This should be on the Cow board Charlie

[Incognito]

Just an observation looking for a comment:

If you think the AB farmer has moved to the right far enough to punt the CWB, where did all the supply management discussion eminate from and why all of a sudden are the cowboys looking like NFU'er wanna be's? I know of some SK NDP's that are not that far gone as that one thread is.

They want supply/management. There are more inter-provincial trade barriers within Canada that no one wants to talk about cause the US market is THE MOST important market.

Try moving wheat to Ontario and then tell me the border to the US should be open to beef. I can't go over to the cow posts. I don't have enough nitro pills.

[cropduster]

Take heart old boy!! The cowboys/girls haven`t taken a poll yet.Supposedly the Ab. grain poll is 68%(approx) in favor of choice marketing.Even after the BSE outbreaks.Hopefully the two commies on the cow threads are just anomalies................

[Cattleman]

That one thread is a little scary, but it will never fly. Once they see the restrictions it will cause, plus the fact that they will lose at least half their herd (dairy animals could account for 30% of beef produced!) they will not like it. I think they assume they will keep all their cows and some of the other guys are just going to leave!!! I could go on forever here!!

[grassfarmer]

Don't know if you deem me a Commie cropduster, I'm certainly not though - got a million dollar investment in the beef industry that I'm not about to share with anyone outside my immediate family.
I get a kick out of reading this grain debate although I don't produce any (the endless get rid of the CWB and all our problems will be solved story)

Growing up in the UK I watched the deregulation of the dairy industry from a quota controlled (but not price controlled supply managed deal you have here)set up to a free market setup.
Many of my best friends were among the best, brightest and most efficient producers in the industry and pushed for deregulation and a chance to deal with the big buyers directly. The big milk buyers encouraged this by offering contracts that paid 1.5% more for milk than the milk marketing boards. Eventually enough were tempted to jump ship that the marketing boards collapsed as a marketing force, thousands of smaller producers went out of business and once that was accomplished the big milk buyers dropped the price they paid to the remaining producers. Imagine the surprise of all these young efficient producers suddenly being stabbed in the back by their big friends who had offered the higher prices for milk just a couple of years earlier. Now they are all getting below the cost of production and they wish the milk marketing boards were still in business.
I think the lesson here was if these bright young producers who were the best in the industry had devoted as much time and energy to making the milk marketing boards stronger and better able to meet the challenges of the day rather than knocking them down they would all have been better off.
Time will tell but I think the same lesson will be learnt in Canada if the vocal minority are able to overturn the desire of the majority and scrap the CWB. In unity is strength!

[onearm]

the same thing happened in the canadian hog industry in the mid-90's when the gov'ts pushed out the single desk marketing boards foir pigs.

[cropduster]

DDUUUHHHH.....Grassfarmer/cowboardcharlie..Don`t you ever wonder about supply demand???That`s truly influencing the market, PERIOD.All attempts at gov`t intervention are only half truths,PERIOD.When are the rest of the cattle producers going to recognise your position and act on it??Not in your/my lifetime I`m thinkin`.I`ll be waiting for your lobby group to go public with their presentation!!!Maybe instead of moving to Canada you should have moved to the even MORE progressive state of Russia!!Now there is a success story for socialism!!

[grassfarmer]

If you knew anything about Russia maybe you would know that socialism (well it was actually communism, but I guess they are both the same to you) was actually a failure. Funny how it worked out there - in 1917 they had high hopes of a society where everyone was equal and shared wealth and responsibilty. It didn't end up like that - instead we had a ruling class evolve who were just a bit more equal than the rest, got all the perks, controlled all the money and were able to keep the majority of the population in abject poverty.
Hmmm - sounds familier - communism failed in Russia because a proportion of the population couldn't resist being capitalists.
All you proponents of market forces being the answer to everything that is wrong in agriculture are kidding yourselves. You maybe think you are "more efficient" if you can outlast your neighbour if you have 6000 acres and he only has 5000 but by the time your neighbour has gone the Transnational Corporations that control all of agriculture will turn on you to get their pound of flesh.
Supply/demand has nothing to do with the current beef market. Packers were offering a price for cattle in Alberta on March 1st that gave them a profit and allowed them to ship beef into the US market in boxes. After the announcement the border was to remain closed the packers dropped their bid price by close to $200 an animal - and they are still shipping it into the same market at the same price. This is clearly a price fixing monopoly at work, nothing to do with supply and demand. I think there is a very strong reason for Government intervening here. I have never advocated supply management in the beef sector.
As I said before I am no socialist - in fact I am a keen Conservative but still find room to look out for the interests of the poorer members of society who are getting trampled in this rush to get rich led by the US which must surely be one of the most ignorant and unsustainable empires ever to wield global power.

[cropduster]

Grassfarmer,funny how the social experiment called Russia couldn`t last when only started in 1917.The social experiment called the U.S. isn`t about to self detonate a good number of years longer than that.Same for the Sask/Ab experiments.I`m thinkin` your vision/thoughts is clouded more by jealousy of the success than the reality of the situation.Controllers like to blame everyone except themselves.Must be terribly frightful when you think there are literally millions of Americans that could BUY and Sell your operation at a whim!And to think they must have stole(I think not!) that wealth from all those peons like us!

[grassfarmer]

"Millions of Americans? " whoopee that really scares me....not.
I'm reminded of the washroom grafitti I read recently in rural Alberta "USA - Unlimited Supply of A--holes"
As you don't even attempt to argue the case you put forward (I guess there probably is a case in this somewhere)
I'll leave you to your little dream of Canada being the friendly little brother of the US.

[cropduster]

And your ideology will never make it anything more than that!