Prairie critics who complain that supply management controls and the cost of quotas deny farmers a chance to diversify are ignoring the costs of getting into any kind of farming, says the vice-chair of the Senate agriculture committee.
Saskatchewan Liberal senator and Herbert grain farmer Jack Wiebe had listened to Conservative senators complain that supply management effectively excludes western farmers from the valued-added benefits of getting into chicken, egg or dairy production.
Wiebe insisted any form of farm entry costs money and it is unfair to single out supply management.
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During a Senate committee hearing into value-added opportunities Oct. 21, Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative senator Dave Tkatchuk had wondered why someone in Saskatchewan or Alberta cannot simply start a chicken operation.
Representatives of the National Farm Products Council that oversees supply management systems said they could if they buy quota.
How difficult is that, demanded Tkatchuk. How much would it cost?
Ron O’Connor, vice-chair of the NFPC and an Ontario chicken producer, said in his province it would cost $50 per bird.
“If you take a quota of $50 a bird, 350 birds would be worth more than a quarter section of land,” added southern Saskatchewan grain producer and PC senator Len Gustafson. “That gives you some idea of where the situation is and what people are thinking.”
It was enough for Wiebe.
He said if his daughter wanted to get into the chicken business to take advantage of its regulated prices and predictable market, she would have to spend $1 million to buy quota for a 20,000-bird operation, plus equipment, buildings and other costs.
If she wanted to buy a “reasonable sized” grain farm, she would need $1 million to buy 2,000 acres at $500 per acre, plus equipment, buildings and other costs.
“In my mind, there is no difference whatsoever, whether it is a marketing board or a grain farm,” he said. “It is how we approach it and we approach it as a business.”
Wiebe said $1 million in the grain industry buys access to an unstable market and below-costs product prices while investment in poultry produces “a guaranteed income. I would sooner encourage my daughter to go into poultry than into grain farming.”
During the Senate hearing on value-added production, critics complained that the CWB’s buy-back policy dis-courages farmers from trying to upgrade their take from the market by building processing facilities to use their own grain.
The board requires that they pay full value for the grain to the CWB pool, removing any advantage from cheap grain as a feedstock.
