Time to step up.

[Koldkanuck]

Reminds me of when they had a band farm in my area in the late 70's. This lasted a few years. They got money for cattle they were to buy. Well they supposedly bought 1,500 head, but no cattle anywhere. They were paper cows as we called them. Nice to get loans and grants on 1,500 head. Machinery was bought, but only a few people ran them. Wheels started falling off 4 wheel drives, motors started to blow up from lack of service, equipment got shot up, big wages were paid out to phantom workers and on and on. Yup they were gonna show everyone how to farm.

[SASKFARMER3]

The one reserve that pledged acres has very few acres that are actually seedable. The last one has the cultivated acres but the company didn't go into detail on how many were pledged. Something is very fishy with this new venture. He also said they would be profitable in 2009, HA HA HA HA, what about a frost like 2004, 2002, Yea were going to use the best genetics, nutrients etc. (basically give it every thing). Yea that should be a nice balance sheet. Then because their a start up farm they have to go with area average for Agra stability till they build up their own margins. Again accountants dont make good farmers. Because its not about basic revenue minus expenses. Again I am not against this venture but I see the native bands comming out of this hurt again.

[pilpilsner]

Did anybody catch the part where that white haired indian(name escapes me) said"we will be coming into much more land in the future"?

[furrowtickler]

First off, what are they going to do with a measly $27.5/ac. That will not even buy 1/3 the fert requirements for 1 million acres let alone fuel, chem, machinery, grain storage(they will basicaly have none), transportation, wages,repairs ect, ect,ect. They are taking big but I think they should learn to walk before they run, jmo.

[SASKFARMER3]

Some one hasn't done the math here and for once its the accountants that's numbers are not adding up.
Or is AG Canada, Native affairs, employment Canada or some other government arm funding this group under the table.

[parsley]

Fred Seimens was a recent MNP accountant and I read, is acting as the chief financial officer.

He was once with the WCE. He should be able to capably add,the receivables that begin to flow in from the various levels of government agencies you just listed.

As proven generous donors of your tax dollars, governments are always eager to submit timley payments, and new venturists are often more eager to record the direct deposit of your dollars.

Unless, of course,this farming project is created by dedicated volunteers assisting a have-not culture of our society. Pars

[agstar77]

You are joking , aren't you?

[dfarms11]

I've already passed this on to everyone I know. I just have one question. If there is ever a payout on this, how will it get distributed? Will it go to everyone who had cows in 2003? Or to guys who are in the industry now? Or will it have to be both? Anybody know?

[stubblejumper]

I would like to wish this entity good luck and to apologize for the bigotry in western Canada.

[cpallett]

I think I can answer that one for you. The class definition is:

“All persons who as at May 20, 2003 were resident in Canada (except the province of Quebec) and farmed cattle including, but not limited to, cow-calf, backgrounder, purebred, veal, feedlot and dairy producers.

In this class definition ‘person’ means any individual, partnership, corporation, cooperative, communal organization, trust, band farm or other association who as at May 20, 2003 was farming cattle within the meaning of the Income Tax Act.”

So if you were a cattle producer on May 20, 2003 you're in, no matter what you may be doing now, and if you were not a cattle producer on May 20, 2003 you're not in, no matter if you are farming cattle now.

[SASKFARMER3]

I for one am not against the Natives getting on with things and farming. What I am against is this group taking advantage of the reserves.

[parsley]

1.Seimens is at Earth as<p></p>
<p class="EC_style8ptBK"><strong>[URL="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Sprott-Resource-Corp-cnw-14754429.html"](Sprott's COO)[/URL]</strong></p>


2. Argentina farmers used to pay tarrifs to their government when they exported grain. Canadian farmers beg for Agri-Invest subsidies! Argentianians contribute to while the Canadians debit from their country. Have nots. Like classicaliberal, I am dead against subsidies.Are you surprised?<p></p>
<p class="EC_style8ptBK"><strong>& lt;a href="http://parsleysnotebook.blogspot.com/2009/03/editorial-by-parsley-everyone-needs.html">(Dump Subsidies)</a></strong></p>


3 I was being facetious agstar when I said I would make sure and take a percentage of all the available grants if I were the manager, presuming they will be applying for grants. I surely thought stubble would realize my position about government handouts by now. Surprised?

