Meeting with Cam Ostercamp

[rsomer]

You can try as you might to make me an Rcalf supporter rsomer, and threaten my business with BS like that, but I only tried to say that they are out to look after their own, in a far more passionate way than any Canadian group.

My God who's the radical now. Quoting rsomer "I want to see the North West packing plant industry put out of business, not Canadian producers put out of business and I want to see Canadians take over that market." How do you suppose RCalf, or the USDA or whoever is going to react to that one.If you think you've seen the last of their court challenges, keep talking like that and you will never see your precious border open.

Like I said in my last post. Your thoughts are closer to the radical thoughts and lies that Rcalf stands for, while some people may also see the good and the truth in this whole issue.

[cowman]

Rpkaiser: If we had a "Canadian version of R-Calf" I would be a whole hearted supporter! Why not? They support the interests of the cow/calf guy. Now we can go on and on about how dumb R-Calf is; but lets face some facts...they are putting some bucks in those old boys jeans?
Maybe they are misguided? Maybe they don't see the "big picture"? Who cares? The bottom line is the bank balance and right now they are getting it done and taking care of business?
You don't seem to be all that keen on how the ABP and CCA are protecting your interests,.... right now? And you seem to be supporting this "radical group"? How is this any different than what these old R-calf boys are doing? You want to shake up the "system"...which is exactly what they are doing?
I do understand, that on some level, you see the problems that cow/calf people in the USA face are compatible with what we face? We all are getting the shaft from the "meat oligarchy" and that is our problem! Not the little cow guy in the USA?

[cowman]

Your last statement says it all cowman. I do like the way Rcalf stands up for their producers, and also appreciate the effort that ABP and CCA are attempting. Their focus however is tunnel vision, and yes I would like to see some new ideas.

[ALICIA]

If we ever what to get our older cattle to market we have to test. That really is the bottom line.
And to do that we need more packing plants.

100% testing on over 30 months. May be if we do it in baby steps, the goverment will come around to the Idea of testing all. The culls seem to be the onces that are of the greatest issue and need to be dealt with.

The plant in Kitchener is reopening for just cull cows, the producer has a share in the plant by declairing how many he can ship in a year and what month and is getting payed by the rail.

This is no good for me, but if the drovers have a place to ship the culls then he is going to raise the price on the culls he can buy to make his quoita. I see this as a win for both partly.

More plants up and running like this with 100% test just could get some markets open.

[kato]

For small plants, just having the ability to test helps their viability.

For instance, the Rancher's Choice plant in Winnipeg is about a 5 minute drive from the big national lab.

Five minutes away from state of the art BSE testing, and locked out.

Maybe if they knew they could test those culls they would have been approved for financing. As of right now, it's looking pretty tough.

[cowman]

So kato, what is happening with the Ranchers Choice plant? Is it being built or is it still in the wish phase? No doubt you guys in Manitoba need a plant if you hope to survive. Hows the hog business doing in Manitoba?

[rsomer]

Kato: I note your comment that the proposed packing plant has not been able to obtain financing and I certainly agree that is the problem holding us back. A call from producers for government financing for these packing plants would be much more likely to produce positive results for our industry than continued producer calls for 100% testing which the government is surely going to ignore.

Cam Ostercamp is barking up the wrong tree.

[kato]

FCC and Western Diversification turned it down, then the provincial government stepped in and said it would help, but gave no details. Of course.

It's a real roller coaster ride.

I sure hope it works though, it was a cattle facility before being converted to hogs, so the facilities are right for the job, and in a good location.

[kato]

As for Cam Ostercamp barking up the wrong tree, I don't know about that. What we need right now is barking and lots of it.

We need to start high and then see what we can negotiate. Sometimes by making a lot of noise and asking for the moon, we might just get what we really need just to make us shut up and go away.

We need to take a lesson from the big unions. They've got it down to a fine art. We also have to learn to stick together like they do. Agriculture today runs on the principle of "divide and conquer". Big business knows we're independant, and uses that trait to divide us so we don't offer any opposition to their control. We're too busy scrapping amongst ourselves.

[kato]

I'm sorry but I can't sit and listen to this barking issue without putting in my 2 cents.
Yes we need more packing plants and yes we need to have our government step in with some help to build them.
Those are also issues discussed by Cam Ostercamp.
There are also a lot of other issues discussed in this paper that is supposedly barking up the wrong tree.

Does not barking up the wrong tree imply that what the dog is barking for is not in that tree.

How long is the ABP and gang going to keep barking for things to return to the way they used to be. That tree is not only the wrong one, it has been cut up and burned for firewood.

[kato]

Yup... it's time for a new tree.

[kato]

June 7 - meeting day.

rpkaiser....Start a new thread.... This one's so long it's slow to load.

Let us know how it went.