The countryside is emptying out around Walter Finlay.
Finlay, who represents the Souris, Man., area for Keystone Agricultural Producers, said five farmers in his neighborhood have put their land up for sale this fall. So far there have been no nibbles.
One of the sellers, who has been farming for five years, is giving up and moving to the city where he has a full-time job. Finlay said the man no longer feels he can support his young family by farming.
Part of the crisis is this year’s flood that left 1.1 million acres unseeded in southwestern Manitoba, which is more land than was covered by water during the 1997 Red River Valley flood. Only a quarter of the region’s crop was sowed.
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“I got one percent in and my neighbor across the road got zero.”
Finlay said some Souris businesses noticed problems by mid-June. A farmer would buy a hammer handle to replace a split one rather than a new tool.
“People have been running up until now on last year’s money,” said Finlay.
Now, with a poor or non-existent harvest and low grain prices, outstanding accounts are building at farm supply outlets. Some people in Finlay’s area won’t have a crop until September 2000.
As a KAP director, he keeps lobbying governments for help.
“We need to keep the pressure on Manitoba Health to keep mental health services in the southwest.”
Finlay said the department put extra staff into the area for eight months, while the Red River flood earned extra mental health staff for 18 months.
“I’m trying to make the word known on the hurt.”
Finlay took a direct role earlier this summer when he hosted federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief on his farm to talk about the impending crop disaster. But he said judging by the aid program, if the minister did learn anything, he did not put it into practice.
Even word last Friday that there would be another $170 million of federal money across Canada “doesn’t sound like enough.”
Finlay plans to plant his usual 2,000 cultivated acres with hard wheat, durum, canola, barley, flax and peas next spring, but he estimated 30 percent of the farmers around him can’t afford to put in a crop.
He advises farmers who are stressed to “get out and talk to somebody. There is help available and it is confidential.”
He asks urban taxpayers to remember the farmer is a price taker, not a price maker, and that there is trouble on the farm when the price of grain is lower than production costs per bushel.
“I think there’s a role for everyone to play. Let the federal MPs hear things.”
Bills pile up
Finlay’s neighbors Mike and Sandra Harris tried to farm for five years, investing $50,000 from their savings into a section of land and using $65,000 from a Farm Credit Corp. loan to buy used machinery.
A blown tractor engine, transmission problems and the birth of their two children led to a capital crunch that ate their profits and their Registered Retirement Savings Plans, even in the good years. This year and last were too wet. Input costs and crop insurance costs “just killed us.”
Mike said a better farm safety net might have been the difference that kept them farming. He advises other new farmers to buy things with cash, especially machinery, because it is so costly.
“You can easily get bitter. What really bugs you is that everyone but the farmers are making money … I’m just tired of all that. Someday, maybe even in 10 years from now, I’d be interested in farming.”
Sandra said she would rather raise her kids on the farm but in the short time that they farmed they never got out of debt.
“I think urban taxpayers seem kind of removed (from the farm crisis) – out of sight, out of mind. It’s hard for them to be concerned. But I sure wonder how the (federal) government can ignore us. The numbers thing got me floored. Send somebody out here. They turned their backs to us.”
