10 YEARS AGO TODAY !!!

[dluther]

For some reason I think May 19,2003 will stick in my mind as long as I have it. Are things better today? Yes I am getting the pension but it should come twice a month.

[kato]

May 19 2003 sticks in my mind as the last good day before it all went to pots. We were close to paying off the farm, and had felt confident enough to finally get that brand new truck we'd been waiting for since the last one we bought in 1987. Life was good. Prices were good, and supposed to get even better.

Move forward one day to May 20. Around noon, I think. I was at work at the vet clinic, and we got the call from the CFIA. Hubby was at the auction mart. I called him on his cell. He told me how fast it all shut down when the word hit there. All of a sudden, the sale was over. The calf that was in the ring was sent home, along with all the other unsold animals of the day. The buyers packed their bags, and the front row was empty in less than 10 minutes. Trucks that hadn't gotten to the border yet were called back.

I'll never forget that sick feeling we both had as we looked at that big new 3/4 ton Silverado with the big fat loan attached to it, and wondered "How are we ever going to pay this off?" Now we were not only in debt, but we had half the equity of the day before.

I can't describe the sick feeling we got when we looked out into the feedlot and saw the steer calves we'd bought to background.

We've still got the truck, and we got it paid off, but that didn't come without some serious effort and stress. We got rid of the steers, eventually, at a more or less break even.

Are we better off now? That's hard to say. We're just starting to relax a bit, and I emphasize the word "a bit", but I don't think we'll ever really be comfortable again. We've seen so many things that "could never happen", actually happen since 2003, that complacency is no longer an option.

Prices are just getting back to 2003 levels, but costs are at 2013 levels. We've got a way to go yet. Will we get there before we retire? I doubt it.

[wlc]

Yes Kato I understand your well put statements .I believe most of our problems as producers was caused by CFIA .Not only then but also in the XL recall .And now we read with dismay that Gerry Ritz has greatly extended their powers .Go fiqure .

[GaryE]

I'm trying to find something good to say about CFIA and the best I can come up with is consistent. Following a problem, they complain about lack of resources and regulations, ask for an increase in fines and authority but there certainly is no mention of accountability. While the cattle industry took a hit for millions of dollars because 18 people got sick and although there was lots of evidence that changes needed to be implemented, nothing was done until after the fact. No one was publicly disciplined, no one lost there job and we're still waiting for this internal review. Cattle producers are struggling to get back to 2003 levels but CFIA has thrived as a result of BSE.

[DogPatch]

A lot of good, hardworking and young families were forced to leave the cattle industry. Saddled with high debts (Farm and livestock Loans, supplier debts were paid with BSE Loans) and prolonged depressed prices the lure of higher paying oilfield jobs made the tough decision to quit farming painful but........ what other choice did they have? Bankruptcy, divorces, suicides......

The packers got rich, millions were spent on facilities that were never built etc, etc. etc. What a GOD AWFUL way to treat farm families. BSE shouldn't have been handled the way it was, but those responsible for the mess will never be held accountable.

May they all rot in Hell........

[grassfarmer]

"Now we were not only in debt, but we had half the
equity of the day before"

Really? or are you only talking about your cattle
valuation?
It makes for a good story but I'm not convinced it
tells the true story. Given that most of us own land
and that land values have probably doubled in the
last decade in many areas it's hard to honestly claim
our equity was halved.
And as always there were opportunity. I know
someone who expanded into a substantial land base
in SK soon after BSE, largely on borrowed money, and
his cowherd is now worth more than he paid for all
the land.

[SADIE]

Gary E Now now, lets reflect back to the WCVM graduating Class of 1976. Do you know both of us turned down jobs to work for the CFIA.

What about our classmates that ended up being one of those "RATS"--I mean Beaurocrats.

Gary E do you know that there is no age restriction now to apply for a job with these CLOWNS. Maybe in 10 years when we turn 70 we should apply?

[DogPatch]

I think we need to be fair with the CFIA Vets on the Front line. They were only following the letter of the law (Health of Animals etc) and had to bow to the real RATS in Ottawa. The likes of Van Clife, Stockwell, and Ritz, (I forget all the rest) and the likes of Rosann in MB that did nothing for the producers. BSE was a big deal in England, and we need to lay blame on the Media for blowing it so WAY OUT of proportion.

