Like every prairie farmer, Robert Anderson of Shaunavon, Sask., paid attention three years ago when the federal government announced the end of the Crow Benefit grain transportation subsidy.
And like many others, it is just now that the full implication of that announcement is hitting home.
More than two years after the end of the Crow, falling grain prices finally are exposing the on-farm implications of freight rates that have tripled in just a few years.
“It wasn’t such a shock when the announcement was made because we kind of knew it was coming,” Anderson said. “It is a shock now to see the freight bills when there aren’t the grain prices to cover it.”
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For many in the prairie farm sector, 1998 is turning out to be the year when theories about the impact of the end of the Crow bump into the reality of the change.
“The end of the Crow is going to have its first big impact in 1998,” said Cargill Ltd. president Kerry Hawkins. “It will no longer be hidden.”
Federal officials are brimming with confidence that higher freight rates and lower prices for export grain will be good for prairie agriculture, forcing farmers to quit exporting raw product and the jobs that go abroad.
“If you’re a grain producer in Manitoba, you will say, ‘well, under the Crow it cost us $10 a tonne to ship feed wheat and now it costs $40’,” Agriculture Canada trade specialist Mike Gifford told a Commons agriculture committee meeting last winter. “It makes a lot more sense now to feed our grains into either hogs or beef.”
Many farmers are following that pattern, contemplating either a switch to livestock or a reduction in grain production in favor of other crops. But not all farmers can do that.
Crop rotation, soil and moisture conditions or agronomic requirements will force many to continue growing traditional grains even though they no longer go as far to pay the bills.
Bob Tweedie farms 2,300 acres west of Saskatoon and has a mix that includes sheep, wheat, barley, pulse crops and flax. He reflects the dilemma facing many farmers as they contemplate life after the Crow subsidy.
“Normally, lower wheat prices would tell me to get out of wheat,” he said. “But if there are no options, you cut your losses and do what you’re good at.”
Later, as the conversation about farming choices wound down, Tweedie offered another view.
“Maybe I’ve grown wheat all my life but if I can’t make a living growing wheat and the government won’t help, maybe I’d better learn how to grow hogs.”
