In 1988, U.S. live exports to Canada totaled 15,300 head. The number rose to 92,400 head in 1994 and then declined to 41,200 head in 1997. If Canadian imports would have been totally eliminated, U.S. commercial slaughter numbers would have been reduced by 1.4 percent in 1988 and of 4.1 percent in 1996. Live cattle numbers, however, are not the total picture. Imports and exports of livestock products take many forms.
Live animals is one form of product, but meat, byproducts, manufactured goods, etc. are other forms.
The two products that most directly affect livestock producers are live animals and meat. The problem with getting an accurate picture of how much of the market that live animal and meat imports represent stems from the fact that they are not marketed on a uniform basis. Live animals come into the country on a per-head basis and come in the form of breeding livestock, feeder calves, cull cows and slaughter animals. I felt that a conversion to live animals would appeal to livestock producers, so for the purpose of this discussion, meat has been converted to live animal equivalents. Canada is both a major destination for U.S. beef in the East and a major foreign supplier of beef in the the West.