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Copyright © 2001 Eastern Ontario Farmers Forum Inc. All Rights Reserved |
U.S. border expected to open in March - but no one's willing to bet on it
NORTH GOWER - Despite two new cases
of mad cow disease discovered in Alberta this month, an avalanche of
opinion and one new lawsuit south of the border, the American government
appears to be sticking to a plan to open the U.S. border to young cattle
March 7, said John Newman, executive member of the Ontario Cattlemen’s
Association and chairman of the Beef Information Centre. There are
"cautionary notes" coming out of the U.S. saying "we have
to review the situation," Newman said. "That’s
understandable." The U.S. government is sending a
technical team to Canada and will likely conclude that Canadians are doing
everything right, said Newman, who is also a North Gower beef farmer.
Unless new information arises and changes minds, the border will open in
early March or be slightly delayed, Newman said. A group from the National Beef
Cattle Association in the United States arrived in Alberta Jan. 17 to view
feedlots, rendering facilities and processing plants. They will report
back to their annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas on Feb. 2. Meantime, Montana-based R-CALF,
which has launched a new lawsuit to keep the border closed, and the
National Farmers Union in the United States, which demands the border
remain closed, are minor players, Newman said. R-CALF, which kept the
border closed with a lawsuit last year, doesn’t have a good argument
this time around, he said. "This particular suit is based on flimsy
evidence." A South Dakota congressman has now
thickened the plot by tabling a bill to keep the border closed. But he is
unlikely to win a vote in the Republican-dominated Congress that favours
an open border to Canadian cattle under 30 months. In Canada, debate raged over the
culling of older cows born before 1997. Alberta Premier favoured a cull
and later changed his position. As for the Canadian Cattlemen’s
Association on culling older cows "there’s no discussion at the
national level," Newman said. He added there would be 1.7 million
cattle that would be culled and the new guidelines allow for a rate of two
cases of mad cow per million. "That tells you how ridiculous that
(cull of older cows) would be." If the U.S. border remains closed long term the
question of a national cull would be discussed, he
Athens beef farmer Kim Sytsma, an Ontario Cattlemen’s Association director, agrees the border will likely open in March. "If science prevails it will open but if it becomes emotional, then who knows," she said. "Until March, it’s going to be a very rocky, volatile industry."