Farm FAMILY income

[PureCountry]

I figured this needed its own thread. I heard of an older couple (70-plus) being charged with selling uninspected beef from their farm the other day on the radio. To me, that is an absolute crock. What the hell is this country coming to, when two MEN, who choose to live together, can marry and have legal rights accordingly, but it is AGAINST THE LAW FOR A FARM FAMILY TO SELL FARM FRESH MEAT TO A NEIGHBOUR! It is also illegal in this backwards nation, to GIVE fresh milk to your neighbour, let alone sell it!!

I know I'm too young to recite memories, but alot of you are 'experienced' enough to remember the days when creameries, butcher shops, and dairies were the heart of every community. There was a time when towns were not started or expanded without careful consideration given to where the dairy animals would graze. And here we are, in our modern, 'civilized' world where everything is supposed to be so advanced, and we've made it illegal to share the most nutritious food on earth.

I want all of you to think about some things when you're watching the election campaign trails in the next few weeks. Think about the big DAYCARE DEBATE....Harper and Martin and Layton are flinging mud about giving families more money to help with the cost of daycare. Is anyone considering helping families afford to live a little easier so that both parents aren't working 12 hour days and having their kids raised by someone in DAYCARE?

Think about healthcare. Think about the gun registry. Think about cost of living and taxes. Go ahead and ask your MLA or MP why governments lose money, but no politicians ever get a paycut? If we as workers/farmers perform poorly and don't show results, are we not punished in some way? Does the same apply for politicians? NO!!

When you put some thought into some of these issues, you'll realize that the gov't wants everyone to work with the system, for the system. So who can change that but US! Take a look at your options when you cast your ballot. Ask your candidates what they'll do about some of these things. I'm damn tired of seeing people make more money than they'll DESERVE in 10 lifetimes, and all the while the future for my children looks tougher and tougher with each passing year and election.

SO, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO??

Tell me what you think, I'm all ears. But honestly, the GREEN party and/or Western Separation sound the best to me so far.

[wmoebis]

It is well past time that we took back our industry. The past chief inspector for the CGC once told me that he considered producers as suppliers to the AG indusry. Well, If wasn't for producers there would be no industry. If producers aren't making money, the grain companies aren't making money, the packers aren't making money, the raiways aren't making money, the seed suppliers and chem companies have to charge more to make money why do we have agriculture in Canada at all.
Lets all go get jobs in mining, oil, service industry and import buisness. We wouldn't be the only country in the world that doesn't grow grain.
There is a very limited and dismal future for our kids in this indusrty the way we have chosen to let the multi nationals and gov'ts run it. (ruin it)
We are fighting amoung ourselves so bad that it isn't funny. The cattle and hog men need cheap feed to make a go of it, so the grain man suffers. The machine dealer needs more for his parts because the loonie drops but doesn't lower it when the loonie goes up. So we all pay.
Time the gov't put caps on inputs below the price of production with a margin of profit for producers then let our suppliers go groveling to the gov't for subsities and hand outs.

[Willowcreek]

IT APPEARS THE PACKERS AREN'T DOING TOO BAD!!!!
--------------------------

Packer probe finds 'exorbitant' profits

By Barry Wilson & Mary MacArthur

Ottawa, Camrose bureaus

Western Producer

December 7, 2005

Canada



A Parliament-ordered partial audit of beef packer profits in the months after the BSE crisis proves that Canada's major packing companies made "exorbitant" profits at the expense of producers, says the former chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee that oversaw the investigation.



Packers lost $40 million in the month following the announcement on May 23, 2003, that BSE had been discovered in Canada, according to a report tabled in Parliament Nov. 28 hours before the government fell and the election campaign started.



During the next 12 months, those companies made almost $600 million in net profits while the livestock industry lost billions in income and equity.



"I believe this report will verify what Canadians have long come to believe, that the packers made exorbitant profit on the backs of Canadians, not only the primary producers but certainly the consumers of Canada," committee chair Paul Steckle said as he tabled the report.



Steckle is now running for re-election in the cattle-heavy riding of Huron-Bruce in Ontario, seeking his fifth consecutive mandate as a Liberal MP.



