More gift wrapping Bows

[rkaiser]

Just in case it doesn't make it to print.------

Dear Editor,

It is hard not to notice all of the high fives going around at ABP/CCA offices these days. We seem to have this BSE thing licked and business is back to normal?? I think not. In fact I think that, just as the packers of this country have found new ways to do business off the backs of producers, ABP/ CCA has found a deceitful way to con the consumer of this country while letting this salmon run of profits roll on in the cull cow market. We sit back and watch the top cuts of beef roll across the border to the United States, now even more that the border is open to live cattle and not just those precious boxes. And we watch the cull cow meat served at every restaurant and retail market in this country that is low enough to use the “take advantage of the situation” tactics that every packer in this country has used for the past three years.

So where is the deceit at the ABP CCA level? Simply support for these ridiculous notions that use producer dollars to promote and set that cow beef in front of the consumer rather than our top youthful cuts. Support that may help the producer get ½ of what he used to get for his cull cow, while fetching insane profits from this same beef for the packer and the retailer, while truly deceiving the consumer. We will be lucky if we retain any steak sandwich customers if we keep this up much longer.

My position has, and always will be, BSE testing for export marketing potential. ABP/CCA does not see it that way. They will rather congratulate themselves for their work with the Beef Information Center to add a few cents to the producer’s pocket and big bucks to the packers and retailers through this joke we call the reality of the Canadian cull cow market. If BSE testing would have been allowed from the very beginning, supply and demand could have worked it’s magic. Instead we live in a cull cow market controlled by those who oppose this free marketing of beef and love the profits that control give them.

I imagine I will be corrected for my misconceptions once again by the chairman of one of these groups who stand no opposition in this country.

Randy Kaiser
(back where I belong ---- west of )Ponoka Alberta
(403) 783 - 8872

[coppertop]

good letter Randy, but I doubt if the WP will print it unless you remove any reference to deceit....they could be hung out to dry if they print anything insinuating those who sit on ABP and their affiliates are anything but pillars of society !!

[cowman]

Well I think you know I basically agree with you on the export testing thing Randy? Hell I said test them all right from the start! Not because I believed we had a real health safety problem but as a marketing tool.
I fought my "demons" over the ABP a long time ago. I saw the writing on the wall then? There is an entrenched "elite" and it is very doubtful they are ever going to be pushed out?
Now bear with me for a minute and don't shoot me before you consider this! The fact is the cow/calf man is not getting the representation he needs in the ABP/CCA? An R-CALF type organization that represents our interests...is what is needed! Hopefully we wouldn't be as narrow minded as them, where all they can focus on is "blame Canada", but the fact is they are standing up for the grassroots American rancher!
Personally I thought BIG C might have morphed into that type of organization but the powers that be pretty well shot that down?
And finally: Hope you are settling in well at Ponoka and getting things set up? I don't know why anyone would prefer that damned old windy prairie to the parkland! And hey, if you keep stirring things up and acting crazy... well...you are close to the nut house! LOL

[rkaiser]

And you can join me if you like cowman. Would be a fine place for a first meeting of the official opposition to the ABP/CCA.

It got real hard for me to keep thinking of BIG C becomeing the Rcalf of the north when a couple of buddies actually got elected into APB and I saw the monetary benefits they were receiving. This is part of the system as well. You are encouraged to run as a delegate if you have something to say, and then paid well to do jobs that have little to do with any BIG picture ideas. One of these buddies traveled the Province - expenses paid and a damn fine per diem to pick the environmental rancher of the year. Major checkoff dollars spent on this important project. One of many fine examples.

If you or anyone else on this board can figure out how Cam or myself can stop the drain from our wallets we would likely spend more time opposing this ridiculous group that leads and supposedly represents the cattlemen of Canada and my Alberta.

I agree with your thoughts on this one 100% cowman. No protectionism ---- simply forward movement with a focus on the financial good of the cattle producers of this country.

[cowman]

Well Randy I suspect it would be like "One flew over the ****oos nest" if we got in there together? The inmates would soon be running the asylum! And seeing how you are all bulked up from weight training you can toss the sink through the window! LOL
Note: This is not meant to be derogatory of anyone with mental illness? It has always been my firm belief that we are all crazier than shit house rats!...some of us can just hide it better than others!

[rkaiser]

Ya cowman, and the two of us shithouse rats are up at 3:30 in the a.m. cause our drugs aren't working to good either.

My excuse is that I got some numbers back from our house construction guy last night and can't put those numbers to bed. Polyurethane panels came in at a pretty decent price but the timber beams were a bit higher than I expected.

What's yer excuse fer not sleeping cowman?

[cowman]

Oh I got a stomach problem. Can't sleep for more than about four or five hours. It's a genetic thing...probably from some old anscestor who was a drunk in Scotland!
I was kind of wondering how come you were up so early, thought maybe you were up doing calisthentics or something!LOL
You can never be surprized anymore by how much some things might cost? How they raise prices whenever the urge takes them is a scandal! Too bad we couldn't do that with calves?