TIME TO DROP THE GLOVES!

[r.reid]

IT'S TIME TO TAKE MATTERS IN OUR HANDS, AND DROP THE GLOVES. FERTILIZER, SEED, CHEMICALS, FUEL, MACHINERY, EVERYTHING, COST TOO MUCH. WE ARE NOT GETTING PAID FOR OUR PRODUCTS SO HOW DO WE PAY THE BILLS?

YES THE AMERICANS SUBSIDIZE, YES THE EU SUBSIDIZES TO KEEP THE FARMS, THE BACKBONE, GOING. WHY CAN'T CANADA?

YOU KNOW WHAT THIS NEW GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO DO....NOTHING. ANOTHER CAIS, CFIB? BAND-AID SOLUTIONS!

WE NEED TO HAVE A REAL PROTEST. SHUT DOWN THE #1 HIGHWAY IN THE PRAIRIE PROVINCES, GRAB THE BULL BY THE HORNS AND SAY "THIS IS THE WAY IT'S GONNA BE POLITICIANS...WE WANT THE CROW BACK, WE WANT GUARANTEED PRICES (LIKE THE AMERICANS) FOR OUR COMMODITIES, AND WERE GOING TO KEEP THIS HIGHWAY SHUT DOWN TILL WE GET IT".

WHAT COULD THEY DO???? THROW 20 THOUSAND FARMERS IN JAIL, HAAA.

WOULD ANYONE HERE SUPPORT THIS?

I DON'T WANT TO QUIT FARMING. AND I CERTAINLY DON'T WANT TO FADE AWAY LIKE SO MANY ARE NOW.

TIME TO TAKE A STAND FOLKS!!!

IF ANYONE HERE WANTS TO DOOOOO SOMETHING, AND TRY TO PUT SOMETHING TOGATHER...HERE IS MY E-MAIL.
mongo.hdmnstr@yahoo.ca

[dalek]

Thousands of acres in Ontario are being signed up and shut off for any recreational use until we get what we need: no hunting, no fishing, no horseback or snowmobiling or ATV trails, nothing. It's time we stopped letting people use our land for free. Next step is biosolids, the cities NEED to be spreading their sewage sludge on farmland on April 15 because their storages will be full. There's a movement to make sure they can't do it unless we get what we need. If we let the sewers back up in Toronto because they can't dry it and haul it to Michigan fast enough, and they can't spread it on our fields, how long will it take?

[ivbinconned]

From a Qubec paper....

Ontarian farmers move out of tractors towards Ottawa to claim better measurements of assistance.

Producers of field crops of Ontario move tractors towards Ottawa. They want to draw the attention of the government to their difficult financial standing. They denounce the weak prices for corn and soya and claim a help similar to that which the American farmers recieve.

Certain farmers acknowledg that they will not sow their fields in spring if nothing changes. Others, even after having sold their harvest of 2005, do not have money necessary to pay the hiring of their grounds, according to the Ontarian newspaper Tillsonburg News.

Last year, the liberals had announced a help of 755 M$ for the farmers of the country. Although this amount is important, it represents in fact only 7$ with the acre, according to calculations' of a producer of field crops of Ontario, Arpad Pasztor. As example, a producer who realized average net sales of 70.000$ will touch 5229$.

As a means of pressure, the farmers of this province threaten to prohibit the right-of-way on their grounds for entertaining ends (motoneige, drives out, etc).

Let us recall that the Ontarian farmers do not have access to a program of insurance stabilization of the agricultural income similar to that to which contribute the Québécois producers.

------------------------------------
Ontario farmers as well as the rest of us have fallen into the trap of "looking the other way"...just what a pickpocket would have you do. The answer here is exposing the lavish subsidies payed to Quebec producers with money funneled from Alberta, etc through Ottawa, Montreal, and to the Quebec producer.

Ranting about the Americans or other countries where we have no influence only encourages apathy and hopelessness in our ranks. I believe that shineing lite on what other fellow "Canadains" are getting is the only way to achieve your goal of government support.

As long as you have naive voices of influence in the west who chant "free market" you will never achieve what is needed without exposing the double standard that is Canada!

[northfarmer]

I gave up on using the ideology of free market principles to defend what is best for farmers some time ago.

Such a straegy is frutless to affect real change in the returns to farmers, and it gives govt an excuse for not helping us when they need to intervene.

I always look at what will bring about the best results for my bottom line.

If Quebec farmers get a better deal, good for them. I think we should fight to get at least as good or better. We have incredible double standards even among industry segments of Ag in Canada, never mind, provinces.

Blocking highways may only serve to piss off the wrong people. I agree we need to take action. I like the idea of blockading access to our property for recreational and commercial use.

