Alberta cattle farmers looking for relief after quarantine

Oct 31, 2016

Bovine tuberculosis caused some ranches to shut down temporarily

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Some cattle ranchers in Alberta are looking for financial assistance after 30 ranches were put under quarantine as a result of a bovine tuberculosis detection.

Kevin Stopanski’s ranch in Jenner, Alberta, was one of the quarantined properties, and the timing could not have been worse.

“This is where our income comes to pay for loan and land payments and that kind of thing,” he told CBC. “So now under quarantine, no animal can actually arrive or leave these quarantined lands, so we’re sitting here looking at all these dollars and there’s no compensation.

Brahman

“This is our bread and butter.”

Stopanski estimates ranchers could be losing $5 million, and that doesn’t include the cost of feed.

Bob Lowe, chair of Alberta Beef Producers, said he’s visited some of the affected properties and it’s a dire situation.

“It’s huge to those guys,” he told CBC. “I’ve been out there a few times, and you don’t go away with a good feeling.”

Alberta Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said he’s continuing to communicate with the federal government to decide what the best course of action is to help producers.

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture alerted them that a case of Bovine TB had been detected in an Alberta cow after the animal was processed.

The CFIA is continuing to investigate the source of the infection.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.