Redirect Your Efforts

[PureCountry]

This is for Cowman and any of you others on here who constantly question every damn thing in agriculture, especially why we keep plodding along like mules in harness.

Yes, I am criticizing, but I don't mean to offend and start a pissing match here. I'm tired of opening up threads and reading the same crap about what's wrong with this industry. So, here's my suggestions....why not spend as much time as you do on here, writing the same kind of stuff to Doug Horner.

Alot of what you guys write is good stuff, but why do I want to hear it over and over? Whine about this and that and balh, blah, blah to one another all you want, but it doesn't get anything changed does it? Put those thoughts into e-mails to people who can change things, and maybe we'll see results. JMHO.

[wd40]

Well said. Put up or shut up. I burned up a year of my time trying to inniate a packing plant that could suceed if we had enough want too. But we don't. Most love to woller in our whinning and point alot of fingers at those who try to make a difference. Join the Neroites and watch our industry burn folks.

I heard 2 thing today that make me sick.

1. Cargil is trying like crazy to push down their grid system because cash cattle cost less to buy. (Good business plan) While they control the cash discovery mechanism.

2. The Sask govt. gave 356 million top Maple Leaf Meats to develop their hog plant.

Our govt. crawl into bed with their corporate buddies and watch their serifs get poorer and poorer.

So you negative %&*(^% soak in your drulling.

[grassfarmer]

It's gone mighty quiet in here Purecountry, guess everyone must be writing to their MPs..LOL

[WoolyBear]

Yes it really sucks when the government has all kinds of money for a corporate (maple leaf, olymel, cargill (not really corp) adm, huskey/mowhawk, etc etc) entity to build something important, but virtually nothing upfront for anything a group of farmers want. Maybe the rules for new generation coops, are different, but just the same, maybe we need to get a provincial teachers' union interested to invest in something first.

[wd40]

Any body wonder why Husky is building a huge ethanol plat at Lloydminster and how much Govt. put into that?

[Willowcreek]

Purecountry- Speaking of doing something-- Have you or any other Canadians even questioned CFIA and the government about where all these POST feedban Canadian cattle are coming from? Has any of your organizations? Is there huge holes in the feedban- or are people openly violating it? And where did all this tainted feed come from, if there was that much still lying around in bins and sacks 3-4 years after the feedban? How much tainted feed was there before the feedban?

Which leaves the question how many more infected cattle are there in Canada that will appear in the next 4-5-6 years?

I think this would be a subject that Canadian producers would be harping at their representatives and the government about... Unless they don't want to know... Or don't care...

I know in the months to come, I will be writing the USDA and my Congressmen during the comment period on further opening the border to OTM's- and these points and the answers, or lack of answers, will mean a lot in the letters...

It just appears to me and others down here south of the border,that no one has come up with any solid answers- and since Canadian producers haven't been questioning it, maybe don't really care.....

[mb_rancher]

Oldtimer- Keep chirping and writing because if the US was testing the 4d's then they would be finding a few as well. You belong to R-laugh so keep chirping everyone else is laughing at you cult members

[silverback]

Maybe a more valid question would be whether we should be looking at dairy cows in a different light than the beef cows? Perhaps we should blanket test all dairy cows intended for slaughter? Oh yeah, maybe they won't allow that.

A better question is why it is that the U.S. is incapable of finding where the BSE cows they have originate, where they are raised, and then where all the herdmates go??. Must be unreasonable to assume that one cow every 6 months is the only one positive going into the food chain. The Japanese are very unreasonable to not trust the testing system of the U.S.

[wd40]

MAybe our American buddies should quaranteen all the Mexican cattle long enough to ensure there is nothing comming across the Rio grande with BSE. lol

[cowman]

Been away squeezing in a few days at Sin city before it gets totally insane around here.
To Purecountrys question: Writing to Doug Horner would be defacto a complete waste of time. He is on his way out anyway, but even if he wasn't...like he would care one iota what I have to say?
I'm sorry if you think I am nothing but a pessimist and my message is all negative. I guess my message would be that yep agriculture sucks...but that doesn't mean you can't make it in this world! You might have to do a bit of diversifying into other things...while hopefully being able to stay in agriculture...if that is what you choose?
I have found throughout my life that participating in organizations or politics or any collective type of thing is usually a waste of time. Better to just take care of yourself and learn to live within the system! Therefore the ABP checkoff is just another cost of doing business...as are the various government taxes! Don't really expect much from either. Look at it like a street tax by the Mafia...if you want to play the game you pay! I gave up the idea a long time ago that I was going to change the world!
Willowcreek: Why are we finding these BSE cows born after the feed ban? I don't know. I doubt it has anything to do with old feed or a contaminated feed industry? It might have something to do with other species of animals being fed to cows...but I doubt that too?
The important thing here is just about every old cow in Canada(or at least Alberta) is being tested! It makes more sense to put her down than to haul her to the auction mart! Are you doing that in the USA? Well no you aren't...and if you don't look you will never find! I think Japan knows what you are doing...which is why our beef is moving into Japan...and yours isn't! Japan doesn't believe you.

[PureCountry]

Not in a million years would I say that you alone could change the world. I will however argue till I'm blue in the face or cold in the ground, that if more people dropped that attitude and ALL voiced their opinions, we could change whatever we wanted.

Don't tell me that you gave up either. If you don't want change or don't care anymore, why do you do so much bitching on here about the sad state of the union? Alot of what you write is great stuff, and most of the time I'm in agreement with your political views and those of others on here. BUT, WHAT'S THE SENSE IN WHINING TO ONE ANOTHER? Whine to your MLA, MP, Councillor, Reeve, whatever!!! Any politician you want to contact has their e-mail address on the internet. They're easy to find, and take no more time than you spend on here.

For goodness sake, when my 3 year old boy whines that his spoon fell on the floor, do I let him sit there and cry over and over about it because nothing can be done? NO! I tell him to get down off of his chair and pick it up! If you want to sit in your chair and keep whining over and over, fine! Go ahead! I'll get up and try to do something!

[coppertop]

PureCountry I think you are being a little harsh. When anyone posts a concern about a particular issue on this site it gives the rest of us food for thought and perhaps an initiative to get the ball rolling to do something about it.

[PureCountry]

FOOD FOR THOUGHT is exactly what I had in mind.

[coppertop]

Food for thought is usually ideas, issues etc. put forward in a manner that challenges the reader to mull it over.

[PureCountry]

OK, in a way that 'challenges' your mind, without being critical, cynical, negative, offensive, or otherwise plain rude, I'll try to explain what I'm getting at here.....

...I've been on this site for over 3 years, and in that time I have not kept track or count of how many times the regular users have argued, bickered, or debated THE SAME positions, views, or opinions. However, if I were to wager a guess at how many times we've done that, I'd have to say...um...somewhere in the area of....TOO DAMN MUCH! So, after a while, for lack of a more challenging term to illustrate it for you, I GET SICK OF IT. Don't you?

I agree with you 100% - as I said before - that there is alot of good content on here. Some of the contributors here post fabulous stuff, we all know who they are, but why do we whine about how things are, or how we'd like them to be, if we're not going to try and change it?

If I get some more time, I'll post some e-mail addresses. If anyone wants to use them, great. I'll admit though, I've never gotten much satisfaction from any letters I've sent. I've gotten farther from phone calls or talking face to face.