Looking for some good people...

[grassfarmer]

Cameron, I hope you can find time in your busy
schedule to watch that Savory video I posted the link
to. I think his part about reductionist thinking versus
holistic thinking is very apt to this debate too.
The worst year financially since BSE in 2003 for most
in the west would be 2009. Are the feds gathering the
information from producers interested in looking that
far after 2003? If they are I think it would be tough to
tie 2009's problems closely to BSE without also
including 2010, 11 and 12 which showed markedly
better returns.
My point is, like in Savory's presentation if you set all
the information up side by side you'd find that "BSE"
was not the one simple, single cause of hardship in
the years post 2003. Darrin Qualman did the work to
prove that in his Cattle Crisis document for the NFU.

Perfecho, maybe you just had the wrong kind of cattle
to sell? Our bull selling business has grown year on
year since 2003. The breeding cattle herd grew
markedly for the first few years after BSE due to the
low value of cull cows so more bulls were in use not
less. Sure plenty guys kept older bulls instead of
changing them so often but I don't see that as a bad
thing. Maybe the commercial producers were cutting
out unnecessary expense by turning away from the
frivolity and cosmetic nonsense of the conventional
purebred sector? That too is a good thing in my book.
Nobody bailed out the Simmental breeders when the
demand fell for their long legged, spotted cattle. No
one bailed out the hereford breeders when their
breed fell from grace largely due to fashion. I think if
you want to play the conventional purebred "game"
you should live by the fads and fashions that govern
it.

[cpallett]

Iain,

Watched the Savory video. Excellent. Already posted on the other thread.

Nobody with a lick of common sense says that BSE is the single cause of current difficulties in the Canadian cattle industry (have you read the Sept. 2012 CAPI report?).

On the other hand, nobody with a lick of common sense claims that producers have been fully compensated for the financial hardship that BSE did cause.

We're not seeking more than producers are entitled to, but admittedly it is a complex equation.

[wd40]

You need to get the list of employees that worked in the Provincial lab during those days of discovery.
I met a young vet (I think) in about 2004 who worked at the Prov. lab who said there was strong evidence of a possible mix up of the controlled sample of prions and the actual cow’s sample.
When a few of those working there became aware, and began to make noise, they were threatened with termination and some eventually were removed. Being a vet she said her license would be revoked.

[burnt]

Cameron, do you still have the contact info of the Federal Inspector that we spoke to?

[perfecho]

Well, GF, must be great to have all the answers and right cattle.
We were just getting going, developing our market, when BSE hit...and it kicked! We are fine now, thank you...think even some of your customers have come this way.... check out www.evgelbvieh.com...maybe thre is something there for you ;-)

[kato]

We must also remember that without the political environment set up by the BSE fiasco, there would have been no traction for bringing in MCOOL.

And it just keeps on going....

[grassfarmer]

I'm sure the Feds will be impressed with the
magnitude of your hardship perfecto. $19,000 bulls,
$16,000 cows. These prices sound like they could
ruin a guy.

[perfecho]

Even with those prices (and it was only 1 bull...1 cow, and real prices)...I will still not make back what I lost. I just got lucky! (And sold the factory…which you have to do when semi-retiring)
But it really isn't about what I lost.. it’s about what we lost in the backbone of our country. The loss of belief that our Gov. is there to do the "right thing". The loss of people that were on the verge of retiring and lost; not because of their doing, but someone else’s. You and I will do OK, GF, Randy will keep forging away and find a way; but there were some that couldn't. We are asked to believe in the system, rebel rousers if we don't...but the system takes care of the system, not those who feed it.
Had asked a breeder that was in a long time before I was...would have a longer record of financials before BSE, to help out with their records. Their response was that they really wanted to leave it the past...it was painful and they really would rather forget it.
I don’t fault them, they have their reasons, just as I have mine....but each time we don’t stand up, we lose a little more power.
Sounds soap boxy…but hey…

[kato]

Soap boxy is good. We need more of it. In fact, here's some more...

Back when we were circulating the petitions, I spoke to people who were absolutely devastated by all this. Especially in Manitoba. There are large parts of this province that are cattle country, and that's about it. There is no job in town. Town is too far away. There is no option to grow grain. There certainly was no oil patch, with the exception of one corner of the province, and that was in it's infancy back then. The cattle were a lot of people's only source of income.

The thing that sticks in my mind was when I got a message from a girl who heard that we were trying to help, and who was watching her father suffer terribly. She said that it made her cry when she saw that finally someone cared. I will never forget that.

There were a lot of people suffering, and who had no hope for the future, and were watching their life's work just fade away to nothing. They were feeling isolated, and alone.

This is about much more than money. We all used to be the ones who were so proud to be able to make it on our own. We didn't need any government handouts. We didn't need any charity. Cattle were a major force in this country's economy.

Overnight, suddenly the joke was that leaving your kids the cowherd was the worst form of child abuse. Any time you met up with your relatives, the first question was "Why haven't you sold the cows yet?" Personally, I got pretty sick of all that very quickly.

Then I got mad.

Which is what we all need to do. We finally have a chance to see some justice, so we can't let this opportunity slip away. It will be our last one. I suggest everyone put their thinking caps on, and go over a list in their heads of all the people they know, to find just the right ones to help make this right. They are out there. We just need to find them.

[dluther]

Kato I know what you mean when people ask you about the cattle.I lost a lot of land to CONEXUS CREDIT UNION -REGINA. It used to bother me when people ask are you still farming? Now I say thanks to C.C.U. I'M stricly in the cattle business.I did get to know their LAWYER [NOT A BAD GUY] he said the problem is that the GOVERMENTS SHOULD BE HELPING THE CATTLEMAN and I respect him for that.

[kato]

Categories one to four are filled. Five more to go.