Who will pay?

[countryguy]

Pandiana,why is it we have no leverage?We as producers produce what is thought by society today commodities,when in fact what we produce is food,a neccesity of life!!If producers want to flex their muscles all they have to do is lock the corral gates,bin doors,etc and watch the chaos begin!I've wracked my brain trying to figure out why we can't do something like this,at least on a small scale for starters and can't come up with a reason why.

[carebear300]

The reason is that most of us need cash flow. I can't go without cash flow or my creditors will just end up taking over. And even if we all got together and committed to not selling one thing for ninety my neighbours that are extremely wealthy would sell something as soon as they could make an extra buck no matter what the consequences for the rest of the industry. I happen to like the idea of a producer driven action to keep produce off the market for a start up minimum of lets say ninety days. Don't just know if I have the strength to stand up to my banker and tell him to just wait no matter what he threatens.

[ValueChainFX]

Producer driven action is what we need without a doubt, but the action really does need to be a strategy. As pointed out most producers need cash flow. This means that we need to be able to target market in a coordinated manner. Keeping some of the more stable products off the market, while a balanced flood moves into other markets. This type of action really does need to be well thought out, as we could never go head to head with commodities and the big boys.

Also we have some in our producer groups that are more for themselves as individuals, these folks would have to be considered in any strategy.

Looking at a worst case scenario is almost like saying we have a good view of the sewage lagoon from the manure pile! In other words the grass roots producer is pretty much at a point they need to do something since doing nothing will put them out of business sooner rather than later. But the key is to get the group going and build on a strategy that makes sense. This doesn't happen overnight, but the bright side is, much of the work to do this has been done, and we could make things happen in short order, if there was enough interest?

[cowman]

Countryguy: The only problem with trying to hold food off the market is there is a whole world hammering on our door trying to get in. If you hold your cattle off the market in comes the meat from South America or Oceania! The same thing with grain. Just look what happened when the grain farmers tried holding out for higher barley prices last fall? In came the subsidized corn! The grain farmer had just come through some pretty hard times and needed that price to go high to offset the yield losses. Instead they were beat down by a blatantly subsidized product!
Our government is not interested in having higher food prices! Our whole economy is built on cheap food and cheap labour! That's how the corporations get rich...and they do call the shots my friend!

[rusty1]

Yep! You can pour all the sentiment in the world into who and what we anre and what we deserve. But at the end of the day all we are is a commodity. So all we can do is figure out how to work within the system sharpen our tools and be more competitive. I've said it before. You need 1 of two things to be sucessful, to be significant or scarce, and if you have both then you really have a leg up on the rest.
Sharpen your tools:
The profitability within a given cow heard is greater than between herds. I've seen ADG range from 7 lbs. per day to zero within the same one-iron calves. So untill we as producers get serious about consistancey and put into practice some tools to improve our product we shant be looking for handouts.

[rsomer]

"why should he [Rutherford],as a taxpayer, be responsible for bailing out cattlemen.

I see only one basic role of national government, that being defense of the country and its citizens. Canada has a proud military history. But one country can attack another country without using bombs and tanks. Countries can be attacked economically. Once the science indicated that our beef was safe after successful testing found a single case of BSE , once the issue became political, Canada was being attacked.

Canada and Canada’s beef industry is being attacked by the United States who are seeking to destroy our domestic beef industry while gaining a tactical advantage for their own producers and domestic beef industry. After the United States has sufficiently weakened the economic defenses of our beef industry they will come in and claim even more sectors of the beef economy as their own. The war will be won, and the Canadian beef producer will be defeated.

The proper role of the Canadian government is to defend the country by using whatever means are available. Yes there is a cost to the taxpayer for this defense. But most would agree that the government needs to provide direct logistical support to its soldiers, in this case the beef producers of this country. Without this support many units will be lost.

Yes there are weak kneed, namby pamby left leaning liberals in this country who don’t have the balls to stand up for the defense of Canada because it might cost them a tax dollar. Some will even say the fight isn’t worth it or the fight is too hard or we have already lost. But the rest of the nation will proudly stand up for Canada and continue to fight the good fight for the sake of the industry and the good of the country.

How’s that for a rant?

[countryguy]

I still think that if we withheld product from the market even for a short time(2-4 weeks) we could have a great impact.Just think of all the people down the line that would be affected.Truckers,elevators,railways,processors,cr ushers,etc would all be at a standstill.Heck,there may not even be bread on the shelf at the grocery store.They would not have time to find replacement supply and surely everyone could go a couple weeks without cashflow.

[Bruce14]

Excellent rant rsomer. In an earlier post you mentioned Sheila and the Liberals. It was disheartening yesterday that when the rally was held in Ottawa in conjunction with the Western Cattle Drive truck arriving that there was not a single rep. from the Liberal gov't to address the people.

I suppose they were busy ensuring Svend's gay anti-hate bill passed. (Not that I am opposed to any anti-hate legislation but we can surely see where this govenments priorities are).

At least the day before there was a few Liberals that stood and voted with their conscience and against the "namby pamby" party line.

Wouldn't it be great if the "right" (C.A. and P.C.'s) actually did unite?

[rusty1]

Very good "rant" Bruce 14. The only concern I have is with the CA and PC's. Over my 50 plus years the Tories seem to be as red as the other 2 parties. When disgruntled MP's want to defect they don't seen to know which of the of the 3 parties they want to join NDP, Lib, PC. I don't see a whole lot of difference.

[Bruce14]

rusty1, there is a very HUGE difference this time. The Liberals know they have absolutley no competition as long as the CA and PCs remain apart. ABSOLUTLEY no competition whatsoever. They will remain in power indefinitley.

I am sure willing to give somone else a try.