Morally, what to do?

[cakadu]

I've been sitting and thinking about this latest package from the federal government, with buy-in from the provinces, and wondering just where a moral obligation begins and ends.

How fair is it to keep tossing out a few crumbs to have some hang on for another year, hoping for things to get better? Some will go a little deeper into debt, some a lot.

When you see the news these days, you wonder just how much more can happen before the towel gets thrown in. Here in west central Alberta, we don't have the grasshopper problems that they are having out east, but it's very dry and it doesn't look like too much rain in sight. Grain prices don't seem to be coming up too fast and neither does the hay or the crops for that matter.

We've heard about these supposed changes out there in the ag department, but how much change was there really?

It looks as though things are in worse shape than they were before.

How does one see a light at the end of the tunnel?

[cowman]

Linda: I believe a lot of agonizing decisions are being made this summer. We all know it doesn't make economic sense anymore. As near as I can tell the "farm Aid program" is basically a joke...both the short term one and the "sustainable moving into the future" one. Nothing much will change. You will still see an exodus from the farm and the big farmer getting bigger...until he no longer can swing it or gets sick of it and exits too.
Maybe with intensive livestock, vegatables, or some sort of tourist operation farms will be able to survive. I guess the question most of have to ask ourselves is "Is this what I want to do? Is this why I chose to be a farmer? " If your bottom line is you will do whatever it takes to stay farming" then you have your answer. Personally I'd rather sell crack cocaine then spend my days in a pig barn! But then thats just me...some people might really enjoy pig barns!
Maybe we're looking at it all wrong. Consider what part gives you the most happiness, not what makes the most money. Then consider it your hobby. Get a real job and enjoy your hobby.

[rodbradshaw]

Cowman
Realistically, you have hit it on the head with the fact that many high cost producers are going to have to do. The unfortunate problem is that with food safety concerns and protocols that are coming down the pipe, what they enjoy about farming may be a lot less enjoyable as the paperwork and other requirements may make the part time farmer even less viable.
Rod

[cakadu]

Rod, you bring up a good point with respect to all the on farm food safety, environmental farm plans, water plans etc. etc. The big push for this Agricultural Policy Framework is to "Brand Canada" as being the safest, highest quality etc., so who is going to help pay for all of this? When are the feds and the provinces going to put up some money to help offset the costs for all of this? It isn't going to come cheap and seems to be falling in the laps of producers.

It seems to me that if the feds want us to go after this in a big way, then they have to give a carrot to do this and some compensation for doing it. Producers can't just keep doing it because someone says we should. How do you see us getting the dollars we need in order to put these plans into place? The feds seem to have enough money available to convince us this will work; where is the money to help put it into place?

[cowman]

I think you might be completely right Rod. I know I sure hate paper work and having to do anything with various governments. Not just in farming. Fortunately I've got a CPA for a sister and am used to a lot of paper work in the oil lease business. It's just like an evil chore that you have to do.
Here is a classic example of having to comply: I have a couple of bulls that seem to think their prime purpose in life is to kill each other and see how much fence they can destroy in the process. So I got them both in, separate pens. They get a trip to MacDonalds this week. Then I realized I have to put ID tags in these big brutes. Well the squeeze took kind of a beating when we vaccinated the calves about a month ago and needs a little welding, so now I have to drag the squeeze over to the shop...pretty soon something that wouldn't have been a big deal becomes a half day job. Last year it would have been hook up the stock trailer, load em up, and into the mart...one hour tops. Now time is money and I don't have the time or the money! But if I don't comply I might just get fined. Big criminal!
And I think the ID tag issue is an example of how our government will deal with these environment/safety issues. They'll use the stick instead of the carrot! It will be interesting to see how the Endangered species thing works out. It will be interesting to see how generous/cheap the compensation is? I suspect it will lean toward the cheap?

[rodbradshaw]

Cowman
I can relate to your story on shipping the bulls. The compensation is going to be cheap. If they paid it out like Alberta did with the $10.29 it would amount to a little more than $3 Canadian, but it sounds like it is going towards crop insurance and NISA.

[carebear300]

Cowman can relate to the bull story as well but mine is two old dry cows that were so tame that I thought I could just throw a rope on them and snub them up to a post to put their fancy government I D tags in. Badly bruised ribs is short version of the story. For the next few weeks I will recall how much I resent the new government regulations. Like you say, cowman, a simple little chore becomes a major ordeal just to satisfy some highly educated and paid idiot!!!!!!!!

[carebear300]

Let the auction mart tag your problem cattle. Just give them the tags and they put them in. Sure works great and costs little depending on the mart. $3-$5 and saves a ton of aggravation.