Kevin Hursh Just doesn't Get It!

[SASKFARMER3]

Saskatchewan's number one (Liberal)farm reporter has a article in today's Leader Post.
It talks about CAISP and how it has worked and not worked. His one comment that just got me was "Some accountants think the program is working for farmers who treat the farm like a business."
Come to my farm Kevin we are 0 for 4 with CASIP and it looks like it will be 0 - 5. We have cut all costs like a business, We future price canola, Wheat is cleaned at home then shipped in producer car, screenings sold to local cattle producer. The year it froze we got paid for feed on crop insurance and sold 95% of the crop for a 2 in Manitoba.
Each piece of equipment if it doesn't have a place or costs it is gone, holliday's don't happen till farming improves. We purchase hail and crop insurance to protect our operations.
With all this our income has dropped from 1.5 to 1 and if this year their is a crop failure crop insurance will finally kill us.
Now who are these accountants that think only good managers are getting money. Its three letters theirs are hundreds of reports of this firm getting money for farmers in some cases big checks (uncle Ralph G gave them the cheat sheets and formulas) They take 10% of what ever a farmer gets then a week later dump them as a client because they know what they submitted was so wrong that in a year time the guy will get audited.
Kevin Hursh believes these guys are every farmers answer. This firm along with Kevin are giving farmers false information and hope. He is in business to speak to city dwellers the more ludicrist his comments the more speaking engagements he has in the Cities.

[skhadenuf]

As a so called Agricultural journalist Kevin Hursh should be part of our solution and not the problem that he is, and he and some other media people are a big problem for us. They haven't got a clue of what is realistic and they are protraying their messages to the urban people that we need to have on board to the way things really are. So many of his comments made are so far into the same fantasy that our NDP government is living and not the reality of what is happenning, that many many producers at least in our area wonder if he isn't on a retainer for the prov. ag department as a propagandist. If you look at the similarities; the prov. gov. is still on the idea we are all stupid and all we need to do is feel good and your troubles will go away, Hursh has over and over talked about this change in attitude being the single answer. I went to my banker last week and he thinks farmers need to have more happen than just feel good to turn things around. Even our local banks are calling crop insurance and cais a joke, they see what money is coming out of those programs and they know how poorly they are working.
I hope my neighbor doesn't here these latest comments by Hursh, last spring Hursh was commenting on how we all need to participate in cais and my neighbor inded up putting a hammer through the radio in his tractor.

[jluimes]

CAIS = Chartered Accountants Income Stabilization Program. Nuf said.

[ivbinconned]

I have posted plenty about the Quebec ASRA program over the past 3 years. I have yet to hear Hursh, a western Ag minister, Western Seducer or any other leading western voice mention it.

Wecome to the mushroom farm!

[dalek]

One of the higher-up bureaucrats in Ontario agriculture said last week that CAIS was designed to further the trade liberalization goals of NAFTA and WTO, not to help farmers, and as such is doing exactly what it was intended to do. Someone suggested that meant weeding out farmers, and he didn't disagree.

[dalek]

OFA Commentary #1306



Understanding government signals



By Ron Bonnett, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture



Ontario farmers know that existing government programs to provide stability to their incomes are not working. That was predicted as the CAIS program was being developed – we identified a number of short-comings with the program and urged our governments to correct them. That didn’t happen, and now farm families across the country are caught in the resulting financial crisis.



At the March meeting of OFA directors, senior staff from OMAFRA advised that the current thinking within the bureaucracy of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada was that the CAIS program is working the way it was designed to work. It was designed to eliminate farmers that continue to produce a commodity that shows no sign of being profitable, we were told.



Government staff claim this was the reason the ‘renewal’ pillar was included in the Agricultural Policy Framework – an opportunity for unprofitable farmers to exit the industry.



Government staff went on to say that farmers should not confuse income support with income stabilization, and urged farmers to be vigilant as bureaucrats work to transform the CAIS program. Farmers should be aware of the changes being proposed, we were told. Government interference in the global marketplace ‘is an idea that is not going anywhere,’ we were advised.



This bureaucratic mind set leads us to believe that the designers of our agricultural programs are more interested in economic theory than traditional values. OFA does not accept this vision.



We will be telling the MPs on Parliament Hill that existing farm programs are failing to address the massive hole in farm income over the past several years. The resulting deficit is eroding agriculture’s equity, built up over decades of profitable farming. The negative income position farmers are experiencing now is threatening the economic future of rural Ontario.



Our MPs will be told agriculture needs bridge funding programs that will take them to the next Agricultural Policy Framework when it is due for unveiling in 2008. We will also make it clear to them that immediate funding is essential and that provinces must have the flexibility to deliver that funding as local needs dictate. We need this flexibility to fund options like the Risk Management Program and Self-Directed Production Insurance.



