02/01/05 NCBA findings in Canada

American Rancher February 1, 2005 The BSE situation in Canada and USDA's rule to reopen the U.S. border to live Canadian cattle in March will be a major issue at this week's Cattle Industry Convention being held in San Antonio. Members of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association will get the final report from the NCBA's trade delegation that visited Canada just a few weeks ago. That fact-finding mission, which included cattlemen from Idaho and Washington, has issued some key findings. Among them; That Canadian feedlots appear to be current; that slaughter capacity in Canada increased 22 percent in 2004, the Canadian feed industry appears to be in compliance with its feed ban based on visual inspections and audit reports; that exposure to feed produced before the August 1977 ban is a reasonable hypothesis for explaining the BSE positive cattle in Canada given their ages; and that while anaplasmosis and bluetongue trade issues have been resolved for feeder cattle in 39 states, those issues have not been resolved for older cattle including breeding animals. Jamie Willrett, who headed the NCBA delegation, says the group was not asked to, nor did it, choose to take a position one way or another, on the issues related to the USDA rule. He says any policies or recommendations in response to the delegation's findings will be made by NCBA members. I'm Bob Hoff.