CWB OK
I think that the Canadian Wheat Board could use some changes and be more accountable, but overall I think they are not doing too bad of a job. We have the CWB. Let’s keep it and make it better.
With the open market, when are most people going to sell their grain? At harvest time when they need money the most to pay their bills. When are the prices often at their lowest? At harvest time.
With the CWB and the pooling account, you do not have to worry when you sell it and you know how it works. …
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Crop insurance’s ability to help producers has its limitations
Farmers enrolled in crop insurance can do just as well financially when they have a horrible crop or no crop at all, compared to when they have a below average crop
I haul grain for hundreds of farmers in a 100 mile area. I talk with a lot of farmers and grain buyers and have been doing a little survey the last few years about the CWB. I ask the farmers what they think about it.
The bigger and more successful the farmer, the more they praise the CWB. …
The way I see it, the CWB is for community, they are for all farmers. They are trying to help us, not to hurt us. They cannot change the world prices and I think they get a better price for us in the long run. It might take longer to get the money but we end up with more.
Without the CWB we will be at the mercy of the multinationals….
Some of you need to get your heads out of the sand and read a book or two before you jump on the anti-CWB bandwagon. We have to think “we, we, we,” not “me, me, me.” …
We have to maintain our communities. If we lose the CWB, we may end up with five or six farmers farming the same land 25 farmers farmed in the past. It will get so that we won’t even know our neighbours. …
My great grandparents came to Canada back in the early 1900s to get away from the oppression of the landlords in Europe at that time. There was no land to farm because all the rich people owned it all. They came here to Canada, to the land of opportunity, to start a new life for themselves. They worked hard and so did all the homesteaders to build communities and it is all going back to what they tried to get away from.
We’re going back to where there are only the rich landlords and no new farmers can get started and they call that progress.
It might be different in your area of the country, especially if you live close to the U.S. border, but around here I think 90 percent of the farmers support the CWB.
Try looking around the area where you live. Who is a CWB supporter and who is not? Maybe what I’ve said will make some sense and maybe it won’t, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
– Jason Gizen,
Prelate, Sask.
Inferior program
If Ford or General Motors made inferior vehicles but the public bought them anyhow, why would they ever make better vehicles?
In fact, recently Ford and GM have been hit with declining sales and hence profitability. For reasons ranging from quality, economy and/or resale value, the car buying public has shifted their purchases in favour of Japanese companies. Toyota, Nissan and Honda are doing fantastically. Today’s car buyer has many choices and naturally the better products have the best sales.
Unfortunately, the Saskatchewan grain producer, who would like to insure himself against the many perils that can damage or destroy his crop, does not have the choices a vehicle shopper does. He has only one product that he can buy and it is so inferior that in 2006 the best insurance level available will still only cover about half of his production costs.
All around him, farmers in other jurisdictions have better crop insurance products. Who here does not look at Alberta’s new program with envy?
The government of Saskatchewan smugly states that about 70 percent of the province’s farmers carried crop insurance last year and they do not foresee that changing much in 2006. After all, many farmers are required to carry crop insurance by their financial institution. Some producers bleakly argue that it is better than nothing.
At these participation levels, why would they improve it? Our provincial government pretends to plead for more money for producers, while at home, they are one of the principal participants in our crop insurance safety net – a safety net that is so underfunded that it is irrelevant.
To bring my analogy together, if Saskatchewan Crop Insurance were a vehicle sitting on the lot, no one would buy it as long as anything else was available. I would further argue that if nothing else was available, it would be better to walk.
This year, when we are all looking for costs to cut, why not look at Saskatchewan Crop Insurance? Without it, we all would hardly miss it and we could send the message that we would like a better program. We might find that some idle people in Melville could become our greatest advocates for change.
Ford and GM … will take steps to regain profitability through some cost cutting but primarily by building cars the public wants. Their former customers have spoken. What will we tell Sask. Crop Insurance? Personally, I would like to buy a Toyota.
– Michael Hicks
Glaslyn, Sask.
Seed less
I felt compelled to write this letter after reading all the articles on the low grain prices and who’s to blame for it.
First of all, it’s not the fault of the CWB, the government or the World Trade Organization. It’s the fault of all the farmers who continue to seed every acre they own, which is causing an over supply of commodities.
To prove this, look back at spring 2005 and the flax price of $15-$17 per bushel. This was a result of high demand and short supply.
The solution should be simple. Considering that every acre you seed this year may lose money, seed less, for example, one-third summer fallow, one-third cereals, one-third legumes.
If you think that you need to seed everything in order to have a chance, you don’t. You probably will not be able to sell it all anyway. So cut back on fertilizer and use lower cost chemicals, let the chemical and fertilizer companies feel the pinch of low sales and watch them lower prices.
Try using the same machinery as you have in the past instead of trying to impress your neighbours and friends with the new stuff. If we all cut back on production, we could have a chance of making money, especially if a major crop failure occurs in other countries.
…The end result will be a smaller supply of product with the same and maybe increased demand….
