Newark, England - The worst of Britain's “mad cow” crisis looks like it's over, but that brings little joy to the cattlemen at the Newark livestock auction. They see no quick end to their nightmare.
The European Commission wants to end the worldwide ban on British beef exports that has cost the industry billions, but many farmers remain skeptical.
After more than two years out of the global market, the folks who raise beef in Britain say that even if they can resume exports, finding markets will be hard.
The cattle moved briskly through the Newark auction ring at the busy morning auction, but the raucous bustle concealed the depression gripping the industry. Farmers say they're lucky to get two-thirds of the price they used to command.
Many seethe when discussing the political hurdles that lay ahead, including stiff opposition from Germany, before British beef can be exported again.
“My views on Europe aren't printable,” said John Iredale, a Gainsborough farmer. “I don't see what gives Europe the right to ban our beef worldwide anyway.”
At the Newark branch of the National Farmers Union, group secretary Andrew Smith says many cattle farmers have switched to other products and more have dug into savings to subsidize losses.
That sounds painfully familiar to Tom and Maureen Goy, who cut back their Lincolnshire herd of bulls from 200 head to 100.
“You work seven days and nights, and at the end, you're living on your savings,” Mrs. Goy said. They came to Newark to sell three bulls for about $660 each, compared with prices of about $990 to $1,155 before the beef scare.
Many cattle farmers just gave up. Don Wilkinson had almost 600 head of cattle on his North Yorkshire farm when the British government announced on March 20, 1996, it had found a link between mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, and a new variant of a fatal human brain ailment, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
Since the 1960s, Wilkinson had been buying calves from dairy herds then raising them to market weight. Since dairy herds had the most BSE problems, sales of dairy cattle for beef were banned.
Wilkinson had never had a BSE cow on his farm and he figured the troubles would blow over in a few months, so he sold about three dozen animals a month at a loss he would not disclose.
The crisis wore on, and Wilkinson ran out of cows. Now, he's gone to work certifying the quality of products on other farms.
“We were all tarnished with the same brush,” Wilkinson said. “It's all a bit galling.”
The low cattle prices spread economic troubles throughout rural Britain.
“Farmers grumble tradionally. It's part of their culture,” said Anthony Parrott, who sells plows, trailers and John Deere tractors from the Maltby's dealership at the Newark market. “But this time they've got something to grumble about.”
So does Parrott. The high value of the British pound has enabled him to offer his American-made tractors for better prices, but the market has dried up.
“Tractor sales for John Deere are down by something like 47% from last year,” Parrott said. “It's a knock-on effect all around.”
Clothing salesman Mike Wilson said he's even finding it hard to keep up a good business dealing in items such as the rubber work boots and Barbour tweed caps worn by virtually every farmer in the market.
“They're not spending,” Wilson said.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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