ASSINIBOIA, Sask. – If there has been anything to brighten Saskatchewan cattle producers’ spirits recently, it was the rain that doused southern areas in the last two weeks in May.
Nonstop rain and cloudy skies might depress some people, but the precipitation is about the best news that cattle producers have had in the last year – at least they will have full dugouts and enough grass to feed their cattle.
But the stress of worrying about BSE, borders and business is starting to take its toll.
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“We just in our wildest dreams didn’t think this thing would last this long,” said incoming Saskatchewan Stock Growers’ Association president Brian Ross.
The shifting mood of producers was evident at the organization’s annual conference last week in Assiniboia.
Last year, just days after the U.S. border closed to Canadian cattle on May 20, those attending the conference in Yorkton were confident things would get back to normal soon. They were still a bit shocked by the discovery of BSE in Alberta.
This year, many are angry. Several were concerned about the perceived lack of effort by their provincial association and the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association to get “this thing” fixed.
Ross, who ranches at Estevan, said he thinks the uncertainty and frustration are starting to eat away at producers. They have been led to believe several times that an announcement was imminent, he added.
“Everything’s been kept really quiet. It seems like nothing’s getting done, and there’s pressure from everywhere,” Ross said, summing up the feelings of many of his members.
“In fact, we’ve all been really busy” working on the issue.
Stock grower directors, for example, spent much of last summer and fall attending barbecues and beef-on-a-bun rallies to support the industry.
Marilyn Jahnke, who just completed her term as president, said the commitment to the industry was overwhelming.
“The BSE saga continues and several times it has seemed that as soon as we make a few steps ahead we have to take one back,” she told the convention.
“But the Canadian beef industry has come a long way – further than other countries that have experienced BSE.”
Still, producers say they are concerned about hitting the wall this fall when it’s traditionally time to market calves.
Some said without government help they won’t last six months.
The convention passed a resolution demanding that the SSGA remain an organization that advocates little or no direct government assistance through subsidies, except in times of severe disaster.
Jahnke said the resolution reaffirmed the group’s traditional policy because it has been under pressure to change that approach.
Pat Hayes of Val Marie said he agreed with the concept, but reminded the members that cow-calf producers were less affected last year than backgrounders and feedlot operators.
