A terrible surprise

[carebear300]

Don't know how I will get through today. I happen to be involved in a farming operation that will have the priviledge of being audited by the CAIS program. He sounds like a real dipstick on the phone so am expecting the worst. One thing I was quite surprised at is that he was coming tomorrow whether we were seeding or not. Doesn't seem right that they are allowed to do that. Oh well am crossing my fingers and taking my nice kisseey ass pills to get through this day.

[grassfarmer]

Sorry to hear that - but welcome to the world of welfare agriculture. This was routine in the UK - turn up at your door demanding to audit your books or count livestock/ check records with no forewarning. The only way you could decline was if you had a verified appointment with the doctor etc - going to town for supplies / baling hay wasn't a good enough reason.
On the positive side I'm guessing you are one of the first so they won't be up to speed on what to look for and will probably miss any mistake you might have made!! Good luck.

[farmers_son]

Agriculture does not have to be that way...audits, government handouts, filling out forms and struggling to pay bills while waiting for the government cheque to come.

Governments force producers to be dependent upon programs like CAIS. Government takes away the Crow Rate Benefit and gives us CAIS. And Government could take steps to create a functioning marketplace for live cattle in this country but choose instead to push farmers towards social programs like CAIS while putting barriers up to free market, value added opportunities for primary producers.

And it won't be long until we see the impact on rural Canada as the removal of the cap on CAIS payments means that the bulk of the CAIS program will go to mega operations who within 10 years will completely displace the medium sized producer.

[FarmRanger]

Agreed farmers_son. When the crow rate benefit was removed, they sent us a cheque that worked out to the equivalent of 1 year rail freight subsidy for the grain I grew that year. A combination of good crop, farm expansion, and dilution. It really bugged me that feedlots got a cheque, when they silage, or feed everything they grow. That cheque was supposed to cover 3 years of crow rate.

Cais effectively reduces the risk to farmers, but at what cost? When risk is reduced, economic theory suggests that profits also reduce, as farmers can then more safely pay more for inputs and land. We will likely see larger and larger farms because of programs like this, and market pressures which drive our commodity prices down.

What is the alternative to Cais though? A subsidy is a subsidy, no matter how it is paid out. Our governments have actively tried to put permanent support programs in place like this, and maybe what we need are ad-hoc programs that don’t as easily get incorporated into our costs. I won’t bid too much for land if I am not sure of a profit guaranteed by some government program!

The worst problem with ad-hoc programs, is they usually cause stress for politicians when farmers start screaming every time they have a crisis of some sort. As a farmer though, my concerns are staying in business when there is a BSE, or a drought, or dumping of subsidized products into my markets. This is of far greater importance than stress on my elected politician from the people he is supposed to represent.

[grassfarmer]

It doesn't have to be that way f_s but that is theway it is going in many countries. I guess it is the easier option for weak and unprincipled politicians than addressing the causes of the farm income crisis and tackling the corporations removing the livliehoods of rural communities. The said corporations will happily pressurise governments to spend taxpayer money to keep farmers here at a subsistance level while it allows them to buy their commodities cheaper and get the full benefit of high retail prices. I think we need to actively involve consumers (taxpayers) in any campaign to government as they are paying for their food twice under this system and could make a bigger impact than ag producers alone if they were informed of what is going on.

[carebear300]

We got through the ordeal all in one piece. It was actually better than I thought it might be. It takes for ever and you have to go for a walk every once in a while because it is such a slow and painstaking process it is a little hard on the nerves of old farmers such as myself. What matters to auditors seems miniscule to a farmer, thats why you have to have your accountant there representing you, without him we would have been in troouble, auditors and accountants speak the same kind of language. The auditor wasn't a bad sort either, better than I was expecting. Hope none of you have to go through the process but believe me you can survive it.