Is Monette Farms like Bernie Madoff?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

t

generational farms in the area no doubt saw a bunch of farmers come and go with big ideas...when they leave it's all thistles and tansy till the poplars and cattails once again take over.

I would be more optimistic.
If this land/climate proves to be better suited to pasture/hay than cropping, and this venture fails, the locals may have the option to buy vastly improved land for below what was invested in the improvements.
Last I checked, cows prefer to eat grass than poplar trees. But the economics of clearing land for marginal pasture may not work. Let someone else do it.

Either that or else the drought is perpetual and this area is the new breadbasket. The the displaced cattlemen can become ranchers in southern Sask on land where grain can no longer be grown.

[jamesb]

Regarding land clearing, I know in my area there is a heck of a lot of bush being pushed. Go back before the 50's and there wasn't tree there historically. For a lot of time there was the attitude that it was cheaper to buy more land than push bush. Not so anymore. Land values are dictating that land that can be farmed must be brought into production. Today with a cheap drone overfly to create a pretty good topo map, its easy to move a little dirt or throw in a tile to consolidate lots of the bluffs. Its true that there is land that will be cleared that is not fit to farm but with direct seeding, light land isn't the wind erosion risk that it was years ago. Regarding the people with the petition who don't like bush pushing, put there money where their mouth is and buy the land. We had a guy locally here bad mouthing a farmer who pushed newly bought land. This guy was a town guy who always hunted this particular land and was unhappy to see the trees gone. Once he became vocal, lots of other land became off-limits to him as other neighbor's were ticked that a guy that didn't own the land was being vocal about its use.

[Crestliner]

The one that needs the kick in the teeth here is the Western Producer. The article is an absolute bowl of word sh**!
Love what Monette does or not your choice, but for a "so called" mainline ag paper to write such a garbage piece is using up paper not fit for the bathroom.
I am astonished at the low level so called journalism can go today. This is the best and latest news a 25 cent hired man working for a tired old useless paper can come up with...it really just is defamation of character.
This article fits in with the same drivel that comes from the local coffee row 6 guys that know it all that sit and have a crap breakfast with the same old bunch rehashing and embellishing made up news from the day before.
In Saskatchewan we have the Maker's the Taker's and the Bitcher's....the latter 2 are driven by jealously, hatred and envy.
Just like the garbage article Hirsch (another 25 cent contributor to Ag society) wrote about Monette 300 pieces of equipment they traded....useless garbage.
Note to the Western Producer...we don't care to know or are we interested in the business dealings of private individuals business and individuals.
Thanks for reminding me why I canceled my subscription 10 years ago.
You should stop this **it before you get your ass sued off for sticking your nose where it doesn't belong.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Crestliner, that is the exact response I thought this story deserved. Well said

[fjlip]

Can same be said about the big farm in your area I wonder or are they self made?

Absolutely impossible to get that big in 15 years...we all wonder how? It works till it doesn't.

[the big wheel]

At some point should there not be a discussion about clearing new land on that type of scale? I mean do we not understand as farmers that the market will be using that excuse to lower our prices? Second are we gone way past the point of worrying about smaller communities sustainability, lets face it larger farms have been a major cause of disappearing and struggling smaller communities? Or are we just in a free for all now with every aspect of our future?

[Old Cowzilla]

Neighbors are miles and miles apart in that country. BSE destroyed most ranchers up there with just a few surviving and picking up more pasture. The rest is being tackled by grain guys looking for dirt. Young pups look that way to become BTO'S plain and simple cause dirt is not changing hands fast enough in this area. There's no walmart or gas station just down the street and your nearest neighbor is one of the reserves. Might be hard getting your new bride to move up there. And yes maybe some reget by the local coffee shop crowd shoulda, coulda, woulda !!!

[LEP]

Neighbors are miles and miles apart in that country. BSE destroyed most ranchers up there with just a few surviving and picking up more pasture. The rest is being tackled by grain guys looking for dirt. Young pups look that way to become BTO'S plain and simple cause dirt is not changing hands fast enough in this area. There's no walmart or gas station just down the street and your nearest neighbor is one of the reserves. Might be hard getting your new bride to move up there. And yes maybe some reget by the local coffee shop crowd shoulda, coulda, woulda !!!

What did Monette pay for that land? Running a Cat all winter can't be cheap let alone 15 or 20.

[ajl]

Welcome to interesting times. Land prices suggest that you push bush while grain market tell you not to. Would have been far cheaper to buy sub $13 canola a month ago than invest in more land. Right now sale and lease back deals are on the rise which is how how to stay solvent in the face of unfavorable economics. Apparently still capital available to do this. Airlines do this with planes a year or two before bankruptcy. Farmers do this with land, not x9. This land is sold at a discount and is not arms length so does not show up in FCC land values reports. Strap in. Big question will be if gubmint can generate sufficient reflation before the fertilizer gets to the ventilator or not.

[the big wheel]

I d like to know if Agristability is paying for this expansion? Used to be favorable if you
expanded acres your margins were impacted positively for a payout it was a program set up not to help small farms but for those expanding more?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

At some point should there not be a discussion about clearing new land on that type of scale? I mean do we not understand as farmers that the market will be using that excuse to lower our prices? Second are we gone way past the point of worrying about smaller communities sustainability, lets face it larger farms have been a major cause of disappearing and struggling smaller communities? Or are we just in a free for all now with every aspect of our future?

I wouldn't worry about few thousand acres being added in Manitoba. It is a drop in the bucket.

Brazil plans to add 19 million acres in the next decade. That far exceeds the entirety of Manitoba's cropland at only 11.6 million acres.

[Oliver88]

I wouldn't worry about few thousand acres being added in Manitoba. It is a drop in the bucket.

Brazil plans to add 19 million acres in the next decade. That far exceeds the entirety of Manitoba's cropland at only 11.6 million acres.

Clearing 10-20,000 acres in Manitoba will only add to the economy and jobs to the local community with grain land or higher productive pasture.

Seems like a ridiculous topic to be having started by bellyachers on coffee row. (Crestliner's comments sum this up perfectly.)

[TASFarms]

I wouldn't worry about few thousand acres being added in Manitoba. It is a drop in the bucket.

Brazil plans to add 19 million acres in the next decade. That far exceeds the entirety of Manitoba's cropland at only 11.6 million acres.

The more land they clear in Brazil is going to result in more droughts. I would think that this has already started.

[Taiga]

They cleared 140,000+ ac up in LaCrete over the last 10 years and I don’t recall any whining about that.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Regarding land clearing, I know in my area there is a heck of a lot of bush being pushed. Go back before the 50's and there wasn't tree there historically.

That is often the case locally. People get upset about taking out trees, but they aren't the original factory installed trees, they are mostly recent additions.
Most trees around here have a fenceline in the middle of them, or a piece of farm machinery, or pothole etc. If you use the timelapse feature on google earth, you can see these trees expanding every year. A lot of non farmers who want their land to grow back to trees. Many farmers without livestock to control trees, and no mechanical means, so they just move further out every year and let the trees take another strip.

I met an older couple taking pictures around here one day. He had moved away from this area in 1971ish. He was shocked at how much more bush there is now. In those days you could see for miles, now every view is blocked by trees in every direction.