We do not have bio solids spread on farm land out where I am, but we could enmasse restrict access to our surface rights from oil and gas. Problem with that is most are so desperate for the little money that comes with that access that we might not get meaningful particpation!

[TOM4CWB]

Vader;

The whole US market has been rising for weeks... as the buyer must buy the grain from the industry... including the farmer.

The market is bid up.

How much will the CDN wheat market rise... or the CDN farmer be able to extract from this business?

With the CWB, Allan Oberg claimed the sales dept. are proud:

Because he claimed the CWB sales Dept. doesn't give a volume discount in the domestic market.

WOW.

THe Domestic wheat buyer never has to bid the grain out of the farmer's hands.

On top; Obviously export buyers get volume discounts!

[r.reid]

Why are protests happening in Ont. and not in Sask. or Ab. or Man.???

Chuck says "Help is on the way, just be patient". If guys wait any longer they won't need Gov. help because they will be done.

I salute the farmers in Ont. for trying. TO BAD A FEW CARS WERE'T TORCHED WHILE THEY WERE AT IT!!! It would have made front page everywhere for sure then.

I still haven't received any e-mails yet. WHAT'S THE MATTER!!


Has anybody here looked at the Richie Bros spring sale book??? 175 pages thick.

[grassfarmer]

Too apathetic in Alberta. Looked like the BSE debacle was hurting producers enough that they might just have got behind Ostercamps group (BIG)en masse -ultimately not enough got off their backsides. Now the agenda has changed - grain guys are hurting worse but beef guys are back to "business as usual" helped by low grain prices. I wish producers would unite behind something like the NFU that works for all primary ag producers rather than the various commodity groups working at cross purposes.
I don't know what the answer is but the problem is the same in Scotland. Spoke to a friend recently who was trying to get a campaign going and his Dad told him he was 10 years too late - there aren't enough producers left there to make a big fuss anymore.

[sawfly]

yes its pretty bad, Another hit to my equity, like 2 years ago and im done.
its not survival of the fittest , its survival of the fattest.
Its almost to the point that i wish we were dry now,would make all my decissions a lot easier. I wouldnt spend a nickel putting a crop in.Tell the landlords to find someone else.

go look for a job.

[sawfly]

grassfarmer, I would not say that beef producers are back to 'business as usual'. There is still no market for cull cows and bulls, and that has always been a source of income that producers counted on annually.
Most beef producers I know are still playing catch up with payments, equipment and building maintenance etc. that was left undone or unpaid .

Many producers aren't 'in business' anymore either because they could not hang on or because they have decided to get out and not eat away at their equity.
Land prices in Alberta have stayed solid so at least those leaving the industry have been able to get a good return on their land investment to help offset their losses in the cattle business.

[dalek]

r.reid, I sent you the emails of some of the Ontario organizers in case you want to see what's going on with them.

[furrowtickler]

We have the power in our hands already. Take 25-30%out of your production, smf/chemfallow, drop rented land that is not going to pay. Buy as little cert. seed as possible, trim fert as much as possible, buy clearout-screw Monsanto's new price, refuse to pay RM taxes, shut off all recreational/industrial use on your land. All this together will force others in our industry and gov't to take notice without any major drawback from the urban dweller. Any other thoughts? Until we force our industry to stand behind us(fert/chem dealers, seed companies, fuel dealers ect.) we do not have enough clout to get anything done.

[ivbinconned]

That...and every year we pick one commodity that NO ONE seeds...starting with wheat!

[grassfarmer]

furrowtickler - "Until we force our industry to stand behind us(fert/chem dealers, seed companies, fuel dealers ect.) we do not have enough clout to get anything done."
Who says "our idustry" as in the input dealers you name above are on our side or want to see us profit? As I see it they are one of the the main causes of our current problems. It is not consumers or Government that aren't paying enough for our produce its the other links in the production chain that are screwing primary producers. All these other sectors are of course dominated by a few transnational corporations versus all the thousands of farmers working independant of each other.

[Horse]

Your right grassfarmer trying to get farmers together is like hearding cats.

[Horse]

And there has to be a better message put out to the public about how it really is, none one really knows.

There was an interview on ctv news net the other day and ther reporter kept asking questions relating to how basically if you can't swim, sink! Totally side stepping the real issues and the urban vote doesn't get the message again ( useless air time ).

My inlaws live outside Toronto, and noboby knows anything about how it is, and nobody cares, they look at the protests , scratch there head and forget the next day.

Its my opinion the mesage of how the system is bleeding everyone dry has to be put out effectively, and hammered home over and over, and not once lose focus on doing that. Its no different than running an election campaign.

The ag industry ( all us private contractors ) have to run a profesional campaign to radically fix our business , and soon , or what we think will last forvever will evaporate without a REAL fight. And that saying of survival of the fatest, not fittest will be true.