Not one western MP or MLA standing up for farmers and the failed farm programs

[blackpowder]

Dunno, what people say and do are different things. Some accountants and bankers recommend.

[westernvicki]

Here is an except from a post I did in Linkedin.

Tsunami in Agriculture.

Farm analyst Larry Weber says: “A whopping amount of hurt is coming.”

The warning sirens were easy to overlook. It’s summer, with a crop in the ground and thirty-degree weather impacting yield on your mind—the reluctance to forward price commodities high.

Canola has been 54% of Saskatchewan's gross farm income. It is considered a golden crop for good reason. However, prices have fallen 37% in 2022-2024, $651/mt from the high, and a whopping $100 a tonne in July alone. Indeed, forecasted price erosion is expected to take the price down to 2008 levels and carry the commodity complex lower.

With combines headed for the harvest, the sobering reality of commodity price drop is impossible to ignore.

The collapse of this gross farm income will impact the sector, not just farmers, and has the potential to rock the industry from pillar to post. After years of higher prices, many vulnerable sectors, like machine yards, are filled with excess inventory.

Inputs never drop as quickly.

The cost of operations has increased.

Farm debt is high.

Global demand is lackluster.


And I will echo the words of Jason Dearborn:
Don't expect a safety net.

Strategic Ag policy has not been a focus of our ag associations, who only look at production. Many of whom will be enjoying the perks of annual conventions, unlikely the agendas change focus at all.

Adjustments are required.

[the big wheel]

If you dont expect gov to assist in this disaster thats fine but if thats the way it is then you should be screaming mad and do something about the fact that farms that have had perfect weather and big crops with high prices, besides the crooks and there are a long list of fraud in the agristability program that no one investigates in the last 5 years will be the only ones receiving any money out of Agristability, and in some cases it will be huge payouts. Meanwhile the areas with any losses the last 5 years will get absolutley nothing.
Its already happenned in our area these smart asses backed by agristability or a foreign gov buying out farms that cant continue due to no help at all. They bring their higher yields with them with crop insurance and then collect massive amounts on the crop side because no body grows in a drought. How does it make sense for this to occur both on crop insurance and agristability? Either everyone gets compensated for the low prices or nobody. The agristibility program is a corrupt vehicle for foreign and larger farm overtake of our land.

[fcr]

I dont mind paying my fair share of taxes, if that money stays in Canada, but our federal govt seems to think we need to support the rest of the world over our own.I spent a couple months last winter in south america and those countries all look after their own people with limited resoucres better than we do.The waste of taxpayers dollars over the last ten years needs to be revealed to the public before this next federal election.Its sickening.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

If you dont expect gov to assist in this disaster thats fine but if thats the way it is then you should be screaming mad and do something about the fact that farms that have had perfect weather and big crops with high prices, ....
Either everyone gets compensated for the low prices or nobody

You could have saved the rest of the rant and just said that you are resentful that someone else might be more successful than you are.
Spoken like a true socialist.

How do you propose to equalize that injustice?

Do you support the plan that LEP proposes, seemed to work well for the USSR when all Farmers got the same compensation.

[cropgrower]

i'm not in agristability , but any farmer that is and has a number of good years and then income takes a dive and gets a payout then good for them , if they played by the rules of the stupid program great that they made it work , begrudgery is a terrible thing , some cant bear to see others getting ahead

[jamesb]

As far as farm programs, I do feel that we are better than a few years ago. I am at the point that I don't believe there will be any other "govt" programing or upgrades than what we have now in crop insurance, ag-stability, and agri-invest.
For me this year my options were, up to 80% crop insurance, expensive but way more coverage than 10 years ago, I don't think we will be in a claim at this point, we could have topped up this coverage with Agi3 , again not cheap but a very straightforward top up for yield coverage. We always get hail every few years so usually buy some. We did buy Gars this year, at this point unsure if its going to pay. There are so many options and coverage levels so anything is possible. I do know from others if you buy a low premium product you are far less likely to trigger. I expect lots to trigger big if the right product was bought. We did buy Just solutions in the past and never triggered.
I have had doubts about Ag Stability value for years but our MNP accountant and team always felt it was good value, mind you they make money doing program work too. I kinda think this will pay off for a lot of people this year. We will see with that. At the end of the year I don't think it will be pretty overall but the pendulum always swings back each way. I think the highs are in for land in my parts, expecting to see prices drop a little pretty soon. Just live to farm another day.

