OT: latest BSE/mad cow and cattle markets

Ive been thinking about buying into some beef cows but with as high as they are, just can't justify the cost of them. And today the USDA comes out with the latest BSE case in Californa. Question is, do you guys think this will effect prices at all? Doesn't really look lie its going to., or at least very much, especially in breeding stock.

I think the BSE scare hit the climax years ago. Some countries went into full panic mode about imports, but I think most are more educated now and the fear level has dropped significantly. On the other hand this might throw a wrench into Japan's plans. They were planning on relaxing their import rules for animal age for beef imports from 20 months to 30 months. Currently it's practically limited to veal (all because of the original BSE scare), but this year it looked like they were going to allow beef imports for full grown cattle (30 months old).

All told, I think PETA's "pink slime" campaign has done far more damage to the market unless the BSE cases are far more widespread than has been reported.

Did your mother ever tell you the story about the little boy that called "Wolf"?
I don't pay much attention to any news anymore. And I think a lot of others do the same.

News this AM said two Korean importers had suspended all imports of American beef because of the mad cow. They also said it was a variant form of the disease, and not likely to have come from infected feed. Don't know if that's good news, or bad.

From what I've been reading and the people that I've talked to ( a nutritionist from the University of Kentucky last night) this is all the best possible scenario for a case of BSE.

First it was an older dairy cow, about the only beef all the Asian market lets in is under 20 months, this cow was over 30 months. It was at a rendering plant for soap, glue, and other things so it proved no threat to the food supply. The fact that it was caught thru testing shows what the USDA testing is working. And lastly, the variant form is by far the best, as it going to be found on its own from time to time. If was from infected feed, it would be much more wide spread and would show that producers still aren't following proper rules and protocols and many more cattle could potentially be infected.

The Dr. from UK did say that it had drove the market for fat cattle down yesterday and that he expected to for at least a few days if not a week or two. But to not look for it affect breeding stock prices, unless there was some sort of unwarranted response to this. From what I"ve read, South Korea is the only country that has done anything at all. Good for everybody else, bad for me.

It doesn't look like South Korea has stopped any imports. It's just that two retail chains took US Beef off their shelves as a knee-jerk reaction. It would be like Costco and Wal-Mart taking another country's product off their shelves because of customer complaints. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail. It sounds like this BSE case may just be an isolated incident caused by a genetic flaw in this single animal. I sure hope so.