CAIS - When will we get $$$ ???

[pickarock]

So CAIS is going to save us from losing the farm! The question is will we have to lose the farm first and then be able to buy it back at rock bottom land prices. Lots of folks in our area talking about selling. What the hell is the hold up with the CAIS $. If they can't figure it out they should go with FIDP and CFIP until they get their act together. The interest that people are paying to keep afloat right now is killing them and lenders may start getting testy when they ask for a spring operating line.

[bombay_43]

I was just filling out my CAIS application, and there will be no money for our farm for 2003,from this program.
Like many others, we background our calves and sell in Feb/Mar. Which is what we did in 2003 before BSE. Our problem is the prices are catching up to the backgrounders only now. This will mean record low income in 2004, which will not produce CAIS $ until late 2005!
Maybe they will change the program by then!?!

[Junebug]

I wouldn't expect anything to soon. Our 2002 FIDP claim was received in their office on Aug 23,2003 (almost 6 months ago)and by finally getting the right connection we now have a "rush" put on our claim. If your hoping the government is going to help save you soon, I think you are going to be disappointed.

[dalek]

Our local cull programFood banks benefit from mad cow scare

www.intelligencer.ca

Photo by Bill Hunt
Susanne Quinlan, Richard Barber, and Neil Quinlan, right, with the cow Barber and his wife Anne are donating to the Quinte Regional Food Share Shelter that will distribute the meat to area food banks and Salvation Army citadels.


By Bill Hunt

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 10:00

Local News - The Quinte Regional Food Share Shelter has received three cows from area farmers that will be slaughtered and given to local food banks and Salvation Army citadels.

Susanne Quinlan, chair of the food share shelter, took possession of the animals last week from farmers Richard and Anne Barber, Dale Ketcheson and Kevin Durkin, who are directors of the Hastings Federation of Agriculture.

They donated the cows because the Mad Cow scare in Alberta — that resulted from one case of the disease last year — caused the closure of the U.S. border to all ruminant animals and meat from them. The border has subsequently re-opened to some meat from animals under 30 months of age, but only if the meat comes from facilities that are not processing older animals. Any processing plants wishing to export to the U.S. are therefore refusing to buy animals which are more than 30 months old. That has left only one major buyer of older animals in Eastern Canada and consequently, prices have fallen to as low as two cents a pound live weight. This means the cow donated by the Barbers, once slaughtered and butchered, will produce about 600 lbs. of ground beef that will sell for between $2 and $3 a pound in supermarkets, or be further processed into meat pies, deli meats and so forth, that will sell for higher prices. The farmer will ultimately receive, perhaps $100 for an animal worth at least $1,200 on the meat counter, says Richard Barber.

“If we had sent a similar cow to the cattle market a year ago, we would have expected a cheque for $600 to $800 for her,” he said. “If we send her this week, we may, if not too many cows are for sale, receive $50 to $100.

“We recognize that there are significant costs in the processing and distribution chain between the live animal and the supermarket. However, we wish to point out that whilst the price to the farmer has dropped dramatically, the price to the consumer is virtually unchanged, so someone along the line is profiting greatly from a situation which is causing financial hardship, even ruin, to many Canadian cattle farmers.”

The Barbers, Ketcheson and Durkin preferred to donate their cows to the Quinte Regional Food Share Shelter rather than give the profit to the meat processing industry, so Durkin, who is chair of the Hastings Federation of Agriculture, approached Quinlan last December with the idea of donating the meat.

Quinlan said the three cows will translate into 400 to 600 lbs. of hamburger “and that is a great savings to all the food banks, because most buy meat for the hampers. It’s a great thing they’re doing.”

The meat will be given to food banks in Belleville, Trenton, Stirling, Marmora, Picton, Deseronto, Tweed and Brighton, and to Salvation Army citadels in Belleville, Picton, Tweed and Trenton.

“Because the farmers are spread across the area, we decided to share with the rural food banks,” said Quinlan.

Clayton Long of Shannonville donated his time as the driver who picked up the animals from the farms, and Chilvers Meats of Foxboro is giving the food share shelter a reduced rate on the cost of processing the meat

[Horse]

I think as long as John Knapp has the job as program director here in alta you can keep right on waiting he has been a gov flunke almost forever and dont know where to go until gov points the way

[rsomer]

You may apply for a CAIS Interim Payment. The 2003 CAIS Program Interim Payment Application is intended for producers who wish to receive 2003 program year assistance earlier than normally available
Interim payments are based on an estimate of your margin decline for the 2003 fiscal period and will be made at 50% of the estimated government contributions for your 2003 CAIS program benefit. If you have previously submitted a Producer Assistance 2003 application, then you would not qualify for a CAIS Interim Payment. See http://www.agr.gc.ca/caisprogram/docs/html/2003/caisint03guide.html#intro
The deadline for submitting a 2003 CAIS Program Interim Payment Application is March 1, 2004.