Kolk has been waiting for days for
"The train was supposed to arrive Tuesday and it's still not here and now it's Friday morning. If it doesn't arrive soon, we’ll have to have people out shovelling and scraping the bin bottoms," Kolk said.
"In 30 years of business, I’ve never experienced where we don’t know what we’re going to feed the cattle Monday morning.”
An unprecedented situation is unfolding in Canadian cattle country, where industry groups say a widespread feed shortage has escalated in recent days to a full-fledged emergency.
“We’re at the crisis stage now,” said
"Nobody wants to look at a bunch of cattle starving to death around their operation. We don’t want that, and we’ll do anything to keep that from happening, but this could become an animal welfare issue."
Feed supplies have been a concern in the cattle industry ever since last summer, when extreme drought left
However, in recent weeks the problem has been exacerbated by transportation challenges. According to the
Many are growing increasingly desperate. Several large feedlot operators expect to run out of animal feed "within days," said
"I'm not sure some people understand the magnitude of the situation," Tranberg said. "These feedlots house anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 head, so this is dire."
It is very unusual for
On Friday, Canadian Pacific chief financial officer
But Velani acknowledged that CP Rail has also been challenged by a number of issues this winter, including the Omicron variant and an increase in the number of employees out sick as well as extreme cold that has forced the company to run shorter trains and at reduced speeds.
"We have seen some challenges as well with customer labour shortages, and what that's meant in terms of loading and unloading at some of the customer facilities where they've been short-staffed," Velani said at the
In an email, CP spokeswoman
But in agricultural circles, frustration is mounting.
"They blame COVID and weather, and in my opinion those are two fairly valid excuses, but in the feeding industry we suffer through COVID and weather too but we still have to feed the cattle," Lowe said. "CP Rail does not seem to understand that the cattle need to be fed.”
For his part, Kolk — the
He said many of his neighbours are in a similar boat, and everyone is trying to help each other out and conserve what corn is left in the area.
"It's, 'how much do you have, how much do you need, can I take a couple of loads from the next train even though it's not my train?'" Kolk said.
"The last time we were almost out and the train finally came in, my staff went and worked an 18-hour shift all through the night just to get the bins refilled."
If he runs out of feed, Kolk said he will be forced to put his cattle on reduced rations.
"It would be like if you were used to getting three meals a day and then all of a sudden the only thing we have to feed you is dry Rice Krispies or something," he said.
"It's going to cause health issues, because you can't just go and change an animal's diet like that."
This report by
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