PUBLISHED BY MANITOBA BEEF PRODUCERS
SEPTEMBER 2020
TOO MUCH CHARACTER As a herd pushed out of a Deerwood, MB farm yard to greener pastures, this new calf had never been through the gate before and tested everyone’s patience by refusing to join the group. A half hour later he reluctantly gave in, admitting defeat and winning sustenance! Photo credit: Jeannette Greaves
COVID-19 creates huge uncertainty for cattle producers A cloud of uncertainty hangs over Manitoba’s cattle sector as producers wonder when, or even if, the COVID-19 pandemic will let their lives return to normal. The industry is still struggling with a large backlog of slaughter cattle after the Cargill beef plant in High River, Alberta shut down briefly in the spring when workers tested positive for the COVID virus and some died. The virus also slowed operations at two other Alberta plants. Industry officials say it will take months to clear the backlog of 120,000 Canadian animals even with plants operating at or near full capacity. That’s assuming the virus doesn’t return in a second wave this fall and force plants to shut down again. All of which leaves producers on tenterhooks waiting to see if the other shoe will drop. “Extremely anxious” is the way Rick Wright, Manitoba Livestock Marketing Association administrator, described the mood among beef producers. “There’s a lot of volatility out there. There’s a lot of unknowns,” Wright said. “With the volatility in the market, the unknown about what’s going to happen this fall, flooding in some areas, some areas getting rain that haven’t had it for two years -- the tension among cattle producers is extremely
high. There’s a lot of stress in the country.” As of late July, cattle prices appeared to have stabilized -- more or less -- after taking a beating earlier this year. The big worry now is what prices will do in autumn when the annual fall run starts. “I think the most uncertain thing is pricing,” said Greg Schmidt, Alberta Cattle Feeders Association chair. “We seem to have stabilized over the last few weeks, albeit at a considerably lower level than normal. The uncertainty is, how would a second wave going into the fall affect our packing industry? “There’s a whole level of uncertainty there and I think that’s really affecting plans going forward on purchasing feeder cattle. That’s probably the biggest thing we’re facing right now.” Schmidt said he feels Alberta plants are well equipped to handle a possible second wave of COVID-19, having made significant changes to improve worker safety. For producers, the situation in late July was about as good as possible under the circumstances. But things were still behind normal, Schmidt said. “I would classify it as pretty much business as usual but still not at levels that we would have expected to see this time of year pre-COVID,” he said. For Dianne Riding, however, it is anything but business as usual.
Riding, Manitoba Beef Producers’ president, spends much of her day on the phone speaking with anxious producers who are low on both feed and patience. “I’m in the same shape as most of the folks who are phoning me and are short of feed and short of grass. The uncertainty is extremely tough on them,” says Riding, who raises cattle near Lake Francis in the Interlake. Riding herself is going into her third year of buying feed for her cows after missing much of the rain that saturated pastures in parts of Manitoba this spring. That, along with uncertainty about future cash prices, has Riding and other producers wondering: should I sell now or sit tight and wait? “The greatest uncertainty will be what our calves are worth this fall,” she says. “I’m telling producers who phone, I’m in the same boat as you and we need to make decisions early on, not when it’s way too late. “Animal welfare has to come first. That’s why we have to make our decisions on whether we can find enough feed, do we need to sell down, or do we need to sell out?” A lot depends on whether packers can work through enough the backlog of slaughter cattle to make room in feedlots for the slug of animals going to market this fall, says Riding. Page 2
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BY RON FRIESEN