Putin and Versatile/Rostelmash a view from the Russian side

[Klause]

Sure Klaus, anybody that opposes Putin politically is either poisoned, shot, or jailed. You sit here in Canada with virtually all the freedoms in the world but post how great it is everywhere else. It certainly in't prefect in Canada and there are issues, but if your thinking Russia is the place to farm, I suggest you sell what ever you have as a farm here in Canad and move to Russia.

Your posts are as full of shit as you are. You didn't like Germany, you didn't like Manitoba, you bitch about Sask and Canada constantly, just F-off to Russia and then post on here how great it is down there.

Do you ever post anything but factless attacks?


I never lived in Germany.


I never said go farm in Russia it's better.


If you want to live in a tiny bubble go on ahead... But I think it's valuable to know what the rest of the world is doing and how people's thought processes work in other countries and cultures.


Communism and dictatorship aren't the same thing.

[Jagfarms]

We have a worker on our farm from Ukraine. He had his own farm in Ukraine and worked in Russia. There is so much corruption in Ukraine and Russia. Unless you are involved in the government or have some really good connections to the government it’s impossible to farm there.

When he come to work here with us he could not believe that we leave the tractors or Machinery in the field a the end of the day. He said in Ukraine and Russia they have to take the equipment back to a locked compound each night that have people guarding it.
On the big collective farms they have a person in charge of the fuel. When you go fill up the machinery with fuel they have someone at the fuel tanks keeping track of how much fuel you take. Everything is recorded and they watch to see that workers are not taking the fuel and selling it. They compare the fuel taken with the work done to see if things match up.

He told me about a few farmers who had land rented. The put the crop in and all the inputs. Then at harvest time these big agriculture company’s come in with a bunch of combines and harvest the crop and take the grain basically steeling it from the farmer who put the crop in. These big agriculture company’s are involved with the government or have some type of connections that they can do what ever they want. And a poor individual farmer or smaller farms can’t do nothing about it.

I don’t think this happens in all areas of Ukraine and Russia but it does happen.

I have been to Ukraine several times but we spent our time mostly In Western Ukraine and the farms are smaller there. I don’t think there was as much steeling going on in Western Ukraine but the corruption is still there.

Our worker is so happy to be in Canada. He got lots of story’s about the corruption there.

[bucket]

And what's different here....inputs are insane. ...crop prices are controlled by 5 families....


We are margin farmers....it's really no different at the end of the day.....

Farmers are wealth creators for anyone but themselves....

[Jagfarms]

Another thing our worker from Ukraine was amazed about is how fast we can get parts for machinery here in Saskatchewan.

That took him a while to get used to. In ukraine when something broke it was hard to get parts for and they would have to try to repair or modify things to work as it was hard to get parts and if they did get parts a lot of them are very poor quality.

When he first come here it took him a while to get used to the idea that we can go get a new part and replace with new part.
The price of parts in ukraine is the most likely the same price or more than here in Canada. The wages are very low in Ukraine. They would work for 12 hours trying to build or repair a part that cost $20 and their wages paid for 12 hours would still be less than the part they fixed.

Took him a while here to realize that we don’t work 12 hours on something that cost $20 to buy new When the wage is $20-$25 hour for the worker.

[Crestliner]

Good post JAG, I believe your worker is correct and is not exaggerating. My understanding is that Russia and Ukraine have deep fissures that may never be corrected or healed.

If you want to farm there, in addition to having the tools of farming, you need an armed and trained militia to protect yourself and your assets. Such a waste of time and resources.

The basis of their population is that there is rampant thievery, a very suspicious people and there is no trust.

A proper functioning capitalistic system needs to operate on trust and the rule of law and the right to private property. Anything less is dysfunctional and very inefficient.

Even though we have in Canada the issues of some bad actors, overall we operate on trust and goodwill and people have good hearts and want to do well and live peacefully with each other.

In Russia and Ukraine, generations of government expropriation and corruption have led to hard hearts in their men. I feel sorry for them, given their natural resources, there is a lot of potential unrealized and will continue....so I don’t worry too much about Ukraine, Russia and the Black Sea being too competitive.

This Sunday morning, if you are so inclined, we need to thank our fathers, grandfathers or great grandfathers and thank them for coming here to this great land, enduring hardships but having a vision that I am enjoying today.

We have trust and good hearts in this Country and even though things are not perfect here, there are enough good people to make changes slowly that will make it even better here.

[bucket]

If you have ever bought parts ....it's easy to identify who the thieves are....

[Bowerpower]

Point is that the Russians are out competing us plain and simple. Does it matter the corruption there? No it doesn’t. They get their product to market cheaper than we can.

[Crestliner]

Russians are not out competing us.....they are doing a good job of making propaganda newscast and pretending to be something they are not....it’s part of their corruption and corruption leads to ultimate failure.

Putin as been around for almost 20 years...and opposition seems to rise and and then disappear....hmmm wonder why and where do they all go...After 20 years he is just getting around to the farm issues....

Russian GDP $US 8000 per person
Canada GDP $US 42000 per person.

Don’t loose any sleep worrying about Russia taking over our grain markets....put your energy in fixing our system.

[foragefarmer]

"Point is that the Russians are out competing us plain and simple. Does it matter the corruption there? No it doesn’t. They get their product to market cheaper than we can."

Location, location, location. So do you have any suggestions as to how we can move product cheaper to China. Trump put tariffs on steel and aluminum is agriculture next? Then what?

As for corruption mattering or not ask the farmers the above posters mentioned. Thanks Jag and Crest


I would sooner believe the word of the actual farmers then some B.S. internet posting from Klaus. When you call him out on it he cries, and expects everybody to agree with him. Grow a couple true Canadians already have them!

[Bowerpower]

"Point is that the Russians are out competing us plain and simple. Does it matter the corruption there? No it doesn’t. They get their product to market cheaper than we can."

Location, location, location. So do you have any suggestions as to how we can move product cheaper to China. Trump put tariffs on steel and aluminum is agriculture next? Then what?

As for corruption mattering or not ask the farmers the above posters mentioned. Thanks Jag and Crest


I would sooner believe the word of the actual farmers then some B.S. internet posting from Klaus. When you call him out on it he cries, and expects everybody to agree with him. Grow a couple true Canadians already have them!

The easiest solution would be upgrading infrastructure. Rail mostly. And get some true competition on those railways.