questions to farmers...

[bucket]

A few questions for dryland farmers to ponder over the next few days as you crop scout and look at grain prices...

1. Are returns better for pulses with the 113 million give away from Protein Industries Canada or will they see an uptick for that 30000 tonne demand created by government money....its only 0.03 bpa demand over the acreage seeded ....hardly a grain of sand in a dump truck....but 113 million for that tonnage.

2. Will your life be better with a 4 billion dollar investment in irrigation that you will be paying for along with your grandkids....The existing large projects at Riverhurst , Outlook and Luck Lake are still on the government tit....and will be forever....the irrigation farmers are taking your markets with higher production while their expenses are still being picked up by the government...

3. The CGC ads on the side bar of this site....can a grain commission employee even find a field....and to know your grade before you deliver means a weeks long or longer wait...nearest office is 2 hours away...this is what the 130 million slush fund is being used for....

4. Can new machinery with 1970s grain prices be paid for

5. What does an X combine cost and what is wrong with New Hollands design

6. Do larger farms need big combines or just more combines....that DOT autonomous thing is trying to downsize machinery

7. With all the people unemployed these days ...why do people get put on hold for services????

8. Who has the pictures and videos of politicians to make a 4 billion dollar project happen like this...Highway 42 Eyebrow to Moose Jaw was just rebuilt ...wouldnt it only make sense to build a primary if you knew this project was coming????

9. Why does every area that gets an irrigation project have services like a grain elevator closed?

10. Do grain and cattle guys get half their equipment and all their infrastructure costs paid for by government?

11...Why do 25000 dryland farmers allow 4 billion to slip to 300 farmers....take the carbon tax that no one can afford....Scott moe could have covered that cost with a refund cheque if he has 4 billion to build these other projects....it will balloon to 10 billion when the federal government gets involved and of course Quebec will need some work out of it....thats why the government is still on the hook for the cement pipe from Quebec that is breaking down...just stupid and history proves it...



Just thinking on a Sunday morning ...Some stupid but mostly factual...

[bucket]

One other question with 30 cent red lentils....

When will the Nebraska corn farmer with a pivot realize he could grow lentils with one tenth the water ....one trip to Saskatchewan ought to prove the process...

200bpa corn at 4 bucks or 40 bpa lentils at 18 bucks a bushel...you do the math....

It would save the Nebraska aquifer that Lyle Stewart was eluding to in his press release...

Good thing we will all be saved from empty store shelves by this project....such stupidity....irrigation farmers in Saskatchewan for the most part grow dryland crops....not store shelf commodities...

[farmaholic]

You're thinking in the deep end again....lol.

I need a PFD to join you there.

[Oliver88]

Farmland in these irrigation areas has already jumped substantially going by realtor listings.

[bucket]

Farmland in these irrigation areas has already jumped substantially going by realtor listings.

Sadly it is not the grain prices or the individual farmer investing in his own farm....the only reason there is a capital gain on that land is because of government money being spent...

The capital gain on the land should go to the government/taxpayer....

As an example....if dryland farmland is worth 250000 a quarter in these areas but because of the irrigation infrastructure paid for by taxpayers makes it worth 500000....the gain belongs to the taxpayer....

I seen this in the riverhurst area where the pipeline went across an older lady's land ...she was renting it out with no intention of ever putting a pivot up or investing money in that land to rent at a higher price....nope ...when the project went in that quarter was worth 25000.....was sold 7 years ago before the land jump still as a dryland quarter for over 300000....dryland in the area would have been trading for under 100k....

Sure the potential for irrigation was on that quarter but the landowner did nothing to extract the value ....the government made it possible....capital gains exempt probably with the right renting agreement ....but the value is from the government...

At the very least the gains should be a taxable benefit not capital gains exempt....plus the value of the capital infrastructure on farm should be a taxable gain..

Dryland farmers and ranchers can't get machinery paid for by government...a pivot is just a piece of machinery.

