Farming is frequently exposed to unpredictable acts of nature, which will often affect your financial income in the current year and future ones. Drought and flooding are two such conditions that might force you to sell part of your breeding herd, sometimes at less-than-ideal prices. To help mitigate those losses, the federal government offers a […] Read more
Opinion — page 5
Tax deferral program helps when drought forces herd sale
Day of reckoning coming for pre-harvest glyphosate?
Five years ago, about half of the pigs in Canada were raised with ractopamine. In 2018 the percentage is basically zero. Use of the feed additive, which increases the rate of gain for hogs, dropped to nothing because Canada’s pork industry listened to market signals. Major buyers, like China and Russia, didn’t want pork with […] Read more
How these things begin . . .
Will we get a currency/debt crisis? What happens to agriculture prices in one?
Is Turkey’s currency crisis going to spread around the world? Or is it just a local phenomenon without much impact outside its neighbourhood? Nobody knows right now. There are some signs of “contagion,” which is what happens when one local crisis spreads to other markets like an infectious disease, with India and Argentina being hit […] Read more
Canada right to speak up on Saudi human rights abuses
How much inhumanity does a country get to inflict on people before countries with which it does business speak up? That question is central to the dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia. How about beheading, crucifixion, leading the invasion of another country (Yemen, creating what the United Nations called a humanitarian catastrophe,) torturing confessions out […] Read more
Canada must send strong signal to U.S. on trade war
It was disappointing to hear federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay say Canada won’t do anything substantial to help Canadian farmers who will likely be affected by the growing trade dispute between the United States and China. In a scenario that will likely see prices affected worldwide, Canadian farmers will be caught up in the fray. […] Read more
End supply management like Aussies
Canadian policy-makers would be well advised to learn lessons from their commonwealth cousins in Australia about phasing out supply management. Canada’s policy of supply management means Canadians pay much higher prices for staple foods such as milk, cheese, eggs and poultry. These higher prices are enforced in two ways: The amount of domestic production is […] Read more
Consider these tax issues when retiring from farming
Retiring from farming may sound like a term rarely heard but it does happen, often in many ways. Whether it’s transitioning the farm to the next generation, selling the assets of the farm slowly over time or getting out all at once, there are many things to consider from a tax perspective — all of […] Read more
A lot has happened in two years
How wonderful it was. The World Trade Organization had helped leverage a stop to American country-of-origin labelling. The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement with the European Union was in the bag, so Europe was our oyster and the Trans-Pacific Partnership was set to deliver Canada as its biggest winner with both giving up only small ground […] Read more
No easy answers to CGC’s systemic issues
What to do with the big surplus accumulated by the Canadian Grain Commission has polarized producer opinion more starkly than any debate since the end of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly. When the CGC announced that it would provide enhanced services to producers to whittle away $90 million of its surplus, a flurry of news […] Read more
Agricultural issues to heat up soon on Parliament Hill
It’s the dog days of summer in Ottawa these days. Most of the city is on vacation, with bureaucrats and political junkies alike taking advantage of the slower pace to escape the city, and the heat, for time at the family cottage, lake or campsite. Don’t expect the calm to last forever. A quick glance at […] Read more
MEMBERSHIP