Belinda Stronach

[cowman]

Just lately there is a big uproar about Peter McKay implying Belinda was a dog? My local paper ranted away that he should be ashamed of himself and not fit to be in government!
Then apparently Ms. Stronach got up and lectured the Conservative Party about what a bunch of Neanderthals they were, don't respect women etc. etc.!
Now consider this: This same Belinda Stronach is running around shacking up with Ti Domi! Domi's wife has stated very publicly that Belinda is ruining their marriage and is a home wrecker!
Maybe old Pete should have called her what she really is...a pig!

[WRAPper]

I'm calling for Peter to apologise to dogs everywhere for the slanderous comparision.

[15444]

With the exception of a couple of potential trouble-making heifers, we kept all of our calves back, even in the midst of the worst drought to hit our area in 70 years. Instead, cleaned out some of the poorer yearling bred heifers and culled hard on the cows. Last time I looked, futures did not look to rosy for next spring, so I don't know if we made the best decision. Two heifer calves we did sell, were 290 and 340lbs at $1.19 and $1.06 respectively. Not great, but the 1.19 one was a very light calf off an old cow and the 1.06 one had a broken jaw that had healed.

[grassfarmer]

The fall run was slow to start around here which surprised me given lots of guys were out of grass early due to a dry spell in June/July. Prices certainly seem to have fallen quite a bit in the last couple of weeks with bigger numbers. One think I note is the huge discrepency between steers and heifers - are the heifers under pressure due to the difficulty of getting them into the States?
I wonder too if the feedlots are happy not to bid too hard on calves and let producers background more of them on cheap higher forage rations due to higher grain prices but also the difficulty of finding labour in the feedlots? It seems to me many of the guys that are selling out their cowherds around here were the "dump and go" merchants, the guys that weaned into the auction and never looked at prices or economics for the other 364 days a year. I personally think producers adding value to their calves by weaning, backgrounding and selling at opportune moments could do substantially better than the average producer this winter - but don't they tend to most years?
We sold a trailer load of off colours and other singles through Innisfail Presort last week. They did OK as their ring weights were 10lbs over their on farm weight a week earlier. $1.06 average on 592lbs, all heifers. Sure beats taking a $50-$100 discount for selling singles through the regular ring - and what is the average shrink on weaned calves in a regular sale ...60lbs ??

[grassfarmer]

calf run is on, lower every week it is about time ,hard to make them work at barley price en $20/hour labour .
about time, labour gets a fair return and so is the grain man .
we are taking more calves again at mutch lower dollars next couple of weeks to bring the average down .
this way every body makes a little money .

[wilagro]

Peter is no saint. What he does show is that he has a double standard for proper conduct...one for men and a different one for women.

cowman: if one is sleeping with a pig, what does that say about one's own standards? McKay knew all about Stronach before he and she were an item. He is all wet on this issue.

The more he spout off, the more his political career suffers.

[kpb]

I agree with 15444 regarding the futures in the cattle market although I havent checked for a couple of days. grassfarmer, after doing the weaning, backgrounding, grassing thing for 15 years I'm not convinced that this is the best way to go. There's a lot of hidden expenses (mechanical, fuel, weaning loss, uncertain markets, interest on your money tied up, etc. etc) that people don't think about. I'll likely do it again this year but I think the profits on backgrounding this year will be scant, not because the feed is expensive, it's not, but because the prices won't hold to spring.

kpb











kpb

[grassfarmer]

kpb, I'm surprised at your thoughts on this. I was only talking about weaning and backgrounding to sell probably Feb/March not grassing. Given the last sale report I saw with 5 weight heifers $1-$1.10 and 7 8 weight at heifers .97-$1.04 surely there is potential? With plenty of cheap forage around surely there is money to be made. Do you reckon the feeder price will be lower in Feb/March than it is at this moment with the auctions full of calves and all their weaning troubles?

[kpb]

grassfarmer, i know that you can sometimes make money backgrounding and i know that you can sometimes lose money. i know cuz ive done both. It often seems logical to do and the calves can look cheap relative to 8 weights but things dont always work that way.

