Canada’s Mid-Year Cattle Numbers Hit Record Level

Canada’s mid-year cattle report shows the herd has grown 6.5 percent in the past year to a record 16.8 million on July 1, according to Statistics Canada.  Canadian beef and dairy producers had 1 million more head of cattle on their farms than they did in 2003, primarily because of the collapse of export markets for live cattle.  Those markets closed after the May 20, 2003, discovery of BSE in one Canadian cow in the province of Alberta. 

Since then, the United States, followed by a number of other countries, has agreed to allow imports of Canadian boneless beef from animals younger than 30 months under a permit process.

Western Canadian farmers account for three-fourths of the national herd.  Herd sizes are up in all provinces:  Manitoba, 10 percent;  Saskatchewan, 9.9 percent; and Alberta, 4.9 percent.

Farmers reported increased levels of cattle on all types of operations. Cow-calf producers reported 9.7 million animals, up 2.7 percent, while the number of cattle on backgrounding operations jumped 24 percent to 3.2 million. The number of cattle on feeding operations, which totaled 1.5 million, increased 5.3 percent.

The Canadian cattle industry was worth an estimated $7.7 billion a year to farmers in 2002. Beef consumption increased 5 percent in 2003 from 2002 to 14.2 kilograms per person.

In 2002, Canada exported 1.7 million head of cattle, worth $1.8 billion. With the border closed in May 2003, cattle exports plunged to 505,689 head, valued at $591 million. Exports of live animals in 2004 are non-existent.

Beef exports also have dropped dramatically from the $2.1 billion worth registered in 2002. About 84 percent of Canada’s beef exports are destined for American dinner plates.

In September 2003, the United States started to allow some beef products into the country and exports climbed to almost  pre-BSE levels (about 40,000 tons per month). In January 2004, monthly exports dipped before rising to close in on the pre-BSE levels.

In 2003, the value of beef exports fell 33 percent from 2002. For the first four months of 2004, beef exports were down 11.3 percent when compared with the value in 2003 prior to the discovery of the BSE-infected animal.