A vital message for our MPs will deal with the absolute necessity to support and strengthen marketing structures like supply management and the Canadian Wheat Board. These systems continue to provide for profits for farmers operating within them, allowing them to plan a successful future.



The Ontario Federation of Agriculture has no appetite nor time to consider the concepts of social and economic engineering proposed for farmers in Canada. Canadian agriculture has a long and productive history, a history that has allowed generation after generation of farmer to make a future for their families by producing food to feed the nation and others around the world.



Farmers aren’t prepared to accept the theories that food should come from the lowest standard or most heavily subsidized source of production. We believe that Canadians want and deserve a healthy, safe and secure source of food – food that has come through a proven system of tests and approvals.



We also believe that Canadians, given the opportunity to choose, will want their government to support the domestic production of their daily supply of food.



That’s why we are calling on all farmers to attend the Solidarity Rally in Ottawa on April 5th. That’s why we urge our farmers to bring their agri-business partners and their urban friends to the rally. A strong show of support for Canadian agriculture will be an important demonstration to Canadian politicians as they begin a new parliament.



-30-





40 Eglinton Ave. E.,

Toronto, Ont. M4P 3A2

416-485-3333

www.ofa.on.ca info@ofa.on.ca

[SASKFARMER3]

Problem with the Ag Canada design of the system in Saskatchewan with our useless Sask Crop Insurance and No Protection from CASIP Were done.
Its not that I cant compete against the Ontario Alberta Quebec or Americans and EU, I can because of cheap land costs high nutrient soil and abundant rain fall. Whats killing me is the frost of 2002, Wet wet spring 2003 then stopped. and finally frost 2004. Our insurance premium in Sask for 2006 will be $60,000.00 For what peanuts.
It will be the Governments and their useless programs that take me down not my marketing or dealing. Some bureaucrat that knows better than the farmer.
Kevin hursh should do what he knows best, Nothing!

[carebear300]

Kevin Hursh is good at one thing only. He will say what ever anybody wants as long as they have enough money to pay him to say it. A man of principle, you say. The principle being that he is going to make money.

[dalek]

Solidarity Rally April 5th. Farmers expected in Ottawa from Ontario, Quebec (UPA claims to have at least 3000 coming), Nova Scotia, PEI, and several coming from the prairies (so far). Tractors will be driven to Ottawa from as far as 300 km away. April 6 sounds like there will be rolling blockades of food distribution terminals starting in Ottawa and progressing across Ontario.

[dalek]

Manitoba Solidarity Rally
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 2006
12:00 p.m. (noon)
Location: Legislative Grounds
450 Broadway, Winnipeg, MB
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR
ALL OF THE FARMERS STRUGGLING IN
MANITOBA, AND TO SHOW SUPPORT AND
SOLIDARITY FOR THE RALLY TAKING PLACE IN
OTTAWA.
The Ottawa Rally is calling upon the federal
government to show leadership in addressing the
deficit in realized net income.
Keystone Agricultural Producers
1-1313 Border Street, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0X4
(204) 697-1140 (phone); (204) 697-1109 (fax); kap@kap.mb.ca
We Need
You…..
Solidarity

[sawfly]

no offence kevin , but i dont think hes had an original idea in his life.
kevin has jumped on every bandwagon there was in the past 20 years.
ostrich, emu ,elk. hog barns, the sask wheat pool destruction crew , etc.
that and wishy washey editorials where he tries to please everyone.
Never takes a stand, esp.if it might endanger his pocket book.He has been a trusted voice to deliver the corprate veiw.

[SASKFARMER3]

On a local radio show he comes on as the voice of agriculture in saskatchewan.
What a Joke.
He has been out of touch with reality for so long, as to whats happening in rural canada but its funny the people in the cities believe him.

[skhadenuf]

Does anyone know if any rally or any other event is planned for Saskatchewan?

[SASKFARMER3]

Yes todays paper some thing was mentioned by APAS that the same will take place in regina.
Thats all I know.

[lakenheath]

First - SASKFARMER CAIS started in 2003. So it don't know how you could go 0 - 4 when 2005 application are justing to be filled out. Try 0 - 2.

Second - I am a Chartered Accountant. And I don't enjoy doing CAIS. I do it because my clients request it. I know many CA firms that have opted not to do any CAIS applications. It is a waste of their time. Make more money doing other engagements. So it is not a cash cow for accountants. But rather a pain.

Third - I would like you to come up with the perfect farm program. I know many farmer who have done well with CAIS. It is the same for every program that comes out. Some peopel it doesn't work for.

Fourth - Make sure you have a good accountant. I have review CAIS applications where the farmer was going to get nothing and I got them close to $100,000 more than them expected. Many accountants don't know much about farming and make mistakes on the application. Or they just rush through them.

I believe a farmer would do a better job on the application than some accountants.