Dan Doner s eyebrows jump when I mention May, 2003. Eight years later, the reaction is still there, and it s still easy to understand why. That May, a Canadian animal first tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), taking control of Doner s business life just as it did for thousands of other livestock farmers and buyers across the country.
More accurately, it took control of Doner s business life until Doner seized that control back.
That May, international borders closed overnight to exports of anything that looked like it had ever come even within spitting distance of a Canadian cow. Doner, an international cattle dealer, was sitting on top of a loaded trailer of prepaid heifers ready to be shipped.
Read Also
Youth focused on keeping Quebec’s dairy industry strong
In part two of our Making the Future series, Country Guide spoke with Béatrice Neveu from Rawdon, Que. (Read part…
It was a nightmare, Doner simply says. On that fateful spring day, trade of live animals from Canada was decimated, taking with it the thriving livestock export business. The impact stretched beyond the massive losses in the beef feeder industry and is still strangling some sectors.
Breeding stock sales of sheep, goats and dairy cattle stopped, and within a few years, most of the firms formerly involved in exports were out of business or shifted into other ventures. A few, like Doner s company, ADI Cattle Corp. managed to survive by switching focus to embryo sales.
On May 20, 2003, we lost access to all export markets for all products, says Rick McRonald, executive director of the Canadian Livestock Genetics Association. Bovine semen and embryos came back fairly quickly but we are still struggling with live cattle, live small ruminants and even semen and embryos from small ruminants.
Yet spring 2011, exactly eight years after the axe fell, new hope took flight. A trio of unsuspecting but carefully quarantined, tested and paperwork-packed cows boarded a plane for Europe.
Once the container pens were unloaded in England, the three two-year-old Canadian Holsteins were trucked to their new home, Ponderosa Farms in Spain. Two of the two-year-olds came from Raivue Farms of Sunderland, and one from High Point Farms of nearby Port Perry, Ont., where farmer Mike Smith is hoping this first shipment will help reopen international markets to Canadian Holsteins.
Others share that hope. Exporting live animals to the U.K. will help increase the value of all heifers, says Alain Lajeunesse, manager of market development and communications for Holstein Canada.
Doner and his partner in the U.K. marketed, brokered, negotiated and jumped through a maze of logistical hoops to get this deal done. Although this is a small shipment, Doner says that it s a symbolic victory and a message to the domestic industry that a formerly lucrative market is again open for business.
There s still significant interest in Canadian Holstein genetics from outside Canada, including Europe. They want our genetics, they want our animals, says Doner, who s looking forward to the fall, which is the major marketing window for show-quality dairy cattle.
North America is still the preferred source for Holstein genetics. The genetic population is large and diverse and the marketing companies market more strongly than anywhere else in the world. Profiles are made in North America, says Doner, particularly if the animals do well at the Royal or at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.
Doner also says top-end buyers in Europe want live animals, with strong genetic and phenotypic traits and there s potential to reclaim the once lucrative niche market and rebuild relationships.
In 2002, live dairy cattle sales were worth $133 million a year, the exchange rate was good and demand for quality genetics was phenomenal. The Canadian dollar was low (compared to the U.S. dollar) and we were exporting about 100,000 head per year, says McRonald.
In 2004, live sales were $0 completely annihilated by the BSE trade prohibition.
Since then, live cattle exports have slowly climbed as borders opened and new markets were found. In 2009, sales rose briefly with world milk prices to about $100 million.
However, these new markets are proving unstable. Last year, total live animal sales slumped to $17 million when the economic crisis hit, accompanied by a weaker American dollar and a drop in milk prices of more than 50 per cent. Also, in the U.S., the impact of sexed semen contributed to record-high heifer inventories.
Healthy trade
In the wake of the BSE discovery in North America, health regulations have morphed into trade barriers. At least, that s the consensus among Canada s livestock sector, which says health regulations and the government agencies that administer them have become swords hanging over global animal exports.
It helps explain why the three Canadian heifers left to a chorus of cheers.
This small load of high-quality Holsteins is an even bigger victory over the world s new trade negotiation tool health status, says McRonald.
When the World Trade Organization was created in 1995, stacks of traditional trade barriers were essentially eliminated, leaving animal and plant health standards to become the focal point for controlling the movement of agricultural goods.
According to the WTO s new Uruguay rule book, a country can use health fears to close its borders, although it must be prepared to scientifically justify its position.
The World Organization for Animal Health (known internationally by the initials OIE) became the reference point for animal health issues and any disputes can be referred to them for expert opinion. When BSE hit North America, the focus turned to OIE, which created a code for safe trade. It also tracks the BSE status of countries, and Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are now classified as controlled risk.
However, international trade can be complex and very political. There are situations where there is no scientific reason for a market to be closed but it is due to other issues, says Lajeunesse at Holstein Canada.
Since 2003 Canada s surveillance system has uncovered only 17 cases of BSE, with the most recent in February, 2011. The measures undertaken to stop the disease are working and we are on the way to eradication, says McRonald. The economic impact of this rare disease has been incredible and it isn t over yet.
The first post-BSE shipment of Canadian cattle was to Barbados in March, 2007. Later that year, large shipments of heifers went to Russia and finally in November the U.S. border was reopened to breeding cattle. Mexico followed suit the next year and Europe finally allowed imports in September, 2008.
However, that still leaves 14 of the countries on the CLGA s wish list still closed to Canadian livestock due to health regulations.
Prior to the BSE crisis, 90 per cent of Canadian cattle exports went to the U.S. and Mexico. After BSE, exports to new markets have been developed with shipments to Kazakhstan, Serbia, China and even Croatia.
Once you close a market, says McRonald, it s hugely complicated to reopen and its very frustrating. CG
