Expect US beef prices to jump, again...

[haypoint]

While this is good news for the American Beef Farmer, I wonder when/if Brazilian beef will be blocked from coming to the US?

Japan suspends Brazil beef imports after cow tests positive for mad cow
By Bloomberg News
Newsday
December 9, 2012


Japan, Asia's largest beef buyer, suspended imports of the meat from Brazil after a cow in Parana state tested positive for mad-cow disease.

"We suspended imports from Brazil as soon as an outbreak of BSE was confirmed," the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Saturday, referring to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or the brain-wasting disease known as mad cow.

Japan, which imported 1,435 metric tons of Brazilian beef last year, will seek supplies from alternative exporters such as the U.S. and Australia. Other beef importers may follow suit, bolstering cattle futures in Chicago that rallied to a record last month.

[Judy in IN]

Articles like this give me a warm feeling when I have a freezer full of meat. This makes homesteading worthwhile on two fronts. One, I know how the calf was raised and what it ate. Two, my wallet won't be screaming about the price.

[haypoint]

Judy, you are so correct.
Now here is the rest of the story. Glad to be a homesteader.

Brazil's First Case of Mad Cow Disease Hidden for Months
EnvironmentNewsService.com
December 7, 2012


BILLINGS, Montana - Brazil has notified international animal health regulators of its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, commonly called mad cow disease. The cow died two years ago, but the test confirming the deadly brain disease was not done until 18 months later, and the results not made public until Thursday.

This time lag allowed Brazil to export roughly 67 million pounds of beef to the United States since the suspect Brazilian cow was identified. Mad cow disease is transmissible to humans who eat beef contaminated with the prions that cause the disease, which is invariably fatal.

R-CALF USA, a U.S. national, non-profit cattle producers association, warns that this situation points up the need for defending U.S. mandatory country-of-origin labeling now under attack before the World Trade Organization.

"That means the U.S. imported enough beef from Brazil in 2011 and 2012 to feed over one million Americans their annual consumption of beef," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.

"None of that Brazilian beef imported into the U.S. during the past two years was subject to BSE mitigations that are supposed to apply to countries where BSE is known to exist, meaning U.S. consumers have been subjected to an unnecessary and avoidable risk of mad cow disease from Brazil," said Bullard.

A Brazilian notification submitted Thursday to the World Organization for Animal Health, OIE, identifies a 13-year-old cow that died in December 2010 in Parana state as a suspect for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, or mad cow disease.

The notification indicates that in early 2011, Brazil subjected the suspect cow to only one of two primary tests for mad cow disease - a histopathological test - that indicated the cow was negative for mad cow disease.

It was not until June 15, 2012 that the brain sample of the suspect cow was subjected to the second primary test for mad cow disease at the National Reference Laboratory in Recife, Brazil. It tested positive for BSE.

Brazil claims the long delay between the two primary tests for BSE was due to a combination of a work overload at its testing laboratory and OIE rules that caused Brazil to lower the priority of testing the suspect cow in its laboratory.

[SteveO]

thats ok
Russia just shut the door to US meat imports without a test for some chemical

[gone-a-milkin]

I am all for a country looking out for its own citizens and also for its own farmers.
Let's not pretend this story is anything but HYPE though.

Did anyone contract BSE from that estimated 67 million pounds of beef imported to the US?

Well then.


Unfortunately, the media will take a story like this for a ride.

[MO_cows]

The fact that the definitive test was not performed for 18 months is glaring evidence that Brazil's standards are not up to ours. I hope this does help our case for COOL. If you can't raise your own beef you ought to at least be able to choose what country it comes from.

[gone-a-milkin]

Stories like these do help to educate people of the process each country has.
If you 100% believe what the media says, which I dont.

Other countries have criticized the US on their methods for dealing with the spread of this disease too. Rightly or wrongly.

I am not standing up for them, make no mistake.
However, years of watching this BSE story unfold has lead me to believe that a LOT of manipulation happens, media wise.

[gone-a-milkin]

Originally Posted by SteveO

thats ok
Russia just shut the door to US meat imports without a test for some chemical

The Russian market is well known for being selectively picky.
It depends on how their own domestic market is faring as to how much imports they accept.

Plenty of anti-ag groups will take the russians failure to buy US beef as "Look, it is so terrible even those Russians wont buy it!"
Which is not exactly the most honest spin to put on it, IMO.

The "some chemical" you mention is this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ractopamine

[haypoint]

“Did anyone contract BSE from that estimated 67 million pounds of beef imported to the US? “
Do you want your name added to the list of 165 people that died from this awful disease. Since you seem to like Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_cow
You are correct there is a lot of political manipulation done around the world. Europe bans BGH treated US cattle, while feeding animal body parts to their cattle. South Korea rejects huge shipments of US beef when it finds one bone chip.

But with Mad Cow, it isn't like someone eats infected beef and gets sick. It can take years to show up.

[gone-a-milkin]

I am not making light of the seriousness of BSE.
Also, I don't prefer wikipedia as my primary info source.

Thank you for seeing my point though, which was that these markets are manipulated.
It can be very difficult to get the facts.
Misinformation is spread like wildfire and it affects the farmers the hardest.

I also count myself as one of the lucky ones who knows how the food my family consumes was raised.
I wish that were so for everyone.

[myersfarm]

HAVE A friend that just supervized a ship with 10,000 bred angus heifers going to Russia with 40 horses and 50 angus bulls...he will calf the heifers in Russia can stay 3 months at a time and then come home for 1 month then go back for 3 more ..

the first we heard it was going to be 18,000 heifers on ship

[Jennifer L.]

Originally Posted by gone-a-milkin

I am all for a country looking out for its own citizens and also for its own farmers.
Let's not pretend this story is anything but HYPE though.

Did anyone contract BSE from that estimated 67 million pounds of beef imported to the US?

Well then.


Unfortunately, the media will take a story like this for a ride.

I don't think that's a disease that shows up very fast. If people were infected it could be a long time before they were diagnosed.

Glad my freezer has my own beef in it.

[haypoint]

Originally Posted by myersfarm

HAVE A friend that just supervized a ship with 10,000 bred angus heifers going to Russia with 40 horses and 50 angus bulls...he will calf the heifers in Russia can stay 3 months at a time and then come home for 1 month then go back for 3 more ..

the first we heard it was going to be 18,000 heifers on ship

Correct. I can't recall the name of the ship. There has also been shipments of holsteins to Turkey (I think, somewhere over in that area). Might be the same ship.

It is the Ocean Drover. Here is the video:

YouTube

[myersfarm]

I can not remember name of ship but he did say he would tke lots of pictures