First Suspected U.S. Mad Cow Case Found

[Ithaca 37]

WASHINGTON - A single Holstein on a Washington state farm has tested positive for mad cow disease, marking the first suspected appearance of the brain-wasting disease in the United States, the Bush administration announced Tuesday as it assured Americans their food is safe.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&ncid=541&e=1&u=/ap/20031224/ap_on_he_me/mad_cow_13

Just when beef prices were at a level that made ranching profitable! One more case of Mad Cow disease in the US and lots of people will quit eating beef!

 

[Ithaca 37]

Report: Japan Bans U.S. Beef Imports

TOKYO - Japan indefinitely banned imports of U.S. beef on Wednesday after a cow in Washington state tested positive for mad cow disease, the Agriculture Ministry said, depriving American beef exporters of their largest overseas market.



A ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the ban applied to beef and beef products and took effect immediately. South Korea (news - web sites) followed suit, halting customs inspection of U.S. beef and blocking the entry of the meat into the domestic market.


U.S. beef exports to Japan totaled US$842 million in 2002, according to.........

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031224/ap_on_re_as /japan_us_mad_cow&cid=516&ncid=716

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-23-2003 19:11: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>

 

[Ten Bears]

There goes the beef market. Wonder were there gonna park all those surplus cows??????

 

[Yukon Hunter]

Ten Bears-
You got that right. That one case in Alberta pretty much screwed Canada's beef industry- I suspect it'll do the same to you guys.
I see the Administration has pronounced that, despite the one case of BSE, American beef is still totally safe. Too bad they didn't have the same attitude towards Canadian beef...

 

[JoseCuervo]

Yukon,

Watch Sec. Venneman, and you will see a great magic trick. One lady will be able to talk out of both sides of her mouth....

 

[Yukon Hunter]

Gunner-
I know. This administration is great for that. Hell, I won't be even a little bit surprised if it turns out they figure that cow came in from Canada. And, although they can't prove it, they suspect it had WMD...

 

[Ten Bears]

It all in the Karma.

I've watched as beef prices have shot up after the Alberta incident.

 

[Oak]

I read in one article that the infectious parts of the animal had been sent to a rendering plant, and had probably been made into chicken feed. It went on to say that chickens are not known to be able to contract the disease.

It is speculated that BSE first appeared when parts of sheep infected with scrapie were used to make cattle food. So why do they think it's safe to feed infected cattle to chickens??? Because nothing has happened yet? Some day we'll have mad chickens running around, and folks will be dying of mad chicken disease, and these 'experts' will be scratching their asses and saying, "Huh, we didn't know that could happen."

I guess some things need to be beaten into our heads.

Oak

 

[pawclaws]

In Krogers yesterday a fella around 80ish asked the butcher if he had any of "that mad beef" on sale!!

YH any background on the beef industry? I hate to do crash research! Just wondering how long before the feed lots will destroy and burn the herds!

Just one more "so easy" avenue of access for terrorist activities.

 

[BHR]

I think I'll pass on head cheese for a while! It's to bad that the meat industry, in an effort to get maximum utilization of their product, is most likely causing the spread of this disease. The U. S. food industry may not be perfect, but I trust my health with food produced in our country over food produced anywhere else. Yuke, I read some pretty over the top comments from a Canadian official when your country was having it's mad cow problem. Any comment on that?

Paul

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-25-2003 15:30: Message edited by: BHR ]</font>

 

[feclnogn]

Here is one for ya,

The average rancher just unloaded ALL of his cows when beef prices where at an all time high. Now with the advent of mad cow beef prices will plument, thus he can restock his herd at greatly reduced prices in the spring. Maybe the beef industry planted this cow for the above scenario

Sounds like good business practice to me

 

[JoseCuervo]

Uhh...Fecalnogn,

Just who would have bought all those cows that were just "unloaded"???

They are still in the "inventory", until some body throws them on the BBQ and chows on them.

The "average rancher" (whoever the hell that is) has been living life large, and was NOT selling his breedingstock, as he was watching his assets appreciate with every penny for the last 10 months. And with Hay as cheap as it has been in a long time ($60-70), there was no reason to sell off cows and heifers this fall, as the calves they would drop in the Spring would make him rich.

No, if anything, the Cow/Calf guy is buying more animals, so he could get even richer, next spring. Now that idea may be ruined.

