Mad Cow is confirmed.

Just my thoughts.

I can understand your problem about shipping your fat cattle. I'm afraid the beef prices are going to sink out of site. Most people don't understand that when cattle have reached weight and are ready to ship, they have to go.. If you hang on to them, they end up costing you more, feeding a finished animal. This is of great concern to anyone related to farming. With 14 countries stopping all U.S. exports of beef, including Japan and Mexico, what will happen to all the processed meat? Some stores are even pulling their red meat from their meat counters. Without demand prices only have one direction to go. Will packers be buying if they know they don't have a market for their finished product, even if the price is rock bottom? With exports coming to a halt, I'm sure this will have a devistating effect on the market here at home. The majority of Americans know nothing about meat production and only go by what they see on TV and hear on the news. But, will they believe the FDA and USDA when they tell them the meat is safe to eat? As if they know if it's safe or not.. USDA head, Ann Veneman stated on the national news, the spinal cord and related organs did not reach the consumer and our meat is safe to eat. How in the h*ll does she know? You know as well as I do, every scrap of meat is not inspected by a USDA inspector before it leaves the processing plant. This would be impossible.
It was just by luck that tissue samples from this suspect cow were taken, then an employee at the Ames Iowa testing facility found it to test positive. But, by the time the testing was done, I'm sure the meat from that cow was long gone to,, well let's say hamburgers..

I wonder how many people will be running to the doctor with symtoms of Creutzfelt-Jakob disease within a week? The news media is going to blow this one up as much as they can.
What a shame...

Dick

Just heard on the news that the entire herd at the farm will be slaughtered and their brains and spinal cord checked. If I heard correctly, this dairyman has his 4000 animals on three different farms. So, maybe he won't be out of business. Seems like a real shame to have to slaughter the entire herd, probably some real good cows will be lost. But, that's our government at work.
Now that the public knows that downed cows "legally" enter the food chain, I'm sure this is a law that will be changed once congress goes back to work. While a small percentage of downed cows probably would be acceptable, most would not. Something interesting: We've always heard this cow was down, but an employee at the Moses Lake plant said he remembered that cow,, and she walked into the slaughterhouse.. I saw that interview last night on the news.
Now, here in Oregon, all the major retailers are pulling hamburger from their meat counters. Any meat that was processed in any of the 4 plants that this cows meat passed through is probably garbage. Let's overdue it.. But they all want to show the public they are doing all they can to stop the meat from entering the food chain. Well, if my memory is correct, the cow was slaughtered on the 9th of Dec.. I would think that hamburger is long gone. It was probably mixed with tons of other hamburger and ended up in several different places.
Now that the lab in England has confirmed the cow did indeed have BSE, it will give the USDA room to go hog wild.. I'll be surprised if there's a cow left in the Mabton area.. They'll have to put a show of force. Should be some cheap hamburger on the domestic front, since the rest of the world has banned U.S. beef.
Let's hope this is all behind us soon..

Dick

An excellent point!!! If this animal was suspect enough to sample the tissues and send them to the lab, bells must have been ringing.. But, somehow the carcuss left the slaughterhouse and then went to another plant for boning. From there it went to two seperate processors.. As you stated, the meat should have never left the slaughterhouse. It's going to be interesting to see how the USDA and FSIS wiggle out of this one.. Some sharp reporter will be asking this question and let's see what they have to say.. This whole mess stinks to high heaven..

Happy holidays,,
Dick

It's true this was a dairy cow, not a beef animal. But, do you think consumers know the difference? For most,, meat is meat, no matter if it's dairy or beef. Anyone who thinks that that hamburger they eat from McDonalds comes from a nice feedlot finished steer,, well, they have a lot to learn.. Maybe they think a burned out dairy cow is cut into those prime cuts you see in the supermarket..

An interesting note: Burgerville, an Oregon & Washington fast food burger restaurant, with 39 restaurants, announce that thier meat comes from vegetarian beef.. Yeah right...

As for me,, I'll keep eating red meat, certianly not because I trust the USDA inspection service, but, because I think this is blown clear out of proportion..

