quotas as in milk and poultry

[ag-boy]

yes interesting reading of the Brooks meeting [WILSON]
Quotas on milk and poultry have to go
good point of the Government price of milk in Canada the highest in nort-amerika so is the chicken in canada
because the high quota price been offerd . yes in the million no change for anew young farmer to start !!!.
free enterprice would bring price down . Milk across bourder is $1.50 lower a jug of 4liter. because no milk quota !!!

[burnt]

A British chap was walking down the sidewalk and watched with envy as the Jaguar purred past him on the street. It made it dream of the day when he would own one!

At the same time, a Frenchman walking a sidewalk in Paris watched a Citroen glide down the street and out of sight. The pedestrian Frenchman cursed out the Citroen's driver, and dreamed of the day when that rich S.O.B would have to walk like everybody else . . .

[grassfarmer]

Interesting analogy Burnt but I'm not quite sure who is identified in it?

Is Ag-boy seen as French or British - does he aspire to outfarm his supply managed neighbors in a "free enterprise" future or does he want to pull them down to the same level of financial weakness enjoyed by the rest of Cdn agriculture?

Are the American dairy and poultry farmers like the British or French - do they think they can outperform their Canadian competitors in a marketplace with less perceived Government support (not that American producers are short of Government support)or do they just wish to pull them down to their own level like the Frenchman?

What of the big dairy companies - I suggest they would be a mix of the two - watch the Jag cruise by, curse the Citroen driver and then steal the Jag under the cover of darkness.

But what of the AB Government with their legislation? They are already own the Jag but want to steal all the others cars and the roads they drive on - force the electorate to pay for this and then curse anyone opposing their "free enterprise" plans and style of Government.
And the electorate largely believe them - only in Alberta!

[Kathy]

Another thing, only in Alberta. What do these banks
like TD and other "sponsors" like Calgary Herald,
etc. do when a stupid, incompetent USA politician
retires - they invite them to Calgary to speak to the
little people. For a few of your hard earned dollars,
you can be blessed with the wisdom of clowns like
George Bush, Sarah Palin and now, these idiots are
bring to town Arnold Schwartzenegger. He's only
bankrupted California (or as he likes to call it
"cauliflower")... what are we to learn from him? How
best to drive your economy into the toilet?

There is nothing wrong with co-ops to economize.
The problem comes when there are so few suppliers
or buyers of a product that they can tell the coop "if
you do THAT, we won't buy or sell you THIS".... like
the NWBP coop and their attempt to "pool" cull cows
for market. Nelson Brothers put a quick halt to that
idea.

Government subsidies to all kinds and sizes of
industry skew the whole market. As far as I can see
it, carbon credits, gov. programs, grants, gov.
sponsored insurance plans - these things all make
survival a matter of 'playing the government's
"global market game".... its is not the way I wish to
live.

[kato]

Back to the original point.

No. Quotas do not have to go.

I read an interesting article a couple of years ago about some people who had a dairy farm in the U.S., as well as one in Canada.

The American farm was basically just one step ahead of the bank on any given day, they were milking many times more cows than on the Canadian farm, working much harder, and making less money. Every once in a while the American government would have to step in with a bailout to prevent industry collapse. American dairies are forced by economics to be very large, which also brings along with it the obvious problems that come with not being able to pay attention to the details needed to keep the standards up. Cows are pumped with hormones to get every last drop of milk out of them, and live much shortened lives as a result. They have no choice in this. If they don't make "efficiencies" top priority, they go broke, no matter how hard these efficiencies are on their livestock.

The Canadian farm cost more to start up, required less labour and cattle to operate, and also provided a steady reliable, predictable income. And no bailouts.

Which system did they prefer? Take a guess.

I for one do not begrudge any dairy farmer a good living. They work a schedule that most would never take on, and they earn every cent.

[smcgrath76]

I think we are a bit crazy. We have to be
the only group in the world who complains
about the price of their end product being
too high...
I doubt the manufacturers of computer
chips would mind if computers cost a few
hundred dollars more. I am not sure if
farmers can support lower cost food
without being in a conflict with their own
business interests...

[ALLFARMER]

At $6.50/4L That in my opinion is to high. When you consider what 1 dairy cow can produce in one day.

