Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For those who don't know me, my wife, family, and I own and operate a cow-calf and yearling operation out of Grande Prairie, Alberta. I appreciate this opportunity to present on behalf of the beef value chain round table. The Canadian beef industry is a

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that question. I think it's a very appropriate question for the cattle industry at this point in time. As you've noted, we did experience a serious setback in 2003 when we lost all of our market access due to the discovery of BSE. I don't think the losses to the i

Agriculture committee  I think generally the beef value chain round table has functioned well and effectively. I think it's most effective, particularly when dealing with regulatory issues or issues of CFIA—that we have the right people in the room for those meetings. And obviously, we make the most pr

Agriculture committee  Sure. The Canadian Cattlemen's Association would really like to see a cattle price insurance program made available across the country, and thereby ensure that all regions have a competitive playing field, in other words, have the same risk management tools as those in other prov

Agriculture committee  Yes, the Korean market is a very important market for Canadian beef. I was in Seoul earlier this spring and we met with the trade there. At this time, Canadian product is not disadvantaged significantly in terms of the duty that's applied. Over time, that spread is going to incre

Agriculture committee  We can certainly talk about structural discrepancies. There's no doubt that, as with any industry that goes through difficult times, an industry restructures. Typically, those are the times restructuring takes place. I'm convinced that the Canadian cattle industry has emerged as

Agriculture committee  No, I think that covered it.

Agriculture committee  Sure. Thanks for that question. Really, the importance of having technical expertise abroad came to the forefront in 2003, when there was a massive effort to begin to reopen those markets. As for key markets that have received veterinarians, one has been Mexico and another one h

Agriculture committee  I'll speak to the importance of an efficient infrastructure system. In the cattle industry, rail is not used significantly to move our product directly. However, rail is used to move feed stuffs across the country and into the country at times from the U.S. Obviously, because we'

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that question. It's a question that I think many producers ask across the country and it's a worthwhile question. I think that not only do we need to consider our retail distributors but probably our processing industry as well. As primary producers we depend on a

Agriculture committee  That's an excellent question, Mr. Atamanenko. The veterinary technical expertise is valuable in countries such as Japan, Mexico, and others because of the depth of technical knowledge required for the technical market access negotiations dealing with the science around BSE and a

Agriculture committee  That's right.

Agriculture committee  That's a very good question. I'll give a really short answer and then a little longer one. Ultimately the beef value chain round table has a lot of value at any and every point in the value chain, right from the genetics industry in the cattle industry right through to the reta

Agriculture committee  Thanks for that question. That's a great question. In light of dealing with limited resources with government, our industry's competitiveness depends on competitive global market access. Even with a smaller cattle herd, it's just as vital today. The efforts made by Minister Rit

Agriculture committee  There are a few things at play, but clearly increased market access has been a major contributor to the price increase, along with very tight supplies globally and in North America. We've seen prices almost double for the average rancher out there. They certainly have gone up in