Baler memories
Some time ago you had a story in the paper about somebody attaching a baler to the end of the combine, thus baling the straw without dropping it on the ground. I had a baler attached to my combine back in 1956 and found that, baling the straw direct, you get the advantage of getting chaff and beards in barley in the bale so it makes much better feed than picking straw off the ground.
This was not a square baler but made kind of rounder bales and not as hard packed as the regular square baler. This machine I think was made in Winnipeg and was very easy to take off and bolt the straw-cutter spreader when you did not want the bales.
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I was so happy with this baler and baled for some of the neighbours as well. I was surprised when I read the story as I felt this was the ideal way of baling straw for feed and feel these bolt-on balers should be still available from some manufacturer.
– Bernard Liland,
Sexsmith, Alta.
Media campaign
The Saskatchewan premier should do the taxpayers of his province a favour and cancel his ridiculous and expensive media campaign designed to convince people to move back to Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan does not need glossy ads bragging about sunshine and golf courses. Rather, it needs a leader who is committed to fostering economic growth through tax cuts.
It needs a leader who is committed to reducing the debt. It needs a leader who will make government smaller and more efficient.
Until Saskatchewan gets that type of leader, the best and brightest minds will continue to leave the province seeking opportunity elsewhere.
I’m 21. I was born and raised in Saskatchewan. I went to university in Saskatchewan. I would have loved to have stayed in Saskatchewan.
But I moved to Alberta where taxes are lower, government is less intrusive, and where hard work is rewarded.
There are countless others like me here in Alberta. We would love to move home one day. But it will not happen as long as the tax-and-spend socialist policies of (premier Lorne) Calvert’s government are in place.
And no amount of government propaganda will change that.
– Michelle Kraft,
Calgary, Alta.
Out of touch
I wish to say that I’m in complete agreement with Mr. Norman Dyck in his article entitled “Grandstanding” (Open Forum, Nov. 28.) It is obvious that Mr. Klein was pursuing what he thought was a political carrot while at the same time being completely out of touch with the whole picture.
It’s too bad these dissidents couldn’t spend some time at the CWB to see for themselves the benefits of the agency. They too might get their eyes opened to the entire facts as did Mr. Ritter and Mr. Flaman.
– Don Bamber,
Oyen, Alta.
Diversion
Jim Chatenay and Rod Flaman were elected as Canadian Wheat Board directors in 2000. They opposed single desk marketing and campaigned on dual market platforms.
Chatenay knows that Flaman asked permission to examine past CWB sales contracts and was surprised to learn the CWB single desk marketing really is a marketing advantage for farmers because it does earn substantial premiums for farmers’ grain.
Flaman went public, sharing what he had learned and admitted he had been wrong about his dual market/open market ideas.
That left Chatenay with a dilemma. Did Chatenay choose to examine CWB sales contracts and inform his constituents what he had learned? No, he didn’t.
Instead, he headed for Lethbridge to participate in a political demonstration aimed at dethroning some CWB directors who support single desk marketing….
At the Lethbridge demonstration and surrounded by media, Chatenay chose jail in lieu of paying a Canada Customs fine for illegally transporting grain into the United States.
With lots of hype and emotions running high, Chatenay executed an excellent diversion. Emotions replaced practical business sense …
Good diversion, Jim, but once emotions subside, I think a lot of farmers are going to put their business hat back on and want to know: Did you examine the same CWB sales information as Flaman? Do you agree with his conclusion? If not, why not?
– Gordon Fritzke,
Golden Prairie, Sask.
Heated debate
Adrian Ewins wonders why the wheat board monopoly debate is so heated and compares the Canadian Wheat Board to Air Canada or CP Rail.
There are two main reasons why people feel passionately, which he should well understand.
1. The CWB is not a business. It is a federal quasi-judicial agency, which licenses or regulates Canadians. Its policy is to regulate Western Canadians, to block all exits so as to expropriate their grain. If it were a business, it would not have the force of the state behind it. CN Rail cannot orchestrate raids, arrests or prosecutions against anyone who ships on another carrier. If you fly on an airline other than Air Canada, they can’t seize your car before you get back.
If you don’t get why this debate is heated, understand that this is the kind of coercive force that one group of farmers is using against their unwilling neighbours. Freedom is your neighbour’s ability to do what he wants, not just what you want him to do.
2. If the CWB were a business, this would have been settled long ago because the “shareholders” that grow 80 percent of the grain want choice. Control is not proportionate to your stake with wheat. Most full time farmers would not bind themselves or their neighbours to just dealing with the co-op, for example. Full time farmers have different needs than those with large off-farm incomes like wheat board directors.
The CWB elections are unjust when well-paid school teachers, etc., who have hobby farms and pensions, can trump the vote of families who have invested their whole lives and life savings into agriculture. The CWB is a social democratic model. Never confuse it with a business.
– Jim Pallister,
Portage la Prairie, Man.
