OTTAWA — After the first full year the U.S. border has been open to live cattle shipments since 2003, Canada’s national cattle herd plunged by 515,000 head in 2006.

As of January 1, 2007, cattlemen reported 14.3 million head on their farms, down 3.5 percent from the previous year and 748,000 below the January record established in 2005, when closed borders forced producers to keep more of their farm stock off the market, reports Stats Canada.

Despite the drop, however, the 2007 inventory was still 827,000 above the January 1, 2003 level, prior to the border closure, according to the annual January Livestock Survey of 10,000 producers.

Moovin: Canada’s national herd isn’t where
it was before BSE, but slowly getting there

The Americans first closed the border to all Canadian cattle for two years when an Alberta cow was diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in May 2003. The U.S. then lifted the ban in July 2005 for animals under 30 months of age after winning a bitter court battle with American protectionist groups.

However, both Canadian officials and the US Department of Agriculture officials are still battling such group on a plan to lift the ban for all cattle and beef exports.

Washington officials said in January they were close to canceling the remaining trade restrictions on Canadian cattle, including older cows still as well as breeding stock. No decision has yet been made, however.

As the cattle inventories trend lower, says StatsCan “the Canadian industry is returning to the way it was before the borders were closed.”

In 2006, total estimated cattle exports amounted to 1,038,500 head. Although this figure is almost twice the previous year, which is reasonable as the border reopened in July 2005, it remains 38.5 percent below the 1,688,100 exported in 2002 (pre-BSE).

Alberta’s herd, the largest of any province, declined 3.7 percent, Saskatchewan’s edged down 0.7 percent, and Manitoba’s was off by 7.4 percent. In British Columbia, the herd dropped by 10.6 percent. In Central Canada, Quebec’s cattle count slipped 0.7 percent, while Ontario’s was 3.9 percent lower.

Slaughter levels have also been a key factor in the cattle business. During 2004 and the first half of 2005, levels hit record highs. They were fuelled by increased slaughter capacity, domestic demand, strong international demand for Canadian beef and lower levels of beef imports.

However, levels have tapered off because of lower exports of beef meat now that the border is open to live cattle and supplies in the United States have increased. At 4.2 million head, slaughter in 2006 was down 7.1 per cent from the previous 12 months.