Everyone in the US Beef Cattle Industry were getting ready for a good Christmas back in 2003- until the USDA Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman held a news conference on December 23, 2003 to announce a “a presumptive positive” test result for BSE in a cow found in the state of Washington.
That first case of BSE, or as it was called in those days, Mad Cow Disease, caused the Cattle Futures just ahead of Christmas to go limit down (and they would continue that after Christmas, too), export markets to shut down and stress levels to skyrocket for virtually everyone who was a rancher and owned cattle twenty years ago.
Oklahoma Farm Report’s Ron Hays and Don Close, now with Terrain- then with Aztec Feeders- look back to that black swan event and discuss how things went down- how the industry tackled the problem and what was learned that carries over to even today.
