Agriculture Committee on Nov. 22nd, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I want to welcome the presenters for the second hour. In the second hour we have a briefing on bovine tuberculosis in Alberta.

I want to welcome Mr. Brad Osadczuk, and from the Alberta Beef Producers, Bob Lowe. By video conference, we have Ross White and Warren Henry.

Welcome, gentlemen.

Go ahead, Mr. Anderson.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I would like to say that our team is joined by Mr. Sorenson, Mr. Shields, and Mr. Motz. They have all been involved with this issue for the last two months, and they understand the impact this is having on the ranchers.

I would like to get the agreement of the committee that they be allowed to participate fully in the meeting today. We're not asking for any change to time allocation or anything like that.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you.

We would like to have about a six-minute opening statement, and Mr. Brad Osadczuk, you may begin.

[Brad Osadczuk, As an Individual]

Thank you very much for having me here this morning, everybody. It has been interesting to come to Ottawa and meet with you all.

I'll start by just telling you my story about how this all began.

On September 22, I got a phone call from the CFIA telling me that I had shipped a cow to market that made her way to the United States for slaughter and that she had tested positive for tuberculosis.

That was the worst day of my life so far.

The following days were full of conversations with CFIA, and the following week they came out and sat down and quarantined my entire ranch and all my cattle, and we just waited to hear how exactly this was going to go. It was very unclear, and there weren't a whole lot of answers. I had a lot of questions, naturally, and it was tough.

We talked a bit, and the next step was trying to get some testing set up to test these animals, to see in fact if tuberculosis had spread to the rest of our animals. The 22nd was the first contact, and on October 17, just about three weeks later, we actually started the testing on the rest of the animals, and that took a week.

On the ranch, there was lots of stress on animals and people, and we identified 33 reactors out of the rest of the cattle, which was about 450 head in total. Thirty-three out of 450 head were reactors. We waited to hear more on when they were going to go for post-mortems. The only way they can positively confirm TB is with destruction and a post-mortem and testing on tissues.

It was actually November 8 when those 33 reactors left the farm and went to Lacombe, Alberta, to a slaughter facility, where they took samples. It was last week when I actually found out that there were five more out of our herd, so six cattle in total, that tested positive for the preliminary PCR, the genetic test. So far to date, those are the only six animals. They're out of our herd that we ranch together—my family, my father and mother, and my wife and kids. They're all from that herd.

There have been a couple of other neighbours. There's a Hutterite colony and another neighbour of ours who were grouped into the index herd status because of our wintering. We wintered some cattle together, and one of the two herds has been deemed clean so far. There needs to be a culture test. That's the final test that will show exactly if this is for sure. The culture test is the 100% indicator.

I don't know what else.... I have another herd of cattle up north that have been tested, and we're waiting for the reactors to go through the plant and be euthanized and the tissue samples tested.

It has been a long two months. It's two months today actually to the day, and it has been trying. It has been very tough on everyone, as a community. There are 34 ranches in the community, and two just east of us in Saskatchewan have been quarantined, and there are further quarantines going on as we speak. I was contacted by a fellow west of Brooks that I sold cattle to in 2012.

It's very tough. Our whole community is impacted. Almost 90% of the ranches in my area are under quarantine at this point. More than 10,000 head—I think the number is 18,000—are quarantined right now. Very few ranches have been actually tested. The way we're going right now, this is going to take months longer, and once the Alberta winter sets in, it's going to get more complicated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Osadczuk.

Now we'll go via video conference to Mr. Ross White.

Mr. White, you have six minutes to make a statement if you wish.

[Ross White, As an Individual]

Hello. My name is Ross White. I'm from the Jenner area.

My brother and I ranch in the Jenner area. We were quarantined on October 22, just prior to marketing our calves. We pre-sold our calves in early October and were scheduled to deliver in the last week in October and the first week in November. The quarantine prevented us from marketing our calves, resulting in a loss of profit over the market. We were forced to renege on our contracts. This also put the buyer in a tough spot and may impact future sales to him.

There are many costs that we are forced to incur because of the constraints placed on us by the CFIA and the federal government. We were unable to get a response from the head vet for 10 days from the time we were quarantined. We were told to call him on any livestock movement. How does that work?

