If a deal is made, it would be an exciting turn of events for many Ontario farmers with replacement heifers and no American buyer since the border closed May 20 because of one case of mad cow disease. Ni also said that he feared that Canada couldn’t fill his order for sheep.

Ni told Farmers Forum of his need for the livestock after reading an article in Farmers Forum posted on the Internet in which Lindsay Cattle dealer Ed McMorrow shipped 1,000 cows to China. That shipment was valued at about $3.5 million.

When the border closed in May, McMorrow had contracts with China for 3,000 head, to be shipped in groups of 1,500. The contracts were cancelled while McMorrow had 850 animals under test. McMorrow was asked if he could fill the contracts with U.S. cattle but was unable to do so. Animals bound for China must be under quarantine for 30 days before shipping, he says.

An old China hand, McMorrow said Chinese veterinarians are currently working with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to determine the health risk of Canadian cattle. He expects high level talks to take place between the Chinese and Canadian governments on BSE.

A contract with China could put pressure on the U.S. and Mexico to open their borders. However, the Organization Interna-tionale Epizooties (OIE) which sets disease standards for 164 countries did not specify a complete ban on Canadian cattle. Its guidelines required only that suspected animals and their progeny be banned.