Is there really ANY Room for New Talent in Farming?

[parsley]

What about the young guys?

As an inbred institution, the CWB seems only intent upon birthing out a new generation of adherents focused on shipping out wholesale grain to third world countries for less than the cost of production.

There are 40% minority-voice Choice farmers who have pushed hard for change, and for whom the Government institution Wheat Board could care less about and won't give the time of day.

These farmers, especially a lot of the younger ones, have doggedly pursued change, any change...asking for even a set number of bushels out of the monopoly/year, or a producer signout guarantee for five years (or forever), or x number of producers out the singledoor per year, first come first serve, but they are met with nothing except a Board that is absolutely hostile to any single-desk change.

What are we doing to our young farmers?

The CWB has been willing to accomodate feed mills,and large corporations, but unwilling to listen to over 40% of the farmers in the DA, and meantime, the meetings proliferated with Wheat Board hats pulled firmly down over hearing aids crying for the days when their fathers hauled grain in the old wagon to the elevator, are having an effect on the young people in, or looking at, farming.

It's not enticing. And not to the wives either. How many young men and women have left the farm?

Three things can happen that you might want to think about:

1. New faces will simply not enter.

2. Fresh entrants will exit.

3. New entrants will confront and force change through civil disobedience, incivility, and hostility.

None wll make your land prices soar.

The CWB as an institution is not prepared to make one iota of change. Their masked changes, all mean one thing...continue selling to the CWB so they can hire more staff,and so the accredited agencies can run more volumes of Board grains through their systems to make their payroll.

What about our own?

We need the brightest and the best entering farming, but in order to attract them, old farmers have to bite the bullet, and bite their tongue, and move over and let the young folks in the door.

The CWB as an institution has proven they are not up to change, the future, or moving forward, so it is up to the pension-generation to help our own childern move towards the future, and not force them to live in the past.

Give young farmers some tools to work with. Give them a little choice.

Parsley

[mustardman]

Parsley give it a rest

Everytime you get a cold do you blame the CWB?

Look south of the border, no marketing board but the same problems, aging farm population ,high input costs, high freight rates, usually low commodity prices. etc. etc.

You could beam yourself into a coffee shop in Glasgow, Montana and the only thing different would be the accent.

It does not matter where you are there is alot of money being made in the food industry but not at the producer level.

[parsley]

You are content. Whoop-tee-do.

And you are presuming that young people cannot make any worthwhile suggestions to changing what is.

Tell that to a potential farm wife.

Parsley

[Westside]

Parsley,
This is the first time I have commented on this forum.
I agree with you completely. I would like to see the marketing system open up.
But I have to admit at times my faith is called into question. Special crop marketing is not all a bed of roses. Several weeks ago I sold 5 super B loads of lentils to a contracting company. No cheque so far, even though we now are outside of the payment settlement date. I called them today and the only person who can sign cheques left on holidays for a week. This is not by any means the first time this type of thing happens. Grading problems after the fact, payment delays, promised deliver dates that routinely go by, these are common place when it comes to dealing with special crops. In fact one of the worst is a company where one of the principals ran for a director position on the CWB on a platform of change. The one thing the board does is pay when they say they are going to pay.
I do however believe they are not getting the premium they brag about. Everytime someone points out an example of a premium price the board responses by saying they are getting even better. They sure must be selling alot of grain into discount markets to finally arrive at the final pooled price. The Algerian market following the resent news comes to mind.
But the private trade is also going to have to get better at meeting its obligations before we can ever hope to get widespread support for change. I do not think we should have ever been into this crazy voting by other people on how or to whom we on our farm sell our grain.

[Westside]

Parsley, I think you said it perfectly.

Mustardman, "Look south of the border, no marketing board but the same problems, aging farm population ,high input costs, high freight rates, usually low commodity prices. etc. et"

Where do you get your facts that you know that the U.S. has less younger farmers than we do?

No marketing board, but same problems?? Ask a U.S. grower how much of their grains they store on farm.

I'm just curious Mustard where you get your facts?? If you have a link that I can have would sure appreciate it.

