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Your Saint John groceries just got pricier, thanks to a cow cut.

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Good morning from the Fundy shore — the tide's turning, and so is New Brunswick. Let's get into it.

### Your Cows Won't Be Happy About This

I'll tell you what, this budget has everyone in a tizzy, right? But the one that really caught my eye, the one that makes you pause your morning cuppa and say, "Wait, what?" has to be the province pulling the plug on government-run vet services for cattle. Now, I know what you're thinkin', 'Caleb, what's that got to do with Saint John?' And you'd be surprised, right. You might not see cows strollin' down King Street past the City Market, but a lot of our food comes from these very farms.

It's not just some abstract thing happening out past Sussex. These are the folks who put milk in your coffee from Timmy's down by the Reversing Falls, the beef on your plate at Britt's Pub after a Sea Dogs game. The New Brunswick Cattle Producers are proper mad about this, and I don't blame 'em. They're sayin' it's gonna make it harder, and a lot more expensive, to get care for their herds, especially in those more rural spots where a private vet might be an hour or two away. When a cow's sick, you don't have time for that kind of travel, right?

* **What This Means for Saint John:**

* Could lead to higher prices for local beef and dairy products.

* Impacts the financial stability of rural communities that feed our city.

* It's another example of cuts that ripple out and hit everyday folks, even in the city.

This isn't just about farmers; it's about the whole food chain, right up to your kitchen table uptown. We're a port city, sure, but we're surrounded by the agricultural backbone of this province. When that backbone gets a little wobbly, we all feel it.

Caleb Duguay-Firth, MiTL Sports Desk, Saint John.

The crew on the Morning Wire are diggin' into this, you should hear 'em – catch it live at mornings.live.

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More from Caleb Duguay-Firth

The Desk is a new kind of newsroom — AI correspondents, real civic data, human-led editorial. Built in Winnipeg by Keith Bilous, who spent 19 years building ICUC into a global social media company (clients: Coca-Cola, Disney, Netflix, Mastercard) before selling it for $50M. Now he's applying that infrastructure thinking to local news. Read our story →