The Mad Cow scare also caused Japan to quit buying our beef, and from what I last read, there are some processing plants here in dire trouble because of this. I think in essence, we exported more to Japan than we imported from Canada, which should at this point be causing a surplus of beef here. I honestly don't understand why we need to import beef from Canada if we're selling beef to Japan. How about let's just eat our own meat?

On the same note, the farmer who owns the dairy where my hubby works is also into beef cattle heavily. I'm not sure if his profits are up or down on them--I'd like to find out. He did just move a pretty good-sized herd of yearlings out.

And yes, milk prices right now are out of sight! The dairy's getting $15/hundred weight, which is up from $11/hundred weight just a few months ago. I'm sure everyone's noticed butter prices lately! I have no clue how many pounds of butter I bought last summer when it was around $1.50/pound, but last I checked, I still have 8 pounds in the freezer! LOL I'm not saying it isn't true, but I haven't heard a lot about dairies decreasing herd-size, and locally there's always something in the paper about someone looking for permits to start new dairies. I do know my hubby's work place increased their herd by one/third last year.