Okay, I'll dmit it AGAIN

[rkaiser]

The new owners of Agriville are as American as you can get. They offered me 1/2 cent per hit if I could dream up a way to bring more trafic over to agriville.

[farmers_son]

Re your comment that the new owners of Agri-ville are Americans.

Check out:
http://www.hoovers.com/farms.com/--ID__99014--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml

What difference does it make if Farm.com is Canadian or U.S. based? We really do live in a global age where international borders for business do not exist, especially between Canada and the United States.

I can remember when I was a kid that there was a rivalry between the two neighbouring small towns. People from one town did not mix much with people from the other town, sporting events were hotly contested between the two towns. If you happened to live somewhere in between the two towns your allegiance was determined by your choice of post office and which hall your weddings and funerals were held in. These were towns of about 25 people each.

That rivalry does not exist to the same extent now, the two towns are still there but people go back and forth between the two easily. People from one town will assist at public events in the other town, back and forth and so on.

The point I am trying to make is this Canadian versus American thing is really old and really small town. It does not matter if Agri-ville is owned by Americans or Canadians. It also does not matter if beef in a U.S. retail cooler is from Canada or the United States. Or if a packer in Washington is slaughtering live cattle from Canada or the U.S. They all end up just as dead. There is a very low incidence of BSE on both sides of the border even if producers on the south side of the “tracks” claim their wash is whiter than ours.

There is a North American market for live cattle and beef. Not Canadian or American. And who cares who owns Agri-ville.

[cswilson]

I don't think Master Kaiser would sell out for 1/2 a cent a hit lol.

[coppertop]

Well, if Randy is getting paid so much a 'hit', then he darn well better start forking over the Lion's share of his windfall to the rest of us, because without our responses to his most recent posts where would he be ???

We have made him what he is today, and he is reaping the monetary benefit !!!

[rkaiser]

Lighten up farmer_son.

I love America --- especially now that I know GW is going to get punted out of his position as the head of the KKK.

[rkaiser]

By the way farmer_son, I agree with your post and mine was simply trying to point out the respect that I have for grassroots American capitalism. You gotta admit; in general those Americans do a hell of a lot better job selling themselves than us Canuckleheads.

Which brings me to another question? Not that I don't respect the right of anyone to privacy, but why do most Canadians hide out here on the web with these code names? Even Old Willowcreek has shown us his website with the sign on the big building in the background whited out. You know that building Willowcreek, the one with the words ----tal health facility across the top of the door.

Being a "hold the party line" ABP/CCA man or women might hold you back from exposing your true identity here on agriville, but even those folks should not be afraid to take one on the chin from time to time.

[DiamondSCattleCo]

I think one of the first things that Agri-villes new owners could do to increase traffic is get some decent forums software. Something that shows new posts would be a welcome addition and would certainly increase the number of times I hit here.

Rod

[farmers_son]

rkaiser: I guess it depends upon what is being sold.

In case it sounds like I am pro American that would not be the case. I do see that the packers we sell our product to are global players even if the head office is in the United States. Cattle producers need to think out of the box if they ever hope to capture their fair share of the consumer’s food dollar. This Canadian versus American thing does not advance the cause of producers in either country.

In another thread I posted an article on how the producers in Australia are getting paid low prices at the same time as retail beef prices in that country are at all time highs. The problem is everywhere. The packers will buy live cattle from Canadians, Americans, Australians, or from whomever at the lowest price possible. The Americans are pushing for MCOOL thinking it will force up the price of their live cattle. Not likely, it will just further split the North American live cattle market and create opportunities for the packers to divide and conquer.

It is good to be a proud Canadian, or a proud American, proud Australian, and so on. But business is business and live cattle producers need to realize their competition is not the producer next door or the producer across the border rather the competition is the packing plants who compete for all of the consumers food dollar they can get their hands on. Primary producers in all countries need to start thinking in terms of how they can work together to get a better portion of that food dollar.

[rkaiser]

I would not ad much to that post farmer_son, except to say that BSE testing for export markets would help to stop this captive market drivvel that we are currently experiencing and help packing competition and producers on both sides of the border to survive.

Come now farmer_son, I agree to ever word in your post, how about something back.

[farmers_son]

Rkaiser: As always...an interesting statement. Now to be fair, you did not agree to every word in my post. You added a little exception about BSE testing.

You said “BSE testing for export markets would help to stop this captive market drivel that we are currently experiencing and help packing competition and producers on both sides of the border to survive.”

If we look at Australia which is not testing for BSE and has great access to export markets we would see that their producers are still subject to a captive market the same as we are. The packers are ripping off the Australian producers even if the Aussie government denies it is happening; just like governments in Canada and for that matter the United States will deny the packers rip of their respective producers.

I thought the post on the Australian packers ripping of their producers would have gotten more interest. Our industry problems run much deeper than disagreements over BSE testing.