APAS - packer presentations

[wd40]

APAS is sponcering a series of meeting across Sask to present numerous packing plant iniatives. The schedual is
Feb. 7, Swift Current Eagles Hall
Feb 8th. Assiniboia - Legion Hall
Feb 9, Arcola Praotoe Pride Hall
All start at 1:00 PM

[rkaiser]

Who is APAS, wd?

[BigMuddyrancher]

Agricultural Producers of Sask. trying to be like the Wild Rose group every thing to everybody. If your Municpality joins you pay a levy on your taxes even if you don't agree with their agenda. How do you represent the cattle industry and want the return of the Crow rate.

[cowman]

Well Big Muddy,I thought the CROW rate and the cattle industry was just peachy!
In fact I will tell you why we are in this mess we are in today...THE DEATH OF THE CROW!
Canada was a net importer of beef before they scrapped the CROW! The only reason we have all these darned cows is because the halflights in Ottawa bargained away the CROW!
The CROW rate...guaranteed forever...until the halfwits in Ottawa bargained it away...for what?...nothing!

[Incognito]

I'll be the last guy to stand up for bureaucrats and politicians.

But the CROW was NEVER guaranteed for perpetuity.

NEVER.

For years there was one main source for farm news; and the left controlled it. The FOREVER story was the ruse your local Pools would have had you believe while they got ready for the new world.

Farmers lost the chance to receive a 13 billion payout from the CROW, a 7 billion payout of the WGTA and ended up with just over 1 billion in 1994/95.

I agree that the demise of the WGTA is a reason of the cattle mess and the grain mess BUT what would the meat packing and value-added grain infrastructure be like if we had taken the 13 billion or the 7 billion?

What could you build in 1979 dollars for the 13 billion and in 1993 dollars for the 7 billion?

Would farmers have bargained any differently if they knew that the CROW/WGTA was not there for life?

I think farmers would have.

But the people that they had speaking for them (i.e. the pools, Farmer's Unions, and every supply managed sector out there, did not.

And therein lies the travesty. It is all politics. And now the cattle guys are getting a taste of what grain farmers have faced over the past 50 years.

The grain industry is run by the chosen few just as the chosen few packers are controlling your future.

And you wonder why we all bitch in Commodity Marketing?

[wd40]

Incognito - well put! It's so easy to sit in ones armchair and bitch at the neighbors while we miss the big picture. "Can't see the forest for the trees eh".

Along with the independent nature of producers, be it grain or beef, comes short sightedness, narrow focused and devoid of vision.

The majors sit back, laugh, and capitalize on our stupidity.

[gwf]

I know what one could have built for 7 or 13 Billion Dollars. What would you (Incognito) have built that would put agriculture (livestock and grain) in a better financial position than we are now? Agriculture is so fractured with 20, 30 or more so-called farm leaders that we do not know who to believe, and who are all singing a different tune. Then you have the political leaders that cannot carry a tune and still seem to have all the power. One of the reasons in my opinion is that we all depend on the generosity of the government for a bail out for whatever unforeseen event turns up in the future. We have become extremely dependent on the government. We are addicted to the help that is sure to come. We assume that whatever decisions governments make, it is in our best interest.

One of the decisions that have obviously been made in Alberta is that the government will let individuals build the increased packing infrastructure that is needed. Every plant proposal that I am aware of is having difficulty raising the necessary capital, and they may have to look at debt financing. This is going to make it very difficult to be successful. Are we getting set up again, when these plants find they are not able to make it on their own and will they have to beg for help, from you know who. The only way you go to the bank is when you have the trump.

[Incognito]

Vertical Integration

From Farm to Plate.

Its the only thing thats going to save your ass.

SWP had the right plan - just idiots carrying it out. It was Cargill's plan albeit 20 years too late.

And the only way farmers will agree on vertical integration is when there are 10,000 remaining because for 100 years all western Canadian farmers have done is fight with each other through the chosen 20-30 leaders as you have said.

And then when they realize that they do have power, the ones standing will have a healthy industry.

I only hope I live long enough.

[cowman]

Well Igcognito, I actually did think it was supposed to be forever so thanks for educating me on that point. I do know when the CROW died all the grain farmers started fencing and planting grass around here! And they started growing a lot more canola,hay and wheat and a lot less barley!
In the area I live in wheat was always an iffy crop. Barley was(and still is) the best crop to grow here. But when the freight to Vancouver took half of the end price it made absolutely no sense to sell barley for export. The feedlots and hog farmers paid more than the CWB could. When the CROW died export barley died and the only option was to sell it through hogs and cattle? Thus we built up our livestock and here we are today at the mercy of corporate America?
Now what might have happened if the federal government had stepped up to the plate and supported our grainfarmers? Just like the EU did and just like the US did? Got in there and played hardball in the world market?
Well they didn't...obviously...no money you know, we're too small to play with the big boys, right?
Or was the real reason we had no money because our federal governments were totally inept and corrupt and had squandered the money on a variety of silly programs that were designed to put money into their buddies pockets rather than protect and promote commerce in this country?

[blackjack]

...incognito... I only have one question who are our consumers going to be after we put on a plate...

[Incognito]

I'm guessing the right answer for you is ....cannibals?

[Incognito]

I expected more fallout than this from you cowboys:

I'll start with grain cause i will never profess to know anything about cattle other than the politics involved.

Wheat milled to bread: From start to finish: to buy a piece of land and grow wheat and get it milled

Real estate broker
Farm Machinery Dealer
Fuel Dealer
Fertilizer Dealer
Chemical Dealer
Grain Broker - (lotsa chances Boone)
Trucking Company
Grain Company
Railroad Company
Union of some sort
Canadian Grain Commission
Flour Processing Plant
Government Food Agency
Flour Broker
Trucking Company
Baking Facility
Food Broker
Trucking Company
Warehouse Distribution
Store Shelf
Consumer

21 steps from start to finish.
I'm sure i missed some.

How many steps and agencies to get a steer from scratch to consumer and whose hands are in your pie?