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    How are we doing?

    How are we doing? This is the name of a terrific article in the November Cattlemen magazine that should be required reading.

    READ IT

    It's written by Dr. Ron Clarke, and refers to risk assessment, and how it was not followed up, resulting in the BSE fiasco.

    The article is not online, unless you have a subscription, but it contains such information as... and I quote..

    "Preliminary guidance on BSE could have been provided as early as 1994, when Canadian authorities became aware there was a "very high" probability that BSE was incubating in the Canadian herd. That potentially devastating information was never made public. (World Health Organization 2006)"

    "Economic policy between the first crude, but insightful estimation in May 1994, and the more elaborate risk assessment published in December 2002, on the eve of May 2003, encouraged both the expansion of the national herd and growth of the feedlot industry, especially in southern Alberta. Rapid expansion increased reliance on export trade with the U.S. Canada's exposure to the economic threat of a sudden and long lasting border closure rose steadily and dramatically between 1994 and 2003."

    So, in a nutshell, not only were the warnings ignored, which was bad enough, they were ignored at the same time as policy developed that was full steam ahead to expand the industry with no regard to fact that a bigger industry would sustain larger damage. It was a perfect storm, and the worst part about it was that it didn't have to happen.

    It was "Let's just make some money now and don't worry about the future. Forget about the consequences if it all falls apart.... it's someone else's problem."

    Ya, it was someone else's problem, it was OUR PROBLEM. We, as cattle producers paid a big price for all this.

    #2
    But but but the government declines any responsibility . . . .

    The consumer might think that this is the farmer's problem. But the truth is that they should be deeply concerned by this since it has far-reaching implications for this country's food safety and security.

    Good post kato.

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks. It's nice to know someone read it. ;-)

      I'm sure that in Ottawa, they're hoping we're all going to just be happy with the current market and forgive and forget what's happened. Everyone who's sitting at their kitchen table with a decent cheque in their hands for the first time in years should give some thought to where we'd be right now if we hadn't lost all those years. It's going to take many years of these prices before we even start to make back what we lost.

      We need to always remember that it did not have to happen. And we need to wonder just what is not being done now to prevent another such debacle.

      Comment


        #4
        BTW - I don't get the mag so I didn't read it. I'll find it somewhere.

        HOWEVER -

        A decent cheque! Like you said, I'm sure most will know by experience that one year's worth of "decent cheque" doesn't go far on the debt piled up by some over the past 7 or 8!

        What drove that nugget of truth home for me was when I deposited a cull cow cheque yesterday. They averaged just a hair under $1000 8- and I had to think of all the cull cows we shipped for $150 -$200 since BSE hit.

        Instead of a "decent cheque" or any cheque at all, some guys got a trucking and commission bill if they sent an old crock that brought 2 cents per pound in the ring. So there were more than a few old bone racks that just got shot and "left for coyote bait".

        So, back to the bank, I finished up on the deposit side liking what I saw after the corn (we had one heck of a crop) and cull cow cheques went against the operating loan. And I still have the calves to market - whoohee we're getting there!

        That's good progress, I thought!

        Then I sat down and reviewed our obligations to the bank. Didn't take long to see that my celebration was a bit premature. I had quite forgotten that we had termed out a chunk of operating loan (and another intermediate capital item) and that term loan figure was quite a bit higher than I had remembered.

        Add to that the fact over the past 8 years our cow herd has shrunk by almost half; and I cashed in a few other small assets . . . . . .


        How are we doing?

        Well you can decide for yourself from the picture that I just described. And I don't think we are alone in our experience.

        Bottom line - while we are much better off than many c/c guys because we had a few other things go well for us, yesterday's bank visit gave me a whole new fire in my belly for pursuing the feds to come good for the destruction they caused in our industry.

        Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper - they all sat or sit in positions of great responsibility and get to collect their salaries and pensions regardless of how they performed. And they don't deserve it.

        The costly injustice of it, plus the fact that the Teflon-coated CFIA seems to think they are above the law should make everyone examine their own vulnerability if the government screws up similarly if their respective "field".

        If we don't hold government accountable then we deserve nothing other than what we are getting.

        There's snow on the ground now and it's time to ramp up the mediation campaign. Who's gonna help?

        Comment


          #5
          Good article, but merely the tip of the iceberg. Thanks Kato.

