Buffeted by mad-cow scares, the drought and packer concentration, the Wyoming cattle industry is remarkably resilient, a cattle industry executive told the Casper Rotary Club on Monday.

Wyoming Stock Growers Association's Executive Vice President Jim Magagna gave Rotarians a brief overview of the cattle business, emphasizing that consumers haven't lost faith and continue to buy beef in growing numbers.

"If we ever lose consumer's faith, then we're in real trouble," he said. So far, that hasn't happened, in spite of an isolated case of mad-cow disease in Alberta. The discovery of the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), prompted fears of consumers abandoning beef in droves.

It didn't happen. In the weeks since the discovery of a single, BSE-diseased cow from an Alberta ranch, U.S. consumers have continued to buy beef, Magagna said. Not only that, prices have remained firm and have grown slightly stronger, he added.

The U.S. ban on Canadian exports of beef and cattle, and the fact that no more cases of BSE turned up, apparently helped convince U.S. consumers that their beef supply was safe, Magagna said. To date, all the quarantines on Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia farms have been lifted, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The fatal-brain wasting disease is believed spread through contaminated cattle feed containing BSE-diseased tissue. BSE is part of a category of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies that include scrapie for sheep, chronic wasting disease for deer and elk and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) for humans.

Magagna said his biggest concern now is the backed-up supply of Canadian beef, just waiting for the U.S. ban to be lifted. "I hope we can avoid having them dumped on the market," he said, which would depress prices.

Regarding the ongoing drought, Magagna said Wyoming ranchers are delighted with spring showers and greener grass, but no one thinks Wyoming is out of the drought, yet. Soil moisture and reservoir water levels are still distressingly low across much of the state, Magagna said. The market for replacement heifers - the truest measure of ranchers' outlook - is down 27 percent, he said.

"No one is naive enough to start restocking their herds," Magagna said. Cattle numbers in Wyoming are down from 1.55 million in 2002 to 1.29 million today, he said, and that's largely due to the drought, now in its fourth year.

Wyoming ranchers are also encouraged by U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. and his bill that are focused on packer concentration, Magagna said. When thousands of producers have their product funneled down into a packer bottleneck, he said, the potential for inequities is huge. Enzi's bill would help even the playing field between family ranchers and the three packing houses that have 85 percent of the market, Magagna said.

Ranchers are also encouraged by last year's passage in Congress of country of origin labeling (COOL) that requires all meat's origins to be clearly identified. Japan is working on a system that will identify meat from birth to display case. "It is coming and we ought to get on board," Magagna said.

Wyoming Stock Growers is also active working on endangered species issues, stewardship of public lands and waters, private property rights and advocacy for agriculture.

"We've a bright future ahead of us," said Magagna. While there will continue to be ups and downs, he said, "we're making good use of our natural resource base."