AUGUSTA – Canadian cattle, which came rolling across the U.S.-Canada border on Monday, are not expected to affect Maine’s dairies, industry officials said this week.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Commissioner Mike Johanns announced last week that the paperwork is in its final stages to open the border to beef imports following the lifting of a ban related to mad cow disease by a federal appeals court.

Those cattle, however, are only headed for beef markets, explained Julie Marie Bickford of the Maine Dairy Improvement Association.

“They will head directly into the slaughter system,” she said.

A panel of judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last Thursday unanimously overturned a Montana judge’s earlier decision that had kept the border closed since May 2003. The original decision ruled that the U.S. beef industry faced “potentially catastrophic damages” if the border were left open.

But here in Maine, many dairy farmers have found a niche market and a great supplement to their income by selling replacement heifers and embryos to others in the dairy industry. This market will not be in jeopardy, Bickford said.

“They are not opening the border to replacement heifers yet,” said Bickford, who added that once that ban is lifted, Maine’s farmers will see a swift and severe drop in milk prices.

“Our fear is that the big dairy farms out west will begin buying up the Canadian heifers and then flood the market with milk,” said Bickford. The result could be severely depressed milk prices, which would force more family farms out of business. Maine has less than 370 dairy farms.

Consumers are eagerly awaiting the beef imports, hoping that high meat prices in grocery stores display cases finally will begin dropping. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, beef prices rose to a near-record $4.26 a pound during the ban.

A group of U.S. ranchers, pleased with the high prices their beef were getting and concerned about the spread of mad cow disease, sued the United States last March to keep the border closed. A trial is scheduled on that suit later this month.

The United States banned all Canadian cattle after that country discovered its first case of mad cow disease more than two years ago. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association estimates that its ranchers lost more than $5.7 billion and their industry has been set back more than 10 years by the embargo.