Goodale

[grassfarmer]

I heard Ralph Goodale quoted this morning as saying Ottawa would have to think about providing another bail out package to the beef industry.
Surprised by the speed of this announcement but I'd like to know who will get the money? Feedlots who were bidding freely on calves in the last couple of months? Cow/Calf guys who have been getting good prices of late for selling calves - or the ones who got a hammering selling calves last Fall?
I honestly can't see where he reckons a bail out is needed - sure we could all use extra money - but it is taxpayer money and as such shouldn't be wasted.
If the feedlots are the recipients I hope they know which ones are custom feeding cattle for Americans because we shouldn't be bailing out American producers.
As Rick Paskal said this morning .... "the Government needs to sit down with industry inside a week and get some packing plants up and running" - I agree this is the best use of any "bailout funds."

[rkaiser]

Stick the bailout money where the sun don't shine. And let's not even consider wasting taxpayer money building plants for groups of private investors.

Time for the BIG C plant proposal to take effect. Time for all producers of this country to take part, and leave the government out of it, except for a major loan to build some plants, to be PAID back in full by the BIG C ShareLevy proposal.

[rkaiser]

Excuse me for talking about private packing proposals in that way however, beyond my fear that these plants will only be concerned with profit (like we already have), I also fear sellouts to mutinationals.

We get a lot of flak from people saying the government should not favour one idea. All of these small proposals have government concession on the brain, and some already have it.

The difference with the BIG C proposal is that there would be no concessions, just a loan, and the project would benefit all Cattle Producers in Canada.

I'm sorry if I am preaching to mostly converts, but I beg of you; if you think this is a good idea, take it to your ABP of CCA or other provincial reps and communicate the good in it.

As Shirley McCleland and Doug Horner said today the biggest supporter in the border issue we have is the USDA. And they only support an open border because they fear a new era in the packing industry WHEN Canada gets it's shit together and ups capacity even more.

[kpb]

rkaiser, I support the BIG C packing plant concept but I also support government-guaranteed loans to get private packing plants up and running. After all, if the government can spend hundreds of millions on their sponsorship friends in Quebec and hundreds of millions more on guaranteed loans to car factories in Ontario I don't see why they can't guarantee some loans so we can have our own packing industry private or not. And any plants better be profit driven or they won't be around for long.
And as for ABP ever supporting the BIG C concept I think there is no chance of this happening. I listed to an ABP rep this morning and it's status quo with those guys--i.e. work with the U.S. to get the border open, expand export trade and all the other b.s.--nothing about our own plants being built.

[PureCountry]

Then tell that rep to wake the hell up or pull his head out of his @$$ or something! We need a cleverly planned producer-backed plant NOW, not the ABP/CCA's "...don't worry, the border will open..." bullshit! If we get in their face, maybe they'll listen. If we don't, they'll be happy to go along with that status quo.

And as for private plants, some will go, some will not. But how good will they look to Cargill/Tyson, when they're up and running? You don't think they'll make offers or just takeover? Whether it be with cash or outbidding or some other underhanded manner, if they want one of these plants to flop, it will. Old bucks or lions don't rule the herd/pride by letting the youngsters grow strong.

[greybeard]

t was said R-Calf was going into court with a bluff hand. It turned out they had the trump card with “BSE will kill us all, and we have to keep it out at all expense”. Basically scare tactics.
If this is a card game, what are we playing with? The “sound science” looks like a pair of deuces. The AMI running out of cattle to kill may be a pair of Queens. It was the hand we bet on, but not good enough to win. Our own packing capacity looks like a pair of aces, as the power in the US doesn’t want us killing our own here. Once they are in a box they can go anywhere. Including their former export market. We need another ace to hold power. Why doesn’t someone go down and actively and very publicly court their larger packers without plant here to come build a plant? Maybe also Europe and Asia. I don’t really want another foreign owned plant, but I think it would give us a stronger hand to play. ABP would probably be very excited about it. Kind of an all expense junket for a spring holiday. Nobody here would expect them to come home with anything, but it might make some politicians sweat down there. That’s what it’s all about.

[Horse]

The Alta govmt subsidizes the welfare cows to the tune of 100 mill or more per yr thats to app 6500 individuals how about they put at least some of that money into plants we can all use.

[ProFarmer]

Any new money should be given towards a building of beef kill plants capable of exporting to the world not just to the arrogant ***** south of the border These plants should be big enough to be efficant but small enough to put in our smaller communities. They should also be contected by 1 manager so to work together and not competeing against one and another