Alberta ranchers wait for XL Foods to catch up

CALGARY -- Work to process 2,500 remaining cow carcasses will resume in Brooks, Alta., Tuesday while Alberta ranchers bide their time and the volume of cattle shipped to the U.S. for slaughter climbs. Anne Dunford, an industry market analyst with Gateway Livestock, said all summer long, exports of cattle for slaughter from Canada to the U.S. were steady at approximately 5,000 head per week, about 85% of which were from Western Canada. The most recent data, which goes up to Sept. 29, the week the XL Foods plant in Brooks was shuttered, shows an increase to 8,600 head. Though the 5,000-head-per-week average was on the low end of what Canada has been known to export, Dunford said the sharp jump can mainly be attributed to the XL plant closure. "It's fair to expect that number to increase more," she said. On Thursday, the XL Foods Lakeside Packers plant was given a green light by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to resume limited operations after 5,100 carcasses were tested for E. coli and 99% turned up negative...more