Government poverty?

[cowman]

The government always pleads poverty when it comes to subsidies or aid for agriculture. Yet it is hard to accept this when we see them spending like drunken sailors on boondoggles like the Jane Stewart deal or gun registry or the latest advertizing scandals.
I believe there is a solution? Every farmer in western Canada needs to get down to your local community college and enrol in French Immmersion classes! That seems to be the ticket to government largesse?

[kato]

There was one story about a movie made about Rocket Richard. Good little movie, too from what they said. Problem was that the funding travelled through buddies of the government on the way to the film company. To the tune of a quarter of a million in commisions...just for handing over cheques!

There must be a way someone would give us a commission for handing over cheques. I think a 15 thousand dollar commission fee for paying the fuel bill is about right. We just need introductions to the "right people".

[CattleAnnie]

Yes, that has always been an interesting conondrum to me as well. Take for example, BC Hydro forgiving a Californian power company's multi-million dollar debt (they 'bought' power from BCHydro and then 'couldn't' pay their bill)- what would happen to the 'average' consumer if he/she didn't pay their bill? No power, a report to the Credit Bureau and a collection agency would be contracted to recoupe the funds owed.
Then at the same time that the gov't announced that they were going to aid the cattlemen with a few million dollars (sounded promising, didn't it?) they also announced ANOTHER bailout of Bombardier to the tune of over a billion.
Locally here, there were also forgivable loans made to an American company (LousiannaPacific) as incentives to develop an O.S.B. board plant.
And let's not forget that recently the gov't 'forgave' a debt owed by Iraq that numbered in the millions of dollars.
Sure glad they were able to be such a 'big' help to the myriad of people affected by BSE. Yes, I can't deny that at this point I would be ecstatic to receive some financial help, but at the same time it galls me to find myself in the position of standing hat in hand waiting for a handout...and I too have doubts about the CAIS program.
Last fall I paid my accountant to send in my numbers for an application for a NISA account (figured what the hell, why not) but due to the fact that I'm a relatively 'new' fulltime rancher and running at a negative margin (due to the badtiming of having bought my herd at a time when prices were relatively high, and the cost of building a calving barn, working and sorting corrals, and putting in a watering system) to my dismay I was denied a NISA number because I didn't make a profit. Due to this denial, I was not sent CAIS applications, and only after five times contacting the people working on CAIS, I am now waiting for my forms to arrive (but first had to send a handwritten letter along with my SIN to get this information).
The long and the short of it is that I really do wonder what the future of the beef industry in Canada holds. I'm not talking five years from now, what really concerns me is who on earth will be raising beef in twenty years, because when I look around at my fellow producers at the auctions, bull sales, and cattle association meetings, most of these people are in their early sixties. At thirty-five years of age, I'm the youngest person that I know of in our region attempting to raise a family by working solely as a cow/calf producer(and I say attempting because I even skipped my FarmCredit cattleloan payments this fall and still barely managed to keep food on our table - even though I'm cutting costs left, right and center, but we've had a drought here and so it's made feed expensive and hard to come by, and the money's just not here to even truck it up).
Folks, I'm sorry to have rattled on so long, but calving season has left me alot of late night hours to wonder why I'm so determined to hang in there, and how on earth we'll get through, as at this point with the depressed market if I was to sell every head of cattle I own, I would still be unable to make good on my loans. God knows I knew I'd never be rich doing this, but I did hope to at least make my bills most years.
The saddest part of all that I've seen though has been the older people who were planning on finally retiring from this industry, only to find that their calves, cows, and ranches are now worth diddly-squat. Nobody wants them. Heartbreaking to see these good people struggling with financial stress as well as arthritis and other infirmities when they should have been able to finally take life a little easier. Most of their kids want nothing to do with the farm, and really, the way things stand, who can blame them?
Some elderly neighbours of mine held all their calves this fall due to the terrible prices, and finally sold them last week due to the fact that feed and money were just too short to hold them any longer, and receved $59/cwt for their 700lb steer calves (and their calves are quality animals - no scrubby junk)...and that didn't include the buyer's pencil shrink.
I digressed from the start of the message, but really it's all related. It rankles the soul to see 'forgivable debts' to giant corporations and foreign countries when Canadian citizens in dire straits must jump through hoops for pennies.
And a significant number of producers will never even apply for what aid there is due to an overwhelming amount of apathy regarding the sincerity/ability of the government to actually help them keep from going bankrupt, and intimidation of being able to complete the required forms properly (you should have seen the BC gov't's WholeFarmInsuranceProgram's application forms - I've heard dozens of producers describe them as a bloody nightmare - they sure were strangely put together!).
I apologise again for having such a rant...just a little overwhelmed these last ten months and kind of needed to let it all hang out on the line. I'm sure most, if not all of you that are involved either directly or indirectly by this crisis can relate. Hang in there, everyone.
Thanks for listening and take care from a B.C. Peace Country producer.

