COLUMN - The Doc is In

I am an optimist

by Allan Preston

The vice president of Keystone Agricultural Producers told me, with a smile on his face, that I was “too damned optimistic,” that the livestock sector—pigs and cattle—are in the tank, and that I need to be realistic about our industries.
Well, maybe he’s right. But I will remain optimistic about the livestock sector, the cattle industry in particular, and about the future for our rural communities. That optimism is fueled today with the arrival of this spring’s calf crop. Watching those new babies frolicking in the straw brings a sense of renewal, of “Another Season’s Promise.” (By the way, if you haven’t read the book by that title – you will find it very worthwhile.)

Sure, we are facing a lot of challenges and frustrations with the economics of beef production right now and the trade issues with our good friends to the south are making that situation worse.

We face a lot of rural issues including: declining farm and rural populations, ageing of that remaining population, difficulty in maintaining schools, churches, hospitals; a shrinking and burned out volunteer base. However, there are opportunities out there as well. Let me paint you a picture:

A Seven Mile Snapshot
I drive seven miles of country gravel road from my yard to highway #21 many times every week. I’m going to describe to you what I see along those seven miles.
The first stop is my farm – six quarters of grain and forage, an 80 cow purebred operation. We are a husband and wife team that has held down a nursing and veterinary medical job for all the years that we have lived here. Now that same farm has my son involved. He is raising cattle and holding down an off-farm job in the farm financial world.

My closest neighbour, we’ll call him #1, has a half section of land, 25 cows, and he works full time over at the feedlot. Neighbour #2 has an acreage, raises horses and pedigreed dogs. The husband is a trucker owner/operator and his wife worked for me in my vet practice for years, and now works at the Shoal Lake clinic.

Neighbour #3 is my nephew who farms about 1,600 acres along with his recently retired father. He has a custom grain hauling business and his wife works at the Health Centre and they have two young sons. #4 is a vacant yard site where my wife grew up.
Neighbour #5 is a partner in a 2,500 acre grain farm, along with a small beef herd, has two kids, and also works in the retail sector in town. #6 is the second vacant yard – owned and operated by two brothers in a large grain and cattle operation, with another “better half” nursing at the local clinic.

Neighbour #7 is a ¾ section grain farm with the husband working fulltime in the ag machinery sales business and they have three young children. #8 is the third vacant yard site, with the family farm still owned by a son who works in the grain trade, living in town. #9 is the last vacant yard site along the way – the land is farmed by two brothers who run a beef/grain operation.

Neighbour #10 has a brand new house on a quarter section - a young couple with a daughter. The husband runs a custom farming, custom silage business and his wife is a dental hygienist. #11 is another acreage with an abundance of horses. Both husband and wife work in local businesses. And the last stop on the road is #12, my niece, her husband and three young children on an acreage. Her husband works in the grain and farm input business.

What is the message along these seven miles? It is an optimistic one. There are 30 people living along that stretch of road and while four yard lights have gone out, there are a few new ones are burning. There are four young families with eight pre-school children. Every household is involved in some aspect of farming; every household has some form of off-farm income. The farm size varies from 20 – 2,500 acres. And these 30 people contribute a lot to the strength of a rural community.

The Vision
The folks who sign my paycheque have a corporate vision and it is: “….strives to preserve and strengthen our family farms and rural communities, and to improve our province’s agricultural food industry as well as the rural way of life.”
Much like the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, structured out of the former Ministry of Agriculture in the United Kingdom post-FMD in 2001, we are moving towards being more about people, land and food and less about a production infrastructure. Like DEFRA, the focus is on “ . . . the interests of farmers and the countryside; the environment and the rural economy; the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink.” I guess that is where I’m going with this rambling diatribe. Sure – we would all like to make a good living off a herd of cattle, and off a piece of ground. However, that is not the reality today for many of us in the farming game.

The reality may be more like my seven miles – we need more people to support vibrant rural communities. Small farms, hobby farms, lifestyle farms, are one approach to strengthening those communities. There is a significant multiplier effect, and a significant spin-off effect with more people living in a community and earning an income whether it be from the farm or elsewhere - spinning those dollars within that community.

Look at these statistics: Overall, less than 3% of Canadians are engaged in primary agriculture production. There are some 6 million rural Canadians, but only 11% of those people live on farms. 9% of the rural workforce is employed in farming in some manner.

Agricultural policy is moving from a focus on agricultural production to a focus on the rural landscape. That same policy is gradually shifting away from income support programs and safety nets to a more holistic approach towards business risk management. And the financial support for the sector is moving towards assisting rural communities to thrive and grow as much or more than simply supporting and promoting bulk commodity production.

Many farmers feel threatened when their activities no longer dominate the rural policy focus. That focus is switching away from farming itself, moving instead towards the social and economic wellbeing of families associated with farming. Agricultural and rural sustainability can only stand when all three of its legs are of equal length – economic, environmental and social pillars must be equivalent. Up until now, we have perhaps focused too much on the economic piece, less on the social and environmental pieces. The shifting rural landscape is not about whether small is “good” or big is “bad”; whether organic or natural are better than conventional. It is about how agricultural and rural residents—a dwindling number for sure—must band together to support and promote that agricultural and rural life.

The Optimist
So I plead guilty. I am an optimist. I see our beef industry and our farming industry growing along with the rural communities that we support. I see us working on adding value to our products through diversification, direct marketing, and agricultural awareness. I see us building alliances, becoming part of the value chain, not just being a bottom feeder in a supply chain controlled by someone else. We can make significant progress by removing the middlemen – gate-to-plate will always return you more dollars, regardless of the commodity. And to do that, we need to constantly stay in tune with our customer – knowing what that customer wants, recognizing that the customer is #1, and is always right. That consumer will always be loyal to a locally produced Manitoba product, and that consumer will pay a premium for that branded product with a transparent, known history behind it.

All of us should be stimulated by the challenges and opportunities we face. By being proud of our farms, our towns and our communities. By making rural Manitoba a place where others will want to live and by retaining the brightest and best of our youth to rejuvenate our rural society – we can collectively make a difference. We can support and grow rural businesses, and we can even make a profit off those cows!

My seven miles is proof positive that agricultural and rural folks can make a difference in perhaps reversing some of the trends towards very large farms. I know, I know – the math shows that you need 400 cows to have a profitable beef operation, but I’ll take 30 people, several young growing families, and a lot of off farm employment any day if it will help to stabilize my small town and keep it alive and well.