Area cattlemen are confident their beef is safe, but they
’re worried about the impact a case of mad cow disease
discovered in Washington state could have on the beef industry.
Area cattlemen are confident their beef is safe, but they’re worried about the impact a case of mad cow disease discovered in Washington state could have on the beef industry.
The price of beef is poised to plummet from its recent all-time high – and “for no good reason,” says Jim Warren, owner of the 101 Livestock Market in nearby Aromas.
“There’ll be a national impact on beef prices only because of the distortion made by the national media,” Warren said Wed-nesday from his cattle market. “But it’ll be devastating for the industry.”
Japan, Taiwan and Mexico – this country’s three biggest beef buyers – are among the countries that have suspended all American beef imports. While middlemen like Warren may feel the blow quickly, local ranchers could duck much of its fullest impact.
There are about 20,000 cows in Santa Clara County and about 39,000 in San Benito County, according to the California Cattlemen’s Association.
The owners of these animals may ride out part of the mad-cow scare because most cows raised here are sold as calves to big feed lots in the Great Plains, where they are fattened on grain and not slaughtered for about a year, said Kevin O’Day, deputy agriculture commissioner for Santa Clara County. By the time cows sold now are ready for the beef market, the mad-cow issue may have blown over.
“Most of our calf sales are based on what we think the price is going to be … 18 months from now,” O’Day said. “Our calf prices might hold.”
Nevertheless, O’Day said, he expects to see a drop in cattle prices on the county’s next crop report.
Mad cow disease was not found on this side of the Atlantic Ocean until earlier this year, when a single breeder cow was found with it in Alberta, Canada. Bans that the United States and other countries subsequently put on Canadian beef crushed the country’s massive industry.
Mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a brain-wasting disorder that sprang up in Britain in 1986 and spread through countries in Europe and Asia. People can contract a form of the disease if they eat infected beef or nerve tissue, and possibly through blood transfusions. The human form of mad cow disease so far has killed 143 people in Britain and 10 elsewhere, but none in the United States or Canada.
Warren said that with only 150 people dead and no known health risk in this country from eating beef the health danger of mad-cow disease is largely a product of the international media.
“It got blown out of proportion in Canada, and it’ll get blown out of proportion here in the United States,” Warren said. “Eating beef is 100-percent safe. It’s not 99.9 percent; it’s 100 percent.”
Despite the changes afoot in the cattle industry, Gilroy area rancher Don Silacci said Wednesday he wasn’t overly worried.
“The price will probably go down a little,” Silacci said. “I’m not concerned because I know (the diseased cow) will never get into the food chain.”
