That being said, with every time there is another appeal, and every time yet another judge rules that the case has merit, it makes it more difficult for the government to dispute the fact that it must address the issue. Any cattle producers who come across their MP would do well to bring up the subject. We need to let them know that just because cattle prices are getting better, that it will take a long time to undo so many years of lost earnings.

First, this market was lost in the first place due to negligence on behalf of the Canadian government in it’s duty to keep BSE out of Canada. They knew well ahead of the event of 2003 what they needed to do to safeguard the Canadian cattle herd, and the many families that depended on that herd for their livelihoods. They knew the risks years earlier, when an imported cow from Britain tested positive in Alberta. They knew what they needed to do, and they chose not to do it. They knew the odds of BSE happening here, and what the damage would be, and they chose not to take action.

Second, this market access is amounting to just a small portion of the volume of exports prior to BSE closing it. We are getting back a fraction so far, and have a long way to go to catch up.

So before we jump on the congratulatory bandwagon we need to remember that we shouldn’t have to be re-opening markets at all. They need not ever have been closed in the first place. It was preventable.

The effort of the PC team was pathetic and they did not deserve to win. They did not demonstrate that they were a government in waiting.

Like the federal Liberals, the provincial PC party needs to go back to its grass roots and figure out what they stand for. In this last election, it is clear to me they lost that base and only appeared to be asking people to vote for them so they could govern. While the PC brain trust may have thought the public was stupid, the results indicated that they were not.

A new report looking into the feasibility of exporting forages through the northern Manitoba port of Churchill concludes the idea currently has more disadvantages than advantages.

The report by Allen Tyrchniewicz, a Winnipeg agricultural consultant, cites the high cost of rail transportation and insufficient infrastructure at portside as barriers to using Churchill as a forage export point.

But the biggest hurdle is the virtual absence of a forage processing industry in Manitoba.

In his report, Tyrchniewicz sees potential for pelleting and cubing in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. But many new markets are not equipped to handle pellets or cubes. Also, Manitoba has no pelleting facility.

The forage sector should put the horse before the cart and develop a processing industry before considering places from which to export, says Tyrchniewicz.

“Looking at the port of Churchill right now, without a forage processing industry, really wouldn’t help us,” he said recently.

The MFC and the Saskatchewan Forage Council commissioned the report.

Tyrchniewicz acknowledges that Churchill, which is located on Hudson Bay, offers some advantages to shippers in the eastern Prairies. The big one is that the distance by rail to port is much shorter than it is to Vancouver or the St. Lawrence. That saves shippers a lot of money in transportation costs.

“You get the product on the water sooner and water rates are way cheaper than land rates,” Tyrchniewicz says.

Unfortunately, the annual shipping season at Churchill is only about three months long. Forage importers need consistent year-round supplies and would be reluctant to use the northern route for only a few months a year, Tyrchniewicz says.

Another disadvantage is that processed forages would have to travel in bulk containers. Tyrchniewicz says Churchill lacks the necessary infrastructure to move and load the kind of containers ocean-going vessels require.

That said, the potential is there for selling forages abroad. Tyrchniewicz says developing countries have a limited ability to grow forage crops to meet a growing consumer demand for animal protein and Canada is a major forage producer.

The report also points out the need for more foreign market development. Although opportunities exist, Manitoba and Saskatchewan forage exporters should first work at developing markets based on relationships and quality products, according to Tyrchniewicz.

Brent McCannell, Manitoba Forage Council executive director, says a group of local hay marketers will meet in January to discuss the report’s recommendations.

its all we know and all we have done
I raised four children alone since they were 7 4 2 and three days old I LOST TWO daughters to a cult
now there is just the three of us dad 45 daughter 24
and son sixteen
we have tilled and grown over one acer of organic garden and we have a few animals
we are looking for a place that we can help run a farm or live in a old farm house and look after a cow calf operation we dont mind being in a isolated place
or in a house thats run down and no one else wants

we can slowly fix it up I have a construction background
in the twenty two years that i have lived here
I have totally redone most of this old farm house
it was my childrens home so I fixed it
and I paid for it

I can drive loader tractor i can clean out barns
check on calves or go out into pasture and count
we are willing to live in a remote area we are willing to work hard as a family
I used to work at a dairy farm years ago
I have worked cleaning out chicken barns

we have no family and we want to find a place where we can feel like we belong and people respect us and what we bring
and offer

WE are Robert Alisha and Matthew Hillman
and we are looking for a farmer that needs us
or for a community of farmers on one farm that want to
have more help
I am Robert and my daugher and my son
are looking for a NEW place to call HOME
for the next twenty years if there is such a place

However, more immediate issues confront us today. Back in the 1970′s, our governments looked at how to flood proof and drought proof southern Manitoba. Unfortunately, they only implemented about 20% of the plan. This year, that lack of action came back to bite us.

Instead of dumping big a amounts of money into getting people to use less oil, gas and coal, would it not be nice to see the government focus on a real threat that we are living with today?

Maybe global warming may happen just like some UFO cults believe aliens will come and take over the Earth. I cannot dis-prove their assertion, but that does not mean I am going to join their cult and give my money away to the leaders of their religion. In that sense, I am with you in the agnostic camp Harry.

