Trevor McMillan is a 20-year-old Quebec farm kid, a graduate of an Alberta ag college, who has a dream of becoming a dairy farmer.
But he calls it an impossible dream.
He said the high cost of quota needed to get into the business is blocking him. His cattle producer parents cannot bankroll him.
He expects to end up a beef producer like them.
At close to $30,000 to buy the right to produce one kilogram of butterfat per day in Quebec, about one average cow’s production, it would cost him more than $1 million to buy the right to operate a small, 35-cow dairy herd.
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Land, cows, barns and equipment would be extra.
“In an ideal world, it would be nice to be in dairy,” he said. “I would like the stability and the weekly paycheque. Realistically, it isn’t possible. I need richer parents.”
In Ontario, the National Farmers Union has urged the opposition Liberals, seemingly poised to take power this year, to lower the costs of starting up in agriculture.
“I have heard many younger people say they cannot afford to get into the business because of quota values,” said Brussels, Ont., farmer and NFU youth adviser Dave Lewington.
“You have to have dairy farmer parents or be a rich immigrant to buy into the industry.”
In the regulated, protected and price-guaranteed dairy sector, the value of quota has been escalating, in many cases doubling in the past seven years.
In Nova Scotia, which has the highest quota values at more than $30,000 per kg, a quota rental system is being tried.
On the Prairies, buying access to that 35-cow dairy operation this spring would have cost more than $600,000 in Manitoba, $700,000 in Saskatchewan and almost $850,000 in Alberta.
Critics of supply management complain that high quota values are proof that dairy product prices are too high because they allow farmers to bid up quota values.
Supporters of supply management worry that quota values deter new entrants.
“I believe it is a cost that hurts the industry and limits entry,” said Manitoba turkey producer and former provincial agriculture minister Bill Uruski. “It is a drag on the industry.”
Ponoka, Alta., dairy farmer Rients Palsma is not sympathetic to those who complain about quota value.
He and wife, Jannie, who immigrated from Holland in 1989, entered the industry in 1991 with a few cows while also working long hours as farm labourers for others to finance their start.
Twelve years later, they have a prosperous dairy farm, quota worth more than $2.5 million, debt of $1.5 million and a son they want to bring into the business.
“You can get into the business if you are prepared to start small, work hard and build,” said Palsma.
“You can’t start with a full business and a million dollars in quota. You can’t in any business.”
