I've put in two different applications for credit on buying two different farms in two different regions with two different business plans. And it was dealing with the same bank, so we don't need to use any names. The first one was actually an operating dairy farm in Saskatchewan. My business plan, based on actual numbers, was showing a $25,000 return in the first year. Yes, it was going to be a fairly tight first 10 years. The lady I was dealing with at that bank denied me because she did not feel comfortable with the risk of loaning to supply management. However, she told me she would be perfectly fine with it if I wanted to move out there and start a beef and cash crop operation. I think it was more based on numbers than it was anything else. But when you actually looked at return on investment, I was seeing a better return on that farm.
You ask if I think there's a future in agriculture, Bev. I took on a $550,000 debt in 2008. If I didn't think there was a future in agriculture I wouldn't have taken on that debt. The return on investment from that property and my rental property, not including off-farm income, was $11,000, but I could get a loan for that. That was open market commodities; that's beef and organic cash crop.
I think when it comes to beginning farmers, sometimes it's actually easier to get in on the open market industry just because you're not looking at the raw numbers.