          As Ray Bradley, a world-renowned British expert on BSE wrote to one of his colleagues at Agriculture Canada in June of 1993:

          "The writing is on the wall for any country without a ruminant feed ban and which has a chink in the armour. The chink can be imported cattle, imported feed, the presence of scrapie or BSE or sub-clinical forms of these diseases. Our experience should be (but regrettably is not always) a salutary reminder of lurking disasters."

          The effects of the BSE disaster reached, and continues to reach, far beyond producers to all Canadians. Billions of dollars in exports have been lost. Thousands of jobs. Billions of dollars in tax revenue. Rural infrastructure has been irreperably damaged.

          All Canadians ought to be outraged at the losses caused by government negligence in allowing BSE into the Canadian herd.

          The irony is that the most effective economic stimulus package would be a compensatrion package to Canadian cattle producers. The multiplicative economic effect of monies paid by governments to producers is well known.

          Comment


            #6
            ALL THE MORE REASON that our message to government should be NO IMPORTS ALLOWED THAT DON'T MEET THE SAME STANDARDS AS PRODUCTS THAT ARE PRODUCED IN CANADA.

            Comment


              #7
              KUDOS to Dr. Clarke!

              Comment


                #8
                They say that the past is the past and we need to move forward in life with our goals always in front of us. Stephen Covey says - No comparing, no competing, no contending, no criticizing, and no complaining. These are all simply metastasizing cancers of life.

                How do we deal with a society, and in this case a government, that has decided that our time and effort to feed the people of the world is worth nothing. If we are all serious about how much we progressed financially from cattle alone in the past 7 or 8 years it has been --- NOTHING. Unless you found a way to benefit from another cattle guys further nothing..

                Do we simply have faith that everything will turn around and the true caregivers of the earth will again have value.

                Hell no, we simply put a goal in front of us and work toward it every day. A goal of being paid back what we deserve for a mistake made by our government.

                Karma works for little things and big things, but not without action. In fact, Karma is action. Blind faith is almost as cancerous as the 5 Covey C's.

                I think the Cameron's recent victory in the courts needs to be celebrated and made public.

                Standing in front of the Judges another time was unprecedented as far as I can tell and this progress needs to be known.

                The BSE class action is further along now than ever and yes burnt, another run at mediation is in order.

                Comment


                  #9
                  '...the Cameron..." "THE Cameron"?

                  Geez Randy, I met the man and he's only human . . .

                  Comment


                    #10
                    But we should be happy he's not working for the other guys...

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Well I've met Cameron and I think he is "one of the good ones"! In fact I had to educate my own MP on the difference between "just another money sucking lawyer" ......and Mr. Pallet!
                      But my MP's attitude was typical of the garbage running our country? The "powers that be" are such a bunch of low lifes that they can never understand how anyone can see life other than their own scummy way of looking at things?
                      Keep up the good work, Mr. Pallet,some of us believe in you!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        ASRG - Daaahh, my jest was mistaken, I see! "Frame thy mind with mirth . . " and you will read my post correctly!

                        (And hopefully my coffee engagement with "the Cameron" is not lost now too!)

                        However, when we receive our just dues at the fruition of Cameron's work, I will likely be strongly inclined to ever after refer and defer to him as "THE Cameron"!

                        See what your typo started, Randolf?!

                        Comment


                          #13
                          That's Randall Mr. burnt and not "the Randall".

                          And who said it was a typo? The Cameron is Gaelic in origin --- according to some --- it means crooked nose, crooked stream or even crooked hill...

                          HMM..

                          A lawyer with a crooked name --- what the hell..LOL

                          But we all know that our "the Cameron" is a straight a shooter as you will find.

                          I think that when I get back from China with a P O for a few million pounds of beef we should take to the road and sell the shit out of the Balzac plant and the class action suit at the same time.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            This close to Christmas and a potential-laden China trip and you are suggesting that "Randolf" was not intentional? Oh wait - something seems a bit off yet . . .

                            Oh well, count me in on the homeland promotional trip in any case! With your Irish, my Scottish, Kato's steadying astuteness and the piercing mind of "the Cameron" we should be able to put the fear of man, if not of God, into a few quivering bureaucrats before the snow leaves . . .

                            Comment


                              #15
                              By the way, with regard to your China trip, take care that you don't have a "chink in [your] armor"... ;-}

                              Comment

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