Some American companies are feeling the effects of a border closed to Canadian imports of live cattle and beef.
Steve Wess, general manager of Simplot Meats in Nampa, Idaho, said the slaughter plant gets 25 percent of its weekly supply from one Canadian feedlot.
“We’ve had to scramble a little bit more and get more cattle locally,” said Wess, whose plant kills 2,000 to 2,500 head of cattle a week. “We can find the cattle, we just have to search a bit more.”
Because the slaughter plant is small, it depends on relationships with its suppliers and customers to build a niche market and compete with the larger companies.
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Wess said it’s difficult to predict the long-term effects of the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy on his relationship with the unnamed Alberta feedlot when the border is reopened.
“We want to do business with them. I would like to open up the relationship again.”
However, he’s not sure what his customers will say about using Canadian beef.
“It has been a question.”
Jim Connely is another American heavily dependent on Canadian beef. His brokerage business in Woodridge, Illinois, near Chicago, buys 35 percent of its beef from Canada.
“It’s a very, very important part of our business.”
Connely has been matching beef from Canadian packers with American clients for about 20 years. So far he has been able to fill the orders with American meat.
“We have other clientele. We’re serving them with an eye to whatever we can do to help out. I’m just concerned about the friendships and relationships you build up over the years,” he said.
“I certainly feel what the producers are going through.”
Connely said once the border is reopened, he’ll work with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and other beef groups to provide information to reassure his customers about the safety of Canadian beef.
Four days before the border closed, the Washington Beef slaughter plant in Toppenisch, Wash., was sold to Agri-Beef of Boise, Idaho, which has its own feedlot.
“Like everything in life, timing is everything,” said Washington Beef president Gayland Pedhirney.
Before the sale, the plant relied on 500 to 1,000 head of Canadian cattle a week to fill its weekly 5,000 head slaughter. With the sale, the company will be less dependent on Canadian cattle to fill orders.
Steve Kay of Cattle Buyers Weekly said the halt of Canadian beef has not had a big effect on American packers. The15,000 head of Canadian cattle going to American slaughter plants is only a blip in the 762,000 head of American cattle killed each week.
“It’s really a very small number,” Kay said from Petaluma, California. “There is no packer dependent on those Canadian cattle.”
