SAN FRANCISCO, (July 15, 2005) — Canadian cattle haulers can start dusting off those livestock trailers that have been parked against the fence for the last two years.

Beef industry workers north of the 49th are celebrating yesterday’s U.S. federal appeals court ruling to lift the 26-month ban on Canadian live cattle and other beef shipments. U.S. officials say they’ll allow shipments to begin crossing the border within days.

The border has been closed to live cattle since a single Alberta cow was diagnosed in May 2003 with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, otherwise known as mad cow disease.

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Montana judge’s ruling that blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from lifting the ban this past March 7 for live cattle younger than 30 months (about 70 percent of Canadian stock), as well all beef and boxed meat shipments.

At the time, Judge Richard Cebull sided with the protectionist industry group R-CALF, which told the court that it would be “insane” to allow imports to resume so soon after two other back-to-back mad cow cases were discovered in Alberta this year.

According to the Associated Press, this latest decision came a day after the Justice Department urged the appeals court in Seattle to reopen the border to imports, adding that such action “would not result in the infestation in American livestock.”

Bush Administration officials said they’ll reopen the border to live cattle under 30 months of age “immediately,” and trucks could start crossing the border within days.

Keith Horsburgh owner of Grace Cattle Haulers in Brooks, Alta. and a regular commentator on the ban, told TodaysTrucking.com this morning he went straight into cynic-mode when he heard the news last night. “I was actually at the Stampede over here, and they announced over the loud speaker that the border was going to reopen,” he says. “My wife and I just looked at each other and said ‘yeah right. Like we haven’t heard that one before.’

Not only has the trade dispute pitted Canadian and American cattle farmers, but also various beef industry workers within the U.S. Slaughterhouses, feedlots, and meatpackers south of the border have long championed an open border, seeing the northern beef supply essential in maintaining volumes.

U.S. ranchers — which have been enjoying higher returns for their cattle since the ban was imposed in 2003 — aren’t happy, of course. Bill Bullard, executive director of the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, told AP the decision imperils U.S. beef.

The court battles aren’t over just yet, however. There’s still a scheduled trial before Judge Cebull that is supposed to test the U.S. cattlemen’s science (that the likelihood of mad cow in elevated in Canadian cattle) against the USDA’s (which maintains that Canadian beef is safe).

But it’s unlikely that the appeals court will allow Cebull to issue another injunction despite what he concludes from the July 27 case. Still, R-CALF isn’t going down for the count. It insists it will take the case to the Supreme Court if it needs to, AP reports.

That kind of protectionism still has Jim Ryan a little skeptical. The general manager of Butte Grain Merchants in Picture Butte, Alta. says that if he’s learned anything these last couple years, it’s to “expect anything.” Still, Ryan senses some real optimism in the air for the first time in years, and guesses his trucks will be part of the first contingent to cross the border.

“You never know what will happen in Billings (Montana) on the 27th,” he told TodaysTrucking.com, “but as long as we can get some cows across the border right away — as long as we get some flow going again — it will be hard to get it shut down again. It’s like siphoning water. It’s going to start (slow) but keep coming.”

Ryan doesn’t anticipate that relationships between Canadian exporters and U.S. customers have eroded much during the ban, adding that American packers have wanted the border open almost as much as Canadians. He says he bets they’ll be waiting “with open arms.”

Horsburgh, instead, says he’ll hold back a while before restarting cross-border operations, adding that he couldn’t pick up right away even if he wanted to. “This last (March 7) border closing has been harder than even the first time,” Horsburgh says. While he was able to hold on to 17 trucks from the original closure until March 2005, he’s now fallen to nine units — with five drivers leaving right after the March 7 injunction.

Either way, truckers have their work cut out for them when the border does reopen. It’s unlikely cattle haulers will be able to show up at the border as easily as before, Horsburgh predicts. “I imagine a lot of I’s and T’s will have to be crossed before the first trucks even get to the border,” he says. “There’ll be a lot of due diligence to do for carriers and especially producers to get cattle U.S.-ready.

“I don’t think anyone knows right now what the procedure will be. Who knows what exactly they’re going to let across? Are they going to open it to everything? Not likely. It might be scary when you think of the hoops that we’ll have to jump through.”

— with files from Associate Press