They came from as far away as Toronto, and from as close as the farm next door, but they all had one thing in common—a vested interest in Herefords.
Nearly 60 people took part in the Hereford Influence Tour of district Hereford farms on Saturday—organized by the Rainy River District Hereford Association—and all came away impressed with what they saw.
“I was really impressed,” said Scott Leeson, president of the Ontario Hereford Association. “This is a close-knit group of breeders, very progressive, and they know where the industry is headed.”
Leeson said the purpose of the tour was to see the breeders and their programs, as well as to discuss what the association can do for its individual members.
“Everybody has different marketing conditions,” he noted.
Leeson’s operation is in Ridgetown, in the extreme southwest corner of Ontario between Windsor and London. But there also were people from Bruce County—north of Toronto—and Prince Edward County to the east.
There even were several people from Manitoba on hand.
The tour began at the farm of Jack and Cathy McNabb north of Stratton. There, the guests enjoyed a light breakfast of coffee and snacks before proceeding in a convoy for the farm of Len and Ross Stafford on the Morley-Pattullo Road, where Ross proudly displayed the magnificent bull he purchased in Alberta in March, 2002.
The next stop was the Carl Cates farm near Emo, before winding up at KJB Herefords near Emo for a barbecue and potluck supper.
In light of recent events out west regarding the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow) incident, it might appear the industry is headed for deep water. But Leeson thinks the beef business eventually will recover, though he won’t predict when.
“We’re in uncharted territory here,” he remarked. “There are so many unknowns [such as how long the import ban on live cattle to the U.S. will remain in effect] and right now, people are just hanging on.
“We’re entering a new era in the cattle industry, with new ideas, new programs, and a new breeding philosophy,” he added.
Leeson said the most important thing to emerge from the “mad cow” crisis is that it proves the system works, which should speed up the opening of the border and help in the eventual recovery.
“We’ve learned Canada is very safe,” he stressed. “The food system is working, the monitoring system is working, the inspection system is working.
“We’re looking for the right things.”
Leeson said he feels that when the crisis is over, the beef industry will be healthier than ever—thanks in no small measure to the support the general public has shown since a single case of BSE was discovered in Alberta in May.
“As Canadians, we’ve rallied to support the beef industry,” he said. “I think the world will take note that we caught this one [BSE-infected cow] and we’ll catch it again if it happens.”
Leeson noted BSE is believed to appear spontaneously in one in every million cattle world-wide, so it should be no surprise it happened in Canada. What is more of a surprise is that there have been, as yet, no reported cases in the United States, where there are 10 times as many cattle.
That, said Leeson, is not grounds for suspicion, but rather something to be hoped for. “If the U.S. ever has a problem, we’ve got a big one, too,” he claimed.
Tour organizer Kim Jo Bliss also was pleased with the turnout.
“I guess it’s as good as it can be. It’s been 15 years since we had a tour here,” she said, adding the association usually has such a tour somewhere in Ontario every year.
But she was less optimistic than Lesson regarding the short-term future of the industry.
Bliss, who runs a cow/calf operation in addition to a breeding operation at KJB Herefords, said there’s considerable stress in the industry right now as many people worry about how they are going to carry their cull cattle over the next few months.
Matters have been complicated further by the closing of the bridge on Highway 71 at Sioux Narrows to heavy vehicles, which Bliss said could cause even more trouble for an already-stressed industry.
“It’s like being kicked while you’re down,” she lamented. “Because of one mad cow, we can’t ship our cattle through the States. Now we’re looking at an eight-hour drive to Winnipeg to have our cattle slaughtered.
“It will be a really big issue around Rainy River especially,” Bliss added. “It’s a really rough time.”
Aaron Kuorikoski is president of RRDHA and one of the organizers of the tour. He feels the bridge closure won’t affect the industry significantly simply because so few cattle are being shipped anyway.
“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about it [shipping cattle] if the prices are the same [in the near future],” he reasoned. “The only reason we have to ship animals to Winnipeg is to cull cows and nobody’s doing that because you’ll come back with a [shipping] bill.
“Until the border opens up, I don’t see it as a problem.”
That still leaves farmers with the problem of tending to these unwanted, unmarketable animals over the winter.
According to Kuorikoski, the backlog of cattle awaiting slaughter could reach half-a-million by the end of the year and 750,000 by the end of the first quarter of 2004.
Bliss said it costs up to $2 per day to feed an animal and some farmers out west already have decided they can’t afford to do that so they are taking drastic measures to cut their losses.
They are shooting and burying their animals and Kuorikoski said if the government doesn’t come up with some kind of financial compensation package, that could happen here, too.
“I can see that happening here if we don’t get some help soon,” he warned.
“I’ll tell you this. If I had to start doing that, I’d make sure the Fort Frances Times, the TV, and radio stations were there because I’d want Greenpeace, the Humane Society, and PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] all over this.
“Maybe that will make the government listen because it doesn’t seem that they’re listening to us,” he charged.
Kuorikowski pointed out he managed to sell all his cull cows before May 20, but other local farmers weren’t so lucky.
Kuorikoski was somewhat more optimistic about the upcoming calf sale in Stratton this Saturday. He feels that despite the state of the industry in general, feeder cattle should do quite well.
“We’ve found the [Stratton] sale matches Winnipeg over the past five years,” he observed. “There’s no reason producers can’t ship to Stratton because there’s a lot of buyer potential through the feeder finance package.”
Kuorikoski noted although there will be some western buyers at Saturday’s sale, many cattle will be shipped east to feedlots in southern Ontario and so won’t be affected by the bridge closure at Sioux Narrows.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
