Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee members.
It's a tough act to follow, Carter. Great job. By Carter's standpoint, too, as of this year I'm no longer a young farmer. I turned 36 this year.
Before I get going, I also would like to, for the record, again thank the committee for allowing me the opportunity, but also for being here in what is basically a unique part of Saskatchewan. It's almost dead centre—north, south, east, west—in the grain-growing region, so it's kind of a unique part of the world.
I currently sit as a board of director with Farm Credit Canada, and I want to make sure that my statements and comments here are strictly those of a farmer and a businessman and have nothing to do with Farm Credit--for the record.
Also, for my family, who may be watching this on the Internet, and staff, thanks for holding down the fort. We're hitting the field today with three drills, getting the crop in the ground, but I took the time out because it's very important for me to be here.
The one thing I would like to start off by saying is that there are a lot of different business models out there. I have to apologize. I came in kind of at the tail end of the last presenters. There has been some really good information given. But there are business models out there making money. There's also one thing that'll drive this whole thing, and that's profitability. I think we've heard this on some of the other things, and I think, Mr. Hoback, you had that comment.
It's a very capital-intensive business; we all know that. There are models that are allowing young farmers to get in. Now, first, how I got into the farm is my parents were on the line to get me in. And if you don't have a viable farm today to hand over to the next generation, in my perspective, it's very tough. You can't pick a kid off the street and say, “Here's $1 million, go farm.” It's not to say that I like that, but that is the reality of the business: if you don't have a viable farm today, it's very tough to get in.
I see Layton and Carter side by side, and I can rest assured that Layton, like my dad, Ron, got his sons into the business. And that's what I intend to do with my son as well.
How it can be transferred: there are models out there to suggest that. In our case, we have a larger farm. We have five staff, who we've brought into the business. They're all farm kids.
The other thing we have to worry about is that with a farm like mine, and in some of the rhetoric I see in some of the publications about corporate farming, there isn't anything more family about my operation. It's a fourth-generation farm. My great-grandfather broke the soil. I have three brothers, my parents, and I have four staff. They're all part of my farm. Their ability to get into the business is by partnering. There are models out there to say that this is how it can be done, if you don't have the equity to get in.
When I was 15 years old, I wanted to buy the Edmonton Oilers and bring back Wayne Gretzky. There are kids out there with a dream to farm, and sometimes—I'm not saying I agree with it—it's not possible. It's very tough.
The other thing is—and I don't say that I agree or disagree—farms are getting larger. This is the reality. This trend not only is going to continue, it's going to escalate, and I have some reasons for that. Some of the points that Carter brought up are very important. One is quality of life. If you have to work 24/7 to keep this thing going, you really are going to get worn out quickly.
When you get to a larger farm, you can specialize, and when you can specialize, then your workload can be shifted. That is one of the reasons why large farms don't think they're the enemy. It is a business model that can work. In my opinion, when you look at the way technology is going, this is not going to stop. We're going to see bigger farms.
The other thing I would like to see for young farmers who are coming in...I know there was a real scare with losing the right to patent a plant cell a few years back when I was at the canola association. If that would have changed.... The profitability on my farm, and in this part of the world, is based on the canola crop. Without the canola crop and investment, I wouldn't have a business plan right now. That's the way the markets are. So the message I would like to make to you as legislators is please, please, keep a good environment for regulatory applications. I think that was also brought up by some of the past speakers. Innovation is our key for young farms. It's not low cost; it's being able to leverage our smarts in this country. Without that, we cannot compete, as Carter had said, with some of these offshore countries. Leveraging our smarts is what we have.
The other thing is managing risk. Risk is the biggest thing I manage every day, and it's a calculated risk. CAIS, for a lot, doesn't work; for some it does. In our case, CAIS was a lifesaver. In the frost of 2004, when it went to minus 7 on August 14, CAIS saved me.
For a lot of business models that didn't have a reference margin for whatever reason, it was too late, as Carter said.
I'm not here to pick holes, but AgriStability is a huge program, and please deliver as timely and efficiently as you can.
The other thing on delivering risk is commodities. We need stable markets. I know there are some releases as of late where we have some pretty big wins in some of the trade for the commodities I grow, and I encourage you as legislators to think of us all the time in this part of the world; it is so important for us to access markets.
As one final note that I would like to end on with commodities...there is a lot of debate on the Wheat Board. In my view, it's not much more than marketing. We are going to get slammed in the coarse grain industry very quickly. Corn yields will double within 10 years. In Canada, if we do not get the genetic potential to compete with wheat and barley on a per acre basis with other crops, we will be slammed. As it turns out now, on my farm, there are multinationals that are coming in and developing cold-tolerant corn varieties. If we continue this debate over the monopoly and all these things, I'll be growing corn more successfully within the next 10 years. I'll be forced to. It's coming.
The best thing the Wheat Board can do for those of us who don't like it is to continue on the pace they're on, because they're becoming redundant. One speaker said not to grow it. That is exactly what is happening. We cannot use that marketing agency. We want the same rights and freedoms as people in eastern Canada have, that I have with my canola, flax, oats, lentils, and peas. If we don't have that, it will be redundant and we will be growing corn.
With that, I'd like to turn it over, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much for the opportunity.