Broken clouds, Reeve's Ramblins
I have had a little difficulty trying to figure out if the provincial ag guy was trying to kick a few guys in the shins or if his attempt to restore some democracy in producer group funding was genuine with his announcement of the refundable check off to producers if requested.
I do not disagree with the end result but certainly the process could have been a little more open and democratic. Maybe some, certainly not all producer groups caught in this net needed a haircut. And if nothing else farm organizations affected by this rule are going to have to listen to their grass root members in the province and be accountable. No one can argue with a producer’s choice which organizations he wants to support and to what extent. Even the progressive conservative party of Alberta won’t have to worry about refunds because checks-off the producers won’t be forthcoming for a while, when they are fighting amongst themselves.
Except the pork producers, they are fighting as well, but that is a fight to stay afloat. I realize there is some federal money available to pork producers, I am not familiar enough with that business to know if that will address the problem I do remember when the BSE hit the whole provincial treasury was thrown into the battle and if you did not support that you just were not a red-blooded Albertan.
The pork industry is in far dire straits than the cattle business ever was and the provincial government is sitting on the sideline. Maybe along with the sow culling program we need to implement a ‘Cull in the Provincial Government’ program.
When we start importing Chinese pork I am going to quit eating bacon.
Harvest seems to be moving along even though at different levels of progress within the MD of Taber. The consensus appears to be that this year later seeded crops seem to yield a little better than the earlier stuff. Hope you seeded some canola because that seems to have been able to hold its price better than grain crops. If you had any soft wheat in, then your era of prosperity has come to a sudden stop.
It also appears that the scarcity of feed supplies has eased somewhat throughout the province, that is good news for those that need it, bad news for those trying to sell some extra hay.
Our Ag Service Board has had some concerns expressed about the amount of weeds in the road allowance right of way. Well if you apply roundup to the grass in the road ditch something else is going to grow there, most likely weeds. So let’s be careful and pay some attention when that ninety foot boom swings around and maybe shut it off and it will save everybody some grief.
Most of all during this busy season operate all your equipment in a safe manner. Have a great harvest and may the markets work for you.
Hank Van Beers