CAIS

[burnt]

Saskfarmer99, you are so obviously working for the government or have your application in there for a job . . .

Your qualifications are obvious - so far removed from reality that it is sickening.

Yup, you are great civil servant material because you learned a long time ago the bullshit baffles brains.

CAIS, or whatever the latest version of this abortion of a farm program is called, is so ineffective that it deserves to be shot and dragged out the back so its rotten stench can no longer pollute the farming atmosphere.

I think I can safely speak for most if not all others when I say that I (we) don't want an effective farm income support program so much as I want a marketplace that actually discovers and returns the true value of what I am producing.

Furthermore, I am sick of seeing mega $ in the Ag budget being shoveled out to the inepts that administer these absolute bullshit programs that make the administrators wealthy while the supposed beneficiaries watch their lifetime savings and equity disappear down a damned rathole caused by concentration and corruption in the processing sector.

If you are serious about suggestions for improving returns, then start by addressing some of the problems I noted.

Or is reality too tough a concept for you to embrace?

[kato]

First off, I'm a her. LOL

a) Tax management. I don't think that taxes have been a weight around a lot of cattle farmer's necks lately.
b) Equipment. Let's put it this way, when we went to Ag Days in Brandon a few weeks ago, the joke was going around there that as soon as someone told a machinery salesman that they were a cattle producer, the salesman tuned out. Equipment gets bought when the old one is shot. And not a moment earlier. That's the way it works around our neighbourhood, anyway.
c) Since we're making so much money on the cattle that we don't know what to do with all the proceeds, I am now working for an accountant. I think I know my way around a balance sheet. In fact, I bet the cattle producers here have all prepared so many financial statements in the past 7 years that they can do them as well as many accountants.

The fact is that all the past years are adding up, equity is disappearing all over rural Canada, and it seems like no one cares. This has gone beyond a management issue. You can not get blood from a stone. You can be the best manager in the world, and you can't make it work after so many bad years in a row.

The dilemma is that our country is ignoring the fact that it's losing control of it's food security. If people think it's dangerous to be so reliant on exports, that is absolutely nothing compared to being reliant on imports. Our government seems quite content to put the availability of food for it's citizens in the hands of multinational corporations, factory farms, and imports from other countries. Consumers should be up in arms about this, but we can't even get a mention on the news.

[smcgrath76]

Kato, I would add to that...
The reason that the problem has been
well hidden is several fold...
1) there was a lot of equity out there
in 2003. It has been leveraged and
releveraged to provide cash (note I did
not say generate cash). Much of this
was done with some degree of faith in
government, however continually changing
messages and programs have eroded that
faith. It would likely have been less
painful to hear the brutal truth on day
1.
2) The issue affects all of Canada, but
ground zero is in rural Canada and there
are not a lot of Toronto Sun reporters
running around kato's neighbourhood
looking for a story.
3) the size and resilience of the farms
involved often lies in the fact that
they are smaller than huge and have
several enterprises. The additional off
farm income enterprise has been growing
by leaps and bounds in the farm
community. On an individual basis this
is just one more sacrifice, but it does
serve to hide the issues by bringing
much needed cash into a dire situation.
I think there is opportunity out there,
but with our current structure and state
of affairs we are severely limiting that
opportunity.