Our calves are still on the cow as we have not been given any direction as to when we may be tested and/or when some or all of our cattle will be released from quarantine. We are getting very mixed messages, and the costs continue to rise. The quarantine has affected our management of our cow herd, as follows.

Calves are still on the cow, resulting in the loss of body condition of the cow. There is increased grazing pressure on our deeded and leased land, resulting in loss of litter and carryover. There are concerns over the lack of availability of water for the calf crop that is quarantined, and possibly a huge loss due to wintering-out of dams when the ice is thin. There is the cost of the introduction of the calves when we wean them this week, and the additional manpower that is required when we wean our large herd. We normally don't have that expense, so we are unsure about how to handle this. Death losses may be large if the weather turns against us.

As well, there is the cost of running our cows through twice, and the impact on our facilities and manpower that is required by the restrictions on us to carry out parasitic control and pregnancy testing. We really are unable to treat anything as treatment has an impact on possible slaughter.

There is the cost of embryonic loss of our cattle herd as they are run through the facilities twice. We have the cost of equipment, yardage costs, feed and trucking costs, and costs of additional feed resources in terms of how we don't know what time period we are looking at.

Also, there is the impact of overcrowding our herds, as we are not able to practise normal marketing management practices. Movement is limited by the quarantine. As well, there is the cost of the loss of genetics, as we are not able to purchase breeding bulls this fall with the uncertainty over where to house the new purchases.

This quarantine has placed an enormous amount of financial and emotional stress on our families and our neighbours who are under the quarantine. We truly do not know what the financial cost will be to our individual ranches and what impact this quarantine will have. I recently purchased another ranch to the north, and I am concerned with regard to the reduction in land values caused by the quarantine and the future impact of trying to market cows from this area. We may be quarantined by the buyers long after the CFIA quarantine is lifted. What cost does this carry for my ranch?

This is truly a disaster. The way in which the quarantine was handled has made the process even more devastating. Communication and concern for us as ranchers running a business is totally lacking. The officials in charge have no understanding of our ranch business and the impacts of their actions as they relate to the destruction of our ranches. Many of us may not be able to weather the storm and will be forced to sell out. I appeal to you as the government in charge to initiate some action in the CFIA and the government and take ownership of the calves and all costs. We did not plan for our hands to be tied. I remind you that this is a CFIA action.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. White.

Now we will go to Mr. Henry for six minutes. Thank you.

[Warren Henry, As an Individual]

Good morning. I'm Warren Henry, a third-generation cattle rancher from Patricia, Alberta.

The family's entire cow herd has been quarantined, along with neighbours', cousins', and friends'. We were all carrying on business as usual early this fall. In September we sold our steer calves, half the annual calf crop, by contract through an Internet sale. The buyer expected those steers to be delivered the first week in November. Then we normally make our annual payments, but not this year so far.

However, all changed when we got a call from the CFIA on October 14 telling us the whole herd was quarantined. No animals would be leaving or going anywhere pending the investigation. That's not to mention the people who phoned and couldn't speak English, so it was really difficult to understand. It took two people before we could actually get the gist.

Usually all the calves are weaned on the same day. The first week of November, the steers get on a truck and are weighed on a scale at home, and then they're delivered to the feedlot. The heifer calves are hauled to their home place, and are backgrounded until spring, when we pick out the replacement heifers and sell the balance of the heifer calves.

After weaning, the cows are trailered to their winter fields, where they utilize pasture and grazing corn that we grow over the summer. This year they had to be hauled, also causing more stress on them, especially as all had to go through the chute two times for this testing process. We'll see this spring if our aborted calf numbers are higher than usual due to this extra stress.

We are prepared each fall to put up feed for the heifer calves to use up over the winter, but not for the steer calves that we have on hand right now.

We got a call from the CFIA that they would be coming out to test the herd on November 15, so the calves were weaned on the 14th to be ready for the team to test. This is two weeks later. The pasture where the cows were to go until testing was grazed out, so we had to start feeding the cows and calves the feed that was meant for the heifer calves later on, at a cost of about $600 a day.

The steers were supposed to get on the truck on November 1, and we were supposed to get our calf cheque.

