Saskatchewan agriculture minister Clay Serby says he’s only been saying aloud what many in the livestock industry have been thinking since the U.S. border closed to Canadian beef May 20: the Saskatchewan cattle herd may have to be cut by 40 percent.
“This isn’t Clay Serby’s plan,” he said. “We’d hoped we’d never have to talk about this.”
But he said if Canadian cattle producers can count on supplying only the domestic market then a reduction will have to take place.
The opposition Saskatchewan Party denounced his comments as premature.
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“The minister is completely off on his own with this one,” said agriculture critic Donna Harpauer. “He didn’t consult with his own industry committee before he went public with this and it has caused alarm for cattle producers right across the province.”
Serby was to meet again with his industry committee to discuss the “ultimate consequences” of the closed border.
He said they need to talk about how the herd could be reduced, if it comes to that.
Restructuring would have to be done in a co-ordinated fashion, with compensation.
“It will be a very painful process,” he said.
Harpauer said instead of recommending the mass slaughter of cattle, the government should reconvene the standing committee on agriculture to meet with industry weekly. The all-party committee could come up with programs to help producers, she said.
Serby was participating in the government’s annual summer bus tour last week in northwestern Saskatchewan. He said people raise bovine spongiform encephalopathy and the border issue everywhere he goes.
“There’s desperation here,” he said. “Money is tight, and it’s going to get a lot tighter.”
