Barry Young used to export quality beef genetics to the United States and to the other side of the world.
He shipped breeding bulls to the U.S. and semen and embryos mainly to Europe.
“For a farm here in this part of the world, it was a fair little bit of income,” said Young, who raises purebred Angus at Carievale, Sask.
“That was quite a bonus to be able to go south with those bulls.”
The income from those exports evaporated with the discovery of BSE in an Alberta cow in May 2003. Young has since regained markets in Europe for semen from his bulls, but the American market for his live breeding stock remains closed.
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He is just one of many Canadian cattle breeders who have collectively lost hundreds of millions dollars in the wake of BSE. Those losses continue, mainly because no live breeding stock has left the country in almost three years.
Only a few countries have agreed to accept breeding cattle from Canada and they are not significant markets.
“It was a big part of our industry here so it has hurt our producers considerably,” said Garner Deobald, a commercial fieldman for the Canadian Charolais Association.
“When you build up those markets and you become reliant on them and all of a sudden they’re taken away overnight, it has a huge impact.”
The loss of export markets for breeding animals and the interruption of semen and embryo exports cost the Canadian cattle industry about $350 million a year in losses, said Herb McLane, executive vice-president of the Canadian Beef Breeds Council.
Almost 60 countries have reopened their borders to Canadian cattle semen and embryos. Last year that trade was valued at about $52 million, with the bulk from exports of dairy bull semen.
“Some of the markets reopened for semen and embryos relatively quickly,” McLane said.
“Some of the more recent notable ones for us have been Russia and China, which have been reopened in the last 12 to 18 months.”
However, there was still a heavy toll.
In the dairy industry, the U.S. and Mexico were markets for replacement dairy heifers from Canada. Rick McRonald, executive director of the Canadian Livestock Genetics Association, said exports of dairy heifers likely were worth about $200 million before BSE.
The value of bred dairy heifers collapsed after the confirmation of BSE in 2003. There has been some recovery in the average value of those animals but nothing like what it was before.
“In early May 2003, a decent bred heifer was worth $2,500. Immediately after the border closed, those animals, if you could sell them, were worth $500.”
That meant a large loss in equity for dairy producers. About 90 percent of producers who were raising dairy heifer replacements stopped doing so.
For Canadian cattle breeders, much hinges on the outcome of the second rule from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The rule will, among other things, establish the conditions for exporting breeding stock to the U.S.
McRonald said once the U.S. accepts breeding animals from Canada, Mexico should follow suit. Mexico fears losing U.S. markets for its feeder cattle if it accepts breeding cattle from Canada before the Americans do.
“We’re working as hard as we can with government and other industry associations to see the rule published,” McRonald said.
“We’re hoping that will happen in the not too distant future and we can get this industry back on its feet again and restore some value to our cattle.”
