Three important issues in W.Canada agriculture

[Oliver88]

Can you imagine Con's or anyone going to the city people now and saying we are going to take your Carbon Tax checks away from you in fact we are going to start paying farmers carbon tax credits now instead and that might have to come out of your pay check.

Do you understand how hard farmers will be hit with a $170/tonne carbon tax and how this will disproportionately penalize rural areas?

[furrowtickler]

Do you understand how hard farmers will be hit with a $170/tonne carbon tax and how this will disproportionately penalize rural areas?

Ralph Goodale said farmers won’t be effected by carbon tax ....

[furrowtickler]

[wmoebis]

Do you understand how hard farmers will be hit with a $170/tonne carbon tax and how this will disproportionately penalize rural areas?

Yes I understand and don't like the whole tax issue, but do you think any of the other parties would take it off it/when they are elected? I don't think so it is just a finger pointing tactic. Not one has stood up and said they would get rid of the Carbon Tax or even what they would do with it. Look at Alberta they got rid of the NDP carbon tax and didn't replace it so it went back to Fed tax and now they just point at Feds they could have paid it all back to farmers if they wanted.

[Blaithin]

Did you know Alberta is a world leader in carbon credit programs? (This may have changed the last few years as it’s been that long since I heard it and there was a political flop in that time...)

Either way, I know of for sure one company, memory is saying another one or two as well, that actually work towards and create the carbon offset programs here. When I spoke to one of the guys they were looking at putting online pasture restoration and pasture conservation programs within the next decade. There was already the min til credits offered but he did say that program was going to change. And lo and behold!

If the MPs and MLAs aren’t working for you, maybe speak with the companies setting up this program. I really need to get in touch with the presenter I seen as I wanted his power point presentation, but I don’t believe on any level he said the governments were going to be the big players. It’s the private market that’s going to pay for credits. Much like VBP+ working towards payouts for beef that fit their criteria, companies like McDonalds and General Mills have made big promises for their carbon footprint and in short periods of time. Get the info for what criteria they’re going to be looking for. Talk to the carbon credit program developers. Be ready to sell your products into a market that is going to privately pay for how you’re managing your farms, not the government.

The catch here is get organized to start doing the things they’re going to want to do, but don’t really start doing them yet. Most programs sneak in saying they’ll pay you for changes to store carbon. If you’re already managing that way they won’t pay you for it.

[ajl]

Three most important ag issues.

1) Sales reporting
2) Getting rid of the whole climate change/green new steal scam. No carbon taxes and no offsets.
3) Higher rates of interest. This is what provides discipline to ag input costs. This also promotes savvy business management and innovation. It would allow small and medium operators to grow efficiently and slow the consolidation to larger less efficient entities. For example we would eliminate industry costs of relocating bin yards every summer as well as a lot of grain bagging. Having a dozen million dollar combines on the road is simply not efficient but that is what happens in an artificially low rate environment. Much more efficient to have a half dozen operation running 2 machines each with a more local land base.

[Blaithin]

Honourable mention issue.

Aversion to change. - Can list issues that need to disappear or can try and think of ways to work with those issues as permanent things. Ie) environmental concerns.

[checking]

On your checkoff number, I actually think the weeds need to be thinned to two representative groups, grains and oilseeds. Too many groups means too little influence.

Why should soybeans be thrown in with a grouping based on its nitrogen fixing quality?

Is pulses going to future insist that it owns the checkoff dollars to some grain or oilseed that eventually is modified to produce its own nitrogen?

As far as I'm concerned, soybeans and canola are common products, and should be together under the oilseeds banner.

On the carbon tax, push me too close to where I am wasting my time, and I will quit this business. Come on, Just In Trouble, wake those federal advisors to pluck up.

[bucket]

FYI Delaney Boyd said in a webinar that notill farming will not be eligible for the offset program in Saskatchewan

[TASFarms]

Looks like western Canada needs more Buffalo