In the mean time, I attempt to do my very small part at as small farmer to improve the health of my soil, the water, the air above my land and the wildlife habitat that those combinations create. I may be naive in my “belief”, but to me, it makes sense to improve those attributes so whoever takes on this farm in the future finds it in better condition than I found it.

Many eastern Manitoba contractors do not have the industry specific knowledge required in the oil resource sector that is why SK and AB contractors augment MB contractors who possess the required competencies.

“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”
Violence against a peaceful protest will just bring more protesters
because then they’ll figure they’re having an effect. This has been
true for at least 2000 years; “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of
the church.”

Deal with the Occupy movement legally, openly, patiently and with due
process and it’ll go away and you can go back to shopping.

Some of this people are Anarchists. Enough said. Anarchist should build a rocket and find another world to live in. Then when they realize that without some form of Government communities simply can’t function, they will come back to Earth.

I can’t believe how much they hate the US, yet, if they were in another country, for instance China, they would probably never be heard of again after their little protest.

This people are nothing but more lazy Americans? who want free everything and no government and no law. Does that even make sense?

With respects to the new entity Mr. Voss is advocating and for clarification purposes does this have anything to do with a similar entity proposed earlier this summer? The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, backed by Western Barley Growers Association and Grain Growers of Canada, has set out a proposal for a new CWB. An E-mail I received from Blair Rutter, the executive director of the WCWGA contains a document dated Aug 23, 2011 in which a plan for a voluntary organisation, to be implemented Dec. 31, 2011 is detailed.

Through a new CWB act an estimated total of 12 million shares are to be issued to farmers at one share per 10 tonnes delivered grain between 2006 and 2012. Grain other than CWRS will be adjusted to a CWRS equivalent based on average yields.

The new entity will assume all liabilities and contractual commitments of the existing CWB including all farmer owned assets. Federal cash advances should come under the administration of a commodity association Canadian Canola Growers Association which has already come to pass.

Regulatory powers of the existing CWB should be removed by Aug. 2012. The new CWB will also take over the balance in the contingency fund as of July 31, 2010. Funds in excess of 22.0 million will be distributed pro rata only to farmers using pricing options in 2010/11 and 2011/12 crop year.

At the first shareholders meeting, shareholders will elect 9 new directors who will in turn appoint 3 directors.

Shareholders will determine if they will allow private investors, and dictate restrictions placed on purchase or sale of shares. This seems out of tune with the whole free market ideology, which WCWGA lobby so strongly for.

With regards to shareholder allocation, according to Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan has consistently lower yields of wheat, barley and durum, that being up to 1 tonne per hectare less than Alberta and Manitoba farmers. This would surely compromise the fairness of shareholder distribution.

Eventually the new entity will be permitted to “buy and sell any grain without restriction” after Aug 1, 2015.

The government i.e. Canadian taxpayers will be guarantor for the new CWB borrowing until Aug. 2015 and assume costs of CWB employee severance pay, contract cancellations and funding of some existing projects.

In addition a communiqué from WCWGA, GG of Canada and the WBGA to the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, P.C., MP dated May 12, 2011 states and I quote:

“To provide certainty, our organizations are of the view that The Canadian Wheat Board Act should be repealed and replaced with a Grain Marketing Act……. This approach will also ensure the legislation can withstand any possible court challenges which will invariably occur if efforts are made to simply tinker with the provisions of the existing Act.”

There is also a request that the government “move quickly and decisively”.

I question whether these organizations have overstepped their boundaries.

Lastly I think the farmers who own the land base utilized by the commercial farmers Mr. Voss mentioned, should have a degree of influence as they also bear a part of the financial risk.

In my part of Ontario, flat farm land is going for well over $8000/acre. In part due to high grain prices, but also from the underlying support of supply management (feathers & milk). Older farmers have retired and their farms are bought and amalgamated into larger supply-managed farms.

The debt load on new comers is very high. But as long as interest rates stay low, banks are lending out lots of money.

I’ve also noticed a lots of new equipment. A new large square baler is around $40,000. Our $15,000 (new in 1990) round baler is now retired (basically sold for scrap), and won’t be replaced – much cheaper to get this done by contract. Lots of hungry young men with new equipment looking for custom work to make their payments.

Now, am I getting old, or does this remind anyone of the debt bubble in financial markets that popped in 2008? Or the house market bubble that popped in 1988?

One irritant – the supply management farmers get breaks on their land tax that the township has to cover with higher taxes on residential/commercial/industrial land. They drive top-of-the-line 4-door diesel pickup trucks, running on colored diesel. You seem them writing off GST/HST tax on personal purchases (‘barn’ renovations that are actual home renovations), and other write-offs not eligible to working stiffs. They take a large tax free chunk of their farm sale into retirement.. But when they retire, you hear them whine about suddenly having to pay taxes on their investments, built out of that ‘cashing out’ quota sale…

The political grandstanding of the Liberals and Conservatives is enough to make everyone sick. Is there a less valuable or immature discussion than what takes place in the House of Commons?

Sincerely
Pam Pugh

Phone 252-2424
Fax 252-2424

I am one of those producer who did not vote even though I do produce barley and might grow wheat in the future. I did not vote because the CWB is a non issue for my operation. If I was forced to express a preference, it would be for open markets because that is how I sell my grain and canola today. I have never taken out a permit book because it is not worth my time to figure it out.