CWB and Young Farmers

[fjlip]

I also got in farming with "old money", but, hey the parents and grandparents wanted it that way. I proved a good investment for their hard work.
Agree Freewheat, size is not a measure of progressive. We never worked more than 1600 acres, but have tried some stuff before neighbors. Winter wheat in 1980, first in this area, grew high yield Glenlea wheat when quotas were zero and delivered all the crop ahead of CWRS with CWB contracts. Gambled on the first RR canola ahead of neighbors. First to use auto steer in this area. Steel bins in 1965 very rare, Hopper bins in 1980, not even heard of then. Aeration in 81, so rare parts came from US. First dryers used here in 1968, 1978 only auto Farm Fans for miles and years. Only farmer with a tandem in all elevators we delivered to in 1975.
There is not a one I know that did not have help from the previous gen.

[bucket]

Best investment I ever made was in myself. Somehow the money never got wasted.

Never chased land, the phone rang and most of the time I was stupid enough to say yes.

i hate the cwb and everything it encompasses. It has created generations of marketing illiterate farmers with blind faith.

Those guys on those producer cars site with a short line could hire one more person and eliminate the cwb and probably make more money. The buyers would find that grain pretty quick and probably pay from the farm and take care of the freight and elevation for the quality they grow. They are sellingthemselves short. Hauling the grain to the elevator is the easy job.

[Lifer]

Good for you bucket and I sincerely mean that. Isn't that the point. A lot of us would like to be able to make more of our own choices within the wheat market. We are not allowed to and would like meaningful change.

You didn't chase land because that is not what you want to do. So what if some one else does that is their choice. May be the right thing for them.

Let me be responsible for my stuff and you can be responsible for your stuff. Progressive thinking within the CWB debate today.

[farmaholic]

Freewheat

It is undoubtedly easier to farm with financial and physical help from the previous generation/s. I appreciate the help I received and I hope you appreciate what you have even more simply because you did it yourself. Rome wasn't built in a day either. Like in the bedroom, size doesn't matter, it's how you use what you have. Progressive can be measured in doing more with what you have also, like increasing net returns per acre. My accountant says I make more net money than some of his other Ag clients who farm more than me. Good luck.

[lakenheath]

Freewheat - Calm down and read my post. I didn't associate progressive with farm size. I just gave examples of young farmers that were anti-CWB and put some information beside them.

You read way to deep into what I was posting. You seem to have little man syndrome. Take a deep breathe guy and re-read what I posted. You will not see any slighting of small acre farms in my post, nor am I putting large farms on a pedistal.

Just happened the guys I am listing happen to farm the acres they farm. That is it that is all.

[lakenheath]

Freewheat:

Hope this makes you feel better.

After reading comments about the three young farmers at the C to C that were board supporters, I took a look around our area (SW Saskatchewan) and did a quick count of anti-CWB young farmers (within a 20 mile radius). Here is what I came up with:

Farmer A - 32 year old farmer cropping 6,000 acres on a family farm. Very involved with management aspects of the farm. Progressive farmer. Has a 4 year business degree from U of S.

Farmer B - 33 year old farmer cropping 11,000 acres on a family farm. Progressive farmer. Very involved in managment aspects of the farm. Has a 4 year Ag degree from U of S.

Farmer C - 32 year old farmer cropping 4,000 acres on a family farm. Progressive farmer. Very involved in management aspects of the farm.

Farmer D - 26 year old farmer cropping 7,500 acres on family farm. Progressive farmer. Very involved in management aspects of the farm.

Freewheat - 34 year old farmer cropping 1500 acres. Progressive farmer.

Farmer F - 26 year old farmer cropping 8,000 acres on a family farm. Progressive farmer. Very involved in management aspects of the farm.

Farmer G - 29 year old farmer cropping 10,000 acres on a family farm. Progressive farmer. Very involved in management aspects of the farm.

Farmer H - 36 year old farmer cropping 8,000 acres on a family farm. Progressive farmer. Very involved in managment aspects of farm.

I could go one, but might point is that there are a lot of good, young and intellegent farmers out there that do not want to be shackled by the CWB.

We are the future of farming in this country. We have the ability to market our own grain and be profitable. We do it with peas, lentils, flax, canola, feed barley, corriander, chickpeas, oats and other specialty crops and do it quite well.

Wheat and durum are a very important crop in this area for our rotations. Yet we cringe when we have to pencil them in. Why? Because we are left in the dark by the CWB. We don't get proper price signals, the PPO's are an absolute joke and the "premiums" just aren't there.

We grow inferior varieties to those of which my American farmer friends grow and yet don't get paid for our superior quality, but yet have to live with the yield disadvantage.

You just have to shake your head when you look over a few provinces and see farmers our age selling wheat off-board and not going to jail for it (in the same country!).

[Lifer]

What do you know about the three farmers at the C to C that were board supporters.

[booboo04]

To seed, spray, and harvest 6,500 acres it takes $1,000,000 in inputs and payments with approx. $2,500,000 capital investment. We all know that a 26 year old can't get that kind of money on his own.... No bank will lend $3,500,000 on a promise to pay it back. So parents do this for their kids, and are happy that the kids make it on their own some day. I know all this because I am a 1st generation farmer and financially I did everything on my own. But even I got help.... without my free education in farming from my ex-wifes father, I would not have been able to start farming in 1997 at the age of 37.