[jamesb]

double post

[westernvicki]

Very simply, a calculator will be essential.


Strategy 2025:
Fixed costs must be paid. Variable costs adjusted. Family income is a variable.

Our costs are too high. Rail freight is through the roof.

My drum remains: carbon tax should have been carbon credits.
The revenue would be great now for the province and for farmers.

[the big wheel]

Very simply, a calculator will be essential.


Strategy 2025:
Fixed costs must be paid. Variable costs adjusted. Family income is a variable.

Our costs are too high. Rail freight is through the roof.

My drum remains: carbon tax should have been carbon credits.
The revenue would be great now for the province and for farmers.

Agree totally on the carbon credit thought but why dont we have this when we have a majority Sask party gov? Because it was more important for them to show the far out nut balls that they appose anything carbon that is proposed than it was important to do the right thing for the entire province thats why. Whether any of us think that carbon is good bad or ugly and a solution or not to climate it doesnt matter as you said in another post its what our customers want. Well our world customers are miles ahead in terms of demanding carbon programs of some sort in order to do trade. Getting rid of the carbon tax without any type of replacement will that benefit us or greatly harm our trade? There ought to have been a carbon credit program that valued what we all know we contribute to that situation. It is almost begging us to do so and our politics is keeping us behind.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Carbon credits aren't revenue. They are wealth redistribution. From one industry to another or from consumers to industry.
With layers upon layers of bureaucracy and middle men and accountants skimming off at every step.

[wrongway]

Very simply, a calculator will be essential.


Strategy 2025:
Fixed costs must be paid. Variable costs adjusted. Family income is a variable.

IN What other industry is payroll (family Income) something other than a fixed cost?

we need to pay ourselves first...then of course taxes( like it or not), what is left is for the company to prioritize and distribute as required to meet both short term and long term goals. if you don't value your own labor(pay wages) no one else will either.

[LEP]

IN What other industry is payroll (family Income) something other than a fixed cost?

we need to pay ourselves first...then of course taxes( like it or not), what is left is for the company to prioritize and distribute as required to meet both short term and long term goals. if you don't value your own labor(pay wages) no one else will either.

There are huge numbers of small businesses that have raided their savings and borrowed to the max to get through covid only drawing the bare minimum to finally throw in the towel. Many small businesses that I dealt with at the bank took only the bare minimum pay cheque until they knew how their year would go.

The living costs of a farm family would shock most people if they calculated all the costs that are writen off as business expenses.

[the big wheel]

Carbon credits aren't revenue. They are wealth redistribution. From one industry to another or from consumers to industry.
With layers upon layers of bureaucracy and middle men and accountants skimming off at every step.

the

Actually that shows you dont understand the entire picture at all, youre conveniently leaving out the part that its not only the feds that want a carbon program its our customers and trading partners the entire world as well. Petty politics has no place in business. Pierre better have some type of carbon plan and program to replace the carbon one we have now or we re in big trouble trade wise.
The feds gave the option to develop our own plan, if we had an ounce of brains we would have made our own first to seperate ourselves from the fed carbon tax and second to meet the foreign requirements for trade. Carbon credits could have gone a long ways to have done both of those. Even if it would have netted next to nothing for us which it wouldtn t have we would have been ahead by not paying the fed carbon tax. It would have shifted funds to our industry and you think thats a bad thing? Its kinda like saying we dont believe in this crap but we ll do this if it makes you happy to satisfy our end of the deal. And on top of that the price of carbon is rising everywhere so as a long term plan it is a great opportunity missed.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

It would have shifted funds to our industry

Shifted funds from where? The CO2 fairy? That can only come at the expense of some other industry or the consumer. The importers certainly aren't going to pay it when our competition hasn't commit economic suicide with a CO2 tax.

If the government can arbitrarily label CO2 as a pollutant and force one industry to pay another industry for their supposed sins, the precedent has been set, and if we support this, it can and will be used against us in the future.

This will be followed by methane taxes on livestock, Nitrous oxide taxes on fertilizer.
Deforestation taxes, water taxes, pesticide taxes, the list of possibilities is endless.