031214 High Cattle Prices Make For A Cheery Convention

Wichita, KS (Wichita Eagle ) - Good prices and the promise of more of the same made for smiles aplenty at Century II on Thursday as the Kansas Livestock Association opened its annual two-day trade show and convention.

Not even a frank and open discussion of the challenges facing the beef industry could dampen enthusiasm at the turnaround in cattle prices, which have recently hit historic highs and are predicted to go even higher.

And the challenges are many: court battles over the checkoff marketing research program, mandatory country-of-origin labeling, mandatory individual animal identification, pushes for a ban on packer ownership and forward contracting, packer and retail concentration, and industry divisiveness.

Neil Jahnke, president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, introduced a serious note with his talk about the toll a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called mad cow disease, has taken on his country's beef industry.

"All of us talk about those moments you remember for a lifetime," he said. "The moment your first child is born, where you were when Kennedy was shot, more recently 9/11. For me, you can add May 18, 2003, to that list."

He said the phone call from the national animal health division notifying him of a suspected case of mad cow disease generated just one thought: "Well, there's the end of the world."

Almost seven months and $2 billion later, Jahnke said the industry will survive. He said lessons were learned, and he hoped sharing them with his American friends would help.

First, he said, communication counts. A grassroots public relations effort led by cattle producers has brought a 60% per capita increase in Canadian domestic beef consumption, he said, a response that has been part patriotism and part successful promotion.

"But what really saved our tush was our ID system," Jahnke said. "If we had had it in place five years earlier, it would have been even better. But as it was, we did the track and trace in three weeks. And that's what saved consumer confidence in beef."

He said that was a lesson for him because he was among the opponents of a mandatory ID system when it was instituted two years ago.

"I was up there speaking against it, fighting all the way," he said. "Boy, what a powerful lesson."

And he warned U.S. cattle producers not to be complacent. "But for the grace of God, it could have been you," he said.

Valerie Ragan, an official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, talked about the still fledgling effort to establish a mandatory individual animal identification system in the United States.

A task force formed in 2002 is refining the idea, she said, encouraging livestock association members to offer feedback.

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