I am so lucky that lentils came along, I have seeded almost half my farm each of the past 4 years to lentils. I did this by expanding from 1,300 acres 4 years ago, to 6,500 next year. Without the good years I would be 1,300 acres. Freewheat... Keep going you will do it. To every other young farmer do it however you can, just remember your parents. I do, when I was 14 my father taught me how to make money with cars, that knowledge has remained with me to this date.

Another asset is education, without my Bachelors of Applied Science in Engineering I would not have had the money to start farming.

To anyone who mentioned BTO.... Just skip his/her posts, that person just wants to piss you off. To all the good guys... Thanks for your posts.

Finally, as a first generation farmer, I too feel I can do better than the CWB. And to all those who think Viterra or Richarsons are the bad guys.... If we only knew Who really does the selling for the CWB anyway. If we only knew????

[lakenheath]

Booboo - Read carefully....

Farmer D - 26 year old farmer cropping 7,500 acres on family farm. Progressive farmer. Very involved in management aspects of the farm.

Did I say he built the farm? Did I say he got a $2.5 million dollar loan from the bank?

No, he farms the family farm with his dad.

My simple point was that there are young farmers out there that are actively farming for a living that do not support the CWB.

That was my point.

Man you guys that think you are such self-made hard workers sure have to blow your horn loud and tell everyone how you did it. You worked so hard and all these other guys are just the silver spooners.

What's with the big chip on your shoulder? I hope to pass a debt free, successful, well managed farm on to my son one day. He'll have to go and get and education like I did, but the farm will be ready and waiting for him when he is done. What is so wrong this that?

If you have a farm that is 6,000 acres and your inputs and payment at $1,000,000, I really think you should evaluate your situation or go back to making money on cars!

[booboo04]

Good points Laken, I did not mean to piss you off.

Not sure why you say go sell cars.... $1,000,000 over 6,500 acres is only $150 per acre... I expect a lot more in return.

I do tend to blow my own horn, but I just want people to know that farming can be done without money from your parents.

Thanks, and you have a good post... I just got off topic a little.

[freewheat]

Hey lakenheath, I am very calm. I have no little man syndrome. I guess I forgot to mention, I am not jealous in any way, and I really don't want 6000 acres. I'm just pointing something out. I also wish you could hear my voice read my post back to you. What is typed down is not necessarily in the tone you may reckon it to be in. I meant absolutely no offense, I know you can't all be farming 5-10 grand acres or you'd have no neighbors to speak of.

I am also sure that my area is an anomoly in the prairies, in that I can stand on the end of my drivewayand count 13 farmlights within 2 mile radius. For some reason here a lot of young guys are farming. As well, I don't care if you have all the equipment in the world, you can only farm so much here feasibly. I'd say 4 thousand would be the max without major time constraints due to wet springs, wet harvests etc. Most guys here farm 2 to 3 with many 1's with a few in the hundreds. I would say thinking about MY neighbors, does not necessarily hold true to you or yours.

But one young punk who has been set up nicely by his daddy, once teased me. He was in shock that my swather had no steering wheel, hydrostatic, etc... Little bugger has no clue. And that goes for most of 'em. I got my first 4 wheel drive tractor in 2009, and my first air seeding unit the same year. After 18 years of cropping because I actually paid for my own way. As a side note of interest, I put most of my first crop in at 16 with money I gleaned from a trapline I ran the previous winter. Kinda unique entrance to farming I would say!!!LOL

Just some perspective, I hate to come across the wrong way,but some guys have no clue is all. A few do have a clue, and these guys are grateful, and I am grateful to them.

But what hurts most is that it is hard to have a buddy to talk to and be friends with when they have everything or lots handed to them. Its kinda hard to explain, but when your not in the same leaugue in that area, it is hard to "click". I have lost two friends who became rather arrogant and snobbish once they started cashing in on the previous generations wealth. I am hurt by it, but when all they talk about is what they are buying next for iron, curl and skidoo all winter, and they know bloody well you are in the fight of your life to get the next crop in, it is difficult to get together and find common ground. I raise hens for eggs etc. and they don't get me. They used to, but they no longer do and it hurts. I feel like a wierdo in my own area because of their attitude towards me cuz I'm backwards...

I sometimes feel like this on agriville, which is where I come to vent sometimes, especially when guys are pre-pricing commodities, buying options, and fertilizer, etc. I wish I were there, and I strive to be there, but rare is the young guy anymore who has milked cows, fed pigs, and hunted for meat, and so I just feel a lack of understanding sometimes.

Anyway, no harm done man. Lets get rid of that friggin' wheat board, eh?

[lakenheath]

Freewheat and Booboo - I hear you guys and I appreciate where you come from and your perspective. It is easy to lose sight of where a guy comes from. It is a shame that anybody that has found success in business or farming (be it self-made or fell on their lap) should look down on others.

Not to get techinal and argue, but remember in a 20 mile radius there is just under a million acres. So, the 6 young farmers mentioned farm only 3% of the area. Not too outlandish.

Salutes to you two and the boots to the CWB!