What is the cost of quoto for that 1 cow 20K to 30K The financing of this quoto debt (interest expense) must add a consideral amount to the milk price. One dairy farmer I know bought a brand new Kenworth tridrive truck with a new Supreme 3 screw mixer...the cost of that thing...truck must be 170K and mixer 100K so somewhere around 270K?? Milk in my opionion has gotten to expensive.

[15444]

Hormone milk in the US is quite cheap, like $2/gallon or sometimes cheaper. The hormone-free milk is a little more expensive, but you can still buy it for a buck or two cheaper than CDN milk.

I would like to see either the entire ag industry either go quota, or no quota.

[kato]

Milk is not too expensive.

Beef is too cheap.

[grassfarmer]

Beef is not too expensive. The rancher just doesn't get a big enough % of retail price.

[kato]

What I'm getting at is that we don't get paid for our product, for whatever reason. And that we should never feel like we don't deserve better.

Why, when someone in agriculture buys a new tractor, fancy combine, or new truck, do others complain? If a CEO buys a new BMW, he's admired for his success. When a farmer or rancher buys a truck, people say that he's making too much money.

[riders2010]

Look at the supply system it allows for smaller farmers to have a decent living. Yes some idiots on the extreme right would like to see milk go down so that you would need 5000 head dairies with animals pumped full of milk producing hormones and idiots that know nothing about proper handling or cleanliness being so progressive and the way of the future.

You'd have to be cracked up to want any ag commodity to go down in price, so that you could enter it more freely.

That so called high price? is it compared to that $60,000 vehicle that should only be worth about what $2500 for the wires and pile of plastic, that no one seems to complain about.

[gaucho]

I have to laugh at this one. First I agree that milk has gotten expensive, one because dairy farmers calculate out their annual cost of production and when they add new bells and whistles like robotic milkers and fancy feeders, it gets tacked on to the COP and to the milk. So in one way it has swung a little to far... that said, I think it is actually great when a farmer makes his cost of production, return on investment and reasonable profit. If you think milk is too much then buy a milk cow and raise it yourself. Food Free day in Canada is Feb 12th... the length of time a Canadian has to work to make enough for feeding himself an entire year, and some of you guys think consumers should be spending less... Give your head a shake. Yes beef are not worth enough to reflect cost at the farm level, but when you sell your calf /yearling you have sold your product and are out of the loop. If you think you aren't getting enough start selling it in the box and move up the chain instead of whining... better yet work together like the dairy and poultry industry does to lobby and get better prices. It pisses me of in this industry the jealousy and animosity that happens when someone gets ahead... from what I have seen those that do that are the ones that spend the most time in the coffee shop and never get off their butts to do something different. Ps I am not a dairy farmer I raise beef

[ALLFARMER]

Buy a milk cow? Never going to happen. At $6.5/4L family's in my opinion are having to consider should we buy milk or not. Milk should not get priced so high its for the well off and should be rationed. Milk should be affordable for even lower income families...its a staple food. Already around here u can buy milk cheaper...whole milk but for us its easier to get it with the rest of our groceries. My point is people are bypassing the milk system in three ways.. just cutting it out or cutting back or buying milk from unregistered small scale farmers. Also milk producers get paid monthly not yearly like beef producers. Cash flo like that makes it much easier to service debt. Anyone here want to argue Beef is more profitable than Dairy? Do you think Beef is going to go to a quota system? Lets just all give our beef producing land over to the rich Dairy farmers. The playing field between Dairy and Beef needs to be leveled. If u still don't figure so cover the weekly milk costs for my family of 9
Thanks

[kato]

Priorities ... priorities, that's the name of the game. I grew up dirt poor. Dad was a truck driver, and there were four of us kids. No matter what happened, there was always milk in the fridge, and we were never told we couldn't have as much as we wanted.

However, the four of us shared one 750 ml bottle of Coke, once a week, on Saturday night. (aka Hockey Night in Canada LOL) We ate in restaurants only on very special occasions, and instant anything just didn't happen in our kitchen, unless you count Kraft Dinner. ;-)

Nowadays budgets include a lot of things that are considered necessities that we always considered to be luxuries. Milk is one thing that belongs in the necessity column, IMHO.