Mad Cow Disease
May 16th, 2005
This is long and will take a minute to read.
I had an interesting email about BSE. BSE or mad cow desease was found in Canada and our borders closed to any exports of beef. The major packing plants are located in the US so right now they dominate the market with their beef. Check your labels closely in the supermarket particularly cold cuts and frozen food. In Ontario alot of fresh beef from No Frills supermarket was shipped in from the US.
The effects for the farmer are very profound. Those in the beef market are unable to sell their beef and with new regulations the beef cattle must be butchered before their back molars come in (under 36 months) or the whole beef cow is only good for hamburger and the nicer more expensive cuts lost. Many many beef farmers are taking on second jobs to pay the bills and keep their farms. It is very serious. Our neighbour a beef farmer says he hasn't seen anything like it. He has 21 feeder calves (calves about a year old ready to be fattened another year before slaughter)and can't sell them. What do you do with cattle no ones wants to buy?
For us in the dairy it also affects us in what are called heifer sales. The cows must give birth in order to produce milk but if you are milking 30 cows you will get 30 baby calves a year. Out of the 30 calves less than half will be bull calves (AI Artificial Breeding) which are sold for veal while the females, heifers, are raised up and sold as replacements for farmers who have lost a cow during calving, or they have not filled their quota (1kg = 1.25 cow in production) or are increasing their herd. It usually costs about $1200 to raise a heifer calf to 15 months ready to breed (called an open heifer). These heifers would sell for around $2000-2500 dollars. Most farmers will breed the heifer and alow her to milk one lactation (period from birthing one calf to the next birth usually a year later)Once the heifer calves she is called a fresh heifer. This allows the farmer to see how her production is. If she is a high producer of milk he can get more money for her and if she gives birth
to a heifer, the heifer is also worth more money because of the pedigree or family tree. These usually sold for the same price as an open heifer. It costs more to raise a Holstein calf than a beef calf because they are genetically engineered to produce lots of milk and require large amounts of grain and supplements to keep condition (body fat ratio) on their backs. Beef cattle can eat just hay and pasture and fatten up real nice.
So you ask what's the problem. The majority of heifers were shipped to the states where milk production is not regulated. Here in Canada you can only produce the amount of milk allowed by quota. Eg we have 6 kg of quota so we can produce or milk 6-8 cows to fill the quota requirements. Each month we receive a milk cheque for our sales of milk. This reduces feast or famine which they experience in the US. Because the border is closed no heifers are leaving Canada. A cow must give birth in order to make milk, you must fill your quota or loose money, so what do you do with the calves? Some would say buy more quota but during the last exchange (stock market) a kg of quota went for $31,500.00. In otherwords it would cost almost $32,000 to put one cow into production. Here in lies the problem quota is to expensive because the big big dairies are buying it and fighting over who is going to get it while the little farmer just can't afford to buy it but what does he do with his heifers? If he
breeds them they will milk, if he doesn't they become to old and are only worth hamburger.
Where are we, well we are a little farmer who just cannot afford quota at $32,000 and we have nine hiefers going to give birth next month. We are only allowed to milk 6-8 cows and we are milking 13 right now. Besides making cheese (can't sell under quota) and Butter (same thing) and milk paint for barns, feeding piggies, we are throwing milk into the gutter like alot of other farmers. You have to be creative by drying cows off early (stop milking them before they have their next baby but still have to feed them with no return) breed them at longer intervals (instead of breeding two months after their calf we are waiting four months) And being very creative with hamburger sales. We are selling cows that should be worth $1500-2500 for $1.80 a pound. So here is the math, one dairy cow with 500 pounds of flesh at $1.80 will gross $900 now deduct the butchering of $250 per animal and you have $650 to cover the expense of breeding her, feeding her and farm expenses like plastic wrap silage
(wet hay - our bill last year was $3500) and grain. Because we are small we are able to recover somewhat but the bigger dairies are killing their cull cows (name for a cow you don't want anymore) and calling dead stock. At the sales barn these cows are selling for 18 cents a pound. So a 1200 pound animal is selling for $216 dollars. Our cows are not purebred either so they can with stand a reduction of grain which is what we did in order to have enough until August harvest. We also bred AI beef instead of pure holstein so the drop calves (name for calves just born) would be worth more $160 compared to $90. Atleast is covers the breeding costs. The risk is if the boder does open our heifers are still worth nothing because they are pregnant with beef calves and the heifer calves born aren't beef or holstein but a cross which is useless to either industry.
That is how BSE is affecting the local farmer, so if you know a beef farmer please support his/her family and buy from the farm. Farmers right now are struggling while in the US its feast for the beef and dairy industry. They are seeing record prices for their heifers while Canadian farmers are killing their stock. If you over ship your milk you pay 4 cents a litre over plus the trucking costs. The bigger farmers who are still small compared with the US are really hurting.
Simply put, a dairy farmer milking 30 cows (very small farm) could have as much as $750,000 tied up in quota. Quota sells by demand price goes up when every one wants it, price goes down when no one wants it. When this crisis is over the price of quota will drop and farmers will loose alot of money selling off quota they were forced to buy or have lost their farms due to BSE.
What can you do? Well, we thank you for buying our meat and hamburger. Its keeps our farm going. Buy only Canadian and tell your supermarket if they are bringing in US you will boycot it. Thank God for our regulations and strict health regulations for the food you eat. Will a farmer in the US report a BSE case after what they see happening to the Canadian beef and dairy markets? They might be tempted to shoot the cow and bury it in the manure pile. The same feeding practices that brought on the illness were used in both countries. Potentially BSE infected meat could be in the food chain for us.
The best you can do to protect your family is buy locally from someone you know and go see the farm. Is it clean? Are the animals? How are they fed? How are they treated? Do they have fresh air? Are there lame or sick ones you can see? Is there dead stock? How often is the vet in? You have the right to ask. This is the heath of your family.
Thank you for reading and listening to a local farmer. I know its not homeschool related but hey it was sort of educational don't you think? Now you know the difference from an open heifer and a fresh heifer? And I did warn you it was long! LOL
