Ranching outlook bleak as task force wraps up

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Ranchers who can somehow ride out a perfect storm in the cattle business may make it over the horizon, but the overall outlook for the Interior’s oldest industry remains bleak.

“Oh, I think we’re coming to an end, and I see that all over,” Roland Baumann, president of the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association, said Wednesday.

Baumann was asked for comment as beef producers appealed to the Harper government in Ottawa, saying they face a “perfect storm” of mounting debt, inadequate insurance, unfair trade barriers and a soaring Canadian dollar.

The industry has enlisted the support of NDP MPs in Ottawa, who cite the inadequacy of the Canadian Agriculture Income Stabilization program introduced five years ago by the former Liberal government.

Cattle producers say they want stability, including a bigger margin coverage to cover losses and the elimination of a viability test that requires positive margins in two of the last three years.

“Nobody seems to really know where ranching is heading,” Baumann said. “There are still people around who feel the recession will become the next depression once economic stimulus spending is done.” Others are more optimistic, projecting stability for the industry in three years’ time. “They’re telling us at the moment there won’t be any recovery in cattle prices for the next two years.”

Supply management, such as that long used to regulate the dairy and egg industries, has been cited as the only alternative. Baumann sees it as a no-go.

“No, it won’t, but they’re looking for something to prop up the industry.”

He sits on a provincial cattle industry task force, chaired by MLA Terry Lake, that will make recommendations to Minister of Agriculture Steve Thomson after a final meeting Friday. Baumann didn’t want to second-guess what those might be.

The task force needs to address regulatory issues hindering the industry, ways of keeping the industry alive in the short-term and how to ensure its future sustainability, Baumann said.

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