– P. A. Hetherington,
Moose Jaw, Sask.
Trans fat issues
I would like to express my views on two issues regarding the March 23 article, “Eliminating trans fats is risky business.”
Firstly, the article mainly expanded on the idea that, “Eliminating trans fats has been expensive for food companies but the alternative was losing sales if changes were not made.”…
The elimination of hydrogenated trans fats is all great news for the consumers of North America where obesity and heart disease are a huge health issue. However, why is it that the farmer/producer is always the one who has to subsidize the foods people consume?
Every other aspect of processing and supplying the consumer makes a profit but the initial farmer, the producer of the raw products, takes the loss again.
The last paragraph says it all: “When these new costs occur, companies must look for other ways to shave expenses and that might mean paying less for supplies to make the final product.”
I take that as meaning the farmer takes the loss.
Secondly, it was stated that, “suppliers including Cargill looked at changing genetic strains of canola to reduce the presence of trans fats.” I feel we do enough manipulation of genetics in our foods and that this practice should be greatly reduced or eliminated.
Also, it is my understanding that it is in the processing of the fats by hydrogenation that these fats are produced.
That’s why companies now have to do so many expensive changes to their packaging, manufacturing and storage equipment as previous processes of hydrogenation helped maintain the stability and shelf life of the products. So, don’t manipulate the genetics, change the processing.
Hopefully they won’t have to add more preservatives to maintain the shelf life.
– Judy Haase,
Olds, Alta.
See my shirttail
In October 2004, my wife and I, who farm in a partnership, applied for and received an advance interim payment from CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program.)
It seemed the logical thing to do since the discovery of BSE had the ripple effect of distorting what had been a reasonable supply and demand situation regarding hay and grain crops. Our farm-stored surplus inventory could not pay ever-mounting bills, so we felt certain that we would qualify for a future payout.
We had always assumed that revenue derived from the sale of a pound of beef, bushel of grain or tonne of hay was income and the expenses associated with the production of these commodities would be a legitimate expense. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Not so, I am afraid.
The CAIS program, also referred to as CHAOS, assembled by a misinformed army of bureaucrats with material gleaned from desktop graffiti for guidelines, was doomed to failure from the beginning. Some of the skeptics thought that waiting for CAIS to evolve into something positive was paramount to watching two elephants mating. As there would be a big-headed decision coming down from high places, there would be a considerable amount of moaning and groaning and it would take two years to see any results.
Now adding insult to injury, we have the “CAIS police.” Armed with new politically correct expressions like “reference margins,” crop “baskets” and cows that “birth” plus a raft of new “non allowable expenses,” they have their sights set on the farmer whose only crime is trying to earn a living without the benefits of “entitlement” or “sponsorship.”…
These people who sit in their gilded cage and collect their generous paycheque every two weeks regardless of weather, politics or world events are too na•ve to realize that, as rural Canada fades into obscurity, so will the supply of affordable quality food and maybe even their job.
I believe that the CAIS program was developed to be so complicated that only a few accountants, if any, could decipher it. Many farmers throw up their hands in disgust and frustration and walk away from it and the government can claim that it was always “ready to help.”
CAIS in its present format offers no future for farmers and can only lead to total demise of the family farm. The mutual feeling of farmers in this area can be summed up as such: “Kindly observe the mistletoe on my shirttail and govern yourself accordingly.”
– Harry Fister,
Tomslake, B.C.
Close call
When people say to me “you don’t know how lucky you are,” I have to agree. Last week I had the scare of my life.
I was going about my regular farm day and feeding cattle, just like hundreds of other days in the past five years. Long story short, I broke a ram on the front-end loader and as I was fixing it, my intuition was telling me that I was in a dangerous place.
I thought for a second, but figured the second ram would hold as I took the hydraulic line off the first. Well it didn’t. It dropped faster than I could blink, pinning me to the front of the tractor.
I wasn’t hurt even a little, just scared and trapped. I used my cell phone to call the guy who was helping me and 20 minutes later I was free. So what were the lessons learned from this near death experience?
1. Never put yourself in a position where you know you should not be, even for a second.
2. Always carry your cell phone and let someone know where you are working.
3. Listen to that little voice in your head. Those instincts have been developed over years of experience.
4. Tell your family you love them every day. When this happened, my wife just had our third child one week before. My eldest is four and her little sister almost two. If I had died that cold morning, my children would have grown up not knowing their dad, only knowing that he had died because of a careless 100 percent preventable accident.
The reason that I am writing this letter is to remind others to be so very safe. Safety should be the first thing you think about when you walk out of the house in the morning and something that is always your first consideration when you do every task, every day.
I also know this has been told to me thousands of times over the past 30 years of my life, but these things happen to those that are not aware. I know this is not my first close encounter and if you think that it can’t happen to you, then you are in real danger, because you won’t even realize you are in danger, and in just one minute you will be dead….
So when someone said, “I don’t know how lucky I am,” I had time to think and after an experience like that, you think with crystal clarity. I have an excellent idea how lucky I am. I got to get up this morning.
