Production Reality vs Market Reality

[cswilson]

Just had a call about a couple hundred pairs for sale-they were Herf/Simm based but the guy had used a plethora of breeds on them-Murray Grey, Galloway(sorry Randy) etc. Probably was on the right track to raise some more practical cattle but unless you are aligned with somebody to help you sell the production you are probably better off using a more mainstream breeding program and looking for individuals within it that fit your selection parameters. Just speaking from experience of trying to market some packages of those cattle for people very tough sell. I guess it's just the fear of the great unknown. By the way if anybody's interested-in these cows may/june calvers let me know your phone number-I'll hook u up with the guy.

[kato]

If you are concerned about bans on municipal roads, each county and municipal district makes their own decisions on when or whether to place bans on their roads.
In my county local roads are never banned but in the county adjacent to it there is a 75% ban on all local gravel roads.
As far as banning primary highways such as 1,2 and 3, it would require a virtual army to police, and considering the fact that the industries in this province travel on wheels.
As far as trucks travelling in your area with full loads, that is a problem for your local bylaw officer to deal with unless it is on a secondary highway.

[cowman]

In Red Deer County the roads have really taken a beating this year and it seems the frost is still going out and they are getting worse. Nothing much can be done about it and the road bans are still on.
The road bans are apparently not in effect for truckers hauling livestock feed and the hay trucks have really beat the hell out of the roads. Also there doesn't seem to be any rules for the manure trucks. Of course the drilling rigs are all sitting.
The paved roads are at 75% and the gravel roads are at 90%. Most of the gravel roads were built in the horse and wagon days and they never were built for the super heavy traffic we have today. I don't know what the solution is? Building roads is incredibly expensive.

[cowman]

In my area a compost operation hauls manure from local cattle operations and seems to have no problem hauling when the roads are wet, in the spring etc.,in fact they haul as soon as they can get into the yards to load manure. The public works superintendent wanted to treat them the same as any other local trucking business and require that they enter into a road use agreement. The operator went slightly strange and went from farm to farm with a petition telling people that the county was trying to force him out of business and he was NOT a business but an agricultural service. He neglected to mention the fact that he sells his compost for reclaimation to oil companies for a pretty penny !!!

Local tank truck companies and other trucking businesses sure questioned how one operators trucks were different than the other when it came to road damage.

[grassfarmer]

Not wishing to get in between your little spat but whiteface when you say:

"I find frequently it's the other way around in fact... the seller has no idea what a commodity is worth so they "throw it out there" looking for a bid."
wasn't that just what you were doing regarding allowing pipeline access to your property recently?
We can all learn, often by asking questions or for opinions. I don't see why that should be held against us.

[grassfarmer]

I never try to show anyone up at anything....and anyone that spends their life doing that isn't a very happy soul in my opinion.
Public 'p'ing matches offend me more than name calling to be blunt. If I decide to have a donnybrook with anyone it sure as hell isn't going to be in full view of a lot of people who likely are on this site to learn more about the industry and discuss major problems in our industry vs who sells what semen to whom and how much they charge.....private business deals should be just that PRIVATE !!!

[avmayor]

I have taken the liberty of removing some of the posts here. Some of the comments made are totally unacceptable. This forum is for friendly, educational discussion. Please, lets keep this in mind when you reply to all posts in every thread.

[avmayor]

Thank you for deleting some of the posts. I find that this site provides an astounding amount of information and an opportunity to network with some very knowlegeable people. Hopefully we can all remember that we are civilized adults, or are supposed to be !!!

[Pulseman]

In the south, the frost is out for one month and the roads with restrictions are the provincial roads. I mostly believe, because some very smart person protects his behind in Edmonton without knowing what goes on in the province.

[Pulseman]

If the roads are provincial roads then I would guess that they are Secondary Highways which do fall under the jurisdiction of the province although some municipalities may still have a maintenance agreement to look after them.

[daretodiffer]

This discussion is an exercise in pooled ignorance.
Firstly there are no weight reductions on primary highways because they are built to higher standards and are not significantly affected by frost entry or exit. So the issue of road bans on Highway #1 is just absurd. "couldn't police it" how preposterous.

[daretodiffer]

interesting comments !! Many secondaries in the resource based areas are built to the same standard as primary highways. In this area secondaries are banned from 75-90%.
Local paved roads are banned as well and the county bylaw enforcement has their portable scales out in full force during the road ban season.
In areas where there are no government weigh scales for miles and miles along primary highways that see 12000 trucks a day, policing road bans would be extremely difficult without the provision of a lot of highway patrol staff out in full force.

[kato]

Ya, thanks. For a while there, I thought I had wandered onto Ranchers.net! LOL