It was hard for Lee Moats to put an upbeat spin on what he heard at a meeting with Canadian Wheat Board officials here last week.
“Without trying to seem too negative, depressed,” is what he thought before leaving for home in Riceton, Sask.
The secretary-treasurer of the Saskatchewan Winter Cereal Growers Inc. was reacting to news that despite Canadian farmers’ best shot at strategy, prices are poor and the factors pushing them down are beyond farmers’ control.
The wheat board invited 13 farm leaders for an in-depth explanation of why world prices are so low.
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Chief commissioner Lorne Hehn said the session should help them explain the situation to other farmers and better deal with government decision-makers.
Moats said he thinks farmers will have to focus this year on controlling costs to make more money – or lose less of it.
Since he still needs cereals in his rotation, Moats is hoping winter wheat will help him eliminate $27 per acre in herbicide and pesticide costs.
And he said the industry needs to make sure it stays focused on quality, since high quality wheats this year have held their price better than lower quality ones.
“When times get tough, that quality is what’s going to pay the bills,” he said. “We maybe don’t feel that when times are good.”
Part of the reason the wheat board held the meeting was to stress farmers can’t expect to see a rapid recovery in prices, said Don Dewar, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
Dewar said the last time he saw prices so depressed was in 1990-91, before the government introduced the GRIP program, a safety net that protected farmers from severe price risk.
Governments have to find a way to help farmers again, he said: “We believe governments have to find money, but we don’t want blanket ad hoc payments – yet.”
His lobby group has been asking for the past year to meet with the Manitoba government about farm incomes. Only this spring did the government become willing to talk about it, he said.
Meanwhile, a federal group looking at safety nets hasn’t yet developed a program to help farmers who need it most, said Dewar.
“Our governments have just left us out in the cold in terms of farm income support (compared to) the competition.”
Sally Rutherford, of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, agreed.
“Canada has been the boy scout in the trade deals,” she said.
While she wouldn’t want to see Canada start a subsidy war, governments need to help farmers with safety nets, better market access and fewer cost recovery attempts.
The government also has to negotiate harder for farmers in the next round of trade talks starting next year.
“We know that other countries haven’t lived up to their commitments,” said Rutherford.
