Cattle producers were excluded from the federal-provincial Excess Moisture Program announced as an AgriRecovery initiative.
The day of the $30 an acre announcement, the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association issued a news release saying it expected governments to include standing pasture and hay lands that had been flooded. However, only annual cropland is included.
Yesterday, the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association issued a news release saying many of its members are experiencing a terrible time due to extreme flooding of hay and pasture. The MCPA is disappointed that the relief package doesn’t address the needs of beef producers. It continues to monitor the situation and work with government on a response.
Governments always seem to respond more generously and decisively to problems in the crops sector. Grain producers already have better safety nets than livestock producers, specifically crop insurance. Yet governments came out with an additional flood program for crops without any mention of action for livestock producers facing similar problems.
It’s easy to see why some cattle producers feel like second class citizens.
About Harry Siemens
Harry's Bio - On the Edge with Siemens Says
Communicator extraordinaire Harry Siemens interacts with his vast agricultural audience through speaking, writing, and commentating. He creates an awareness of what’s happening in agriculture as an advocate of the farmer, and provides a rare edge, never afraid to express his own informed opinion. With his 41 years plus of experience, people respect, and trust him to provide always the most relevant and current farm information.
Harry Siemens comments on the news, motivates, gives his own opinions to the public everyday, as an independent farm communicator and farmer advocate through various media outlets.
As a motivational speaker, Harry can deliver a new speech everyday, taking any information and adapting it to the right situation. He integrates the current farm issues with motivation, and humour. He speaks to audiences ranging from the AGM of the U.S. Grains Council in Montreal to the local Farmers Marketing Club in Plum Coulee, MB or Sunhaven Farms in Kinsella, Alberta and many in between.
Harry Siemens, the journalist, is always on top of things, hearing it first, and then giving the news spiced with personal commentary. Along with his up-to-date website and e-newsletter FarmWatch, he writes for various publications across Western Canada and the U.S., including the AgriPost, Prairie Hog Country, and Western Dairy Farmer.
He also writes for hire, which goes back to adapting any information to any audience or situation.
Harry Siemens, the commentator, gives you more than the story. He provides the story with his own opinion and from a perspective on how it will affect the reader and/or listener directly
In the United States Harry appears regularly with Max Armstrong and Orion Samuelson on ‘This Week in Agribusiness’ seen and heard weekends on the RFD-TV Network giving the Canadian perspective. He works closely with Lynn Ketelson and Linda Brekke to share the issues that face producers in Canada on the Linder Farm Network heard on over 40 radio stations in Minnesota. Ratings show this to be the most listened to half-hour farm broadcast in the United States.
Harry Siemens, the communicator, integrates speaking, writing, and commentating, giving a clear picture of the big and small issues in layman’s terms. He reaches his audience through the ‘Net [SiemensSays.com] print, one on one, or on the radio, able to express his opinion, and keep everything fresh by Staying on the Edge.
What a surprise…. not! This is not the first year that excess moisture has added insult to injury for the cattle producers of this province either. It’s hard enough to survive in the cattle business these days without having to deal alone with natural disasters that everyone else seems to get help with. There is money for everything from washed out roads, to crops, to basements, yet none for a sector of agriculture which generates a significant portion of our provincial economy.
I wonder if anyone has noticed that the beef supply of this country is in grave danger of disappearing? Producers are leaving in droves, and this is one example of just why they are doing it.