Border now open to local cattle producers, but not easy to use

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Two guest speakers, local OMAFRA rep. Gary Sliworsky and OCA director Jim Martin, spoke to the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association about the U.S. market and the recently opened border to live cattle.
Martin noted that sales to the U.S. were way down last year, mostly attributable to the high Canadian dollar. “We were ahead of the previous year until about September when the dollar kept rising.”
Sliworsky outlined the procedures producers will need to follow if they want to export animals permanently to the U.S. and also for in transit (i.e. through the U.S. from Rainy River to Manitoba.
As of November any cattle born after March 1, 1999 can enter the U.S. as long as all the right requirments are met.
Permanent Export
Sliworsky said that the proper certification from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is needed to cross the border. To get that a local large animal vet needs to inspect the animal(s) and fill out paperwork that is then sent to Dr. Wayne Cross at CFIA in Thunder Bay. From the time of initial examination by the local vet the producer has 30 days to use the CFIA certificate at the border. “Dr. Cross is usually pretty quick at getting them back to producers to give them plenty of time to cross the border,” said Sliworsky.
However, the problem for RRCA producers is that the area does not currently have a large animal vet. Sliworsky said, “(Dr. Cross) is trying to get the locums servicing this area to do it.”
RRCA Vet Recruitment Committee member Kim Jo Bliss said that her committee is actively trying to recruit a vet and even sent representatives to the University of Guelph to speak to graduate students. “It really surprised us that most of them (students) did not even know we were looking for a vet.” The committee is hopeful that they have at least three prospects on tap and will do all they can to get at least one to locate here.
Producer Robert Kreger asked if U.S. Vet Dr. Wayne Hasbargen could do it. Sliworsky said Hasbargen has said he would but he is very busy with a practise spanning from International Falls to Roseau, MN.
Sliworsky said the requirements for the cattle to go in transit are even more complicated. Each shipment has to be bonded and an electronic, not paper, manifest, has to be sent to the US Food and Drug Administration no more than five days prior and no less than two hours prior to crossing the border.
Sliworsky who works on computers a great deal said he went to the website for electronic manifests and started the tutorial on how to fill one out. “I found it to be very difficult to fill out and I think most people will.” So he contacted area brokers and found that only two of them are filling them out for producers and just started doing it Jan. 4, 2008. He said the cost will be between $1.50 to $150 to have it filled out depending upon how many times a person will be exporting cattle in a year. If it is one time the cost is about $100. 2-5 times cost is about $150. 6-199 times it is about $30 per time. If 200 times or more it is about $1.50 per time.
Sliworsky said e-manifests have made in transit so complicated that even Safeway and Tompkins Hardware have stopped going through the U.S. “Border officials have told me that it is in their opinion too complicated for 45 miles of pavement (Baudette to Warroad) and have noticed a big drop in commercial truck traffic.”
Sliworsky doubts that even though the border is now open, that very few local producers will try using it to move or export cattle.