November 2009 Archives
I lied in one of my earlier blogs. I don’t have an effective, sure-fire, three-point solution for fixing the Canadian beef industry. But I am hoping some of the readers do and can send me their thoughts.
The search for a solution follows a conversation I had a couple weeks ago with Gary Etherington, a beef producer in the Dewberry area of northeast Alberta. He was processing calves that day, and although I think the processing went fine, he still didn’t have a very positive outlook on the Canadian beef industry.
It has been a dry year in his area, prices for calves are generally down this year, the dollar is up, hay is in short supply so winter feed costs are up, and generally there is no or little profitability for cow/calf producers. (Last year winter feeding costs penciled out to less than $1 per day, this coming winter it is closer to $1.50 per head per day.)
Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) in the US is having a very similar effect on the Canadian beef industry as BSE – it is closing the border to many Canadian cattle, which have been finished and processed by US feeders and packers. And a point, which has long been an issue of Etherington – one of the principals behind the now defunct Border Beef packing plant project – with only two primary beef processors in Western Canada, there is no effective competition in the Canadian packing industry.
Etherington, who is also a large animal veterinarian, sees what he describes as an exodus from the industry by many cow/calf producers. Many of the younger potential beef producers left a couple years ago to work in the oil patch and now it is the 40 and 50 and 60 year olds, tired of loosing money for the seventh consecutive year, who are quietly exiting the industry.
“A year like this is just the straw that broke the camel’s back, “ says Etherington. “Prices are low, hay is expensive, so a lot of producers aren’t even looking at figuring out how to feed cattle this winter, they are just getting out.”
So what is the solution? What are your thoughts on the Canadian beef industry? What has to be fixed? Have you figured out some way to fire-proof your operation from price volatility, and current market conditions? Post your comments here (your name doesn’t have to be used, but I would like to know who you are, so I can call if I have any questions). Send me your comments, and a contact number. Email them to: lee@fbcpublishing.com ; write them down and mail them to Grainews, Box 71150 Silver Springs PO, Calgary, AB T3B 5K2; or give me a call at 403-592-1964.
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I was going to write today with a short analysis of the problems facing the beef industry, followed by an effective three-point strategy for returning the cattle business to sound profitability, but that will have to wait. Today my mind is on tractor comfort.
The following underscores the fact that I am getting older. This is a ‘when I was a boy’ type of story. As a sidebar, I use to always chuckle at my late father-in-law (he would have been 100 this year) who use to love to talk about the old days of working for CN Rail in Western Canada. Often I heard that the price of beer was 10 cents a glass at the hotel in Drumheller, Alta. Well move over Frank.
What has inspired this blog is sitting for 10 minutes yesterday inside the cab of John Deere’s new 8R series field tractor at the Agri-Trade farm show in Red Deer, Alta. First of all I felt underdressed. Are you sure I should be in here with jeans and a sweater? Is there a dress code?
Man, it was nice. No wonder people want to go farming. Forget profitability – this is good.
I have been in and out of tractor cabs a bit over the past 30 years, but when did comfort become such a priority?
It had a nice heated leather captains chair, which was more comfortable than my old recliner in the family room, a leather covered steering wheel. And the right-hand armrest/console had this wonderful array of attractively designed nicely colored controls that run everything. I am sure there was one button that said “Press Here, to begin taxi for take off”. It had a nice satellite radio system, with iPOD and MP3 player capability, Bluetooth for hands-free cell phone, a 10 vent air conditioning and heating system, plenty of leg room even with two people sitting in there, and of course cup holders. I didn’t see the cappuccino maker but that was probably in the rear galley across from the lounge area.
I had no idea if the thing could even start, or whether it had enough power to could pull a kid’s wagon. But it sure was comfortable. And to be fair, I’m sure if I had gone over the Case IH, or New Holland, or AGCO displays I would have found something similar.
But sitting in that cab for a few minutes, I had a flash back (and here it comes) to when I was a kid. We had two tractors on the dairy farm. One was a little grey Ford tractor and the powerhouse was a Allis Chalmers WD40 that had about six horsepower.
Because of the power and speed of the Allis Chalmers, as a kid I was only allowed to drive the little grey Ford. Both tractors had steel seats. Because the AC was newer, with improved creature comforts, its seat was mounted on piece of curved spring steel, sort of like a cultivator shank so it had a bit of give. The little grey Ford was metal to unforgiving metal. Fortunately my dad took a couple old throw pillows out the house, which afforded a measure of butt comfort on both machines.
I won’t go on about all the features these tractors didn’t have. You catch my drift that times sure have changed. The one thing the tractors of my childhood did have, which I didn’t see in the new John Deere, was instant weather reporting. When I was driving the little grey Ford on a 30 degree day to rake hay, I knew instantly it was hot. If it started to rain, I knew immediately that the weather had changed, and if you had to take the tractor out on a January morning, there was no doubt that it was damn cold outside.
You don’t get that kind of feedback sitting in the John Deere 8R corner office.
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