Guardian dogs
I was astounded to read the story, “Knowledge best way to fight coyotes,” (WP, Dec. 13).
It harks back to the days when Saskatchewan research was keen on feeding chloride-laced sheep carcasses to coyotes to condition them against eating live sheep.
Since 1980, Canada has had the answer to predator control that Europe has had for centuries: livestock guardian breeds of dogs.
The story made absolutely no mention of guardian dogs.
We have had several of those dogs every year guarding our flock since the early 1980s, and our farm is now a “coyote free zone.”
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My rifles are gathering dust in my gun cabinet.
We lamb our flock on pasture in May and early June, and we sleep soundly at night.
We live within a few miles of wolf traffic and we pasture remote fields in summer.
The imprinting and management of guardian dogs is little understood by producers, otherwise why would they invite a biologist to discuss the need to understand coyote culture to them?
The biologist was right on with his story, but the knowledge is merely academic.
Livestock guardian dogs have given the sheep industry hope for the future that never existed before their arrival.
When producers learn to imprint and manage these dogs properly, coyotes become simply interesting wildlife.
– Trevor Jones,
Fairview, Alta.
Money to burn
I can’t believe how many politicians and grain company paid organizations like the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association are being allowed to rule the Open Forum of The Western Producer. Every paper, I find another leader of the anti-wheat board speaking out.
Surely the politicians like Ritz, Nielsen and Nagel can use other means of indoctrinating the public other than using up this editorial space? Are they kept at 300 words?
No doubt having the paper paid for by the ads of chemical, fertilizer and other large companies of the big business group must help. Their voice is heard not only by their hired lobbyists in Ottawa but locally as well.
Farmers lose, corporations gain. Commodity prices go up, inputs go up. Farmers number thousands, big corporations number a few. Who has the advantage?
They have money to burn for ads, telephone surveys. Farmers are offered a price. Farmers don’t offer a price.
I no longer subscribe to the anti-CWB bashing Grainews because they would not publish my article – too long and on the wrong side. “But we will publish if we can abbreviate” was the reply. I call this stifling of freedom of speech.
There should be a law against this too. But if you are a politician, a leader of some kind of organization, you can have your article published next week.
This article may have to wait for two months. It is very similar to how the government has the CWB gagged now. Government officials can speak but the other side can’t. The CWB represents farmers’ interest like UFA and Co-op do and the SWP did.
The only way two rail companies and a handful of elevator and chemical companies can take advantage is to eliminate another player in the supply management system.
The Conservative government basically takes over where the Americans have left off. Have you noticed that since the Conservatives come to power, that there are no more trade challenges against the CWB by the Americans? That should be the big clue for Canadians as to how the world is ruled. …
– Allan Fritzke,
Maple Creek, Sask.
Warranty laws
Waking up from the 16 years of NDP rule in (Saskatchewan) is much like the Kansas farmer who emerges from his tornado shelter only to find his yard completely razed. He looks at his wife and kids and says, “Look Ma, everything is OK, we’ll have ‘er back in operation in no time.”
In other words, rural Saskatchewan has a lot of work to do in the next few years.
When Grant Devine and his Conservative government were in power, the department of justice of the day had instituted many laws that protected rural families and farm corporations from incidental and unforeseen calamities that afflict agriculture from time to time. Little or no improvements to this legislation was brought forth by the Romanow and Calvert governments.
One area of the law that requires immediate attention is the introduction of new legislation to protect consumers who legally purchase farm equipment, pick-up trucks, ATVs and other goods from foreign suppliers.
Quite often the manufacturers take it upon themselves to prohibit or restrict warranty to customers. This has been a serious problem in the last while, especially for farmers who legally purchase farm pickups, ATVs and other vehicles in the U.S., only to arrive here and find out that their warranty is void; a decision that is usually made by the Canadian branch of the manufacturer.
Traditionally, provincial governments have enforced warranty laws on consumer and farm goods. Is it perhaps time to implement universal warranty laws in this province? A phone call to your MLA is the first step.
– John Hamon,
Gravelbourg, Sask.
More dogs
Re: “Knowledge best way to fight coyotes” (WP, Dec 13.)
Guardian dogs such as Great Pyrenees, Maremma, Akbash, Kuvaz, Tatra and Kommondor live with sheep and protect them from predators, from coyotes to grizzlies.
Three or four dogs with 900 sheep provide round the clock protection at minimal cost with no disruption of the environment or predator populations. Puppies aren’t cheap, but they soon pay for their keep.
– M. Claudette Sandecki,
Terrace, B.C.
Courts & ports
… Out of dire needs, almost as soon as the railways began to monopolize the Prairies, farmers of vision won important court battles waged against the railroads and also built vast, co-operative grain handling systems that well-served the needs of all farmers.
With the recent creation of Viterra and the permanent establishment of the multinationals, all the blood-soaked sacrifices and commitments of our fathers, now in the graves, has been nonchalantly peed away.
By contrast, in the same span of time, a family company like Cargill has amassed a huge fortune of assets with its private vaults bulging in profits.
Shame on us. On the transportation side of things, the railroads continue to run roughshod over the rights of the smaller grain shipper. And we should relish the fact that we are almost 100 percent represented by members of the governing side? Who needs enemies when we have friends? …
Having always been a drummer for the port of Churchill and its rail line from the Prairies, I hand a Victoria Cross to the farmers of Farmers of North America, who are initiating the importation of fertilizer from Russia to stabilize the prices of the domestic suppliers, who are masters of market exploitation.
Certainly, shipping through the port can only be maximized if the incoming ships are loaded with imports. …
If Churchill and its rail line are to succeed, volumes have to increase both ways. Omni-Trax has done an admirable job so far, (for it takes Americans to show us stupid Canadians how to run a business), but any success in the future will lie in the survival of a wheat board. With a government out to dismember it … this is like a scene from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
There have been numerous lines in the northeast that serve the Churchill basin that have either been dismantled or are relegated to weeds and rust. The concrete giants, a product of 30 years of glowing deception as some panacea for farmers, the elevator companies and railroads end up as the sole beneficiaries of the efficiencies promised.
The mirage of a value-added, secondary cattle industry, fed on screenings, only faded away into decimating the small towns and quickening the exit of rural people into the concrete jungles of urbanization. …
Today, a new breed of farmer is on the scene. Highly motivated by technology, he has to amass huge tracts of land to legitimize his existence. …
Within that context, it is hard to gauge the mood of the community spirit. Perhaps in reality, even that is on the wane. Who knows?
– H. Beskorovayny,
Gronlid, Sask.
