SEPTEMBER 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Cattle feeders face certain uncertainties


Industry withholds speculation on fall cattle run


by TOM WALKER KAMLOOPS – While the


Cariboo fires will have the most impact on cattle producers, there is the likelihood that there could be significant impacts for the fall run throughout the supply chain. However, the operative


word is “could.” “As one of our directors pointed out at a recent conference call, we can’t speculate on anything right now,” says BC Association of Cattle Feeders (BCACF) executive director Andrea van Iterson. “We cannot even begin to make any kind of assumptions about what is going to happen.”


Kevin Johnson, general manager of the BC Livestock Producers Co-operative Association, echoed that sentiment. “At BC Livestock, it’s business as usual and we are willing to help out wherever possible.”


The only thing for certain is that nothing is certain. “Normally, we can say our fall run is going to go end of September to end of November,” van Iterson points out. “We can’t say that right now. It’s affecting us because everything is so unknown.” “We don’t know when


these cows are going to come to town, we don’t what the numbers are like, how many


have survived. We don’t know if and when we are going to be able to get them and we don’t know the health of these animals,” van Iterson says.


BCACF wants producers to


know it's ready to help. “All of our directors have


offered up their empty lots so that we can house cattle temporarily when they show up – until people can figure everything out,” says Iterson. “We’ve all got liners, we’ve got feed and accommodation. We are definitely on stand-by.” “We are waiting if and


when we can do something,” she adds. “But that’s it. Everything is an if and when right now.” Van Iterson points out that


the fires are one part of a tough year in BC agriculture. A colder than normal winter brought challenges, such as forage winterkill in the Vanderhoof area. The wet spring delayed planting and the hot dry summer has affected yield. “If your forge corn is under


a pivot, you are okay,” says van Iterson. “But dry land corn in the Okanagan has been devastated and any non- irrigated grass has dried up.” BCACF members grow


their own feed and see a chance to sell that feed as an opportunity. “Lots of us will have the option of selling our available feed, or we can feed cows in


23


SHAVE, SHOWER & SHAMPOO! Sarah Gunter, left, and Shelby Meaden from the Comox Valley tidy up one of the Heart of the Valley heifers Aleta and Brad Chappell have consigned to the BC Elite Angus Sale in Prince George in October. Cattle were being tidied up for catalogue photos in August. SUBMITTED PHOTO


our feedlot, or we can do both if we don’t get the numbers of calves that we need,” says van Iterson. Van Iterson says they have concerns over the health of cattle. How have the fires affected the animal’s lungs? Have some calves been weaned too early because their mothers couldn’t get food or water? Animal health adds another unknown to what feeders do, she explains. “We are a very projections- based industry,” say van Iterson. “We can’t control what feed prices are going to do and we can’t control what the calf prices are going to do. “We (usually) go into the


fall starting to have a bit of a direction but this just adds another unknown.”


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