ELMWOOD, Ont. (July 19, 2005) — The first truckload of live, BSE-free cows in two years has crossed into the U.S.

Canadian Press reported the shipment of 35 head of cattle crossed the border from Ontario en route to Pennsylvania around noon yesterday. That load was reportedly followed by another couple cattleliners full of animals in Alberta later in the day.

The trip was made just three days after a U.S. federal appeals court lifted the 26-month ban on Canadian live cattle and other beef shipments.

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).

“It is with great pleasure that I advise today is the first day since May 2003 that live cattle shipments are crossing the border from Canada into the United States,” Andy Mitchell, minister of Agriculture and Agri-food, said in a release.

Just after the announcement to lift the ban last Friday, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association approached Schaus Land and Cattle Company at the behest of U.S. and Canadian agriculture officials, and asked the Elmwood, Ont. cattle producer to prepare a load and ship them to the United States.

Beef industry workers and cattle haulers who’ve been waiting for the first bovine to cross into the U.S. said they felt relieved, but still cautious as a looming court action July 27 in Montana could once again shut the door to Canadian beef.

Montana judge Richard Cebull — who was the justice that sided with the protectionist industry group R-CALF and implemented the injunction to keep the border closed after March 7 — will hear arguments from the anti-trade group to shut the border to Canadian cattle permanently.

However, several U.S. reports claim it’s unlikely that the appeals court will allow Cebull to issue another injunction. If they lose, R-CALF promises they will take the case to the Supreme Court.

However, many feel the Canadian beef industry will never again regain the cross-border business it controlled before May 2003.

Keith Horsburgh, of the Alberta Livestock Haulers Association and owner of Grace Cattle Haulers in Brooks, Alta. has told TodaysTrucking.com several times over the last couple years that the Canadian beef industry will have no choice but to retrench. “We’ll should build more plants and send everything down to (the US) in a box,” he said.

Moreover, says Horsburgh, the trucking industry couldn’t ramp up capacity even if the export market demanded it. Many drivers have moved on to other kinds of trucking, and other industries like the booming western construction and oilfield sectors.

He says the real nail was hammered in this past March after Cebull’s original injunction. He says although he was able to maintain more than a dozen trucks since May 2003, he lost nine trucks and five drivers on the spot after the injunction ruling.

“This last (March 7) border closing has been harder than even the first time,” he told TodaysTrucking.com.

— with files from Canadian Press