4. Farming is a culture of have nots if we keep asking for handouts and plan to farm keeping handouts in the back of our minds. I don't care if it is a Ukranian sect of land , or a group of Catholic owned land or CNR land or PFRA land, or a First Nations parcel, or consolidated Hutterite conony land. The principle is the same. If someone is managing any of them, or starting them up, and looking to farm with a pencil, counting on tax money, I'm not going to endorse it. Surprised?

5.And don't try and pull the race card with me, stubble. I really could care less if you are a Bangladesh cross dresser. You're still going to feel my wrath if you ask for a subsidy for your sex change. Pars

[stubblejumper]

Pars your wrath scares me as much as it scares the CWB

[wilagro]

Yes, and she is just barely scorned...

[parsley]

Have you ever been treated with silence?

Everyone on coffee row is arguing and discussing and ranting, belonging, and Joe walks in and suddenly there's dead silence and suddenly everyone excuses themselves, saying damn, they were busy, and coffee time is over and they had to go home?

Joe understands silence.

Silence sends a profoundly loud message. It is very important for the farm community, or for farm groups or for farmers themselves, to be able to criticize a project, or criticize an organization, to subject them to the intent, to quiz their direction, to examine the tools they use to reach the goal, to treat them like people with idea and purpose, albeit the examination may scrutinize everything from soup to nuts, from economic scrutiny to religious scrutiny, from racial composition to age participation.

Few twenty year old farmers are classified as bigots for slamming the number of sixty year old and over permit book holders. Nor should they be. It's fair scrutiny.

Earth Farms project should be scrutinized.

It's a huge entity that may grow into a formidible entity harboring either good and bad or both, all of which can, and then could, have a profound effect upon the farming community, and we should be able to discuss it. Openly. Frankly.

Whether it's native bands, united by their strengths and resources to build the largest farm in North America, for example, or whether it's camps of scattered separate or French schools working towards rural education changes, those with like-minded
"interests" will move their interests forward, and those "interests" affect the farming community.

Earth Farms can affect all farmers, about the effect "large" has, good and bad, especially if large has different goals from the status quo.

We have watched central planners redistributing rural wealth into the cities. Hospital money. School money. Buses. Surely we have learned something. We're fragile. With one piece of tiny legislation, the contol of your entire municipal budget could be managed by some bureaucrat in Regina.Tommorow.

Farmers are aware of the profound effects that large influences have upon them. And must be comfortable discussing them, free from alienation and intimidation and humiliation. And not be called racist or bigots for questiong what can make our lives very different. We need to do more of it, not be evasive about it, not be intimidated into silence.

There are probably few reading AVers, who are without First nations in their familiies, or Ukranians in their families (don't we marry for perogies, lol). Or the luck of the Irish. The discussion is not about living with each other, we already do, the discussion is about HOW we are going to live with each other if we are pulling in the harness in different directions? Isn't it talking about what we really want from each other? It's about pulling up a chair for Joe.


Discussing the issue of Viterra's consolidation, or ranting about the presnt potential potash concentration issue, is no different than grumbling about the effects of a million acre farm. Let's not alienate what we need to ask about from those who can provide answers.

If Sprott rented the land from all the present farmers in ten existing counties in the Montana, would farmers there be asking questions? Hey, you'all, "Are you eying up tax breaks"? "Or subsidy income?" You bet.

When did we come to the point where we are afraid to discuss or disagree because some one will call us racist?

People, groups, organizations, every color and religion and political affiliation and sex, and age, all of us lobby for privilege, and need to be scrutinized.

Not examining, not grilling, not questioning, any one group simply because they ARE women or Swedish, or native, or midgets, or movie stars or farmers, is,... well... folly.

And damn predjudiced.

Showing true respect is when every person, and every group, is worthy enough for you to want to argue with them. Listen to them.

Silence says something far worse. Ask Joe. Pars