Best to plan now for animal disease outbreak

Nov 21, 2022

How quickly could you come up with a list of who has been on your farm or ranch in the last couple weeks?

A strong preparedness plan would include a record of visitors and animal movement, both on and off the property, to save steps during an emergency, producers heard at the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association district meeting in Swift Current last month.

Shauna Mellish, facilitator and outreach specialist with the Animal Health Emergency Management project, said a serious animal disease outbreak or a weather-based disaster are examples of why livestock producers should have a plan.

The project began in 2016 and is funded through Agri-Insurance in the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

Mellish said producers already know how BSE affected the industry by shutting down trade and weakening the sector overall. It could also undermine public trust, she said.

The project has involved developing resources for producers “that provide a consistent set of tools and guidelines that could be applied across all sectors, across regions, so that when it came time to prepare and respond we were being consistent in how we did that and then efficient as well,” she said in an interview.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.