Veal cutlets cost about $11 at the truck stop in Whitewood, Sask.
Greg Hemming, who farms and raises cattle near Esterhazy, Sask., took special note of the menu price when he was in Whitewood last week. A few days earlier, he had received a cheque for a 90-pound veal calf he’d sold at auction on June 29.
The amount: $2.85.
To be fair, notes Hemming, the calf’s sale price was $7.50, or just over eight cents per pound. Deductions for brands, checkoff and insurance were whittled off the total.
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And also to be fair, says Hemming (fairness came up often in our conversation) the veal cutlets at the truck stop include soup and salad.
But, “cattle are selling for nothing, yet the price is high in stores,” he says, adding he had expected a cheque for about $150.
“How can a farmer sell cattle and expect to pay bills, with losses like that? It’s impossible. I have other cattle to sell, but it just isn’t paying me to sell them.”
Cattle used to pay the bills for Hemming, who also farms 12 quarters that make up the family farm. Now he and unknown numbers of other Canadian cattle producers are in a cost-price vise that squeezes tighter as the United States border remains closed to live cattle.
There’s nothing fair about it, no matter how fair-minded our producers try to be.
“This BSE has really hurt me bad. A lot of people in cities and towns don’t know how bad it is out there,” says Hemming.
That’s where George Chopping comes in. He operates Old George’s Hidden Village Museum and Antique Shop in Whitewood, located just off the Trans-Canada Highway. The tourist ambassador collects and displays prairie antiques and memorabilia.
His most recent acquisition is Hemming’s $2.85 cheque, for which he paid $10. Chopping plans to frame and display it.
“Lots of people won’t believe it until they see it,” he says. Late last week he had already shown it to several tourists and passersby.
“They just shake their heads.”
Hemming was putting up hay last week. He figures he’ll need it, since he can’t afford to sell his cattle and may be feeding them this winter. If the crop is really good, he might be able to sell hay for some income.
As for the future, he thinks his best option might be an off-farm job. Hemming suspects many cattle producers are in the same leaky financial boat, but few are willing to talk about it.
Low prices, farmers unable to make a living from the land? Nothing fair about it.
Foreign policy
To the Editor:
Canada’s foreign policy has always been different than the United States. We were against apartheid in South Africa long before the U.S., and similarly traded and worked with Russia before the U.S.
We traded and contributed economic aid to Cuba while the U.S. maintained their embargo. We traded with China and recognized their government long before the U.S. voted to admit China into the United Nations.
We never took part in Vietnam, and we only took part in South Korea with the UN force. So, they should have not been surprised when we would not go into Iraq unless the UN was there.
If (Conservative leader Stephen) Harper has his way, our foreign policy will be identical to the United States.
– Jack Horner,
Pollockville, Alta.
Support CWB
To the Editor:
… I have asked myself what the western Canadian grain industry would look like without the CWB. There are some out there who believe that once the board is gone, the U.S. border will fly open and we will be able to stuff every elevator south of the border with as much wheat and barley as we can haul.
Wrong. The U.S. tariff is on Canadian wheat, not the CWB. The tariff will remain with or without the board. Remember that the U.S. is in an election year and the Democrats have promised even stronger protectionist policies than the Republicans.
Now ask yourself where the money is made in the wheat and barley market. It’s not in handling, cleaning and storage; just ask any grain company. The money is made marketing the product to the end user and this is what the CWB does.
This is what the American multinationals are after. But unlike other resource based industries in Canada that they now control, the CWB is not for sale; it has no price tag.
Last year Japan paid almost $9 per bushel for top grade red spring wheat f.o.b. Vancouver. After deducting the cost of marketing, the balance went into the pool for the benefit of all farmers.
If Cargill or ADM had control of this market, how much of the $9 would be returned to the farmers pocket? The answer is simple. We would receive Minneapolis milling grade price freight backed off to the point of delivery. The balance would go to the shareholders. …
We are the shareholders of the CWB, not some Philadelphia lawyer, not some New York dentist, not some Hollywood plastic surgeon. We are western Canadian farmers, and it is time we got behind our company.
