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Friday, January 2, 2004

Ranchers not cowed by disease fears

By ANDREW LYONS | News-Journal Staff Writer

SAMSULA — A longhorn cow moseys up to Elmer Kirkland’s truck and sticks its soggy snout through an open window.

Kirkland laughs but then jerks the steering wheel and says in a classic cowboy accent: “That cow’s gonna bump my vehicle.”

Kidding aside, Kirkland is one of many cattle ranchers whose happy-go-lucky days could be numbered.

Like so many ranchers across the country, Volusia County cattle raisers took a collective gulp last week when news broke that mad cow disease had reached the United States. Now ranchers are waiting to see if or how the intrusion of bovine spongiform encephalopathy will cripple beef sales.

Reflecting on the public relations nightmare, local ranchers use the basic Economics 101 principle of supply and demand to reason things. They said if consumers are scared to eat beef, they won’t buy beef and its value will drop. That means beef cows that once sold for 90 cents a pound could drop to half that value.

“It doesn’t take much to sway people when they hear ‘disease,’” Kirkland said Tuesday driving across his 1,300-acre sod farm where his cattle are raised.

Florida ranks third in the Southeast and 11th nationally in the production of beef calves, supplying 711,000 head a year for Midwest feedlots, according to the Florida Farm Bureau Federation. Florida’s beef cattle had annual sales of more than $371 million in 2000.

About 290 people in Volusia County were raising and selling cattle in 2000, according to federal Census statistics. And the president of the Volusia County Cattlemen’s Association estimates about 1,500 to 2,000 heads of cattle are in the county. Ranchers said three times as many cattle were raised in the 1950s and 1960s, before ranchers sold their land to homebuilders.

“It’s small potatoes compared to what we used to be,” said Randy Minger, who leads Volusia’s Cattlemen’s Association.

Nationwide, while the cattle ranching outlook may look glum, industry experts say ranchers are in a better position to weather a downturn than they have been in years. Beef sales have bounced back in light of the popularity of high-protein diets. And the beef industry has been running a successful advertising campaign in recent years, urging Americans to serve red meat for dinner.

Some beef industry watchers said the discovery of a sick cow in Washington state has been little more than a blip on Florida’s radar screen.

“I’m going to be very optimistic,” said Osteen rancher Jim LeFils. “Our product is safe.”

The University of Florida Extension Service office in DeLand reports only receiving about a dozen calls from local consumers about the safety of meat.

“We’re surprised that we’re not getting as many calls as we’ve had,” said David Griffis, director of the extension office. “And it hasn’t affected my thoughts of eating beef.”

But governments across the world are far more concerned. Mad cow disease can be deadly if humans eat neural tissue such as the brain and spinal cord from infected cattle. Some countries have banned imports of U.S. beef while federal agriculture officials maintain there’s no need for alarm.

Fewer cattle auctions typically are held in Florida during the Christmas holiday. So ranchers like Randy Minger are bracing for upcoming sales to be held in about a week.

The country’s first mad cow case has arrived, and no one can change that, Minger said. He just hopes other ranchers will be able to sell their cows for what they’re worth.

Minger paused Tuesday from his blacksmith duties to discuss mad cow. Borrowing a buddy’s saying, he said: “We saddled the horse, now we’re going to need to ride him.”

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