This is quite similar, actually. I too had a trade.
First of all, I'd like to thank the panel for being here today to meet with us. And I thank the weather, because now I don't feel guilty about taking a day off from the tractor.
As a little intro, my name is Alan Brecka. I operate an 1,800-acre cereal, grain, pulse, and oilseed farm near Picture Butte, Alberta. I'm what you'd call a young farmer, even though I'm 30 years old. This is my tenth year of actively farming. I also worked off the farm for ten years as a heavy duty mechanic to build equity until two years ago and then I went full-time into farming. I'm a third-generation farmer and hoping to have a fourth generation with the recent birth of our son. Please note that I'm a separate operation from my father. I have started out basically on my own. I'm not one who stepped into an operation with cash ready in the bank and new machinery.
I feel that anyone who is a grain farmer these days has to be an outstanding farmer, due to all the outside circumstances affecting our daily living. I can honestly say that without change in the near future for us, there'll be no new young individual farmers, including myself.
My first issue is with the lack of government support for the grain industry alone. This year we have seen China reduce its canola imports; a record world durum crop; a massive U.S. corn crop, which affects our feed barley and wheat prices; the rising dollar; GM flax in shipments; as well as a recession. Those are a few of the more pronounced problems we have. Yet the government will do nothing but take the high road with regard to NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. The American government pretty well guarantees a base price for their farmers, and yet we can't.
A young grain farmer with land payments, land rents, and machinery loans can't make ends meet with $4 grain. It's time the feds stood up for Canadian agriculture instead of stepping down on the world stage to appeal to other countries.
That leads me to our current safety net programs. What was CAIS is now AgriStability. It's the same idea, roughly, but it still doesn't work for my operation. Anyone who grows average to above average crops and is diversified will almost never get a payment. Usually the losses incurred from one crop will be overshadowed by the rise in price of another. So your margin never changes, even though you budgeted for an increase based on current prices.
When I discussed this with my local Agriculture Financial Services Corporation office, they pretty much told me I was hedging my own risk anyway, so that's why AgriStability doesn't work for me. I've heard numerous horror stories about CAIS and AgriStability asking for money back with interest and administration fees. That is why I do not enrol in these programs.
What we need is a floor price for our grain or a cash payment based on either grain contracted through permit books or through end-use companies--i.e., grain companies, feed mills, maltsters, or feedlots. The aforementioned commodity can only be sold once and not again on paper to create losses, which I do see around in other sectors. I do believe there should be a cap on programs based on gross income of a farm and farming corporation. I feel the primary producers, either corporations or family farms, who gross more than $1 million should not be eligible for certain programs. If a company is that large, the economies of scale apply, making them more efficient.
My next concern is with the Canadian Wheat Board. My father is an avid supporter, and I am to a certain extent, but these days it's hard to say whose side I'm on. Are they controlled by the government or not? How many millions of dollars of our money has been spent worthlessly on lawyers and advertising? I used to say that I seeded durum that was worth $7.50 at seeding, was worth $4.50 a bushel at harvest, and is now worth $4.00 as we speak. We can only haul 60% this year, so essentially it's now only worth $2.40 a bushel. Of course, the fertilizer and chemical costs are still the same as when we were seeding it at $7.50. Where are they to support us? They say they aren't a lobby group, but who is lobbying at the World Trade Organization?
As you can tell, the odds are stacked against the grain farmer when it comes to any type of support. Many of us sit idly by and watch as other sectors in agriculture struggle yet receive provincial and federal support. There's the Canada-Alberta BSE recovery program, the high cost of feed and fuel, the Alberta farm recovery programs, the current hog industry buyouts and loans, to just name a few. These programs have given billions of dollars of ad hoc support to the red meat sector of agriculture. This has, at least in southern Alberta, created an abundance of multi-millionaire feedlot owners on the taxpayer dime. It's also created a large resentment among neighbours between those who received money and those who didn't.
I'm not here today asking to become a millionaire with programs and payments, just enough to pay my bills and eke out an honest living. I love what I do, but at today's prices they don't pay the bills.
Thank you.