Robert Meijer, director of public affairs with Cargill, which owns a large packing plant near Calgary, said the problem wasn't with large packing plants, but with a combination of factors from the BSE crisis, such as lost markets, closed borders and too much supply for the demand.



The report, based on evidence accumulated in confidence by Parliament-appointed auditors, deals only in aggregate numbers to avoid revealing confidential information.



It reported that during 2002, the average net packer margin per head slaughtered was $42.73. During the next 12 months after government BSE aid money began to flow, the average net margin per head soared to between four and six times the 2002 average, almost $180 per head in the first half of 2004.



Steckle said in an interview it is clear that packers manipulated the market to their benefit and it went beyond market rules of too much supply chasing too little demand.



"As tax dollars flowed to producers, packers just lowered their price to effectively receive that money on their bottom lines," said Steckle. "We have to figure out a way in future to make sure tax dollars get to the people we are trying to help. The evidence is clear that major corporate profits were being made, sometimes with the help of taxpayer dollars, at a time when farmers were losing enormous amounts."



He repeated earlier charges that the companies were profiteering, even though they were doing nothing illegal.



"I guess it was the market working and it is the way the government allows the market to work," he said. "Everyone makes as much profit as they can. But the situation is different when there is no competition on one side of the equation."



Meijer said he doesn't think anyone is surprised to hear the packers made money.



"We never denied that and in fact we worked very hard to allow the committee and its auditors to have access to as much information as possible," he said.



"At the end of the day the most important message is that there wasn't found that there was any wrongdoing. The market acted the way the market was acting and that's the way an open and free market does operate."



Steckle said the affair also shows how useless the government's competition policy is.



"We have no competition policy, Competition Bureau, in this country that means anything," he said in the interview. "I don't know why we keep it around."

[silverback]

PureCountry,

Look closely before you jump to the green party, from what I have heard they are in favor of big carbon taxation, as well as much more socialist than they let on.

(I guess if that's what you want that's great)

[silverback]

Any vote for the Green party or other minority party at this time in Canada's history will be a vote wasted.
If voters want to make a difference this election they should vote Conservative and hold their feet to the fire to ensure that they deliver honest government, if not, then a party like the Green party may have a chance.

I am concerned that the Green party's intent to tax energy companies will mean loss of jobs for Canadians, many of whom have come to Alberta to work in the petroleum industry.

I am sure that the Green party would tax all of us that drive SUV's or 4x4's even though we need them to get through the @@##$$%% snow !!!

Voters in this election should concentrate on only one thing, to rid this country of the corrupt, self serving Liberal government.

[FRENCHMAN]

Won,t catch me voting for the green party..last election the local canadiate stopped in at a local ranchers meeting. We were discussing the beaver problem in our area.She pipes up whats wrong with beavers. ..An old rancher stood and said Lady having beavers on yer ranch is like having rats under your house.

Her response ..you need to introduce the beavers natural predators.....wolves....

Dead silence after that.... she left fairly quickly.

[cowman]

We all have to do whatever it takes to survive? In the big picture holding onto the land while getting the kids raised is the important thing. Without a piece of dirt and some roots going into it, you are nothing more than a gypsy...no matter how many millions you might have. There has to be something more than money in this life?
The Green party is a protest party for most of the people who vote for them? A nice safe place to put your protest vote? Now without a doubt some environmental types believe in it but not the numbers who voted for them last time around? Most of them could actually be called Watermellon environmentalists: Green on the outside...Red in the middle? I'll make a confession...I voted for them last time around...as a protest!
Not this time. I believe every westerner should be voting Conservative? Not because we necessarily believe in them, but to send a message down east? The message: We're tired of you thieves stealing our money and trying to force your eastern values on us! We don't want your Liberal policies of corruption, kissing Quebecs butt, taxing us to death, and last but not least, we don't want your goofy liberal "social programs" of gun control, gay marriage and coddling imported gangsters!
That is the message we need to send by voting almost overwhelmingly for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives!

[PureCountry]

I agree with your reasons and beliefs cowman, but the Conservatives scare me almost as much as the Liberals. I'm not campaigning for the Green Party, I'm just going to talk to our candidate and see what I get for answers. From what I've heard so far, they're agriculture policy has improved a great deal. Sure they're going to have some 'extreme' environmentalist members, but I'm curious.

