Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Beef farmers urge a culling pause

Beef Farmers of Ontario is urging beef and dairy farmers to temporarily hold on to their cull cows because there’s a growing backlog of cattle needing slaughter.

The backlog began when Ryding-Regency in Toronto lost is federal inspection licence for failure to meet Canadian Food Inspection Agency standards.

That took out 15 per cent of Ontario’s cattle slaughtering capacity.

More recently, farmers in Eastern Ontario lost access to packing plants across the border.

The glut of milk that has Dairy Farmers of Ontario telling producers to dump milk has also increased the desire to cull cows.