Red Tape

[kato]

Found this link on Harry Siemen's blog.

It is so so true...

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/01/24/we-cant-afford-to-do-this-how-red-tape-is-killing-the-family-farm/

[grassfarmer]

The case of the rancher mentioned in the story is
utter crap - what burden of paperwork was frequently
keeping them up into the night filling in forms? Filling
out silly stuff the Angus Association needs to process
their registration papers? can't think what else there
would be. What forms do ranchers have to fill in?
Folks that complain about this want to move
somewhere where there really is a burden of
paperwork then they'd realise how lightly they are
getting off.

[ASRG]

My Dutch neighbours tell me it is an absolute nightmare filling out the various stuff in Holland.
Basically the only thing I fill out is the age verification stuff, a manifest when I haul cattle, and a form to get my $2 checkoff back!

[15444]

I'll agree with you GF. Beyond taxes and farm registration, majority of paperwork is optional. It's just that people get conned into believing there is a benefit at the end of the line when doing it.

So I would really like a list of what forms constitute this 'paperwork'.

[grassfarmer]

Exactly ASRG. What other industry or business could
you be in with a $million asset base and $100k
annual turnover and get by with so little paperwork or
form filling? I sure can't think of one.

[smcgrath76]

A couple of things I noticed in this
article...
1) the expressed attitude that having
your children farm is Child Abuse. If
you continually tell your children that
message (even as a joke) pretty soon you
will all believe in it.
2) the greenhouse case was a specific
and unusual case involving CFIA.
I would agree that CFIA does not always
excercise common sense, but red tape is
not really an issue here.
We do more bookwork/tracking than a lot
of operations, but it is for our own
advantage and entirely optional.
Required work includes age verification
(about 5 minutes per year), filing
taxes, completing manifests, stock
returns, etc.
Optional work includes soil/feed
testing, moisture/crop insurance, risk
management (eg: CPIP), budgeting, AB Ag
Cost of Production Survey, DNA/BVD
testing, etc.
The load we put on ourselves, far
outweighs the load from Government at
this point and we do that work because
sometimes book work can improve our
profitability and reduce our risks.
If people don't believe there is
opportunity in agriculture then why do
they keep pursuing it? Also, why do
people think the opportunities of today
are available with the mindset of
yesterday. If we work really hard on
keeping young people from joining the
business of agriculture, we should not
be surprised when our hard work pays
off. Just a couple of personal pet
peeves.
I can see how the rules may differ if we
are talking about CFOs or more intensive
approaches.

[sumdumguy]

Actually I think the kids farming is parent abuse.