PONOKA, Alta. Ñ The day Canada’s most recent case of BSE was announced, cattle buyer and feedlot owner Ken Stanley was buying cattle at the auction market in Clyde, Alta.
The effect on the market was instantaneous, said Stanley.
If producers were lucky enough to sell their cattle before 11 a.m., they got a good price. After the announcement, sellers took a hit.
“When the announcement was made, a bunch of order buyers had their orders pulled and the markets dropped,” said Stanley. He was buying cattle at the Vold, Jones and Vold Auction market in Ponoka the day after the announcement.
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Gradually the markets climbed back and ended about five cents a pound lower than at the beginning of the day.
“Everyone was nervous. Nobody knows what to do,” said Stanley of Jubilee Livestock in Westlock, who added neither farmers nor feedlots know what the fourth case will mean.
“Every cow you find might have a chance of delaying the opening. The fact that the cow is a little younger than it should be doesn’t help,” he said.
The announced discovery of the third case 10 days earlier sent barely a ripple through the market. That was an older dairy cow and fit the profile of a probable BSE suspect.
“When the cattle actually start moving, everybody will start feeling better. We all thought we were through this and we’re not.”
Bob Jackson of Vold, Jones and Vold Auction said a combination of cold and the BSE scare dropped cattle numbers from the expected 4,000 head to 2,000 head at the Jan. 12 sale.
Producers had phoned the auction steadily, wanting to know what they should do.
“You tell them what you’re hearing,” said Jackson.
Jerry McCarty of Ardrossan, Alta., doesn’t own cattle, but he stopped at the auction market to check cattle market reaction.
“It’s a scary enough thing. Who knows what it’s going to bring? Obviously politics is still playing a big role,” said McCarty. “Everybody has been off balance for so long now and this isn’t helping.”
Gary Lang and Roy Hoffman, both of Ponoka, watched the market from the auction stands.
“There was hope before, but I don’t know now,” said Lang.
Hoffman said the latest case raises questions that BSE may be caused by factors other than cattle eating infected feed as earlier believed.
“If they’re still getting it without all the bone meal, it ain’t a feed thing, it’s got to be something else,” said Hoffman, who was also concerned consumer confidence would falter with the latest news.
Lester Millang of Camrose said the case has dealt the industry a blow similar to the news of the first case in May 2003.
“I think we’re back to Square 1. It’s very disappointing.”
Millang, a purebred Charolais breeder, said many of his customers were only holding on until they could recoup some of their losses from the past 18 months and then get out.
“There really isn’t a lot of excitement out there in the cattle industry.”