Dick

It was going to happen and if it had to it could not have happened at a better time. Most live markets are closed for 2 weeks for the Christmas/New Years holiday; terrorism alerts are the main headline, not this mad cow case; prices are at record levels so even a 20% hit in price is still above the 10 yr average; it was in a dairy herd, not a beef herd; we are at seasonal low demand with a relatively small % of the cattle needing to come off feed; and kill weights are at decade lows. Guys I feel for are the ones with feeders ready to kill and not having their price locked. This isnt Canada, part of what hurt them is they lack domestic kill capacity for their cattle so they ship a lot to the US for kill.

Outside the short term (the next month will be ugly) expect a dime drop in the market b/c we will have to open the Canadian border, and another dime drop due to loss of foreign market share. If you are in the business for the long haul we are far better off with .80 5 and 6 weights. When we see $1 a pound 5's and 6'es everybody and their brother want to own cattle. When you get feds in the 90's it gets absurd. Then all it takes is feed prices to jump (anybody seen where soybeans are heading?) and we wind up selling 5 weights in the 40's (remember 1994, I do, lost almost a hundred grand that year).

I guess what I'm trying to say is now is the time for just concern, not panic. The fundamentals are here as long as this doesn't go on forever for this to pass by the time grass comes.

Yesterday, Sec. of Agriculture, Ann Veneman announced that a Holstein cow in Washington has been tested as "presumtive" positive for BSE. To me,, presumtive means, they're not sure.

She also announced that samples were being sent to England for further testing, and it could take up to a week to determine the results. WHAT?? We've seen what can happen in one day,, what will happen within the next week? Why does the USDA have to depend on the UK to determine if this cow did indeed have BSE? Maybe we need to give the Department of Agriculture more MONEY.. hahahaha..

Sec. Veneman also announced that the sample had been taken on Dec. 9 and tested in Ames Iowa.. So, apparently it takes 15 days to get the results of a test.. I would think in 15 days the meat from the suspect animal would be long gone into dogfood or hamburgers.. Or,, was it being aged for some prime cuts of meat?

Somehow the downed cow made it from the dairy in Mabton, to Verns Meats in Moses Lake, dead or alive?? That's about a 120 mile trip. Was the animal slaughtered on the farm, then taken to Verns Meats, Or, was the cow transported alive to Verns, then slaughtered?
Interesting question because,,I didn't think on-farm slaughtered animals (not inspected at time of slaughter) could enter the commercial food chain???
Once the "downed" cow reached Moses Lake, (dead or alive) it must have hung around for a few days before "parts" made the long trip to Midway Meats near Centralia, Washington, that's another 250 miles, and Willamette Meats, in Oregon, about 300 miles..WOW.. Must have been good meat, everyone wanted some..

Some intersting questions that aren't making the news. Was the "downed" cow processed for pet food or human consumption? We all know what the term "downed cows" means,, something the dogs might eat.
Was all of the processing of the animal legal? Maybe we don't want to know..

For those who don't know anything about meat processing, I think you're about to find out. It's a mess and impossible to track. Sure, they will tell you that they can trace everything, but, think about it.. The meat from the this one downed cow traveled so many miles, either hanging or in totes, mixed with other meat products.

That poor farmer in Mabton. His place is being turned upside down.. He'll be lucky if the USDA doesn't kill every cow he has and burn his place to the ground. Those meat processing plants are swarming with USDA inspectors too, be it good or bad. Not to mention all the tv news trucks who are lined up to give us the "facts"..

This whole mess is going to be devistating to the beef industry in the U.S.. Three times more people have already died this year from the flu than Mad Cow Disease ever killed in history. It's a media frenzy..

While BSE might be bad,, believe me, there are other things that are a whole lot worse..

Dick

Hope this all works out well, could destroy a good recovery and really damage the small farmers.

DuaneW.

Merry Christmas and may God Bless us all in the new year.

Mad Cow full coverage.

i personally think it's all a bunch of b*ll s**t but it's all political, even when you prove that your product is safe with all the scienctific means that are accepted world wide, countries still choose to ignore the facts. my business may or may not make it though this crisis, and i may be forced to change careers because of some other countries policies. it sucks, but at least i'll still have what's important. i just wish for once that something good would happen to the ag industry, it's been kicked into the ground for so long that it's hard for me to think of when anything good has happened. of course it was only canada right, we'll have to see what happens with usa.

GOOD LUCK

Just wondering where you heard that news? Got a link to it?

Thanks
Cliff