03/14/05 Updates on Japan, Canada

American Rancher March 14, 2005 Japan's Food Safety Commission met this past Friday but failed to approve a shift away from the need to test all cattle for BSE. The Commission did say approval of reduced testing is likely to come at another meeting later this month. The regulatory change in testing requirements is needed before U.S. beef can again be exported to Japan. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association meanwhile is urging the USDA to seek the "Provisionally Free" BSE designation for the United States from the World Organization for Animal Health. NCBA says the expanded BSE surveillance testing program illustrates that one imported cow with BSE should not have affected the BSE status of the U.S. or its international trade status. Turning to the Canadian border issue, the National Meat Association has filed an appeal of the preliminary injunction won by R-CALF USA that halted the reopening of the U.S. border to young Canadian live cattle. Finally, last week USDA issued a new supply and demand report further decreasing first-quarter beef production. Chief economist Keith Collins has the latest price outlook. Collins: "We did raise our price forecast for fed cattle for 2005. We now have a price forecast of about $83.60 a hundredweight, which is only a little over a dollar below last year's record high of $84.75." I'm Bob Hoff.