[burnt]

grassfarmer : "And as always there were opportunity. I know someone who expanded into a substantial land base in SK soon after BSE, largely on borrowed money, and his cowherd is now worth more than he paid for all the land."

And like grassfarmer then said, -"It makes for a good story but I'm not convinced it tells the true story."

grassfarmer, if we listen to your story often enough, we will all be convinced that BSE was the best thing that ever happened to the Canadian cattleman!

It was a gilt-edged, gift-wrapped opportunity to expand, double our equity, acquire land, build profitable cowherds and set our children up for countless generations of infallible business opportunities!

We just looked at it all wrong! The losses we incurred were just a small pebble in the path rather than the financial body blow that they appeared to be!

All we had to do was bite the bullet, overlook reality, seize the opportunity follow the immortal grassfarmer's advice, go out and buy cheap cows like a flock of vultures and get on the yellow brick road!!

Nothing but opportunity! Can't go wrong!

(Ignore the fact that we had no money to fund these heady, fail-safe adventures and had to scramble to cover expenses in the aftermath)

Oh yes, just follow the super-cattleman grassfarmer's example and grow your way out of trouble!

grassfarmer, the more we get to know of you, the clearer it becomes why Scotland was not big enough for you.

You might well be the most scurrilous, condescending troll to ever frequent this forum of respectable cattlemen and women.

You seem to find great contentment ridiculing the misfortune of others and making them out to be the cause of their own trouble. Sure, sit back and cackle out your mirth at the pain of others - it makes you look like a real man!

Your constant attacks on honest people gives cause to wonder what pathological disorder afflicts you to drive you to blame the victim.

By the way, have you signed yourself out of the BSE class action yet or are you still hoping to shake the tree and get a few bucks out of the efforts of others, you putrid, hypocritical mass of near-humanity?

[kato]

Actually, GF, we did lose half of our equity. I see my books every day, and I am a formally trained bookkeeper. I have a pretty good handle on the finances. The year end balance sheet was cut in half, if you used the actual market prices at the time.

Not many people likely realize that if lenders had insisted on valuing breeding cows in Canada at the true market value of the time, a huge number of cattle producers would have been, on paper at least, bankrupt. Most lenders were willing to look the other way, for a while, which bought some time. They didn't have to. They could have gotten sticky about it, and done a world of damage.

This is how it worked for us. Our cattle were worth more than our land back then. A lot more. We don't have a lot of land, at least not by some standards. We use custom grazing for our cow herd, buy a lot of standing hay, had a feedlot full of wxpensive stockers, and all our own land was in pasture and hay. A pasture quarter that was not suitable for crops was virtually unsellable for a number of years after 2003. Grain land has gone up a lot since then, but pasture has not, unless it's land that could be broken and cropped. I know of pasture land even now that has been abandoned.

Maybe if the fiasco hadn't happened, we would own more land by now. Who knows? However, that ship has sailed.

[littledoggie]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Alberta cattle industry recovers decade after costly/8403439/story.html

[littledoggie]

There should be "plus" signs between all those words. (Alberta cattle industry recovers after costly) Why it didn't print it the way I typed it is a mystery to me.

[kato]

Former Alberta agriculture minister Shirley McClellan suggests it wasn’t a determining factor.

“Any producer that went out of the industry was going out anyway.”

What an arrogant attitude!

[grassfarmer]

There are some quotes in there that support the point
I'm making.

"Dave Salvorson has a cow/calf and feedlot operation
of about 1,200 hectares in the Camrose area and
currently serves as a vice-president in the CCA. What
saved him, Salvorson says, was the fact that his land
“continued to appreciate,” which kept the bankers
happy. He says prior to that fateful Tuesday in May
2003, his herd was worth “over a million dollars.” A
couple of weeks later it was worth $300,000 to
$400,000.
Salvorson says he plans to stay in the business long
term, though the post BSE environment has forced
him to become more efficient. He says his “mortgage
burning ceremony” has been postponed by a couple
of years."

Not sure what Dave's land is like but 3000 acres x
even $2500/acre makes his land worth $7.5 million
now where it was maybe worth under $4 million a
decade ago. Makes the temporary drop in cattle
valuation in '03 look fairly insignificant.

[oneoff]

Remember that GF has two divinig rods(witching apparatus) attached out his body (or his confidents) to receive his firmly held beliefs.

When you allow people like that to uncontestedly repeat their unsubstantiated beliefs as facts; they will surely become more brave in attempting to prove their myopic view of their world.