[parsley]

Westside,

Glad to have you enter the forum and welcome. My reply is not specifically aimed at you, but I will admit I am a little crusty tonight.

FARMERS have to change. They need some gumption.

Every farmer needs to ask for money up-front, or the grain doesn't leave the yard. It's done all the time. 1/4? 1/2? Down Payment? Some companies get 30 days. Some get told don't pay until the New Year because they have an excellent payment record.

Try being a plumber and telling your supplier you'll pay when you feel like it! Right.

When the down-paynment practice becomes the status-quo in the conventional business, the risky company has to take an operating loan to cover the cost of a down-payment. And they smarten up.

Protect your money.

I've yet to hear of one conventional farmer on this forum complain about the CWB taking money out of their pooling accounts to pay for an entire CWB organic marketing department, for years, no less, in spite of the fact that the CWB has never even marketed one bushel of organic grain.

Not only that, but there is an organic farmer on the CWB Board of Directors who has overseen the project!

Are farmers sheep?

When the CWB breaks the contract they signed with you, have a lawyer ready to launch a class action suit along with all the other farmers that they broke contract with. That's the business world today, and that's the world our young farmers need to face.

Current Conventional farmers protest as drones would....keep on working.

Have DA farmers evolved into handwringers?

My response should, at the very least, get your blood pressure elevated.

Parsley

[cottonpicken]

Parsley how does the cwb effect the global price of grain?

Are you aware of the global bear market we are now just coming out of in commoddities?

I dont expect a coherent answer because ive asked this before.

[Fransisco]

As one example lets look at Durum. We know thanks to the Algerian admission that the board undercuts the market by 'tens of dollars per tonne'. What do you think happens to a market when a player does that? Let me give you a hint, it doesn't go up.

[parsley]

CP, I'm going to take the time to reply to you before I go to Snoozeville. You deserve a reply, albeit is a coagulated semblance of opinion.

Compared to world commodities, the CWB pales in importance.

But compared to "where societies are heading", the importance of the commodity market pales.

Before you can determine what the markets will do, you have to determine where the markets might be, and what sort of society it will be, and what that society will buy and where they will buy, and what ingredients you will need to manufacture those goods.

We have enjoyed a very ethical way of organizing a cohesive G7 society, but things are changing. There is so much trans-national ownership and secularism. There is a tendency towards increasing global violence that will wreck untold havoc.

Mines gleaning rich trace minerals in Indonesia are of little value if violence severs mining and bankrupts investors.

China is supposed to be "emerging", but I see manufacturing moving out of China in a few years.

India is building towards an educated population and will be very high tech and high value, but global wanderers will still seek out North America in preference to India, for a long time to come.

Volitility-free climates will be the true measure of what is done and where, in spite of the lure of the rich tapestry of global economics.

Global citizens continue to aspire for a North American lifestyle that is enriched by more choice, more freedom and more opportunity. Your wife will hardly agree to doning a berka and moving to Afghanistan just to make a little more money.

And so it follows that North America, including Brazil and Mexico in lesser importance, will most likely be the desired places to live and invest and thrive.

Developing those industries in countries that global citizens want to migrate to, is key to real prosperity.

Canada.

Canadians must have the freedom and the choice; the opportunity to be global leaders. Agriculture comes to mind.

That's why I harp, cotton. Farming can be anything and everything. I have every confidence that some ornery kid breeding dogs on a 100 year old farm isn't stupid. He just doesn't need an expert holding his hand when he's 35 saying, "Now pee".

Which brings us to the Wheat Board.

Parsley

[Burbert]

parsley, Yes I agree, with you for once. Once we are done, sucking the oil out from under Iraq, then we will have time to deal with those Indo guys and their untold mineral wealth. We'll give them a tast of democracy too eh! No wait, didn't we already get that gold, BREX steam rolled throu Indo... a while ago.

[northfarmer]

well said parsley, and welcome westside....

i now get corrected when i talk about being a young farmer, I guess i just feel young, and still am 20 years younger than the average age of a farmer, but after planting almost 20 crops I am no longer young.

