April Fools Day!

[farmers_son]

How’s this for an April Fools joke…

You have just lost $100 million dollars.

Pretty funny, huh. But another month has gone by and there is no more packer capacity then there was the month before.

Get a load of this rib tickler... Our industry has lost between 5-7 million dollars due to BSE, we are told because the border is closed to live cattle.

If Alberta has about 50% of the beef industry then Alberta producers have lost at least 2.5 billion dollars since May 20 or over $100 million dollars per month. How does that grab you? Downright hilarious.

You have heard the joke take my wife...please. How about take Tyson and Cargill too. The reason producers are loosing between 5-7 billion dollars is because we do not have enough packer capacity in Canada and no competition within the packing industry.

Did you hear the joke about the pirates on the prairies? Yea, they were stealing our live cattle and SHIPPING it south in TREASURE CHEST BOXES OF BEEF. Ha ha ha. Stop me if you have heard this one before…. It has been two years and nothing has been done to build more packing capacity!!

The real reason we are loosing $100 million every month in this province is not because the border is closed, because it is not closed. It is open to boxed beef and has been since September 2003. Get a load of this….We loose enough money every month to build a brand new packing plant in Alberta, the rest of the country could have a new plant every month too. It is would be laughable if it wasn’t so ridiculous.

And guess what. You are going to loose $100 million this month. And the month after that. It just doesn't get any funnier than that.

[pandiana]

Do you mean 5-7 billion, farmers-son?

This is as close as a 'rant' that I have seen from you. Without a doubt, this is frustrating.

We could have built a plant, (look at PEI) had it running, processed our culls, and spent this extra money finding buyers for these extra cattle. As somebody on another thread said, this BSE thing is bordering on the ridiculous. We have many other important (and scary) things coming down the pipe that we should be concentrating on. Our governments must step up to the plate and do what is necessary to get these plants moving. If the federal government can build a 'town' in Afganistan in 3 months they should be able to build a packing plant in that time. Let's get serious.

[farmers_son]

Yup, it was billion.

It is a little like a frog in a pot of boiling water. The cost of not having sufficient packing plant capacity is increasing by 1-2 hundred million dollars every month but we don't even try to jump out of the pot we are in. Instead we sit bug eyed in the water and wonder when the Americans are going to turn off the heat.

And I thought I was ranting quite a bit lately. Don't know if it does any good though. To me, the course we must take is clear and it frustrating that we are not pursing obvious solutions. Instead excuses are found for why change cannot be implemented.

But hey, it is a nice April day, the calves are coming and there should be moisture to start the grass so it could be worse. If someone has a real funny joke I sure need to hear one.

[InAHurry]

Farmers Son
Not sure if this can be classified as a joke, but I took a moment to make this page ... hope you enjoy it!

http://www.southshadow.homestead.com/jokes.html

[farmers_son]

That was great. Thanks.

[pandiana]

How about this.
A farmer was sitting on his porch one day when a young man drives
in and comes to the door.

"Sir, I was driving by and noticed you had a lot of milkweed in
your pasture. Would you mind if I went out and got some milk?"

"You don't get milk from milkweed!" the farmer replied.

"Oh yes," said the young man, "I have a degree in Agriculture from
Texas A&M, I know all about it."

"Well, help yourself," said the farmer.

He soon saw the young man coming back to his car with two buckets full of milk.

The next day the farmer was again sitting on his porch when the
same young man drove up.

"Sir, yesterday when I was getting milk, I noticed you had some
honeysuckle in the fence row. I wondered if you would mind if I got some honey?"

"You don't get honey from honeysuckle!" said the farmer.

Again the young man explained about his degree from A&M so the
farmer agreed to let him collect some honey. Soon the young man came back to his car with two buckets full of honey.


The next day the same young man drove up to the farmer's house.
"Sir, yesterday when I was getting the honey, I noticed you had
some ***** willow down by the creek."

The farmer said, "Let me get my shoes and I'll go with you..."
>
>

[rkaiser]

p-a-n-d-i-a-n-a

[farmers_son]

Check out this video clip:

www.cattlerange.com/DUIStop/DUIStop.wmv

Takes a while to load but I thought it was worth the wait.