Canadian packers should brace themselves for an angry backlash when the American border reopens to live cattle exports, says a well-known Alberta auction mart owner.
Cattle producers are full of bitterness and resentment over perceived ill treatment at the hands of the packing industry, said Blair Vold, president of Vold, Jones and Vold Auction Co. Ltd., in Ponoka, Alta.
He was part of a Western Canadian Forage and Grazing Conference panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing producers in the wake of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis.
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Asked how much longer packers will keep “squeezing” feedlot operators on prices, Vold replied, “as long as they can. They’re going to use this right down to the wire.”
But they better watch out when the United States reopens the border to live cattle. Vold predicts many producers will sell to U.S. packers at a discount just to spite Canadian buyers.
Producers are not the only ones pointing accusatory fingers at the packing industry.
The House of Commons agriculture committee has called on the Competition Bureau to investigate why prices paid to farmers by the meat packing industry plunged after the May 20 discovery of BSE, while prices charged by processors and retailers did not fall as dramatically.
The Canadian Meat Council has denied any wrongdoing, saying there has been no price collusion and noting that in the weeks following the discovery of BSE in Alberta, cattle kills were far lower than capacity, leading to packer losses.
Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association president Bob Ivey said there is all sorts of talk about groups of prairie farmers getting together and building their own slaughter plants. He warned producers that capital for livestock-related ventures could be hard to find post-BSE.
Ivey suggested farmers consider erecting cull cattle facilities. He said there will soon be a shortage of manufacturing meat used by fast food chains unless packers start processing more cull cattle.