[cowman]

Cattle Annie: Your words are oh so true! We are fast becoming an industry of old people. Where will the next generation of farmers come from?
Our various governments have taken a fairly short term approach for many years, by doing their best to discourage young people from entering agriculture.
Why is it they can lend foreign corporations cheap money to come into our country and build but can't do anything for the young farmer/businessman? Why have they continued to do everything possible to make agriculture non-viable? The CROW has to be the most glaring example of just how inept they are! Scrap the CROW while the Americans and Europeans continue to subsidize at obscene levels? Their excuse: We can't afford it, we have too small of a population! Complete tripe, pure and simple!
You hang in there. Hopefully some day the Canadian public will wake up and realize people like you are a neccessity!

[frustrated1]

Ahh, cattleannie. I do have some compadres who feel they've slipped through the cracks of the bueraucracy. This is "the real cost" I started picking at in another thread, the loss of pride of an honest days work, the loss of the joy of those new calves, the shame of missing payments or in my case restructuring. The worries, the anxieties, the shear frustrations. Used to be if we had a problem we'd damn the torpedos and fix it. Now it seems we can't figure out what to charge at. And so I sit. As do many who have the expertise and drive given the chance. Things will come around again. It'll all be different but it will give us another kick at it all.

[kato]

Cattleannie..a good rant once in a while does a person a lot of good. I threw a rant on an American discussion board last week, and got a tremendous response. It was he same one I posted on this site, but down there it was information they hadn't heard.

Turns out those R-Calf guys are viewed by regular cattlemen as being just as "out there" as we think they are. That was an eye-opener for me..I was under the impression they represented the views of a lot more people than they really do. I am happy to see that we indeed have rational reasonable neighbours to the south. They really didn't know just how bad things are up here.

They also didn't know what a stranglehold those same packers they deal with down there have on producers up here. They were quite surprised to learn of the monopoly situation we live with.

Got a lot of miles out of that rant..and feel much better for having done it. So good, I even threw a mini-rant on a Japanese site! That was really fun.

We should all be ranting everywhere we can...make lots of noise..That's what the professional activists have perfected, and it gets them a lot of attention.

How about an assignment for the day? Everybody here find one place new tomorrow, and throw a rant. We'll feel better, and maybe someone will listen.

[cowman]

Just one question kato? Did you do your mini-rant in Japanese? Or do they translate? Maybe when it was posted it just came out as chicken scratchings to the Japanese? They probably figured what the hell is this!
I usually try for at least one rant a day, whether I need it or not! I'm a big hit on coffee row!

[rsomer]

kato: Could you post the address of the American discussion board and Japanese sites? I would like to see that.

[cakadu]

Cattle Annie - it's sad to say but there are getting to be more and more people out there every day that are feeling much the same way you are. I would much prefer to see a rant on this site (or any other) so that you can get it out instead of "stuffing" it all down with potentially serious outcomes i.e. affected health.

It's my understanding that the stress lines are ringing off the wall, and that is a good thing. It always helps to know that you are not alone in your thoughts and that others can share them with you.

At one time or another we have all reached the end of that knot at the end of a very frayed rope. We hang on and it's made much easier knowing that there are others who can empathize.

Welcome to the site where all contributions are welcome.

Linda