Editor’s note: This letter was written before the announcement that the Manitoba government had shuffled its cabinet and had appointed Derek Johnson as Manitoba agriculture minister.
Recently one of the Winnipeg radio stations had two climatologists as guests.
They were discussing last summer’s drought and both mentioned Manitoba was the epicentre of the disaster. If a person is in the livestock game we knew this. And that is what makes Minister Eichler’s recent comment that he is “not worried” about the dismal uptake numbers for his AgriRecovery feed assistance program for livestock so worrisome.
Read Also
Farming still has digital walls to scale
Canadian farms still face the same obstacles to adopting digital agriculture technology, despite the years industry and policy makers have had to break them down.
He goes on to say that he can’t quite figure out why Manitoba only has 118 applications for feed assistance while Saskatchewan and Alberta have 7,457 and 11,500 applications respectively.
This shouldn’t be that hard to figure out, Minister Eichler. Your program sucks!
If a policy-maker sat down to try and devise a feed assistance program that would have almost zero uptake — then your program would be an unqualified success.
The $50-per-head up-front deductible eliminates many producers with a cash flow problem from participating — with 400 cows you need $20,000 cash purchases before the program kicks in. And then you need the ability to cough up another $100,000 for feed before any program money arrives.
All with the September per-head payment dollars enjoyed by Saskatchewan and Alberta producers competing for scarce feed in Manitoba two months earlier than the Manitoba producer even has an application form.
It puts us in an impossible position — there is no feed left for sale unless we want to be put on a feed mill’s waiting list for $400-$500/tonne pellets. Livestock producers baled anything that would go into a baler — and some things that should not have.
Cattails and weeds and roadsides and slough bottoms and willows and canola and cereal straw.
We fenced anything that had a blade of grass — one contractor dug 100 water holes in our area.
There were lots of extra expenses where a per-head payment would have been more than welcome. Instead, we have an agriculture minister who is focused on encouraging non-participation with a $50-per-head-deductible producer cash-up-front program.
This incompetence and inaction will plague the Manitoba livestock industry with another prolonged downsizing problem just when it is the last thing we need.
But we’re not worried are we??!!!
Brian Sterling
Tilston