The Conservatives could have just as black of a 'dark side' to them as the Liberals. Alberta has been ruled by Conservatives for a long time now, and it's gotten us alot of things, like no debt, big surplus' from the barrels of 'Lloydminster Blend', and...oh yeah, the highest cost of living in history!! More foreign-owned industry, increased dependance on American industry, and nothing to grow the strength of our agriculture sector, only put it more and more into a state of distress. So I'm a little bit cautious about giving them my vote.

I'm sure they'd be great for awhile, until the glow wore off. Criticize me for sticking to my principles, but I'm gonna vote for the party I believe in, not the party that has the best chance of winning. With that being said, I am also going to try and talk to Doug Griffiths of the Conservatives and see what kind of answers he has.

[drill7]

The man charged is 70 but he didn't live on a farm. He was cutting meat in his garage in Calgary some place. The customers would go to one of two farms he worked with and pick out an animal, he would kill it there and take the meat to his garage where he would hang,cut, and wrap it. He had no refridgeration.

I think he was cleaner than most of the big plants, but wasn't paying the inspecters enough. The only ecoili recalls you ever hear about come from one of the big plants.

[Horse]

Frenchman what do you say to those that have a grazing lease in the foothills or mountans and when an animal gets killed or dies and a wolf or bear ears it they cry like babys for compensation
. The dam cows shouldnt be there in the first place and we the tax payers shouldnt be expected to guarantee them a profit hell they are already on welfare.

[cowman]

Well Pure Country, of course you should vote for the party you think is best...that is your right.
In reality, in your neck of the woods(and mine) the only guy going to Ottawa is going to be a Conservative under our present system?
I do feel it is important for every western Canadian to send a message to Ottawa that we are not happy campers and we don't support Liberal theft and policies that rip us off! I would hope that the Liberal vote would be restricted to the ivory tower crowd who live in dreamland anyway! And hopefully the Liberal lap dogs, the NDP, get very few votes!

[ALICIA]

Horse: I don't know if you call your self horse because you own horses. But if you do I'd like to see your face when a wolf comes right in to your barn yard and ripes up one of your horses, and the whole one side is gone, and by all the blood and drag marks, you just know it wasn't a easy death.
Talks cheep, till it happens to you.

We have a dump a few miles away, their must be 20 black bears, feeding their, the works carry a loaded gun on the job because its just not safe, the local ministy told the worker to shot the bears with rubber bullets. I guess its beter to kill an angry bear thats been shot with a rubber bullet, then just a bear that is attacking you for no reason then your food.

[FRENCHMAN]

Frenchman what do you say to those that have a grazing lease in the foothills or mountans and when an animal gets killed or dies and a wolf or bear ears it they cry like babys for compensation
. The dam cows shouldnt be there in the first place and we the tax payers shouldnt be expected to guarantee them a profit hell they are already on welfare

Horse...The ground I,m talking about has had no wolves for at least a hundred yrs..and we don,t need the gov,t to cost us money by reintroducing them to the area

Furthermore If they do they can expect a bill for any loses.


Now as far as a grazing lease yes I do have one its 45 miles east of here in the mountains.

I have found by keeping the place free of beavers ..It does not revert to a jungle and the wolves seem to stay away from it. No losses in quite a few yrs.

And If you think Canadian Cattlemen are on Welfare .You need to have yuor head examined.

[Horse]

I live in the country for the peace and tranquility it sure isnt for the income but that was my choice I dont fight nature I try to get along with her I expect to have beavers on the creek because I dont want to remove the trees and I like to see Moose Bear Cpoyotes And mabey the odd wolf as they tend to follow the ungulate population and I live in afairly remote area.
As for cattlemen on welfare what do you call it when the rent is app 8% of going rate and in 3/4 of the leases there is oil revenue far in excess of costs then there is the brushing and fencing and water ascistance that goes with the lease.

I think if you put yoir animals in harms way you have to expect some loss.

[rkaiser]

Some people do what they they've gotta do to live where they wanna live. Others live where they have to live to be what they want to be. --Baxter Black.