Like many farmers who own them and the Canadians who eat them, Canada’s cattle are getting older and often heavier.
But unlike farmers, there also are a record number of them, says Statistics Canada.
Based on a July survey of 18,000 farmers, the federal agency estimates there were 537,000 more cattle in Canada on July 1, 2005 than there were a year earlier, 500,000 of them in Alberta.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba shipped most of their potential herd growth to Alberta feedlots.
The national herd was set at 17.3 million.
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“This 3.2 percent gain was largely the result of limited markets for cattle,” said the Statistics Canada analysis.
And mainly, that was due to the continued impact of closed borders because of BSE.
In a separate report, the federal agency said the value of agriculture and fish product exports fell 5.4 percent during the first half of 2005 compared to the same period last year, a drop of almost $900 million.
It follows logically from the loss of export markets and the growth of the domestic slaughter industry. But since borders also were closed to live cattle exports last year, the Statistics Canada numbers suggest prices and export volumes were at play in falling export values.
The increase in the Canadian cattle herd included a growing portion of heavier older cows that normally would have been culled but were kept alive because there are limited markets for products from older animals and limited facilities to process them.
It is estimated there were 914,000 cull cows in herds July 1, a slightly higher proportion on dairy farms than in beef herds.
And 2.1 million head were older than seven years, which means they were born before or just after the 1997 ban on use of specified risk materials in cattle feed that are blamed for the spread of BSE.
Farmers also reported that 26 percent of their feeder cattle were heavy.
Statistics Canada analysts suggest the national herd at the July 1 census may have peaked because 18 days later, the United States border opened again for import of Canadian cattle under two years.
While there has not been a rush of exports, some younger animals are being moved across the border, reducing the Canadian herd size.
The federal agency said a sharp growth in Canadian packing and processing capacity kept the herd from expanding even more than it did and helped offset the sharp decline in exports.
“Most importantly, (domestic) slaughter has climbed to record levels,” said the federal analysis. “In the first half of 2005, slaughter was 6.9 percent above the same period in 2004 and 33.7 percent above the first six months of 2003. These gains were fuelled by domestic demand combined with lower levels of beef imports.”
Still, price recovery from the crash of 2003 has been slow.
“Although they may have improved since the months following the ban, slaughter prices during the spring of 2005 amounted to 76 percent of prices last seen in the spring of 2003,” said the report.
