No, which is why I am a long way away from my comfortable element.
After AgriStability did not work, and we had a year like this, I started looking around, and I couldn't believe that cow-calf producers could be left out in the cold.
Our organizations, for one thing, should be taking care of the whole livestock sector. I don't understand why they didn't look at the cow-calf producers and say, “Wow, those guys at the bottom are in a lot of trouble; we'd better do something.” I was told, and I stand by whatever I say, that they cannot go into the agriculture minister's office and criticize, or they cannot criticize publicly or openly, because if they do, the door will be closed to them. They have a silent agreement that if the agriculture minister's office does something good, they praise him, and if they do something bad, they don't praise him; they don't say anything.
For every animal we sell at auction, there are $2 deducted from that cheque for each animal. One dollar goes to our local organization, which is the Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association, and one dollar goes to the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. I can't apply to have that $2 not taken off my cheque. Really, the organization has done nothing for me.
There is a fairly large cry from cow-calf producers, saying, what's the sense of letting them have that $2 off every animal we sell when they don't do anything? They will not speak, and they say they can't. They say their hands are tied. They say they're in caca up to here if they say anything. The agriculture ministers just won't let them back in.