WhatFinger


All across the prairies, farmers are facing severe weather circumstances

Drought Deepens Depression in Farmers’ Minds and Bottom Line



All across the prairies, farmers are facing severe weather circumstances. In the southern parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan farmers are facing the effects of excessive moisture. In the Alberta and BC Peace region farmers are feeling the effects of a drought that is not three years in the making as reported, but actually going on for close to twelve years!

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This year’s drought in the Peace region has been the worst, because all of the subsoil moisture is depleted due to declining rainfall from the previous years. The only grasses or pastures doing anything close to well are those with deep roots, such as alfalfa. People who have switched to intensive grazing have also fared better. There has been a steady decline in livestock numbers since 2003. Statistics Canada has recently released its data on the decline. I personally believe that the decline in cattle numbers has been worse than their data suggests. I, for one, have never been asked about my cattle numbers. Last year I sold off a third of my mother cows, plus all of my calves. No replacements were kept due to the drought and gouging on feed prices. If it wasn’t for a neighbor who let me bale his straw I would have had to exit the cattle business, then. By the way, I am glad there still are some people who do not base their decisions on opportunism, but on honor. This year I will be forced to sell additional mother cows and the calf crop with no replacements. All of the income generated from those sales will go to feed the remaining herd. So, it looks like year two with no income. In 2003, I had a larger number of cows and ewes. In 2010 I have a substantially reduced herd of cows and will have to reduce further. I have no ewes left, they are all gone. I also had to reduce the horse herd. Only a handful of horses remain, and with the new regulations it is difficult to market them. In talking with cattle buyers and auction houses, my understanding is that in the Alberta and BC Peace region the estimates are that 30 percent of the cattle are gone and the land sold. Most land sold, I have been told, has gone to corporations and to foreign investors. The National Farmers Union has released a report on these land grabbing practices in Canada. The relief package that was announced by the federal government is a joke, at $50.00 per head for last year’s fed cattle. Let me put that in perspective for you. I required 450 bales to feed my cattle which I had to buy. A good sum of those were the straw bales that my neighbor allowed me to bale for a fair reasonable price. I needed additional bales to feed my cows. The price of bales varied of course, but an average price was $45.00. The relief package announced by the federal government (if I was eligible and I am not) would have netted me $1900.00. What a joke; an insult actually. Feed was costing me $60.00 a day to feed my stock. In terms of feed costs, the announced aid package was basically one month of feed. Last year I had to start feeding in July. This year I am spending $1000.00 a month renting pasture because mine have long given out due to the continued drought (and once again relying on the good spirit of my neighbor to bale straw for some of my winter feed needs). Statistics Canada official numbers for the decline of cattle are 5.6 percent for Alberta and Manitoba, 6.3 percent in Saskatchewan, and 7 percent in BC. The numbers of family farms left in the west raising cattle are down 3.5 percent to 99026 farms. If you have looked at the sale catalogues in the region they are as thick as a small phone book and the majority is cattle operations. If the trend continues there will only be very large operations and very small farmers with nothing in between. The affected areas need help, but it is doubtful they will receive it. We are not important to the main parties in Ottawa or in Edmonton. The governing Tories, both provincial and federally, view the seats safe and no aid will come. The other parties view the seats unwinnable, so will likewise put no effort into helping. They will fiddle with gun registry and other side issues, all the while we bleed to death financially. The causes of this financial hardship are not only the drought, but severely depressed prices for the livestock from a sector dominated by two players whom have a captive supply of livestock as well as captive market. The NFU cattle report clearly outlined the issues, and like the Easter report it continues to be ignored. The drought has succeeded where government regulations bureaucracy and inaction could not succeed at doing ........drive farmers from the land. Farmers in the affected areas need financial help. CAIS does not work. It never has. It is based on the assumption that you will only have one bad year and here we have already had 12. I have never qualified for CAIS because of it. Many other farmers are in the same situation. Farmers need immediate aid and the aid needs to be $500.00 per mother cow and replacement stock. Furthermore, the aid needs to be immediate and certain, and a total federal initiative without provincial participation. The last package the AB government used forced farmers into signing onto age verification to qualify for aid. We can continue to pretend there isn’t a problem and we can continue pretend CAIS (now known as Agri-Stability) is the catchall, or we can act.


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