EDITORIAL - Five years is a long time to hold your breath

by Karen Emilson

It is late August and I am sitting on the deck looking out over the pasture. It is early morning and the sun has just come up over the trees. I’m listening to the cows tramping their way through the bush into the clearing just on the other side of our back yard fence. Hopefully it doesn't rain again today.

I can’t help but wonder the cows near, pulling up the grass, swishing their tails and bawling a bit, how the cattle business got to where it has these past five years.As feed grain prices, the dollar and cattle prices became unpredictable last year, weather forecasts became frighteningly accurate this summer. Every storm predicted for the Dauphin/Interlake region dropped rain as the weatherman said it would - unprecedented in the 23 years I’ve lived here. Either their forecasting has become a whole lot better or our luck is a whole lot worse. Maybe it’s a bit of both.

They say that it is always darkest before the dawn; that things always become their absolute worst before they start to get better. For cattle producers who have weathered the past five years, waiting out the dark times, watching their equity and retirement funds erode, in hopes of some light this fall - to be unable to put up hay because of either drought or flood is an unbearable disappointment.

Interlake cattlemen went into BSE facing the worst drought conditions in recent memory; now many of them will not get enough feed because fields are too wet or completely drowned out. Two hits within five years of escalating costs and below break-even prices means they simply cannot afford to buy hay this fall. Not only is this an economic issue, but a herd health concern as well.

Traditionally when faced with a hay shortage, producers sell cows and hold back heifer calves to maximize their feed situation. One bright spot is that cows are bringing the best price they have since BSE; and predictions are that calf prices will be better this fall than last. However, I ran a spreadsheet based on the projected figures and anyone who is short half their hay, whether they choose to buy feed, sell cows, or sell cows and buy hay, will likely be faced with a cash flow problem in 2010 - assuming they have debt to service and want to stay in the business.

Most cattle producers who have filed a CAIS return know that the program may work for others, but does not work for our industry. The new Growing Forward program replacing it - Agri-Stability - is ineptly named. There are so many compounding problems with this program that, suffice it to say, it provides no income stability whatsoever.

Someone said to me recently that as cattle producers we have to stop going to the government with our hands out. For the record, I’d like to say that prior to BSE disrupting our industry the way it did, we never asked the government for anything.

And then I started thinking about that statement. What exactly is it when an employee goes into the boss’ office to ask for a raise? When the government ups the minimum wage or a company increases its prices; or a union demands better benefits for employees. Are these people offering to put in longer hours or do a better job tomorrow than yesterday in exchange for that cash reward?

No. They request higher pay to feel valued for their efforts, remain viable, and stay in line with the cost of living. Pay increases, benefits, pension plans and paid holiday time are expected in the working world.

Imagine if they were asked to work for the same salary as 20 years ago; if every error they made or loss the company incurred had a dollar value attached to it that was subtracted from their paycheque.

What would happen if after five years of inflation and a pay decrease, if every employee across this country went in to ask for a raise and were told to “tighten their belts at home?”

Pride sends an employee into the office to ask for a raise. Ironically, it’s also pride that keeps the Canadian cattleman from believing he deserves one.

The cattle industry is a vital stimulant to the rural economy and necessary part of this country’s infrastructure. In a sense, ranchers are working for all Canadians. Unfortunately, the service we provide is not fully understood and therefore under-valued by most of society.

A recent article in the Winnipeg Free Press Business section illustrates that point. Even though Canadians spend less than 10% of their annual income on food, when prices go up, the uninformed blame farmers. With fewer and fewer urbanites having rural roots, it is reasonable to expect the information gap will widen in the coming years.

Not all support from government needs to come in the form of direct payments to producers. Funding the Environmental Stewardship, Verified Beef and Canadian Agriculture Skills Service programs are just a few creative examples of how a government that values agriculture can assist farmers. A public awareness advertising campaign, funded by government, that focuses on the vital role of agriculture in this country would also help.

Not long ago cattlemen could weather fluctuating markets and isolated natural disasters. Hopefully that day will return soon. But seeing how the world is evolving, our government needs to prepare itself in the event that, like other countries, we can no longer provide inexpensive food and be offered a reasonable standard of living for doing so. This generation will continue to subsidize Canada’s cheap food policy as long as they are able - but I doubt that the next generation of farmers can, or will.

Cattle producers in general are, or were, against subsidization of any kind. I’m not. I was raised in the city and don’t have the same stoic resolve. Twenty two years ago we lived in Winnipeg and I did clerical/word processing work in a government office for a salary around $20,000 a year. Basically I moved paper from an inbox to an outbox. They paid me as if I’d earned it. And I thought I had. Until we moved here and was humbled by how hard cattle producers work for every dollar they earn.

Governments need an agriculture budget that provides producers with business risk management programs—including income stabilization and disaster relief—that can be relied upon. When unable to earn a living from the marketplace, food producers shouldn’t have to mortgage their retirements while the middlemen between us and the consumer continue to make a profit.

I don’t call disaster relief a handout. It’s an investment in this country’s infrastructure and civilized reparation to people who provide a valuable service to society.

- Karen writes from the family ranch at Vogar, along the shore of Lake Manitoba.