Cattle producers are working on a plan to increase the capacity to process beef in Canada to help alleviate the crisis from continued closure of the U.S. border to live cattle exports.

The plan is to have slaughter capacity increased by next spring by 15 to 20 per cent in Canada, which should be "very close" to the current production of cattle in Canada, said Brian Ross, president of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers' Association (SSG).

This includes facilities like the new processing plant under construction in Weyburn.

"There's a lot of concern amongst producers over what's going to happen. We're going to see a big calf run starting again this fall. It's just speculation, but we could see some really tough calf prices," he said.

Fillmore cattle producer Tom Grieve agrees that increasing capacity is the way to go if the Canadian industry is going to survive on its own.

"It's time we took hold of the situation and made the move where Canadians look after Canadians. We need to build our processing plants and not depend on the U.S. Our biggest concern is to get either government assistance or private investment to get this going," said Grieve.

Recent discussions in the industry have also raised the possibility of a massive slaughter of cull cows. Grieve said this would be a mistake, and would only play into the Americans' hands.

"I definitely would not support something like that. We have a tremendous opportunity to have one of the most viable industries going. The only thing is we're short of processing plants," said the Fillmore producer.

The Canadian Cattlemen's Association has set up a contingency committee to try and deal with some of the issues resulting from the continuing closure of the U.S. border due to BSE.

It's talking about a"set-aside" plan to hold processed animals over the winter when packing capacity will be larger. The committee is also looking at tax strategies and incentives for new packing plants, involving governments.

Ross said "The government has been in on some of these discussions, but I don't think the CCA has a lot of the details worked out yet. The government at this point is pretty receptive to what we're doing. They know we could be heading for a wreck."

"There is still some optimism (the border could open soon) but our main efforts are concentrated on getting the new plants in place in case it doesn't. We expected the border to be opened last year but it didn't happen," said Ross.

Canadian packing plants can process 75,000 head of cattle a week, but the industry needs that capacity to increase to 85,000 or 90,000 head a week to handle current production levels, said the SSGA president.

Ross said another key to increased capacity is the the need for increased cooler space at some of the bigger plants which would allow double-shifts and larger numbers of cattle.

Grieve said Canada is too dependent on the American packing industry.

"I believe the Americans are trying to run our feeding industry out of business as well. We have to stand on our feet and look after Canadians, and get processing plants up and develop our own markets," he said.