Here in the city of Harvey Milk, it doesn’t seem strange that the topic of today’s panel discussion was milk and the reason canola meal is so good at making it.
Markets reporter Ed White is blogging from the Canola Council of Canada’s annual convention in San Francisco March 18-19. For regular updates visit White’s blog, here.
But farmers and others at the Canola Council of Canada convention in San Francisco, the dairy industry that was revealed is much different from the one on the prairies.
Does the idea of having to milk 16,000 cows per day make your arm weak? Well, that’s the size of the operation of a producer who was on today’s panel. Does the idea of feeding citrus fruit waste, pomegranates and carrots sound weird to you? It doesn’t to him, because that’s some of the unusual feed available in California.
But he likes imported canola meal. Researchers on the panel explained that canola meal’s proteins create amino acids that are ideal for the bacteria in cows guts, so it’s a preferred feed.
Guys like this producer had been buying more and more canola meal – until the U.S. government slammed the door shut on imports from many plants because they have tested positive for salmonella. (Salmonella is common in crushing plants, does not hurt the animals that eat the feed and does not infect the meat of animals that eat it.) That has left companies having to test shipments and stop shipments from some plants, which has had the result of slashing exports of canola meal to California from about 800,000 tonnes to about 400,000 tonnes.
That 800,000 tonnes represented about one-third of Canada’s meal sales, so it’s awful to lose easy access to that market.
“That’s a lot of lost opportunity,” said Dave Hickling, the CCC’s meal expert.
Canadian crushers and government officials have kept asking for restrictions to be relaxed – domestic U.S. plants aren’t tested – but so far there have been no signs from U.S. officials that they will be.