I think that feeders may still be around where they are right now in feb but i doubt the 8's will be where they are right now because the fats are likely to come down. So altho it looks good now dont forget that the price on the 8's now may not be where they are in feb.

grassfarmer, it is a bit of mug's game trying to outguess the market. All I really know is that even in the good backgrounding years, your return per dollars invested is not that great after all the expenses are taken out--that's in the good years. On any sort of risk-reward analysis based on money invested and time involved it's hard to make it work I think because when you're wrong and you've got a lot of calves in the lot things can pretty ugly really fast. Whether you keep your own calves or buy others that's still a lot of money tied up in something that a small change in cents per pound can lever up to a big loss.


kpb

[coppertop]

Harper seems to pick and choose who he reprimands. Garth Turner got kicked out of the party for not being a team player, but Peter can flaunt his social life with a colleague and then whine in his beer when he gets dumped. I say, boot Peter and elect Jack his dog !!!!! I bet old Jack would be more selective when looking for female companionship !!!!

[kato]

Around here the buyers are getting really picky. Discounts for off-types are pretty big. If the quality is there, they say the price is OK, but you've got to be careful what you take to sell. I guess we'll find out on Tuesday. We've got a few consigned to a presort.

We're buying calves to background, but they're pretty small. They were coming in pretty slow at first, but last week was busy, so we figured they must be off a bit. This week not one calf has showed up, so I'm not sure what that means. Either there aren't any at the sales, or someone is out there with some money!

[cowman]

This whole affair is a tempest in a teapot! Come on he makes one little comment in rebuttal to a stupid question and all the useless oppostion members pretend he has ruined the country or something!...I guess it must be pretty slow these days in Parliment or something?
The fact is this Stronach is pretty much a dog! She's sleeping around with a married man and if you believe Domi's wife she's ruining their marriage. Is this the kind of person we want as a leader of our country? You wonder how come our morals have gone to hell in a handbasket in this country? This "creature" was actually in the running to be the Prime minister of this country?
This "creature" is the darling of the womens vote? A good role model for young Canadian girls?
Well you can dress the trash up if you have enough dollars but the fact is trash is trash and all the money in the world can't change that fact!

[cowman]

I wonder how low calf prices will affect some producers decisions to stay in this business? Just offhand I can't remember how low calves went in 2003 but it looks like we could be there in the next few weeks?
In 2002, when grain prices rose dramatically and calf prices fell, the Americans stepped in and bought a lot of calves? Don't know if that will happen now as the Canadian dollar is very high and corn is high?
Where does this end up? Cheap calves should decrease the supply eventually? Less feeders available will reduce the need for grain? This grain price is being driven(supposedly) by crop reductions in other parts of the world?
What happens next year if there is ample grain around the world, but we don't have as large a calf crop? Will we see record calf prices?
The Canadian cow/calf producer has taken a beating for the last three years(maybe four)...how much longer will he be able to survive? Or want to?
I would suggest calves at $1.06 really is getting borderline to any kind of profit? How many industries in the real world can afford to take prices we were getting in the 1980's?

[coppertop]

cowman, I would certainly argue that Belinda is not the 'darling of the women's vote'. Most women that take the time to vote like to see something with a few brain cells in a decision making role.

Several years ago, I attended a Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention and sat in on a session that was geared to encourage more women to run for public office. It was such drivel that I left half way through the session, the focus was on getting women to run, and showing them how to dress, but not one word was uttered about finding candidates, both men and women with integrity and brains !!!!

Belinda is but one of many who are involved in public life don't really care about propriety. But, having said that, its the electorate that chooses this sort of person !

[cowman]

I agree with you about the electorate deciding who gets in. Doesn't say much for the people who voted for her does it? I wonder how she would fare in Hanna, Alberta?
I'm not saying Stronach is anymore of a sleaze than a lot of MPs! Peter McKay isn't the most honorable person around either!
It must be frustrating for people of integrity, who run for public office, get painted with the same brush as these less than honorable people?
Call me naive or something, but I still like to believe there are people in public life who run because they think they are doing their duty and not just out to rip off the system or play the big wheel? Fewer all the time I will admit.