Canadian imports of live cattle are 277,290 head so far this year, 1.9 percent higher than the 272,196 brought in last year
Imports of American cattle continue to fill western Canadian feedlots and support processors at record pace.
Jason Wood, Alberta’s livestock market analyst, said there has been no growth in the Canadian beef cow herd in the past several years and American cattle naturally fill the void.
In 2015, only 32,172 head were exported to Canada and just 399 went to Alberta.
Year-to-date, total Canadian live imports are 277,290. That is 1.9 percent higher than the total 272,196 brought in in 2020.
Alberta’s year-to-date imports are 171,460, up 9.9 percent over last year’s total 156,016.
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Wood said typically Alberta receives about 54 percent of the total; this year that is up to 62 percent.
He said there is pen space in Alberta after new and additional construction added 41,200 spaces. That wasn’t a mistake, he said, as businesses updated facilities.
“I don’t think there was any mistake there in adding that pen space. It’s just more of a business decision to increase that capacity,” he said. “It’s a little bit more challenging with the summer we had and the movement of animals and the decisions that producers have had to make that we’ve seen those imports climb.”
Wood said Canada also had the feeding advantage for a large part of the year, when corn was more expensive than barley, which made shipping cattle north more attractive.
That has now reversed, giving corn the advantage.
He said larger numbers of cattle have traded in the past, particularly during 2007-09.
The United States has some supply chain issues around labour and efficient movement of cattle. As that herd moves through its liquidation phase there are more cattle on the market.
“There is availability of feeders to come here and economic decisions play a big role in that,” he said.
Alberta feedlot bunk capacity totalled 1,530,900 head on Jan. 1, 2021.
Processing plants are operating near capacity to meet strong demand, which in turn drives demand for fed cattle.
Wood said the utilization rate this year at western Canadian federally inspected plants is 97.7 percent, which is much higher than the five-year average of 86 percent.
“That is good use of capacity,” he said.
For the week ending Oct. 9, western Canadian slaughter was two million head, up 11.7 percent over last year, and nearly five percent higher than 2019. That number is also 14 percent higher than the five-year average.
Year-to-date production is 786,611 tonnes, up 12 percent from 2020 and 15.4 percent over the five-year average.
Total Canadian production for the year so far is up 10.8 percent over last year at 992,985 tonnes, and 14 percent higher than the five-year average.
In a published report, Wood said increased production has pushed Alberta beef exports to just more than 250,000 tonnes worth nearly $2.2 billion. That is up 38.4 percent by value and 25.5 percent by volume compared to the January to August period last year. Compared to 2019, the numbers are 37.6 percent and 15.8 percent higher, respectively.
Meanwhile, beef imports are down nationally to 123,787 tonnes. That’s a drop of 19.2 percent from 2020 and 13.2 percent lower than the five-year average.
“Increased beef exports and lower imports are a good sign of strong demand for beef and overall support for the sector,” said Wood.
Continued strong demand supports further imports of live cattle, he added.
