The Canadian cattle herd should be trimmed by a million head to strengthen prices, said the chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee.
James Bezan, a cow-calf operator from Manitoba’s Interlake area, said Jan. 31 one of the reason prices are soft is that the Canadian cattle industry
has not been responding to market signals.
At a meeting of his committee to hear evidence about the income collapse in hog and beef sectors, MPs had heard tales of large cattle and feedlot losses because of falling prices, rising feed costs and a strong Canadian dollar.
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“I’m a cow-calf producer. I firmly believe that we’ve got too many cattle out there, especially post-BSE,” Bezan said during an exchange with Canadian Cattlemen’s Association vice-president Brad Wildeman.
“The herds are bigger than they’ve ever been historically. Personally, I feel we probably need to take a million cows out of the inventory.”
He said the struggling hog industry is selling off animals.
“We are seeing that adjustment happening in the hog industry,” said the MP. “But it’s not happening in the cattle industry.”
On July 1, 2007, the Canadian herd was estimated at 16 million head.
Wildeman, a Saskatchewan feedlot operator, told Bezan he expects the
Canadian herd will shrink.
However, with plentiful feed this year, some producers may be hoping to hang onto their cattle so they can ship them at higher prices to the United States.
“There’s clearly going to be a downsizing and we don’t think that is wrong,” said Wildeman. “We think market signals should dictate what producers do about this.”
Bezan said the problem is illustrated in his Selkirk, Man., area.
“A lot of cows in my area that should be going for kill are actually getting bought up at record low prices to increase herds in other areas of the province.”
