tough winter. For those that buy their feed, money is going to be a real issue.
#2- Finding a BSE testing program that is agreeable to all the players in North America. Many say that we should go ahead and test and not worry about the US and Mexico. But stepping on US toes doesn't work very well. Just look at the backlash we got for not sending troops to Iraq.
#3- Re-adjusting our expectations of what we can make off cattle shipped to the US. If trade normalizes, I expect that the extra expenses for segregation and branding and whatever other demands need to be met by Canada in order to ship cattle south will skim some profit off the bottom line. For many, it will be too much and we will lose those producers.
#4- Loss of many experienced cattle producers. More and more around here, guys are just giving their keys to the bank and walking away. Many others plan to wait until they can walk away without losing their shirt and then throw in the towel. When that happens, we will lose yeras of experience and genetics in the Canadian herd.
#5 - Finally, there are going to be some real hard feelings between some Canadian producers and members of R-Calf from the Northern States. For some producers that may extend to Americans in general but you always have a few of those who develop a prejudice no matter what.

Anyway, best to all on this board.
 

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