DALKEITH — One of the largest feedlots in eastern Ontario is for sale. Owner Rudy Vanderb yl, in Glengarry County, explains the reasons, saying: "I can’t operate under these conditions."

The soaring Canadian dollar has taken the profit out of the Canadian beef market, and profitability is "beyond everyone’s control.

"I’m going to have to buy a lot of high-moisture corn in the fall," he says, adding that the operation can’t handle the increase in grain prices and he won’t have money to buy replacement cattle.

"BSE was bad," he says but the combination of high grain prices and a high Canadian dollar has decimated the beef industry.

As soon as the farm is sold, he and his brother Jack, a veterinarian and part owner, will sell all 1,700 animals in the feedlot.

Money under the Advance Payment Program is not enough to save his farm, he says. The program will provide a loan of up to $400,000 with the first $100,000 interest free.

The beef industry needs compensation per animal, based on the catastrophic turn in the marketplace, to even out the negative returns, he says. "$200,000 is not much when you have as many cattle as we do."

More than 25 years ago, the price of a pound of beef on the hoof broke the $1 mark. But while everything else has at least quadrupled, the return on investment to a producer has gone down. A litre of gas increased 1,000 per cent, he says.