Impressive harvest action video - Monette Farms by EpicJib Aerial Media

[danny W1M]

grasshat, "Bland, sterile and lifeless"

Just what I want,,, when I'm straight cutting!

[bucket]

Sort of explains why Trudeau wants a piece of the action.....

At one time all that land was farmed by many families that made a community where rinks were alive in the winter and baseball fields in the summer...along with full school enrollments adding additional people with full staff. ...

It's great to look at and not jealous but there is a bigger story than just 12 perfectly spaced GPS controlled combines....

Some are missing the point. ....

One thought....efficiency will make this a Bland, sterile and lifeless landscape as Captain John Palliser predicted. ....

[Jay-mo]

That is a very impressive outfit. The only farms that run more then 2 combines around here are the huts.

I don't get the dramatic soundtrack though. Yes, we see you are a big show but the music seems like overkill.

[danny W1M]

bucket, farmers didn't choose to get bigger and bigger. I'm an average sized farm(or maybe used to be), and we operate the land of 7-8 old farms.

Governments, both federally and globally, the U.N. etc have had a "cheap food policy" my whole 40 year farming career. The policy has continually forced the smallest of farms to give up and sell out, and anybody bigger to cannibalize them, simply to stay economically viable. For the longest time the EU and the USA had farm policy and programs to keep small farms going, but even that changed.

Equipment manufactures and chem suppliers et al have a business model that is not attached to the cheap food policy, hence if you want equipment, even used, you'll have to expand your land base to justify it.

[bucket]

Good points dannyw1m....but isn't government policy dictating where farms go....this latest tax suggested by Trudeau will push more farms out....


Then think of your own operation...who could afford to buy you out if it was decided that way?


Not saying big or small farms are the right thing....it just seems trusted neighbors are farther apart.....and it leaves an uneasy feeling...


To be clear....trusted neighbors mean you can talk openly without them trying to buy you out the next day....

[danny W1M]

It's like getting the finger from PET, all over again !

That's exactly what Trudeau's policy is aiming to due.
They don't want that mom and pop business anymore, too much shady stuff going on. They don't want you doing your own taxes, only professionals with arms length to do them. They trust accounts and lawyers more than farmers and businessmen/women.

Trudeau calls them loopholes, yet nobody, including media, is asking Trudeau about what tax loopholes his trust fund uses(or the fact the trust fund IS A LOOPHOLE).

Often, while driving around checking crop, I'll wonder to myself, how different things would have been back in the day when there were families living on all those farmsteads.

[grassfarmer]

Jealous of what vvalk? Having no vegetation growing outside a 90 day window, no birds, no trees and no diversity? I get more pleasure bringing an acre of my own land back to a healthy productive state through regenerative agriculture than owning thousands of the kind depicted here. When are farmers going to smarten up and realise that big doesn't equal success? Needing to farm more land each year or each generation to sustain the family is a sign on failure not success. What excites me is the growing number of new entrants proving that it's possible to make a decent living off a quarter section - that's the future and would regenerate rural communities that bucket commented on.

The type of fossil fuel farming depicted here doesn't impress me - it's just moving other people's money around versus creating wealth from the land by pure solar conversion. An example of how far removed from reality this is getting is the 2 page spread in Agdealer today from a JD dealer offering "combine wash packages" at $799. So you get done combining, send the combines away to be washed and jet off to Hawaii for the winter all the while bemoaning how you can't make a living with current prices and there is no hope for the next generation to take over the farm.

[sk_wheatking]

Often, while driving around checking crop, I'll wonder to myself, how different things would have been back in the day when there were families living on all those farmsteads.


How is it any different for other business people. There used to be corner stores all across towns and cities everywhere until 7-11 showed up. Family run corner stores history.

Your downtown was most likely lined with family run small business outlets, possibly grocery stores, clothing stores, hardware stores, etc. Walmart comes to town and shut everyone down.
That's the way things are. Farmers are going to face the same fact. Nobody will be able to compete with these low commodity prices. It's an unfortunate reality but the powers that be will drive this industry onto the same road as the above mentioned business'.

[WiltonRanch]

Often, while driving around checking crop, I'll wonder to myself, how different things would have been back in the day when there were families living on all those farmsteads.


How is it any different for other business people. There used to be corner stores all across towns and cities everywhere until 7-11 showed up. Family run corner stores history.

Your downtown was most likely lined with family run small business outlets, possibly grocery stores, clothing stores, hardware stores, etc. Walmart comes to town and shut everyone down.
That's the way things are. Farmers are going to face the same fact. Nobody will be able to compete with these low commodity prices. It's an unfortunate reality but the powers that be will drive this industry onto the same road as the above mentioned business'.

True cause consumers want more and cheaper. Food, clothes, widgets etc. Efficiencies put more out of work and who pays to keep them? That is the problem I see coming. Maybe tax the piss out of the multinationals but give preferential treatment to smaller domestic corps and small businesses. They employ more people and create more wealth domestically. The tax changes stifle the mom and pop businessmen and do little to the Walmarts. Corporate fascism

[sumdumguy]

Sort of explains why Trudeau wants a piece of the action.....

At one time all that land was farmed by many families that made a community where rinks were alive in the winter and baseball fields in the summer...along with full school enrollments adding additional people with full staff. ...

It's great to look at and not jealous but there is a bigger story than just 12 perfectly spaced GPS controlled combines....

Some are missing the point. ....

One thought....efficiency will make this a Bland, sterile and lifeless landscape as Captain John Palliser predicted. ....

I agree, corporate farms have a different ring to the average Canadian.