LDM is farming about 4000 acres on the
Pasqua First Nation, located about 40
miles NE of Regina, Saskatchewan. They
started operation there in the fall of
2011 after being ejected from a similar
operation on another First Nation in the
Broadview area.
A custom operator has performed all
farming activities there for the last
two years. This custom oeprator has
commenced seeding both years in June
with three big John Deere rigs and
knocked the seeding off in short order,
albeit somewhat late.
Mmost other crops in the area this year
have been fantastic! The crops on the
Pasqua First Nation this year have been
a complete wreck. The canola was spindly
and bolting within a month. Around the
time of bolting spin spreaders showed up
to apply urea. Too little, too late.
Then throwing good money after bad, it
appears that another product application
was made judging from the high clearance
sprayer tracks that appeared in the
crop.
The canola had a yield potential of 20
bu per acre at best, but swathing was
delayed until the crop was dead ripe and
the first few rounds shelled out about
badly when swathed. The rest of the
crop was swathed after a rain and didn't
shell as bad. The canola was harvested.
All the ground that was canola last year
was seeded to barley this year. It also
suffered from lack of fertility. That
crop is for the most part still waiting
to be harvested. Some is swathed some
standing. Good chance this crop will sit
out over winter.
The LDM person in charge of the fiasco
is located in Calgary. It is not
apparent who has authority over
agronomic and timing decisions.
This brings to mind my favorite saying.
Nobody is totally useless. They can
always be used as a bad example.
A further concern that I have is the
conflict of interest of a corporate
giant like LDM producing their own crops
in competition with local producers.
This is not a level playing field. It
is not like a long term family farm
which has grown and incorporated. There
is a big difference between a farm which
incorporates and a large multinational
corporation that takes up farming as
part of their corporate agenda.
When a non-Canadian entity whether it be
a Chinese national or a French
Conglomerate moves an agricultural
product out of Canada how does Canada
benefit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Dreyf
us_Group
If I grow Canola and sell it to an
exporter Canada becomes the recipient of
foreign exchange dollars. This is
TRADE! And this activity is common.
If a foreigner rents land in Canada and
grows an agricultural product and then
exports it there are no foreign exchange
dollars entering Canada. It looks for
all the world like out and out THEFT!
This is not like a foreign company
involved in the oil and gas industry
where Canada has instituted a royalty
structure to allow the producer to take
ownership of the commodity. Same for
mining.
Canada has not seen this activity before
and has no rules in place to prevent
agricultural resources from being
extracted from Canada without monetary
exchange.
This is BAD example of Corporate
Farming!
Pasqua First Nation, located about 40
miles NE of Regina, Saskatchewan. They
started operation there in the fall of
2011 after being ejected from a similar
operation on another First Nation in the
Broadview area.
A custom operator has performed all
farming activities there for the last
two years. This custom oeprator has
commenced seeding both years in June
with three big John Deere rigs and
knocked the seeding off in short order,
albeit somewhat late.
Mmost other crops in the area this year
have been fantastic! The crops on the
Pasqua First Nation this year have been
a complete wreck. The canola was spindly
and bolting within a month. Around the
time of bolting spin spreaders showed up
to apply urea. Too little, too late.
Then throwing good money after bad, it
appears that another product application
was made judging from the high clearance
sprayer tracks that appeared in the
crop.
The canola had a yield potential of 20
bu per acre at best, but swathing was
delayed until the crop was dead ripe and
the first few rounds shelled out about
badly when swathed. The rest of the
crop was swathed after a rain and didn't
shell as bad. The canola was harvested.
All the ground that was canola last year
was seeded to barley this year. It also
suffered from lack of fertility. That
crop is for the most part still waiting
to be harvested. Some is swathed some
standing. Good chance this crop will sit
out over winter.
The LDM person in charge of the fiasco
is located in Calgary. It is not
apparent who has authority over
agronomic and timing decisions.
This brings to mind my favorite saying.
Nobody is totally useless. They can
always be used as a bad example.
A further concern that I have is the
conflict of interest of a corporate
giant like LDM producing their own crops
in competition with local producers.
This is not a level playing field. It
is not like a long term family farm
which has grown and incorporated. There
is a big difference between a farm which
incorporates and a large multinational
corporation that takes up farming as
part of their corporate agenda.
When a non-Canadian entity whether it be
a Chinese national or a French
Conglomerate moves an agricultural
product out of Canada how does Canada
benefit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Dreyf
us_Group
If I grow Canola and sell it to an
exporter Canada becomes the recipient of
foreign exchange dollars. This is
TRADE! And this activity is common.
If a foreigner rents land in Canada and
grows an agricultural product and then
exports it there are no foreign exchange
dollars entering Canada. It looks for
all the world like out and out THEFT!
This is not like a foreign company
involved in the oil and gas industry
where Canada has instituted a royalty
structure to allow the producer to take
ownership of the commodity. Same for
mining.
Canada has not seen this activity before
and has no rules in place to prevent
agricultural resources from being
extracted from Canada without monetary
exchange.
This is BAD example of Corporate
Farming!