The Canadian Cattlemen's Association

American Foods Group has been taking Canadian cows at Green Bay, WI, South St. Paul, MN and Long Prairie, MN since the border opened in November 2007. The only issues they have had is if the cows have lost their ID tag and they need to rely on dentition which limits numbers. As long as the cows have a birth certificate from CCIA it goes well.
Cargill is taking Canadian cows from eastern Canada at their Milwaukee, WI and Wyalusing, PA facilities.
Tyson may be taking Ontario cattle next week at Geneseo (Joslin).
Smithfield has extended their contracts at Souderton, PA (Moyer) out to one year from the three month window they had been using.
Washington Beef - No set discounts these are determined by the market. They do not have any specific day of the week set for Canadian cattle. There is some interest in age verification with premiums paid. Basically it is business as usual, accepting quality cattle.

Canada

The CCA and the Canadian Pork Council have advocated that the way the mCOOL regulation is designed, discriminates against Canadian livestock.

Upon implementation of the interim final rule (on September 30, 2008), disruption appeared immediately in Canada/U.S. trade. Most U.S. meat packing companies decided to avoid the cost of tracking Canadian cattle and refused to accept them - while the remaining packers still willing to process Canadian cattle discounted prices and limited procession of Canadian livestock to certain days.

The combined impact of the lower prices and the increased cost of transporting livestock greater distances resulted in a loss of about $90 per animal.

Canadian packers lowered their bids in line with the discounts in the U.S. markets, so the next result hit Canadian cattle with significant price reductions, regardless of whether cattle were sold domestically or exported to the U.S.

To date, the estimated cost of mCOOL to Canada’s cattle industry appears to be an annual loss of approximately $400 million.

U.S.

On July 29, 2008, Tyson Fresh Meats outlined its initial approach to mCOOL for retail customers.

Packers and processors

An initiative by the CCA, the website MeatCool.info has been developed in partnership with the Canadian Pork Council, Canada Pork International and the trade division of the Beef Information Centre.

Now updated to highlight the Final Rule (which came in to effect on March 16, 2009), MeatCool.info was created to support meat products following the implementation of the final mCOOL rule.