02/01/05 N.C.B.A. findings; Farm Bill Schedule

Although the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is not expected to make its findings final until this week's Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio, the preliminary word on its fact-finding mission on Canada's b.s.e. control and prevention efforts reads like this. Canada is enforcing its ban on ruminant-to-ruminant feeding. According to the N.C.B.A. preliminary report, given the ages of the b.s.e. positive cattle in Canada, it believes the cause of each of Canada's four cases of Mad Cow Disease was exposure to feed produced before the August 1997 feed ban. The N.C.B.A. technical team also states the Canadian feedlots appear to be current. The preliminary report on Canada also comes with a statement from N.C.B.A. that Japan, South Korea, and Mexico must fully open their markets to U.S. beef by March Seventh, the date Canadian live cattle and previously banned beef product shipments are scheduled to resume in the U.S. The new Farm Bill is not expected to be adopted by Congress until 2007 when the current Farm Bill expires. But both the chairs of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees have their tentative agendas planned to consider adoption. Both Senator Saxby Chambliss and Representative Bob Goodlatte say their respective chambers will hold public hearings on the next Farm Bill later this year, with plans to write the legislation in 2006, and bring the final bill to the President for his signature by early 2007. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. ALLEN: In the words of some of my team roping comrades, the dairy guy is going to need to "cowboy up". When the U.S. senate resoundingly confirmed Mike Johanns as secretary of agriculture a couple of weeks ago, Johanns, who has roots in the dairy industry said he was more than ready to go to work, and the bulk of that work will be dealing with problems in the beef industry. For starters Johanns is causing grins on a lot of cattlemen's faces by making the reopening of Japanese market to US Beef one of his top priorities. Reopening the U.S, Japanese market, given that Japan has traditionally been one of Americas largest beef buyers will be key in regaining world wide confidence for our meat. Japan banned US Beef after one dairy cow with Mad Cow disease was discovered in Washington State. On the other side of the coin Johanns is being urged by Democratic senators to stop USDA plans to resume importing Canadian cattle after a third case of mad cow disease, was recently discovered in a Canadian cow. Johanns will need to in cowboy lingo have his "irons in the fire" and we aren't talking branding irons to confront the tough issues facing the Beef Industry.