EDMONTON – A final payout from the tripartite red meat stabilization account is possible even though the controversial program ended Dec. 31.
Dale Dowswell, who administers the program for Alberta, said the support price for the slaughter cattle account for the last quarter of 1993 was $93 a hundredweight. With prices dropping to $87 to $88 per cwt. during the first week of December, a payout up to $50 per head for that month is almost a certainty, he said.
He couldn’t predict whether payouts would be triggered for October and November.
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Cattlemen will know the actual figures Jan. 28 when the national tripartite committee meets in Ottawa and releases final calculations for the last quarter of 1993.
In a year when cattle prices shot through the roof, support prices for the program automatically went up. At year end there was surplus money in the cow-calf and feeder cattle accounts but there could be a small deficit in the slaughter section if a payment occurs, Dowswell said.
Any producer money left in the Alberta tripartite account at the end of the program will be returned to them, said MLA Barry McFarland, who chairs the provincial agriculture committee.
Killed early
The beef tripartite program was a 10-year program due to expire in 1995 but it was ended two years ahead of schedule at the cattle producers’ request. Record-high payouts two years ago led to threats of trade action by the United States if Canada didn’t get rid of the program immediately.
More than 40 percent of Canadian cattle were exported to the U.S. in 1993, amounting to $1.5 billion in trade.
