How do you see yourself?

[dferguson]

There are drawbacks to the big money in the Alberta industries. I have lived in the oil patch for many years, two sons also working in the industry. They make good money but sometimes they pay the price in missing out on family life when they are working 16-18 hour days a lot of the time spent away from home etc.
Money isn't everything although it a lack of it is sure one heck of a drawback !!!

[rkaiser]

You must have a hired man emerald. Have you not missed a few family gatherings over the years because those darn old cows have to be fed every day?

[rkaiser]

rkaiser, you bet I have missed many things that I wanted to attend because a cow decided to calve about the time I had one foot in my vehicle to leave the farm, and I have spent entire weekends many times cleaning out shelters, putting out extra feed etc. in order to be able to get away for a couple of days in the winter to attend conferences etc. I should have explained that both my sons work in the oil industry has taken them away for weeks at a time, which of course would mean that they missed a significant amount of family time with their kids etc.

No hired man around this place, although I do have someone that checks on things when I am away , feeds grain etc. but I do all the feeding of the hay etc., and sometimes get up at 4:00 AM to do it if I have to be away for the day.

Used a bunch of vacation days this year to calve the cows, didn't get an Arizona tan thats for sure !!!!!

[rkaiser]

Just as I thought emerald. No disrespect for your Oil Field boys, but I am one of those Farm Boys like you, who misses out on lots, has vertually no vacation time, and looks at a monthly paycheck and yes "days off" with admiration.

Hard for that not to sound like complaining, but I do honestly enjoy my work, and as we have said before,I depend on that land speculation for some sort of retirement. (That is if one of my kids doesn't decide that this lifestye is up their alley)

[rkaiser]

Randy, believe me I know where you are coming from. I love it on the farm, and love the cattle, and yes, I even enjoy doing chores in the winter..and if a person could really make a decent living at it, life would be great wouldn't it ???
I drove a neighbour lady into the city for surgery on her wrist today, she is facing another surgery on her arm in a month that will see her arm imoblized for three to four months.
Both these surgeries are a direct result of her having a couple of 'discussions' with snotty cows over the past couple of calvings.
She and her husband are both 61, work from morning to night and are just about killing themselves to make a go of their cow/calf operation. They would love to hand it down to their kids but the kids said NO THANKS !!!!

[cowman]

Emerald: That situation is playing out on just about every farm in western Canada! In my opinion it is a damned shame and a scandal! Years of incompetent agricultural policy is finally coming home to roost?
I frankly am disgusted when I drive through the country and see the whole darned thing starting to go to seed! It didn't have to be like this.
I wonder if someday people will realize what we lost? Families, communities, a way of life...all gone or going because of a bunch of slick low lifes running our country!

[cowman]

cowman, so many rural schools are closed or closing, villages and towns are becoming ghost towns and pretty soon the big box stores will replace the conventionl business community in the larger towns in the Province.
In my area there are several very nice community halls and they have stopped holding regular events because they just can't sell enough tickets to make it worthwhile, and there aren't enough folks in the community that want to commit their time to work at large functions.
Pretty sad when the only time these halls are filled is for lunch after funerals !!!
I personally, enjoy travelling across the province and stopping in smaller communities along my way....but in a lot of communities for every business that is still operating there are two or three vacant buildings.

[cowman]

What can I say? It is sad to see. Last night I caught a program on tv about just this sort of thing. It was called "Ghosts on the Prairies" or something like that. It showed three farms in Saskatchewan: One family had sold out and moved to town, another was hanging in there and subsidizing the farm with a job and another business, and the last one was going bigger(10,000) acres!
The third guy was very upbeat and wondered how big he could get(he turned down another 6,000 acres this year)!
What they didn't go into was the actual dollars and cents of these three guys! Which I sure would have found interesting?
The family that went to town both had decent jobs and were building a new house. They seemed to be very content with their situation.
The family struggling to survive were working way to hard to make ends meet and were not very happy campers.
The expanding farmer had the attitude that he was really a manager, not a farmer, who had the world by the tail! I would sure have liked to have seen his bank book/debt load!
It would be very interesting to see where these three families are ten years from now? I suspect the townies will be doing very well? I expect the strugglers will also be gone with some serious cash in their jeans? And finally I suspect the expander will also be in town after having a spectacular bankruptcy!

[grassfarmer]

I saw that program too cowman, it was on a year or two ago as well I think. A very good show which put the input costs, Corporations control and the farm income crisis on a very public forum. I think many non-farmers would be interested in finding out what goes on. It was a real triumph for the NFU - the smart comments by the woman who was ex NFU president and using their farm income figures.

[grassfarmer]

In this area one of the larger opeators had some pretty significant health problems so leased out his 500 cows to another fellow that has a 200 head feedlot and his own 350 cows. The result is that there are now 850 cows and 2000 backgrounders on one site. The fellow that leased out his cows took his first holiday in 35 years, and the fellow with them is working day and night !!!
I don't know what the lease deal is, but even of the owner of the 500 cows is getting $150.00 per calf each fall, he has no input costs and likely is making a lot more profit on his cows than before.

[cakadu]

There are two sides to the story about the lack of commitment in the community halls and other aspects of rural community life. Yes, it is very sad to see some of the halls standing idle and very few of the things that held the community together being held anymore. Instead of working together to try and help one another, they still cling to what they believe is best and don't want to work to build the capacity to sustain themselves. You also have the people who have been doing things the same way for 25 or 30 years who will NOT make room for new people, new ideas and new ways of doing things. That in itself becomes a deterrent because people will not beat their heads against a brick wall for too long. We all volunteer and do the things we do for various reasons and if you meet with opposition, you'll go and find another place to invest your time and efforts. I recall one fellow saying that things have to be done right, which translated into they had to be done his way in order to be considered as being done right. After a while, that gets very old.

Rural revitalization will take on many forms. What is key will be to have input and buy-in every step of the way and a willingness to work together, letting old grudges and ways be relegated to the past. There are some values that need to be preserved and I am all for that. Some things do need to change and there is nothing wrong with that either.

[cakadu]

Good points Linda. I do think that the traditional farming community sometimes doesn't welcome new folks with open arms like they used to. In this area when we moved here one neighbour after the other dropped in to say hello and welcome us, most of them did know us before anyway. Now, the smaller holdings, acreages etc.seem to change hands so often that we really don't get to know the folks before they move away.

Many of the community associations get grants each year from the rural municipality and they use that money for heating and light costs, so they really don't have to hold too many functions to keep the building in good shape if the labor is all donated whenver there is a work bee.

[BWC]

While were all talking about the way things could have been, yeah we have all missed some things and events that we may have wanted to see, but what really irks me is the fact that my dad , his dad ,and myself seemed to have spent a lot of time trying to build something worth having for our own sons. Crap look what we've done there isnt very many young men want to stay on the land anywhere in Canada , and that is sad.

[ALLFARMER]

It's not young men who want to stay on the land, its young men who can stay on the land. That young man has to give a reasonable quality of life to his family or he won't have one. I in the last year have heard of 2 young farmers who's family's have left. 1 because he was constantly working and work was and still is his priority the second guy's wife left because she got tired of swimming in debt and not making enough to have a reasonable quality of life and both working there butts off. Both in my opinion are good guys who don't smoke, drink, screw around, or beat there wives.

[ALLFARMER]

The work load on a farm should not cause marriage breakup if the farmer and his spouse learn how to balance family and work. Sure, there are certain times of the year when work is almost a 24 hour day job but most farming couples can juggle work and family responsiblities and seem to be able to spend some quality family time.Debt load on the other hand is something that certainly will put stress on even the best of marriages, farming or otherwise.