Gayland Panko was feeling optimistic in 2004.
After a year of BSE and industry anxiety over the future, the Saskatchewan rancher anticipated a quick border opening to move cattle south and a return to good times.
He never anticipated market declines to continue.
Now his optimism is melting away. Last fall he listed his ranch for sale but so far has received no offers.
“I penciled it out roughly. If I sell the ranch and the cows as opposed to tough it out another year, by the same time next year I’d be another $80,000 in the hole,” he said from his ranch near Moose Jaw, Sask., where drought has burned away his hay crop for the last two years.
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His family bought the ranch in 1976 and he took over in 2004.
“It has never been a big money maker, but I was making my payments and building equity. Now I’m giving that equity back,” he said.
He worries the land will not go back into livestock if it is sold, although it is not suitable for grain farming or residential development.
He also wonders if Canadians care about where their food comes from.
“People don’t seem to care if they have to import their beef from Uruguay and their pork from wherever,” he said.
Roland Baumann in British Columbia is watching neighbours sell, but the Swiss immigrant plans to stay on his Vanderhoof ranch.
He co-chaired a ranching strategy task force to rebuild the B.C. industry, which has seen the cow herd decline from 327,000 head in 2004 to 212,000 in 2009.
“That is an indication that people are just coming to an end and they are looking for options,” Baumann said.
The task force told the province the industry needs $40 million to implement traceability, age verification, product quality, brand development and food safety, but the government was not forthcoming.
“If there is no money, there is no solution.”
He said politicians must realize the red meat sector’s problems are urgent. Ottawa’s business risk management programs are based on past profit margins and so are of little help.
“We have come to the conclusion that we have to depend on ourselves and if we are coming to an end, we will just have to pull the plug, sell and disperse,” Baumann said.
His operation can continue because he is debt free, but he is just getting by until his next calf crop is sold.
“Quality of life is here and quality of life doesn’t depend on lots of money,” he said.
Norm Ward of Granum, Alta., also makes quality of life and environmental protection high priorities.
He considered selling his ranch last year but has since formed a partnership with his 29-year-old son, Neal.
“We are moving ahead and we are not exiting the industry,” he said.
He knows others are leaving.
“We are seeing an exodus of some of the marginal players, some guys who have the opportunity to farm and have a few cows on the side,” he said.
“Guys who have higher expenses for whatever reason are moving out but there is a pretty good core that is left.”
He said industry players are emerging with new ideas, especially those who take a holistic approach to managing grasslands and cattle.
“You need somebody who can turn the box upside down and work on the outside of the box and look at the industry and say, ‘can we do something different and not just nibble around the edges’ and take it in a different direction. There will be some different players in the beef business but there will still be a beef business.”
