How BSE shrunk the cow herd, built feedlots, and forever changed marketing Canadian cattle

The immediate impact of finding a BSE-positive cow in Alberta in 2003 was swift and brutal. Overnight, Canada’s export market evaporated and prices for cattle, especially older animals, tanked. As we look back on the decades that have followed, the longer-lasting impacts have been monumental, but not necessarily as clear. To dive in to what…