We had to change our pasture plan around to accommodate twice as many calves as usual, but we need to buy the feed for them. We don't have calf cheques to buy feed with because we can't sell the steers. No one can tell us how long we'll have to keep them, how much feed we need, or what we need to buy. Those heifer calves were brought home, and they'll be fed and cared for as usual, but we've already started using the feed that was intended for them.

Also, when you bring all these animals into an area that is meant for half those numbers, you're crowding them, which causes stress, and they're more likely to get sick. We've adjusted our corral space and changed our watering system and pastures around to accommodate the steers in one bunch and heifers in the other. This all requires time and money.

The weather so far has been in our favour, but we still don't know how long we have to keep our calves. If winter hits, it's going to be a lot worse, and they will require a lot more feed.

I understand that I had to come here today to discuss compensation with you, and I thought I'd try to explain how this works for my family. In comparison with how you folks live day to day, it would be like getting a call one day from some agency telling you that all your assets had been seized, and not just your monthly paycheque is being held, but your entire year's income. You carry on, showing up for weeks, and you can't get paid for it the next three, four, or maybe five months, with investigation pending. You can't buy groceries, pay bills, or make montage payments until they decide to unfreeze everything, but they can't tell you when it will be. It's your baby to worry about.

Needless to say, it's an ongoing worry and stress for the whole family, and the unanswered questions and time frames just add to the stress.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Henry.

Now we'll move to our question period, and I want to welcome to the committee Mr. Sorenson, Mr. Shields, and Mr. Motz.

We'll start our first round of questioning with Mr. Anderson for six minutes.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank our ranchers for being here today. We wish we didn't have to do this.

Mr. Henry, following up on what you just finished with, this is the time of year for people to sell their calves. The CFIA, I'm told, won't release the calves, even after herds have been tested, until all the quarantined herds have been tested, and many people are still waiting for testing. How critical is it that financial assistance be given to ranchers for the additional cost of feeding those animals that are under quarantine?

[Warren Henry]

It's really important, because we already have all our feed supply ready to go for the year, and now we need way more feed. Luckily, right now the weather hasn't been that bad, so we haven't been going through near as much feed, but when it gets to -20° or -30°, they'll be using lots of feed, and now we have to try to find the feed.

There's a reasonable amount of feed around, but it's hard to find good feed for calves.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

You end up feeding animals when you don't know what the end result is going to be either, right? They could end up quarantined for months. You don't know if you're going to get any income out of that at the other end, or if they're all going to be destroyed, at your expense.

[Warren Henry]

Right. They've already started the testing process, and out of over 300 head, we've had 10 reactors that they're going to kill. We're still a long way from getting any results. According to the people I've talked to, the backlog in Killam and Lacombe means they can do only 30 a week.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

On the testing issue, and maybe Brad would be the one to answer this because he's been most affected by this directly right now, have local vets been used effectively in the testing?

[Brad Osadczuk]

No, none whatsoever.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Would it help if local vets were?

[Brad Osadczuk]

Absolutely. We have very qualified vets at our disposal who could help if the CFIA would let them.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Hopefully we'll come up with a recommendation for that to happen.

I have just one other question, if I have time. After that I'll turn it over to Mr. Sorenson.

The CFIA tells us they have an emergency response centre set up. Nobody seems to know anything about it except them. Avian flu has had a model in the past, I'm told, that involves federal officials, provincial officials, local officials, and producers, and they've been able to keep track of the information and work together. Would a structure like that be of some assistance to ranchers and to the local community?

[Brad Osadczuk]

Absolutely. There's very little flow of information. I'm the index herd; I'm the first guy who was involved, and I know very little about what's happening with my business or just the flow of....

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I can tell you that the frustration goes from you right to the rest of us, because we've had trouble getting answers as well.

I'd like to turn whatever time I have left over to Mr. Sorenson.

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

Thank you very much to all three of you for appearing today. I can tell you that our hearts go out to you. You've been very good spokesmen for your circumstances, but also for the industry.

Brad, how many head of cattle do you have?

[Brad Osadczuk]

I have 1,200.

[Kevin Sorenson, Conservative, Battle River—Crowfoot, AB]

You have 1,200 cows?

[Brad Osadczuk]

I have 1,200 head of cows, yes.