Mr. Chair, we have to decide whether we want to maintain an infrastructure in Canada; that's critical. There are no guarantees. We're working hard to keep the feedlots full in western Canada, as well as in the east, but the economics will go where they believe the money is the best. That's going to be the challenge of tomorrow, keeping the cattle home for processing, because we'll need to keep everything home that we possibly can to maintain what we currently have.
The east could have more challenges, not maybe because of supply but for other reasons. I'm talking further east. That's why keeping us equivalent and giving us every opportunity to operate in equivalency with the United States, because that's what we—as a grower of livestock, they use the baseline, the basis for selling their cattle; they use the American base price. Whether that's right or wrong, that's what we believe is the right price. That's going to be bullish. In the United States they are short of livestock for their plants. We just talked about the Mexican drought. But to maintain livestock in Canada and keep these plants running is going to be the challenge for the next...it could be as many as five years. I'd put in a range from three to five years, Mr. Chair. I think we're just seeing heifer retention start, so there is some excitement now as pregnant cows are worth record money, and that's a good thing. Don't take any of that negatively, as long as we can cut them out and keep the thing home.
The other thing we may see too is that...between cow-calf feedlots...we talk about hormone-free and raised without antibiotics. That's creating partnerships all the way through the chain. Will we see more of that? That would be interesting and fun to watch on full feedlots in partnership with the packing industry. Wouldn't that be something to note? It could happen.