There is room for new talent in farming, new talent will be attracted when economic opportunity and the quality of life it brings is apparent....

In our part of the world, where the economy is hot and wealth is being created in the non agricultural sectors it is hard to get the next generation excited. Land is being sold, and a lot of new hutterite colonies have entered into our market because of the opportunity. Land buyers have arrived from other parts and are putting together parcels of land assumming that they can exit at some later point, with a nice capital gain, by then vending the complete package to a colony that would otherwise be unable to get the deal put together themselves.

Looking at how these colonies make their money, and forget about the cheap labor, is that vertically and horizonatlly integrate their operations and turn a lot of their crops into meat, protein, milk etc. Sure they sell some wheat and barley, and maybe to the board, but i can assure your that is not wehre there wealth is created.

Making money in agriculture in this new paradigm we are in will require excellent management in all areas including agronomy, marketing, human resources, finance, etc. We must also look at how we as primary producers can get directely involved in participation and ownerships of the vlaue chains of our business, Simply selling grain to the board and waiting for the payment is not the answer.

CP, i agree we are in the commodity bull and that prices will rise and may remain at levels we have not seen in some time. But so too will the cost of land and all the inputs including labour, equipment, fertilizer, etc.

20 to 30 years ago success could be defined by how hard you worked, how many seasons you worked, but the new paradigm will define success by how smart you work and how successful you defined and executed your evolving farming enterprise strategy....

everyone naturally wants things to stay the same and to retain and regain profitablity in the environment they are accustomed too.......

the only thing constant is change, and those that are not prepared to accept that will eventually be left behind. My children will grow up on a farm where they see wealth created in modern agriculture and will not hear me whine and complain about the industry I love. I would rather spend my enegy and time looking for solutions, not whining.

While the debate about the cwb is important, and in my mind is about my individual rights (should be obvious as to where i stand on this matter), it will also become increasingly irrelevant as we move forward. We, as an industry need to try to channel the resources of many, including government, into working on the many other things that need to get done.

[mustardman]

Snappy
I have travelled a bit south of border from Montana to to Iowa corn belt and we are dealing with the same issues. I always liked to talk to farmers off the beaten path.

Most of the guys in the J.D engine plant were farmers doing their off farm employment.
There seemed to be more younger farmers in the cattle business (same as here) than in strictly grain producing. The beef industry like here had a run of good years whereas grain returns were up and down.

[parsley]

Burbert, Your observation is so clever:

"No wait, didn't we already get that gold, BREX steam rolled throu Indo... a while ago."

Well, Burbert, Davis Webster says:

"The Bre-X fiasco momentarily chilled investors in the notoriously fickle
mining stocks market, but interest in Indonesia is now returning."

Now that's interesting.


Webster also says:

"..Indonesia's mines minister announced a new round of 38 mining
concessions under rules much more favourable to foreign miners - although Indonesian minority partners are still required to obtain concessions. The investors and sites were carefully screened to avoid a repeat of the Bre-X fiasco. Fifteen of the contracts went to Canadian firms."


Wonder who they were, Burbert? Do you know? snappy could probably find out in 30 seconds.

.. Here it is...Goody, goody, goody,... Webster tells more about the Canadian mining companies in Indonesia, and especially in the Irian Jaya (province):

"Iriana Resources Corp. of Vancouver is devoted to exploration in West
Papua, which the Suharto regime calls Irian Jaya. It gained a 95% interest
in a 14,640-hectare new nickel-cobalt concession in Sentani, plus existing
interests in five other concessions totalling 3.9 million hectares"

Iriana Resources? Can't remember who that is, do you want to look it up Burbert, or should I? snappy?

As you say, Burbert, you seem keen "to deal with those Indo guys and their untold mineral wealth". You are one sharp cookie, Burbert!

Get back to me will you on who this Iriana Resources is?

Isn't this a co-op project?

Parsley

[cottonpicken]

Weak,parsly,weak.

[parsley]

Iriana Resources Corporation also operates the Greer Lake tantalum-lithium-cesium property, located 13 kilometers SE of the Tanco mine in SE Manitoba.