I'm not sure if this issue is appropriate to raise, as it's not about MPCs specifically, but many dairy farmers in my area for years also sold cattle, and exported cattle out of the country. That was another income stream for them. Of course, in the aftermath of BSE and the border closure, they've lost that secondary business they were engaged in. That's put on additional pressure.
So it's the combination of things--two, three, four things--that is causing some dairy farmers to say, “I'm not going to hang around until my equity is gone, I'm going to sell out now.”
I've only been here for two years, but my sense is that the degree of despair in the industry is significantly greater now than it was a couple of years ago. I just hope the officials recognize that and act on that basis.