DENVER — Over the past 104 years, bigger livestock expositions have faded into history, but the National Western Stock Show in Denver is still going strong, pulling in more than 600,000 visitors every year from around the world.
Unique from other shows, Denver invites visitors to “the yards,” where “carloads” of bulls and heifers are on display during the 16-day run. It’s a nod to the past, although the cattle no longer arrive in railcars and often return home to sell through on-farm production sales.
On the last full weekend of this year’s show, some breeders had already packed up and moved out, while a section of pens normally used to promote breed associations and herd sires was in the process of being converted into an arena for stock dog trials. Still, streams of visitors continued to flow into the yards drawn by mild weather.
Hereford breeder Walter Douthit of St. Francis, Kan., was still hoping to make a sale or two before the show’s conclusion.
“This has always been a tough market, but this year it’s even tougher,” he said.
He noted that some of his potential Mexican customers had been impacted by the growing violence and instability in that country, saying that getting animals across the border is becoming more difficult.
Raul Tellez, a marketing specialist with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, brought several Mexican ranchers to the show. He has suspended his routine trade trips to Mexico due to the violence there, but said it hasn’t dampened the interest of ranchers to come to Denver and see the cattle.
“They don’t want to spend their time at the show, they want to spend their time in the yards,” he said. “If a Mexican rancher wants to look and buy, he’s going to buy.”
The international flavor of the National Western gives the show its character and vitality.
Despite the investment of time and money in a recessionary economy, the number of livestock exhibited this year still increased by about 15 percent, according to show officials.
The show’s significance as an international venue is not fading.
“It’s getting bigger, actually,” said Tom Field, executive director of producer education for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “They’ve done a really good job with that piece of the puzzle. Once we normalize trade, this will become an absolute economic engine.”
U.S. livestock genetics have been one of the country’s greatest contributions around the globe, he added.
“It’s created a lot of value for cattle producers,” Field said.
The National Western brings the international livestock community together through conferences and meetings. In the past decade, the International Livestock Congress, held in conjunction with the National Western, has evolved into a large event attracting hundreds, this year featuring a global meat outlook from Wesley Batista, president and CEO of Brazilian-based JBS, now the U.S. and the world’s largest beef processor.
Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture John Stulp hosted the third in a series of roundtable meetings with the Canadian consulate inviting representatives of Colorado agricultural organizations to discuss issues of mutual concern with livestock leaders from Canada, including declining cattle numbers, low demand, increasing regulatory costs and marketing to modern consumers.
“The Denver Stock Show has always been an important show for the Canadian industry,” said Travis Toews, the current president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, in an interview. “Even with electronic marketing, I don’t think the importance is diminishing. There’s an awful lot to be said for personal contact.”
Toews is part of a family operation near Beaverlodge, Alberta, involved in cow-calf, backgrounding and beef finishing.
“The cattle industry in Canada has been really tough since 2003,” he continued. “We’ve recovered most of our markets, but now we find ourselves in a high currency, high cost, low demand environment.”
The U.S. and Canadian currency are now roughly equivalent, a strengthening of the Canadian dollar that makes Canadian products less attractive in the U.S. market. Canada exports 80 percent of the beef it produces.
One of the issues Toews confronted during the roundtable was Canada’s international trade challenge of U.S. Country of Origin labeling. Canada and Mexico say COOL violates prior trade agreements between the three countries, and some American cattle and beef organizations agree.
“We’re not opposed to U.S. producers or consumers knowing where their food comes from at all,” Toews explained in the interview. “We’re not opposed to the concept of COOL. Our concern is with a narrow piece of the legislation that concerns the definition of origin of live cattle that are subsequently processed in the U.S.”
The logistics of segregating these cattle at the processing, wholesaling and retailing levels adds to costs that put the product at an unfair competitive disadvantage, Toews said. He believes this will hurt some U.S. plants located near the Canadian border and potentially put them out of business, further consolidating the industry.
“I think history will show that as a result both countries will be less competitive in the future and extra costs will be passed down on the U.S. producer,” he said.
Groups like R-CALF and National Farmers Union fought for a label that would specify meat from animals born and raised as well as processed in the U.S. Toews said segregating and designating U.S.-born beef should be voluntary and provided as a benefit of branded programs.
Another Canadian, Allan Marshall, of Hennisville, Alberta, the first vice president of the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, also participated in the roundtable. He was in Denver for three days to look at cattle and to buy semen.
He has been to other national shows around the country, but says, “For me, the most valuable cattle are in Denver. There are no slick-haired cattle here.”
Following the roundtable discussion, he said in an interview that the Canadian cattle industry suffered some poor publicity with their U.S. neighbors when marketing channels shifted so that exports that had been moving east began traveling south. That led to lines of cattle trucks passing through the border in Montana. “Those ranchers don’t see the reefer trucks leaving Iowa and going up to Ontario,” he said.
“We’re really up against it up in Canada in a lot of ways,” he continued. “We built an industry around having an open border. That’s how our industry grew so fast. All of sudden, that’s changed.”
Both he and Toews said they could understand the concerns of their colleagues south of the border and said getting together to discuss disagreements face-to-face was important.
“Our industries have really grown together,” Toews said. “We’ve enjoyed largely free trade but there are always issues to be worked out.”
Marshall, too, had mostly good things to say about his visit to the show. “Denver’s very comfortable, very welcoming,” he said. Then he paused, noting the conclusion of a mild day with highs nearing 60. “It’s too hot for me down here,” he said with a laugh.
DENVER, Colo. —
