VERMILION, Alta. – The bawling cows and calves in the holding pens
behind the auction market at Vermilion make it sound like September
when the cattle normally come to market.
But it’s mid-July.
Instead of big, healthy calves fresh off the pasture, the pens are
filled with small, baby calves that will end up in feedlots. The mother
cows are across the aisle waiting to be sold, likely to packing plants.
Instead of farmers with big smiles proud of their calves that run
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through the ring, their faces are lined with worry.
Paradise Valley, Alta., farmer Doug Adams can hardly look at his pen of
20 calves waiting to be put through the sales ring.
“I’m just sick. I’ve never sold calves this size before,” said Adams,
fighting back tears. One calf is hardly 150 pounds. He’s hoping the
group will average 275 lb. The 19 Charolais cows have already gone
through the sales ring.
Normally Adams buys 1,000 extra calves in the fall and raises them
through the winter along with his own herd. This year he will be lucky
if he can manage to find enough feed to keep his best cows.
Like thousands of other farmers across Alberta, Adams has been selling
his cow herd in mid-summer because a prolonged drought dried up his
pasture and crop.
For the past two days Adams has tried to salvage his grain crop for
silage. After 90 minutes of grinding through the field, he only had
three-quarters of a load of silage. Normally it takes a few minutes to
fill the silage wagon. Now, Adams will buy electric wire to fence his
cropland for the rest of the cows to graze.
“I fully think there’s a good chance we’ll have to bring some more in
to the auction,” he said.
In a normal July at Nilsson Brother’s Livestock Exchange in Vermilion,
2,000-3,000 head of cattle come through, said manager Rusty Stalwick.
By mid-July this year, 10,000 cattle had been sold through the auction
market, and Stalwick expects another 10,000 before the month is up.
The bulk of the sales are good, young cows, said Stalwick, who
estimates when the run is over, more than half of the herds in his area
will be gone.
In what is one of the most densely populated cattle areas of Alberta,
some farmers have sold their entire herds. Others are dribbling them in
after trying to put as much weight as possible on the calves before
they’re sold.
Marc Jubinville with Western Pride auction in Bonnyville, Alta.,
reopened the auction barn normally closed through the summer.
“This is fall for us. There will be no fall. There will be no cattle.”
Blair Vold of Vold, Jones and Vold Auction in Ponoka, Alta., sold an
unprecedented 6,250 head in one day recently. About 1,200 good pairs
were kept together and relocated to parts of the Prairies and British
Columbia with grass. The rest went to slaughter.
Last June, about 11,000 head went through the auction ring. This year’s
final numbers were closer to 18,000. Last July he sold 10,000 head;
this year he expects to sell 20,000.
“This is a 30-year legacy of breeding we are facing losing. Nothing to
take lightly.”
Lloydminster cattle buyer Greg Weaver said the cattle sell-off is
unprecedented. It’s more than an early fall run of calves going to
market. Good young cows are going to slaughter and it will take years
to rebuild the province’s cattle industry.
“It’s going to change the industry as we knew it,” said Weaver, one of
a dozen cattle buyers at the Vermilion sale.
Farmers he talks to don’t know whether to hang on to their cattle and
wait for rain or sell them now before the price drops lower. Last fall
good cow-calf pairs sold for $1,700. Now a good price is $1,300.
“There’s not very many positives for the cow man in this country,” said
Weaver.
Bill Zach of Derwent, Alta., said a good rain in the next week would
give him some fall pasture. If it doesn’t rain he’ll have to bring his
cattle in to sell.
“You can always buy them back next year. Maybe it will be better,” said
Zach, counting on farmer optimism to get him through the season.
Peter Wynnychuk of Vermilion has 75 cows left at home that he doesn’t
want to sell.
“I don’t know what to do. I got pretty good cows and I don’t know which
ones to sell. They’re all pets,” said Wynnychuk, as he monitored the
prices at this week’s auction.
“I hate to see them slaughtered but that’s what will happen.”
Debbie McMillan, market analyst with Canfax, the marketing arm of the
Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said the numbers coming in from
auction markets and feedlots are starting to tell the story:
- Year to date cow slaughter has increased 15 percent.
- Second quarter cow slaughter has increased 22 percent.
- Auction markets reported the largest sales volume ever in June.
- Between 1999 and 2001, the average number of cattle sold at auction
markets in June was 91,099. This June cattle sales hit 121,964.
- In July 2000, 48,000 head went through Alberta auctions. In July
2001, 73,000 head were sold. In the first three weeks of July this
year, 110,831 cattle were sold.
- The number of cows and bulls exported for slaughter from Western
Canada is up 13 percent.
- The number of cows slaughtered in Alberta to July 13 is 131,338,
compared to 113,391 in the same time last year.
Bill Jameson, owner of JGL Livestock, an order buying company in Moose
Jaw, Sask., said it’s still a guess how many cattle are leaving the
Alberta drought area for new homes. By his estimation only 25 percent
of the cows and heifers will live elsewhere. The rest will end up in
slaughter plants.
“No one can really put a finger on the effects this may have,” said
Jameson, who estimates it may take three to five years to rebuild the
cattle herd.
Slaughter cows are being stockpiled in feedlots waiting for a space at
the slaughter plants. In the past month prices have dropped 15 percent
on slaughter cows and 20 percent on cow-calf pairs.
“I think the price will stabilize unless we get another two weeks of
hot, dry weather and we absolutely can’t handle any more animals,” said
Jameson. “If the panic subsides and the run gets lighter, the price
will stabilize.”
