Latest news with #ranching
CTV News
14 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
Sask. cattle producers pleased to see spike in demand for beef
Ryan Beierbach, a rancher from the Whitewood area, says producers are benefitting economically from the increased beef prices due to high demand of supply. Although producers in Saskatchewan are benefitting from the recent increase in beef prices, concerns about fewer cattle herds and fewer producers across North America were highlighted at the annual Saskatchewan Stock Grower Association's AGM in Moose Jaw. 'Finally after years of it being where we struggled to make money, we are finally catching up on some of the bills. We're seeing more optimism on the price side,' Ryan Beierbach, a rancher from the Whitewood area, told CTV News. Beierbach said cattle market prices are on an upward swing due to the decline of cattle producers over the years. 'It was a really a poor market for quite a few years so a lot of the guys got out of the business and it shrunk the number of cattle,' he explained. 'Then we've had a drought in western Canada and in the U.S. that really made people shrink their cattle herds. It got to the point where the supply is so low it pushed the price up.' The turnover in the market sparked much discussion at the meeting, including from one agribusiness expert who said the last time the beef market peaked was in 2005. Since then, supply for cow and cattle herds have declined. 'Across Canada, we went from over five million beef cows to under 3.5 million beef cows,' explained Brian Perillat, an agribusiness specialist for More Than Just Feed. 'Numbers on the cow calf side have been shrinking. We've been importing feeder cattle to kind of offset some of those shrinking numbers. The overall herd hasn't shrunk quite by that magnitude, but overall we're shrinking.' As a result, Saskatchewan producers have benefited economically most recently. 'Sometimes it's about who has sort of the leverage, we call it, in the marketplace and right now the producers certainly have the leverage,' Perillat continued. 'As packing plants and feedlots, everybody's competing for these shrinking supply calves that our cow calve producers are producing right now. They are probably getting the biggest beneficiary over the last year or two, in terms of these prices, as we've seen prices almost triple on calves that will be selling this fall here.' The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association said improving resources to support cattle producers are needed all-year-round due to market conditions always changing. 'Producers don't have the ability to hold livestock for very long. When it's time to market animals, you have to market animal products and you don't have the ability to put it in the bin and wait,' president Jeff Yorga shared. 'We need to design programs that reflect that.' Aside from cattle insurance, Yorga said there are a variety of risk management supports in place for producers. 'They also have the ability to forward sell right now. We've seen, I think, a record number of cattle that have been marketed on video sales for fall delivery - taken advantage of those high prices,' he said. 'We encourage producers to bring those tools.'
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Mystery as 15 cows suddenly drop dead on remote Colorado cattle ranch
A pair of Colorado ranchers were left distraught when they did a routine check on their cows, only to find three had dropped dead. By that afternoon, eleven more had died. The death toll hit fifteen by the next morning. That was in early May. The grieving couple is still desperately looking for answers. At first, Kerri Higgs and her husband thought that their cows may have been exposed to noxious weeds which are wild plants that can be harmful to crops and wildlife. Kerri Higgs told Cowboy State Daily that while sad, it's not uncommon to lose a cow or two that way: 'We were going to deal with it, because that's what happens sometimes.' But after more than a dozen cows had passed on May 8, they knew there had to be a different answer. The family noted that the majority of the losses had been first-time heifers; female cows who were experiencing their first pregnancy. The others were a steer and a yearling. As the family watched their herd suffer, some died on their own and others were put out of their misery by Higgs's husband. She noted that one in particular was having seizures and falling down as her eyes rolled to the back of her head. 'It's just the strangest thing. My husband has been a cowboy his entire life and he said he's never seen anything like it,' the Fremont County resident said. Despite the loss, Kerri Higgs (pictured) and her family have decided to keep searching for answers and keep ranching Following their herd's death the couple turned to a local veterinarian and the county sheriff. At first, the veterinarian diagnosed brain swelling, pointing to sulfate poisoning from a nearby oil well. But as of May 22, tests of the water troughs and rain puddles came back negative. Higgs turned to the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) because she noticed a stench coming from the oil pad. The ECMC sent drones over the property to check for gas leaks around the affected cows, but she has yet to see the results. Higgs is also interested in sending the cows for necropsy to get an even more thorough evaluation on what may have happened. Curiously enough, cows kept in another pasture miles away were completely unaffected, which leads Higgs to believe the cause was environmental. 'Now we just need to know where it came from,' she wrote on her GoFundMe page to raise money to cover the financial loss of so many cows dying in one day, 'most likely the land that we have leased.' Not only did their deaths cause heartache, but the family estimates an immediate loss of $50,000 to $70,000, not including vet bills they've already had to pay. Higgs said they'd expected to have those cows for up to 12 years each. 'In my opinion, we're out a quarter-million dollars because of all the calves we're never going to have from them,' she said. To top it off, 13 of the remaining 15 cows lost their mothers to sudden deaths. Despite the loss, Higgs and her family have decided to keep searching for answers and keep ranching.