– Gerrid Gust,
Davidson, Sask.
Cartoon dislike
I took exception to the cartoon on page 6 of the Western Producer, March 16.
We all know that war doesn’t solve the problems of this world, the killing goes on and on, and it only makes sense to have a debate in the legislature before sending our soldiers into a situation of suicide bombers.
We have a small family farm in the North Okanagan Valley in the interior of B.C. We’ve subscribed to the Western Producer for over 50 years.
– Mary Ellen Pakka,
Sorrento, B.C.
Life expectations
I would like to comment on a letter from Elaine Sloan (Open Forum, March 9) regarding the cancer and diseases that are now rampant in our society.
Sadly, many people believe we have rampant health concerns that are out of control. We all have been exposed to cancer in one form or another. We also have super bugs in our hospitals, E. coli in our food and other bacteria, viruses and germs showing up that past generations had never heard tell of before.
Consequently, many people feel as Elaine Sloan obviously does. Combine this with our country’s inability to fund health care to the level that we feel we are entitled to and we are definitely headed for a crisis, aren’t we?
Maybe instead of hitting the panic button we would all be much wiser to step back a little and assess the situation from a different angle. I would argue that the reason our First Nations people and other past generations never heard tell of such diseases as cancer is because they did not live long enough to develop cancer and also because most of the time people probably did not knowingly die of cancer but more likely death was attributed to something such as pneumonia or consumption.
Whatever you believe about the creation of the world, one thing is certain and that is death. The entire structure of our world is built around birth and death and although we may, and certainly have, delayed this, we are not going to stop it.
The more we develop cures and healthy habits, the more new things will sneak in when we are unsuspecting to accomplish what is necessary to allow the balance of birth and death to continue.
I find it sad that the more we are eating safe and healthy food, the more our health-care abilities expand to treat and prevent diseases, new and old, consequently the longer, healthier lives we are living, the more unrealistic expectations we as a society have.
I would suggest instead of dwelling on perceived rampant diseases that we concentrate more on being thankful for the enormous changes in our health care system and the healthy food choices available to us that are allowing all of us the chance of a much longer, healthier life than past generations had.
– Margaret Hall,
Vanderhoof, B.C.
Freedom?
Free the farmer: a common and popular statement by a vocal talk show host and others. Free the farmer from a climate of calm and freedom into the jaws of private money mongers.
Spring is almost upon us and time to plan for the coming planting and bill-paying season. First decision: do we plant or not? Why seed? Why try to pay bills for others to survive when these same people don’t blink an eye when raising the price of their services.
I checked out the seed. One is almost forced to buy only registered seed. When you buy registered seed, you are bound by law to use the product either for sale or your own seed only. No trade or resale to neighbors. Freedom?
Canola, either buy a third or second grade seed or buy top grade by buying Roundup Ready seed. Monsanto has total and absolute control. You must pay the $15 per acre fee up front …. You can’t use it even for your own seed. Freedom?…
Another commonly used insult where methods of farming is concerned is, it’s time for the aged farmer to move over and let the progressive take over.
Where are the young progressives? Don’t you think the elder learned or experienced anything?
Do you remember when organic farming was conventional? Do you remember when a half section farmer not only had the option of a yearly holiday but could afford it as well?
– E. O. Oystreck,
Yorkton, Sask.
Cowboy life
Alberta cowboys in New York City to promote tourism (WP, March 9) is well and good but please, let’s not compare our Canadian cowboys to any part of the sick movie Brokeback Mountain, other than the beautiful scenery. The last thing we need is people from other countries thinking Canada is about gay cowboys. I hate to even write those last two words together.
My late father was a real cowboy and I’m glad he didn’t live to see such movies being made.
I’m sick of the media and most television shows promoting a perverted lifestyle and passing it off as normal. It’s not normal and if the readers have any doubt, just check out the Bible.
What part of Genesis 18 and 19 don’t you understand?
– Elaine Sloan,
Morinville, Alta.
Chance to prove
Reading Helen Baker’s letter in open forum of March 2 makes me wonder how she can criticize and condemn Stephen Harper. The man hasn’t had a chance to prove himself.
I’m sure Mr. Harper could do as good a job of running our country without stealing millions of dollars as our Liberals did. We hear about the sponsorship scandal and how much money went astray. How much we never heard about?
How could we have leaders of our great country perform as they have? While Mr. Paul Martin was finance minister, he tried to convince the public he was not aware of the sponsorship. How could a man in charge of finances not be aware of what was taking place? Let us hope we never end up with a leader of our country as some European and Asian countries.
Not proper for David Emerson to cross the floor? I don’t see any mention in Helen’s letter about Belinda Stronach.
Steven Harper did talk endlessly about accountability and ethical conduct in government. Let the man prove himself. There is no way any prime minister will satisfy us all. We should all hope we get some honest government, which we haven’t had for a few years. We certainly don’t need dishonest people running our great country.
– Doug R. Meyers,
Berwyn, Alta.