 

[A-con]

The prices shot up last spring, and cattelmen
sold off all their stock and started replacing as quickly as possable. There are lots of cattel being raised as we type, and once again, the ranchers are going to lose there asses.
On the other hand, we (the U.S.) really screwed Canada when we restricted their imported beef, so you can't blam them for doing it to us.
The U.S. has the safest food supply in the world, I really dought if any humans in the U.S. will contract the MCD. The problem was caught in plenty of time, and belive me, the U.S.D.A. and the beef Ass. is jumping on this big time

 

[feclnogn]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Just who would have bought all those cows that were just "unloaded"??? They are still in the "inventory", until some body throws them on the BBQ and chows on them.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If I sell all of my cows, while they might be in someones inventory they are no longer in mine. So I make money, the one who has the cows does not. This post was meant as a joke, I'm sorry you were unable to process that.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The "average rancher" (whoever the hell that is) has been living life large <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> No, if anything, the Cow/Calf guy is buying more animals, so he could get even richer, next spring. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You sound like a fan of Karl Marx

 

[JoseCuervo]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> This post was meant as a joke, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry I didn't realize it was a joke, just thought it was another of your opinions...

Next time, add some humour, and it will be easier to see it is a joke...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> You sound like a fan of Karl Marx <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah, kind of... I liked all of them, they were original, and looked at things from a different perspective. But was Karl my favorite? Nah... I probably liked Zeppo better, and then Larry, then Groucho, and Curly and Moe.

 

[JoseCuervo]

And do we listen to MSU grads, or do we wait until we get a Missoula grad to speak up???

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Montana State University economists Wednesday estimated a drop in cattle prices in the early aftermath of the BSE revelation.


“About 10 percent of U.S. beef is exported,” said John Marsh, an MSU agriculture economist. Marsh and colleagues Gary Brester and Duane Griffith have compared their computer models of the economic impact of BSE and found their estimates closely agree with those put out by the USDA’s Livestock Marketing Information Center.


Not all of the countries that buy U.S. beef have banned its imports. The economists estimate that a 9 percent decrease in exports, which increases domestic beef supply, could translate into a 13-15 percent decline in fed cattle prices.


“That would mean we might be facing a decrease of about $12 to $14 per hundredweight over the next few weeks on slaughter steer prices,” Brester said.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[pawclaws]

Thanks Elkgunner! I guess things will move more quickly than I expected since I understand that beef is moved more as a commodity future than actually on the hoof. Sometime last week I was watching a thingie on corn production and it stuck in my mind that we now feed mostly corn to our cattle, which they are not designed to eat but since it increases their weight so much more rapidly than anything else; that's what we feed them. I wonder just how much our manipulation has contributed to our own health problems!

 

[JoseCuervo]

There is a growing trend, around here at least, to buy animals from the Cow/calf guy, who raised them on grass and hay, and then fed them grain for the last 60 days. It is not the "Organic" beef that you see people talking about, but more likely "Old School" beef, where you don't inject them with the latest chemical to get them to grow faster.

We can sell all the "halves" we want, by word of mouth, to people who want to know their beef for the next 6 months came out of a pasture to a meat cutter, as opposed to a feedlot to a factory. It just depends on how much time we want to waste selling to people who want to come out an look at the animal, on the hoof vs. hauling them into the sale yard or the processor.

 

[Yukon Hunter]

Paws, I know jack about Mad Cow. I eat Moose & 'bou. Sorry.
Paul- you'll have to be more specific, as I don't know which comments you are referring to. I thought our government actually just did a classy move. When we had our case of BSE, the U.S. promptly closed it's borders to Canadian beef- a closure which is still in effect. However, rather than laughing and pointing a finger, the Canadian government has instead merely banned certain products that may contain brain/spinal tissue. A decent response from a government I have had very few good things to say about.
No matter what, this situation stinks. Hopefully, it won't effect your beef industry and economy the way it has hurt ours.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-26-2003 12:22: Message edited by: Yukon Hunter ]</font>

 

[1_pointer]

This coupled with an outbreak of Bruceolosis (however THAT is spelled) in WY may make me mucho glad I shot an elk this year. I know of at least two herds in the Pinedale area that are scheduled for destruction.

'Gunner- If beef diseases keep coming, you'll have to rename your herd a Scottish/Russian Longhorn and start having 'hunts'. Just like in TX.

BTW, if you find someone next year interested in just a 1/2 I may be interested in the other half.