Heard Madame Minister

[grassmarketeer]

For all those Albertans out there!
I heard Shirley talk in Veteran on monday. It seems that they were expecting a little over 500 000 cows in Alberta. The numbers on feed and Cows in Alberta now suggest 1 200 000. They are having trouble grasping this. They are holding up claims and verifying by audits. According to the minister if we don't get a market in the short term we are "going to see it get a lot worse." She also said that the new CAISP was not able to get funds out till three more provinces signed on.
I was under the view that CAIS was OUR PROTECTION mechanism.
WHAT'S GOING ON!
I heard rumours that some of the big players in cattle marketing business have been pouring cows into Alberta. 27 liners rolled in last week from one. I have been told that cows are only worth a nickel a lb. in Ontario and at .24$/lb here they are pouring in. Add into this that they were supposedly Alberta cows returning home and qualifying for AB programs and WHAMMMO.
I was saying that this is a RUMOUR.
Would anyone like to comment on this as it scares the $#^@$# out of me.

[cowman]

I wonder who will perform these "audits"? Alberta cut $600 million to the Ag dept. in the last budget so they could give some more money to the doctors and the teachers. They have off-loaded a lot of the Ag stuff onto the municipalities. Do you think they might pick up the slack and do the audit?
I see opportunity knocking for some enterprizing young people...become a cow counter for Shirley! Why if you do a favorful count I'm sure the farmer might buy you a bottle or slip you a twenty!

[rusty1]

"young people...become a cow counter"

Maybe an old broke cowboy. Where can I apply?

[frustrated1]

I'm up for counting cows too! This could be fun. Two old farm boys in every govt pickup driving around the countryside? (they'd never trust one of us alone) No matter how slow we are we can still probably outperform any expectations. Coffee, cakes and cookies, look at a few cows. I like it! 'Course the afternoon of paperwork might be a pain but we'd probably only have to take it to a certain level then pass it to the beauraucracy to scan it, missread it and put it in the audit file where it sits for months to years.

This discussion actually took place at the coffee shop the other day but it was suggested maybe the young city kids should do it. That way every farm could have plywood cutouts of cows, red one side, black the other. You go count the cows, drive around the back roads to "the other herd", count the other side, then go for coffee. Whatdya think?

Either way it could be a win. Except it'd cost more for plywood and paint than what a program would be worth. Yea, riding in the govt truck myself sounds more lucrative.

[dalek]

Sounds like the job a big consulting firm did putting together farm stats in Northern Ontario for an environmental consultation for the Adams Mine, counting farm types. When asked how they determined which farms were dairy, beef, poultry or hogs, the answer was "we hired people to drive around the back roads. Dairy farms have tower silos, poultry farms have long, narrow metal buildings, beef farms have cattle in the yard that are usually red and white, and hog farms smell like pigs." Then the government actually wanted to accept their study as being scientific.

[cowman]

I expect the "audit" could be pricey? Maybe as much as the money sent out to the farmers? Especially if they elect to go with a private company?
The Alberta government likes"private companies" doing contract work! Why you just might spot Ralph Klein and Steve West out counting cows this summer! Of course they will have won the contract in a proper manner with the lowest tender! Well maybe not the lowest but the "best value" for the people of Alberta!

[boone]

Post: If the cow calf guys don't see any more value for these cows, plywood might be thicker than some live ones by spring, (sad truth).