Court cases

[BWC]

The U.S plants left standing where they can get supply are in the black, I grant you that. the ones that wereoperating at low level or have gone dark are no longer in the comparative picture. I am very interested in your thoughts and your links are very informative. All of the info on most U.S. links, you have to agree, downplay the situation north of the 49th paralell. The only big player that support the openingof the Canadian border in the U.S. are the AMI,NMA,and Tyson,..... now why would that be... common sense tells me that their bottom line isn't as great as the picture painted in your article.

[farmers_son]

Just off the top of my head, I would think that American support of a reopening of the border to live cattle is based upon concerns that Canada will increase its packing plant capactiy and become a signficant independent competitor globally.

[grassfarmer]

That doesn't make a lot of sense though farmers_son, Tyson will be well aware of the situation in Canada and realise that expanded capacity translates to themselves, Cargill and the Sunterra proposal. I'm sure they don't base their decisions on a fear of all these much talked about small, producer owned plants that are not being built.

[cowman]

When Cargill expanded into Canada in the late 80's there basically wasn't enough cattle to go around, thus we saw the exodus of the Canada Packers chain and the one remaining Burns plant. Lakeside sold out to IBP and they rapidly expanded pushing out the few remaining small operators. XL was a government propped up white elephant that really was the most inefficient company in the Canadian packing scene. Nillson Bros. probably got an ultra sweet heart deal on that dog!
With the expansion of Tyson and Cargill I really doubt there is much room for any small independent packers? Especially if the border ever opens to live cattle? The fact of the matter is these guys are the Walmarts of the packing industry and can outcompete just about everyone?
It is a sad situation, but we should never forget who got us here? It wasn't Cargill and it wasn't IBP! It was our government.