Alberta and Saskatchewan are extending the registration deadlines for mature animal programs to coincide with the recently revamped federal Cull Animal Program.
Alberta livestock producers have until March 12 to register for the Alberta Mature Market Animal Transition Program. The previous deadline was Feb. 14.
Saskatchewan producers register under the Saskatchewan Cull Animal Program. Beef, dairy, bison, sheep and goat producers are eligible in both provinces.
The Alberta Winter Feed Program has also been extended until March 12, to assist elk, deer, llama and alpaca producers.
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That has led some Alberta livestock producers to wonder why beef and bison producers receive compensation on only eight percent of their cows and bulls older than 30 months, while 90 percent of elk and deer older than 12 months are eligible for payment.
The per head payment for cows is $180 compared to $90 for elk, which means a producer with 200 mature cows is entitled to a payment of $2,880 while an elk producer with the same number of mature animals would get $16,200, noted Pat Fuhr of Onoway, Alta., in a recent Western Producer letter to the editor.
John Knapp, director of rural services for Alberta Agriculture, said Fuhr’s math is correct. The reason for the seeming inequity is that beef and bison producers at least have some export options available to them. Those in the cervid industry are still locked out of their markets.
Record volumes of boneless beef have moved across the American border since it reopened to that category of meat.
“Things aren’t great, but they’re actually moving a lot of product.”
The cervid industry by and large isn’t a meat industry. It is based on products like antler velvet and breeding stock. Producers could in theory ship boneless elk to the United States but it is not happening.
“Those industries do not have the partial resumption of trade that we’ve seen with our main meat industries, so they were hit extra hard,” said Knapp.
The province made the Alberta Winter Feed Program more lucrative than the mature market animal program to help out the cervid industry, which has gone through three “very bad” years.
“That’s why we called it a winter feed program, to get them through the winter to buy a little time to assess what direction they might take.”
Knapp said approximately 21,500 producers have registered for the Alberta Mature Market Animal Transition Program. Another 800 have signed up for the Alberta Winter Feed Program.
Producers who have already registered for the provincial programs do not have to submit another registration for the new federal Cull Animal Program. In fact, that will only delay their payments.
