Cheque figure
In our mailbox the other day we received a cheque from the federal government for “cost of production.” We have, in the past three years, averaged 167 head of cows to calve each spring. The cheque was for $316.32, which works out to approximately $1.89 per head. How do you figure the cow-calf operator can produce a calf for $1.89?
This is a real slap in the face and a direct insult to anyone in the agriculture sector. Just who is getting the bulk of the $1 billion committed for the farmer/rancher?
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
The urban people think the farmer is getting all kinds of free money and therefore making nothing but money when in fact we cannot even afford to pay our bills or buy fertilizer.
The cost of fat cattle per pound, by the side on the rail has been in the mid 80-cent range recently, yet the supermarkets charge over $11 a pound for a steak (and) not even a top cut. Who is getting all the money? Certainly not the producer.
Is the government trying to get rid of the family farm so only the large corporations will rule the food industry? Sure looks like it….
We in the industry are disappointed, disgusted and just plain fed up and to top it off, some idiotic bureaucrat has decided the beef producer can no longer legally butcher and sell his own product.
You know what I think? It is time we Canadians stood up and informed the powers that be that we can do quite well without all your interference. …
Stop trying to save us from ourselves. The general public is quite capable of making their own decisions. With all your rules and regulations out there, you are producing a generation of robots.
– Audrey Y. Read,
Director, Diamond X Ranch,
Endako, B.C.
New resolution
I wish Jeff Nielsen and Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel for 2008 would learn about (the) history of farming and past issues. Some of the issues the western wheat and barley growers are proposing happened in the early 1900s.
Their proposal that grain companies would pay good for our grain and there is no need for the Canadian Wheat Board are turning back the clock to the good old days when grain companies would say ‘no room for No. 2 wheat, but if want to sell the wheat for No. 3, we have lots of space.’…
The farmers have to get more power in rules and regulations in our favour to change the attitude of corporations and inform them that we cannot operate on 1970s income and pay 2008 expenses.
There is too much spread in low prices what farmers receive and what consumers pay for food. These so-called farm groups are causing lots of headaches and stress with insane farm policies.
For a 2008 resolution, please develop farm policies with proper income that would keep young farmers on farms where they belong and make them not move to cities to make their living.
– Eric Sagan,
Melville, Sask.
Worst enemies
After phoning, writing letters and spending countless hours talking to industry leaders, I have come to realize that we as ranchers and farmers are our own worst enemy.
We are so prone to complaining about everything that we forget to do something about it. A lot of us are like a bear sitting on a nail. We whine and whine but won’t get off our butts to relieve the pain.
Why doesn’t everyone phone (their) MP or MLA representative on a weekly basis to voice opinions? We have to make our voices heard or our government officials will do with us what they will.
If you grain farmers want the wheat board, let the minister of agriculture know. Nothing gets a politician moving faster than a thousand calls a day to his office demanding his head on a platter.
The same goes for the cattle and hog industry. You can’t let your industry representatives do everything. Take it upon yourselves to telephone your federal and provincial ag ministers and voice your opinion.
The same 10 guys that are writing and phoning all the time do little to enlighten our policy makers in government. However, if we all would start writing letters and phoning their offices, we could have them sitting up and taking notice. Remember, they work for us and not the other way around. Let us get together and make our voices heard!
– Leon Stang,
Cactus Lake, Sask.
Farmers spoke
It is clear that George Hickie prefers the marketing and risk management system of the Canadian Wheat Board (Open Forum, Jan. 31.) It is also clear that he advocates imposing his personal preferences on all prairie farmers.
I do not agree with Mr. Hickie. I believe that farmers should receive the same respect and have the same opportunities as business people in other industries – that when they produce a product, they should have the freedom to market it, as well.
Farmers should not be treated as less intelligent than other business people. They make complex calculations about machinery, fuel and fertilizer costs every day and are smart enough to sell their own products on the open market.
Ironically, however, Mr. Hickie fails to realize that it is not marketing freedom which has driven farmers off the land over the last 30 years. This has occurred under his preferred system of centrally controlled marketing, which stifles innovation and limits opportunity.
Marketing choice in barley is now supported by 62 percent of prairie farmers, the government of Saskatchewan, the government of Alberta and the government of Canada. We had the debate and we had the vote. Farmers have spoken and it’s time to move forward.
Mr. Hickie has made up his mind and made his choice. In a free and democratic country, that is his right. Perhaps he would consider extending that right to others as well.
– David Anderson,
MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture,
Swift Current, Sask.
About time
As a farmer, I make decisions all the time that involve tens of thousands of dollars regarding my seed, fertilizer and crop protection, machinery and land. I do everything I can to manage my business and reduce my risk.
Then, come harvest, I have to give my barley to the Canadian Wheat Board, who says that they can make better decisions than I can. I end up losing money every year, year after year, because I can’t take control of my own barley.
Finally, we have a government that is willing to step in and give us the ability to manage our own business. I applaud the government’s recent decision to introduce legislation to remove barley from the CWB monopoly.
It’s about time!
– Gordon Falk,
Killarney, Man.
Nonplussed
Why is this so confusing for CWB director Kyle Korneychuk? Most farmers want the ability to market their malting barley to whoever they choose. It is their barley, after all.ÂÂ
CashPlus is still the CWB and it’s about $2 per bushel less than the open market. When I mentioned to Kyle Korneychuk that new crop malt barley was $7 per bu. or higher in the U.S. he first suggested I was lying. Then he suggested I move to the United States if it was so good….
Make the CWB voluntary and I don’t care who he is. And I will not care that the people who voted to elect him are not farmers but aging landlords.ÂÂ
And I will not care that they pay him and the other pretend directors $60,000 per year for handing out doughnuts with their propaganda at town hall meetings across the Prairies.ÂÂ
And if he and his fellow directors want to give stress bonuses to the 500 employees in Winnipeg every year, so be it. I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz should be introducing legislation making the CWB voluntary because it’s the right thing to do. Proponents of marketing choice did win the vote but the vote itself was a bad idea.
If people like Kyle Korneychuk fear the open market and don’t have the knowledge or competence to market their own grain, then the CWB is for them.ÂÂ
But for him to want to drag down the brightest and most capable farmers to his level by forcing the CWB monopoly on all farmers is dark and sinister.ÂÂ
– Kurt Freitag,
Lampman, Sask.
