So what do you think?

[cowman]

Van Cleif announced the cull cow program on Friday. What do you think of it? Seems to me it is the same old program they tried to float a couple of weeks ago? And it hinges on the provinces kicking in 40% of the money? Can some of the poorer provinces afford this? Especially Saskatchewan which has such a large cow herd?
And what is this $159 per cow? Couldn't they round it off to $160? I mean is the extra buck going to break them?

[dalek]

On his hometown radio station, TheLyle said he's counting on the goodwill of packers not to take advantage of the slaughter requirement by driving prices down further to eat up the difference. Ohhhh, good plan.

[almoy]

I culled my herd bull last week. Sold him at the Auction Mart. I wonder who will get the $159 for him? We decided that since he had to go and we are short of feed we would ship him and take our loss. Figure we got $1000 less than we would of before May. Didn't get much to put on a new bull.

[jensend]

my feeling is that this is mainly a sop to the dairy guys because none of the beef organizations supported it and the dairy cull rate is so much higher that they have lots of animals backing up.

[topper]

I don't think that this program is going to help ease the back log of cull cattle one bit. It might cause a producer to ship a few of the worse case culls and take his licken but I think the majority of cull cows and bulls are going to stay right where they are and be sent out to pasture again next year. After all a 1400 lb. cow @.10 gives you $140.00 and add $159.00 and still only brings her $299.00. I still think it makes more sense to ship your replacement heifers and keep the culls if there is any possible way to get them rebred. But I can see Lyle's point of view, He gets to look like a hero for putting out this big dollar program and in reality very little of it will ever be paid out. I think if he would have stayed out of it the price of culls would have risen to that $299.00 level anyway because very few except the real bad ones are going to market anyway. Now the existing price is going to go for a nosedive as the packers smell somemore government money.

[grassfarmer]

I'm waiting for the "made in Alberta" solution on Monday. I assume it will be more like the proposal from CCA that suggested paying out $160 x 8%(normal replacement rate)of the ranchers herd and allowing them to either sell now or feed over winter. Either way the packers probably won't get the money the way they could with the Federal plan. Why are the Feds so stupid they can't see what's coming "trust the packers to be honest"..ha ha!! Just another windfall heading the way of the American owned multinational packing plants - as if they aren't making a killing on the cows already.

[cowman]

I'm with you grassfarmer! Although it bothers me that one part of the country will actually get a better deal than the rest. It would have been better if the federal government could have seen the light. Instead once again we will have a patchwork system that is not helpful to our overall industry.
Almoy asks a good question. Who will get the $159 from his bull? How many cows were bought on spec that this program was coming in? Is this fair? One person owns the cow for a week and gets $159, while the other guy owned her for 12 years and gets nothing?
The major problem with this short term solution is it doesn't address the problem of where are you going to get them killed? And it certainly doesn't address the problem of a huge buildup in the cull cow problem next year?
Finally Lakeside IBP came out with a news release saying they were going to treat the farmers fair on this and not take advantage of the situation!!!
They went on to say they would do all they could to help "within the rules of supply and demand"!!!
I sure got a good laugh out of that! Talk about double speak!!!