Cattle Rack Rancher
Well-known member
Record sized CDN cattle herd
OTTAWA - Canadian beef producers were feeding a million more head of cattle in mid-2004 than was the case a year earlier, largely because exports collapsed after the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease in Alberta.
Canada's exports of live cattle and beef meat virtually collapsed after the United States and several other countries imposed an import ban on the products in May 2003.
As a consequence, the Canadian cattle herd grew by 6.5 per cent to a record 16.8 million head as of July 1, according to a livestock survey by Statistics Canada of 18,000 farmers, beef and dairy producers.
Not surprisingly, the growers' revenues plunged at the same time.
In 2002, Canada exported 1.7 million head of cattle, worth $1.8 billion. After the border closed in May 2003, cattle exports plunged to 505,689 head and were valued at $591 million. Those numbers represented less than 30 per cent of the previous year's levels.
When you add in shipments of beef as well as live cattle, total exports were valued at $3.9 billion in 2002, the equivalent of $11 million in sales each day.
But in the year following the border closure, calculated from June 2003 to May 2004, the total value of cattle and beef exports fell 65 per cent, to about $1.4 billion.
Exports of live animals in 2004 are non-existent so far, as the border remains closed, Statistics Canada said in the report.
Canadian farmers' cash receipts for cattle and calves during the third and fourth quarters of 2003 were cut in half, tumbling to $2.0 billion from the $3.9 billion recorded for the same period in 2002.
But government aid programs helped cushion the shock for farmers, according to Statistics Canada. The main program, the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Recovery Program, is estimated to have paid $443 million to producers between July and December 2003.
The report came as the Canadian Cattleman's Association used its annual convention to unveil a new plan to strengthen livestock prices depressed by BSE.
The association says the proposed program, under which ranchers would hold back market-ready cattle for up to four months and hand over unproductive animals for BSE testing and disposal, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
If governments agreed to fund the program, producers would receive compensation for holding back cattle from the markets, and would also be paid up to $150 a head for older or unuseable specimens.
OTTAWA - Canadian beef producers were feeding a million more head of cattle in mid-2004 than was the case a year earlier, largely because exports collapsed after the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease in Alberta.
Canada's exports of live cattle and beef meat virtually collapsed after the United States and several other countries imposed an import ban on the products in May 2003.
As a consequence, the Canadian cattle herd grew by 6.5 per cent to a record 16.8 million head as of July 1, according to a livestock survey by Statistics Canada of 18,000 farmers, beef and dairy producers.
Not surprisingly, the growers' revenues plunged at the same time.
In 2002, Canada exported 1.7 million head of cattle, worth $1.8 billion. After the border closed in May 2003, cattle exports plunged to 505,689 head and were valued at $591 million. Those numbers represented less than 30 per cent of the previous year's levels.
When you add in shipments of beef as well as live cattle, total exports were valued at $3.9 billion in 2002, the equivalent of $11 million in sales each day.
But in the year following the border closure, calculated from June 2003 to May 2004, the total value of cattle and beef exports fell 65 per cent, to about $1.4 billion.
Exports of live animals in 2004 are non-existent so far, as the border remains closed, Statistics Canada said in the report.
Canadian farmers' cash receipts for cattle and calves during the third and fourth quarters of 2003 were cut in half, tumbling to $2.0 billion from the $3.9 billion recorded for the same period in 2002.
But government aid programs helped cushion the shock for farmers, according to Statistics Canada. The main program, the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Recovery Program, is estimated to have paid $443 million to producers between July and December 2003.
The report came as the Canadian Cattleman's Association used its annual convention to unveil a new plan to strengthen livestock prices depressed by BSE.
The association says the proposed program, under which ranchers would hold back market-ready cattle for up to four months and hand over unproductive animals for BSE testing and disposal, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
If governments agreed to fund the program, producers would receive compensation for holding back cattle from the markets, and would also be paid up to $150 a head for older or unuseable specimens.
