Abattoir eyed as solution to ‘mad cow’ crisis

Doom and gloom.
That is the easiest way to describe the future for district cattlemen if the U.S. border does not re-open to Canadian live cattle soon.
Russell Richards, manager of the Stratton sales barn, reported that despite the discovery of mad cow disease in Alberta last year, they managed to survive as an industry in the area and actually turned a profit at the sales barn.
Total income on the year was $2,368,945.97. With expenses hitting $2,361,462.64, that left a net profit of $7,483.33.
“Our spring sale was the best one ever, but it was a fast downhill ride from there all because of one [mad] cow,” said Peter Spuzak, president of the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association, which held its annual meeting last week in Stratton.
Richards said they debated about having any further cattle sales but went ahead and did, and noted district producers managed to get prices comparable—or better—than in Winnipeg.
“It shows how important the local sales barn is to the area,” he remarked. “Farmers can bring their cattle to the barn and if they don’t like the prices, they can take them home at very little expense.
“To bring them home from Winnipeg would be costly.”
Spuzak said the RRCA executive spent most of 2003 working on ways to combat the devastating effects of that “one cow.” In December, they met with local MPP and Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton to look at options.
“We drafted a letter to Steve Peters [the new provincial agriculture minister] suggesting that rather than spending the estimated $400,000 the area’s cattlemen will get under the mad cow compensation agreement [$165 per animal], that $250,000 of the money be used to help fund the construction of an abattoir in Northern Ontario.”
Spuzak said Russel Pollard of Stratton has indicated a willingness to invest considerably in such a plant if it were located in this area. “He has done a great deal of ground work on this project,” Spuzak noted. “The stumbling blocks now lie at the government level.”
The RRCA sees an abattoir in the region as an option that will help ease the pain caused by the U.S. border ban on live cattle.
“It is too expensive for us to ship our culled cows to Alberta or southern Ontario,” Spuzak argued, noting those are the two closest places to have culled animals processed.
It’s estimated there are about 2,500 animals that need to be processed in this area.
The agriculture minister acknowledged the stress RRCA members are under and informed them he has forwarded their letter to the BSE task force.
Local cattleman Amos Brielmann asked who made the decision to ask that the compensatory money be shifted away from district farmers to the abattoir project.
“We did not feel the government would go for this plan, but we felt we had to try and find some local solutions,” replied Spuzak. “It is better to lose $165 versus $800-$900, which is what those animals are worth.”
“Someone might depend on that money to make ends meet,” countered cattleman Jim McDermid. “We should have had more meetings to discuss BSE and what is going on.”
“Right now a culled cow won’t buy a battery for a tractor,” Spuzak fired back.
Local cattle producer Kim Jo Bliss explained that even if the provincial government went for the proposal, the individual farmer would have the final say as to whether they would want to turn over their compensation cheque to the project.
Local OMAF rep Gary Sliworsky agreed. “You are not going to see the government take people’s money,” he remarked.
Cattleman Archie Wiersema noted that at the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association meeting, most associations were opposed to the provincial government’s proposed compensation package, offering $165 per culled cow.
“Most felt it should go into a program like the abattoir,” he said.
OCA board member Roger Griffiths, who was the guest speaker at the RRCA’s annual meeting, said the OCA agrees the money should be put towards a processing plant rather than into a compensation package.
“It is worth more to us to have some place to sell our cattle locally,” said RRCA past president Tom Morrish.
(Fort Frances Times)