OTTAWA — Recent livestock numbers indicate that the Canadian beef industry is on a rebound for the first time since the U.S. closed the border to Canadian cattle nearly three years ago.

According to Stats Canada, the national cattle herd has declined for the first time since 2003, easing the situation for farmers who had to feed record numbers of animals that could not be slaughtered for shipping.

Mooovin’ On Up: Canadian beef and cattle industry
rebounding after 2 year border ban

Cattlemen had an estimated 14.8 million head on their farms as of January 1, 2006, a drop of about 233,000 head from the record 15.1 million head established a year earlier, says Stats Can.

However, the total was still over 1.3 million higher than levels as of January 1, 2003, before the ban on Canadian cattle resulting from mad cow disease, which crippled the nation’s multi-billion-dollar cattle and beef exports for 26 months.

The U.S. lifted the ban in July 2005 for animals under 30 months of age after winning a bitter court battle with American protectionist groups. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also proposed lifting all cattle-related restrictions on Canadian cattle sometime this year.

Exports of live cattle to the U.S. rose rapidly once the border was reopened. By October 2005, they were closing in on pre-BSE levels, before dipping slightly in November 2005. Stats Can pegs part of that decline to a three-week strike at the Lakeside Packing plant in Brooks, Alta. in early November.

Cattle numbers have declined in all cattle producing provinces except in Manitoba where they remained stable. Alberta’s herd, the largest of any province, edged down 0.5 percent from the same date in 2005, while Saskatchewan’s fell 3.0 percent; At the same time, the number of head of cattle on British Columbia’s farms plunged 7.0 percent, while in Central Canada, Quebec’s cattle herd shrunk 0.7 percent, while Ontario’s was 2.3 percent lower.

Slaughter has climbed to record levels. In 2005, slaughter was only 1.0 percent above the 2004 record levels but an impressive 27.5 percent above those in 2003.

These gains were fuelled by increased slaughter capacity, domestic demand, strong international demand for Canadian beef, and lower levels of beef imports.

In 2002, pre-BSE, total cattle and beef exports hit $3.9 billion, the equivalent of $11 million in sales each day.