If the CWB is a thorn in Cargill’s side or a pain in ADM’s back or an itch that ConAgra and Louis Dreyfus can’t scratch, then I can’t think of a better reason to support them.
The CWB is one of the few remaining aspects of our industry that is not controlled by interests outside of our country. Let’s do whatever we can to keep it that way. Remember that the price our farming brethren to the south receive for their wheat and barley is below their cost of production as well but they have a multibillion-dollar farm bill to support that price. We don’t….
– George Graham,
Foxwarren, Man.
One voice
To the Editor:
Why are farmers divided into so many powerless groups? There is the National Farmers Union, so become a member. And that membership should be reasonable.
It is disgusting reading about this association or that splinter group all talking a different tune or fighting each other. Together they would have one voice. And government must pay attention to one strong voice….
Governments like it when we are divided. Then they don’t have to pay attention to anyone. Governments seem always to be in bed with big corporations. It has gotten particularly bad since this marvelous free trade agreement has taken over Canadian thinking and decision making by foreign countries. We don’t even have big Canadian owned packing plants anymore. Is there anything left for foreigners to take over here?
Sovereignty, does anyone know the meaning? If we don’t wake up quickly, we’ll be singing The Star Spangled Banner instead of O Canada.
The BSE thing seems preposterous. A whole year has passed and still they are talking about testing only a percentage of slaughter cattle. It is government responsibility to test every last one and thus guarantee safe beef. Should be no problem finding world markets for safe beef.
The government’s cheap food policy should instead be pure food policy and that includes GMO junk. …
Cattle breeders must gauge themselves as to how much stock to raise each year so as not to flood markets. You don’t see OPEC overproducing oil, do you?
How did this country get so many problems since the early days? Greed, mismanagement of the country and no policy to guide farming.
– R. Bohush,
Sherwood Park, Alta.
CWB value
To the Editor:
Having been born and raised on a farm during the regime of the open market system of grain marketing with fluctuating prices from day to day, I can recall one year when my father sold oats in March for six cents and within a year of that time the price was 35 to 40 cents, a fluctuation of over 600 percent from year low to year high, a prime example of open market stability.
In the late 1920s the producers in the prairie provinces began the task of organizing. …
Then, in 1935, the Canadian Wheat Board came into effect…
Just a few short days after the federal election call, the leader of the new party said he would remove the CWB monopoly on grain selling.
(The CWB doesn’t) have a monopoly. It is a proven democracy in action. (It) struck me as rather dictatorial. The producers have time and again voted in favour, when electing their directors…
The big monopoly lies in the hands of the suppliers of products essential for producers to operate: fuel, machinery and repairs, fertilizer, chemicals, labour, etc. These prices seem to be able to increase, unquestioned, and are anything but stable, with big sales being discounted and small sales paying much more.
It all boils down to the small farmer, community saver, in schools, churches and community events, paying to subsidize the large farmers and operators. …
– Joseph Hagyard,
Glenboro, Man.
Form republic
To the Editor:
There is a good reason Stephen Harper is rethinking his future. The Conservatives ran on basically Harper’s personal platform, as there was no time for a party policy convention.
For next time the writing is already on the wall.
The “know it all” political writers are already suggesting that Conservatives have to:
- Accept the “culture of dependency.”
- Shift to the left on social issues.
- Become more centralist in Ottawa.
- Match the tax and spend position of the Liberal-NDP coalition.
- Pander to Quebec and bilingualism.
- Accept as gospel the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- Become a mainstream party (i.e. do what Ontario and Quebec want.)
There is just one thing wrong with this picture. Harper, being a western Canadian, may not have the stomach to do what it takes to lead the Conservatives to be the government in Ottawa.
My suggestion to him would be to leave Ontario east with all of the above and work with the West in the formation of the Republic of Western Canada.
We have tried long enough and now we should let the universe unfold as it should.
– Ace Cetinski,
Sherwood Park, Alta.