Pipeline on electricity to the pivot on farm are capital projects ....no different than running a new service to a farm house or shop....but there is funding to put a pivot in...not so much to repopulate rural saskatchewan

[bucket]

And before everyone starts calling me a socialist because I think gains on land within an irrigation district should go back to the province.....

A socialist is one who likes to use government money to enrich himself....

I get a kick out of the saskparty blaming the NDP for shuttering the West Side project....why didn't the capitalist farmers in the area that vote Saskparty do the project on their own????

The answer is simple.... they would all be broke even paying for the engineering study.

This 4 billion dollar plan is a socialist idea....no money from the farmer....no new crop mix....and very little effort to make it happen over the last 40 years on their own....they waited for the government to pay for it...

And used empty store shelves to justify it.....idiotic.

[farmaholic]

We don't have a natural gas service on Ghetto Central of the Slum of the Ghetto. Quotes for service are astronomical. Add in a service large enough for a grain drier and it's much worse, depending on distance and volume requested.

Can I get government to pay for that asset for my farm?

What's the difference?

[bucket]

We don't have a natural gas service on Ghetto Central of the Slum of the Ghetto. Quotes for service are astronomical. Add in a service large enough for a grain drier and it's much worse, depending on distance and volume requested.

Can I get government to pay for that asset for my farm?

What's the difference?

Exactly....my point exactly....

You would pay the gas charges if they put a service into your yard....

And to put in real life terms of the large irrigation districts.....Their current water bill should be over 125 an acre....40 bucks comes from the government...

Infrastructure for free plus government support on the water bill...nice hey???

Farm groups should be outraged....

Riverhurst cost about 75 million in 1990 ...at a 5 percent return on investment ...that project should be paying back 3.75 million every year to the saskatchewan taxpayer....its actually the other way around....the government is still paying them...

[bucket]

500 million for 80000 acres is 6250 which equates to about $875,000 per quarter plus on farm expense...just about a million a quarter...


If my average sized farm got one million in total in free capital there isa good chance my farm would be better off...


They are getting that for every quarter of irrigated land.....one miiiiiillion dollars per quarter...plus operating cost subsidized as well...in perpetuality....

[furrowtickler]

Agree Bucket this is complete b/s .
I don’t understand either why farm groups are silent . Maybe they believe their turn is next lol
If irrigation is all what they say , they pay . For tax payers to be on the hook for this is ridiculous

[TASFarms]

How much money are irrigation acres paying in income taxes and other taxes?

[bucket]

How much money are irrigation acres paying in income taxes and other taxes?

If the district is getting 40 bucks an acre for the next 5 years ...the answer is nothing....they are receiving a refund every year...

For some guys it means a million dollars in water expense not coming out of their pockets....

And considering that capital infrastructure was given to them and the government is on the hook for some replacement still....their taxes wouldn't cover the costs...

And the rebuttal question would be how much tax does a dryland farmer pay for zero capital investment from government. ..

[TASFarms]

I think if you look at all the workers Involved, equipment sold , extra grain sold and transported, extra inputs applied for this irrigation project the govt will be getting some of it back. It’s not fair to you or me but it will increase the provinces gdp.

[bucket]

I think if you look at all the workers Involved, equipment sold , extra grain sold and transported, extra inputs applied for this irrigation project the govt will be getting some of it back. It’s not fair to you or me but it will increase the provinces gdp.

It has to get 4 billion back first....and during that time there has to be a ROI on the 4 billion even at 1 percent that's 40 million a year in interest. ...

Maybe you haven't read how there isn't a rail line into Outlook or Riverhurst ...

And what you don't think dryland farmers are not growing more or buying inputs..

The existing 3 large irrigation projects are still funded by government. ... zero ROI..... and since the higher production ....no good highways and won't fix them either.

[the big wheel]

Wonder How many big time sask party supporters are benefitting directly from this?