(Alice McFarlane/farmnewsNOW Staff)

By Alice McFarlane

Livestock Industry in 2020

SCA remains optimistic in 2020

Jan 2, 2020 | 3:54 PM

The chief executive officer of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association is still surprised cattle prices didn’t jump last year because of the demand for meat from China.

Ryder Lee said the general feeling was African swine fever would increase global demand. It didn’t happen.

“It should be time for them to run. African swine fever and its effects on the protein market globally kept me thinking the shoe is going to drop and really pump up prices for beef and cattle and it just hasn’t come to be,” he said. “I know price insurance was paying out this fall. So, the market wasn’t even as good as it looked like it might in spring. That’s disappointing from a cash standpoint.”

Lee said with the Chinese market open again for Canadian beef and pork, beef trade prospects in China and the U.S. should improve profit margins for cattle producers in the coming year.

Lee said it was important to have the new trespass legislation introduced in the legislature.

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“It was great to see it make it through the house to be proclaimed. Now, we’re just waiting on the regulations to be finalized,” he said. “I look forward to seeing that happen before the election. That’s a huge win. These things take a long time and shifting the onus from the producer, to the visitor to say, ‘I’d like to come on your land’ is great for protecting livestock, plants, grasslands and crops, but also the people that live there.”

Lee said we can’t talk about 2019 without reflecting on the mixed bag of weather.

“It was bleak. Then it improved in mid-June and then it got bad for harvest. It was a challenge, a relief and a challenge again,” he said. “I know we’re going into winter with a much better moisture position than we had a year ago but there’s so many people that still have crop out or took bad crop off or spent a lot of extra money on drying or couldn’t get hay rolled up. I’m glad for the moisture, but, what a year.”

According to Lee there are many reasons to look forward to the year ahead.

“You know me, I’m always optimistic and I think we’re looking at seeing some of those chickens come home to roost, so to speak, from missing all those sows in China from getting a little certainty in trade,” he said. “If we can put this NAFTA replacement to bed, that’s big. If China and the U.S. can get along and maybe get rid of firing tariffs at each other, that will get rid of the uncertainty.”

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF