Gardeners: How have your crops done this year?

[animalfarm]

Here in Ontario we have had drought. The corn and soy crops suck, I am told, and there is no hay or pasture. The price of cattle has dropped like a stone from just 2 months ago when for once, the prices had us all hoping, and they are going lower as we are all forced to sell most of our livestock. The regulations are such that a small farmer such as my self gets no relief.

Seed for replanting fried pastures is at a premium. I personally will have to sell 2/3 of my livestock at a loss and maybe more.

Everyone will remember the big push to "free trade" way back during the Reagan/Mulroney years. How has the FTA affected your ability to sell livestock or meat into the U.S.? I mean, the commercial and private consumer down in the States is already paying more for meat, and prices are predicted to rise - common sense would say you'd be in a position to get a good price selling into that market. Your prices are low, their consumers feel they are already paying too high.

Or is it a matter of the cattle being underfed and hence affecting the quantity or quality of the beef on each animal? You mentioned regulations... are the regulations restrictive for the Ontario cattle farmer to find markets in the U.S.?

Maybe you missed where I said "small farmer". Meat cannot be sold outside of the province it has been inspected in and try finding a federal abatoir within spitting distance or anywhere else that will even consider taking the little guy's meat. Not going to happen. They buy your meat at their prices and thats that. They are not geared towards small individuals.

Trying to get cows across the border "on the hoof"; not so easy either and it requires money. By the time you jump through all the hoops, your few cows are still going at a loss. Meanwhile they are eating grass and hay that don't exist. Trying to ship to greener pastures? Who do you know? and as the price of hay goes up, so does the price of pasture and the costs to ship to them. Farmers are losing the pasture they have been renting for years because the owner can cut the 6" of weeds and fried grass and sell high. More livestock goes to auction. Shysters run amock. Next year, those pastures will be corn and soy. You cannot even buy wheat straw here as they don't hardly grow it anymore.

Again, its a numbers game and the cost is simply too high to maintain. So its either quit your day/night-24/7 job or hope you can get a day job to keep afloat just under the poverty line. The writing is on the wall.

With the prices of corn and soy so high, hay fields are being plowed under at unprecidented rates and even in a good hay year, there is no longer a lot of it available. Most goes to horse hay which doesn't raise a good cow. Short sighted mono cropping at its best. But people have to make a living. The day is coming where its vat food or Japanese poo burgers on the menu for a good portion of the population and the shame of it is, it doesn't have to be that way.

By the way, went to the store yesterday to get my heart pumping; easier then aerobics. Locally grown (Ontario) green beans are $3.00 lb. The produce isles are really low in stock as well. I doubt that there is even a one day supply on hand if people got jumpy for some reason.