When XL Foods announced the temporary closure of its Moose Jaw slaughter facility, it placed part of the blame on Canada’s strict regulations to keep BSE-risk materials from being used in food or animal feed.
“The effects of the enhanced feed ban and the expanded SRM (specified risk material) regulations continue to hinder our ability to compete with U.S. plants that are not subject to these same stringent federal regulations,” said an XL Foods news release.
“During times of tight supply, as we have entered into, these effects are more evident in our ability to stop the flow of cows to our U.S. packing competitors. The financial impact of the SRM rule are much less on fed cattle and XL has been successful in its efforts to process more fed cattle and proud of the increased financial returns producers have enjoyed,” said XL.
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Brad Wildeman, chair of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said packers have long warned a double standard in American and Canadian SRM rules would have an impact on Canadian packer profitability.
“The packers warned about what would happen if we can’t fix the cost structure on this feed ban and that’s exactly what happened,” said Wildeman.
In Canada, SRMs are defined as the skull, brain, nerves attached to the brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and nerves attached to the spinal cord of cattle older than 30 months. The distal ileum, a portion of the small intestine, must be removed in cattle of all ages. Those parts are thought to have the greatest risk of harbouring the prion believed to cause BSE. Canada also has a long list of strict requirements for collecting, identifying, transporting and recording SRM.
A stricter rule on livestock feed ingredients was to officially come into effect this week in the United States, but the industry has six months to comply.
Rob McNabb, general manager of operations with CCA said a survey of federal packing plants found the cost of SRM removal in cattle older than 30 months to be $12 to $13 a head.
