farm Reassessments

[sk_wheatking]

Here in the slum of the Ghetto, Our highest is 89400

Jeez farmaholic why do you keep beating yourself in the nuts over your land? I have the same land you do and maybe even worse but it always grows good crops. Sure some is Sandy some is light some is better than others. When their is a dry year mine burns out then a few days later all the 125000 stuff is finished too. What does it matter to anyone else what your farming anyway. With the no till practices of today if you know what your doing you can grow crop on almost anything. Sure I know that furrow and sf3 would laugh right in my face and call me all kinds of things because my land or yours doesn't look like theirs but I've made out real good on it and I'm sure you have too. I guess owning land with an assessment below 100,000 or poorer land with some sand makes you unfit for the farming community? Whatever. Anyway I do get a kick out of your slum of the ghetto thing. I hope you don't feel that way for real though!

[LEP]

I too farm a lot of poorer land. I joke that out of all the land that I farm the crappy stuff is the stuff that I own.

When I was banking I did a lot of farmcalls all over the province. I found generally that the farmers that farmed medium land were better farmers agronomically than those that farmed the best land. Because they had to.

However, in the last few years, everyone has raised their game in my opinion.

[fjlip]

Biggest operations here trying to BLOCK land rented/owned together. Best place to farm/retire is in their potential BLOCK.
Our land was the "sow's ear" but 40 years of "landscaping" has turned it into "silk" purses, high assessed

[farmaholic]

I'll reply later this evening...

Sk_wheatking: I like the ring to my "slum of the Ghetto" too. It isn't an absolute description of here but I like to use it. Even with the different kind of warts on this land it isn't by far the worst place to farm. I've seen alot worse and alot better. Funny thing is some people probably wouldn't want to farm here....but in reality it's all I know. And I am critical of it because I know it's limitations. But I do believe the advent of continuous cropping and high inputs has definitely narrowed the gap between our type of land and what I heard someone on here describe as "elite". I realize it will never be as rewarding or easy to farm as some land but it could be worse.

I believe I described our land as being "stingy" in 2015 when we experienced a mini-drought and in complete contrast last year was stellar for us. Good for the Apprentice to witness two almost complete opposite production years back to back. A taste of the best and nearly the worst so close together, and early in his apprenticeship.

Gratefully we suffered very little from the plague of "too wet" like some others have. Even the wettest year we had wasn't real bad compared to only 15 miles east of us. Seems our plight was running a little on the dry side as long as my memory recalls. Always watching the western sky looking for that next cloud bank. 2015 radar imagery would show something tracking our way and fizzling or splitting or veering away as it approached...hard to watch!

Fj...there are some things you "just can't fix". It is what it is(regarding our land).

The long and the short of it is we're still here after 4 generations with the fifth in training. That is either sheer grit and determination or outright stupidity. Starting over a century ago many others have come and many have gone. But there are those who stuck it out on land that their forefathers toiled on and/or took on land that others gave up on or didn't have anyone else to carry the torch(burden-lol).

It's all I know....

Take care, and work with pride this season!

[farmaholic]

I added my response to my last post through the edit button....so it would appear I never replyed because it doesnt change the time of the original post or move it to the top of the tread list.

[blackpowder]

Regarding grit or stupidity.
Grit or reality but also strong parents who were good teachers and leaders. Solid is as solid does.
Have friends whose family has gone to sea for multiple generations. Species since time began.
Ending now with me. But still have pride. Gotta be a sob either way. Take care.

[fjlip]

"That is either sheer grit and determination or outright stupidity"

We have those same feelings, have said that Grandpa could have taken a left at Winipeg and settled with grandma's family near Chicago. He wanted to make is own way.....stubborn

[the big wheel]

Instead of petty politics why not admit the burden to us farmers is increasing no matter which of the current parties is in place. The entire farming community has been the target for years yet we always think at election time our guy is doing something for us. Hahahahaha wake the hell up.

[wakopa]

Let's see, highway by my place only built a few years ago and now going downhill, ndp in charge got free trips to shut up about the poor job. Parking lot at new facility lasted one year, bridge cost over double what they should and built wrong and washed out this year (we don't need engineers here or government employees from Winnipeg telling us how to do things)Winnipeg stadium built wrong by ass sitting engineers. They can't figure how to fix road in Brandon from flooding, it is pretty simple if u not allow a government employee Or engineer there, I could go on and on . Let's just raise taxes instead

[tweety]

The taxation of an RM should be tied to the cost of running an RM, not the price of land. Its a seriously outdated concept. The cost of running an RM, line by line budget of wages and costs should be made easily available for all to see. Same with the school and its cost. Accountability isn't a bad thing.

Rather than extracting as much as possible from the taxpayer and setting the budget, it should be the other way around. A responsible practical budget, tax accordingly. If its too high, cut services.

[farmaholic]

Fellows, RMs, compared to each other, are like the farms in them....they don't all have the same value assets or sources of other income to fairly compare one RM with another. Ours is pretty lucky with half decent farmland but more importantly are the two main pipeline corridors that run through it with a tiny spattering of oil wells in a small area. The RM south of ours is poor in comparison, made up poorer assessed farmland, a federal community pasture and not alot of other big sources of tax revenue that I'm aware of. So like the farms in them, some can afford to provide more services and flip equipment more often and pay their men better than others.

[tweety]

Farmaholic, does it cost more to grade a road in your rm vs the one south of you?

Does it cost more to put a kid thru school in your rm?

They are the same, so why is what you pay for tax based on land value?

[farmaholic]

Tweety. I would definitely think there are differences in road maintenance and infrastructure costs between RMs based on labour, equipment expenses (type and age of machinery, depreciation and maintenance) and infrastructure costs...bridge maintenance and road building, etc.

Maybe the powers that be decided that since land assessment, and therefore taxation, is based on productivity, (the guy with a corner to corner wide open quarter of good productive land versus someone with a quarter with 25% water and light patches and hills) the fellow with the good dirt should be able to afford more taxes. Kind of the same with house size on acreages or even urban... they think you should be able to afford more taxes if you can afford a large house. You won't get an argument out of me regarding some of this... it is punitive taxation, like income tax, that punishes success.

[sumdumguy]

Farmaholic, does it cost more to grade a road in your rm vs the one south of you?

Does it cost more to put a kid thru school in your rm?

They are the same, so why is what you pay for tax based on land value?

I may be wrong but I assume the disparity in wealth between school divisions is a reason for amalgamation of school units. the haves gotta share with the have-nots.