REGINA – You may already be groaning about the price of beef in the meat aisle, but long before the cost goes up in stores, cattle producers are taking a hit.
“A drought like this is going to cost producers more money than any other drought in history,” said Bill Jameson, chair of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association.
Saskatchewan’s price at slaughter isn’t as high as Alberta’s new record, but it has gone up 37 per cent since May 2014 to $162 per 100 pounds of beef, according to Statistics Canada.
So you’d expect more production to meet demand, but dry conditions are getting in the way; hay stocks and grassy pasture haven’t grown as expected.
“You have to start worrying about how you’re going to feed them,” Jameson said.
Just how dry is it?
Consider nearly every part of the province has had far less rain than usual, with farmers around the big cities barely getting a quarter of the normal rainfall.
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Roughly 80 per cent of the Prairies is experiencing drought, according to Trevor Hadwen, an agroclimate specialist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
“A lot of people are comparing this year to 1961, which was a very large drought year,” Hadwen told The Canadian Press on Monday.
Demand for feed is so high, the price of hay has roughly doubled.
“We’re definitely seeing tighter supplies (and) reduced yields in direct response,” said Dallas Rodgers, a market analyst for cattle information firm Canfax.
“You either pay up for hay or you destock to match the feed reserves you have around.”
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Another month of dry conditions may prompt cattle producers to sell off their stock, but don’t expect any bargains at the store.
“It absolutely, eventually, comes back to cost the consumer more money,” Jameson said.
Though it may not be felt this year, right now any rain at all would help.
With files from The Canadian Press
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