Dairy producers debate quota cap

© AgMedia Inc.

Delegates to last week’s Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s fall policy conference voted on a motion to cap the amount of quota a producer can hold. But the motion that went to the vote ended up being different from the one first proposed

Comments

They don't need a cap on total quota owned, because the price cap on quota means nobody is going to be able to buy any quota anyway.

Besides all that, they're all ignoring the point that the only reason quota has any value at all, is because of 200% tariff barriers which could, and hopefully will, disappear overnight.

This whole story has the surreal quality of "Alice in Wonderland", and could have been easily titled "Dairy Farmers in Blunderland"

The sooner the Dairy Farmers Of Ontario come to start farming producing milk, instead of farming quota for equity, the price of milk could be more affordable, consumers would buy more, substitues would have to work harder at replacing milk,and you may have a future in the dairy industry as the world economy grows

The dairy industry wants no competition, the cost of production guaranted,control over the amount of quota there is,and expects the consumers in canada to subsidize the whole plan. Every dairyman i know is complaining about not being able to buy more quota,,some will pay almost any price to get it,,so they must have a very low cost of production. The system has been very good for ontario farmers for many years,but is tilting in the wrong direction! The farm owners that feel they should have the freedom to pick the size they need should consider moving to the U.S.,,.

The old saying goes the more i get the more i want.

It's time for the dairy industry to take a hard look at itself, if for no other reason than this story prompted four postings highly critical of the supply managed nature of dairy farming, and not as much as one in support.

And this is from agriculture itself, a sector often claiming that we're "all in it together". If even agriculture is this critical of what supply management has become, then it's time for dairy and poultry farmers to realize the end is near.

I don t agree the end is near for them.Our governments will never allow any serious threats to jeapordize supply managements future.Too many votes are at risk in Ontario and Quebec.Our markets are only a speck of fly dirt in the global picture anyways.

Government is supply management's only friend, and I mean only friend, And when government is your only friend, you're in trouble.

Governments everywhere have a long history of lying through their teeth about supporting something, right up until the very moment they announce they've changed their mind.

The real problem dairy and poultry farmers refuse to face, is that there are far more votes at risk in the business community, and even the rest of the agricultural community, by continuing to allow supply management to keep us on the trade sidelines.

I seem to recall the previous Conservative government spending a lot of time and money on lawyers to crush the non quota producers/exporters.The marketing board had the governments full attention/cooperation with that didn t they.Any political party would have done the same.The marketing boards are well organized, with deep pockets and long arms.

That was before politicians got completely surprised, and the business community got completely mad, at Canada's being shut out of the ongoing Pacific trade talks, solely because of our support of supply management.

Being denied a chance to even be at that table, got everyone's attention, and demonstrated to our government that nobody, especially our export-oriented business community, believes in, or cares about, our nonsensical "balanced position".

The longer some 4,500 Ontario dairy farmers think they can dictate how more-than 7 million Ontarions live, the bigger the crash when they fall

No politican alive today,will ever speak against supply management,,its been too good for the farmers involved. Quebec wields tremendous power on this issue, and it will get what it wants,in support of,or compensation for.Then there is Farm Credit,,who would pick up the bill for what it has loaned out for quota and its attachments? The banks followed FCC s lead on financing quota.Taking away quota value,or decreasing them much,will wipe out a large chunk of farmers equity/borrowing power.Farmers outside the always valuable land regions would be hard pressed to obtain financing. There is no easy or painless solution i m afraid.

Why should I, and every other non-supply managed farmer, plus every member of the much larger, export oriented business community, spend our lifetimes in pain simply to support the reckless borrowing by supply managed farmers, and their equally reckless lenders?

I know I speak for a large number of farmers who couldn't care less if quota, supply management, and FCC, all collapsed together. As far as we're concerned, it would look good on them all, and it couldn't happen soon enough, or to a greedier bunch.

Furthermore, I know that at least one major Credit Union shares the above views completely, and are chomping at the bit waiting for FCC, quota values, and quota-driven land values, to collapse to the point where they can lend on sound banking principles once again.

The only reason they need so much equity is to buy the high priced quota. Who would care who picks up the tab for FCC it was the Canadian tax payer that paid to have it started in the first place.

The article states there are 4218 dairy farms or licenses in Ontario. That doesn't add up to many votes. In our townsip the number of dairy farms is only 4% of what it was 30 years ago. The industry has been "canibalising" itself for years, at an ever increasing rate. If anybody is keeping track, I don't think they'll find that many votes, especially in comparison to non-supply management.

If you take a trip to the States you wil find the price of retail milk away from the border is the same as here or more and the farmer is only getting half as much for the milk. They also farm the mailbox as the U.S. government has a huge farm bill to hand out money . I know some people want to get bigger but our Milk Board is letting us down as the population has gone up our market has not. The board should tell staff they should have an increase every year because if the management of Coke or Pepsi stayed stagnant they would not be there as long as our uppr management

I produce milk, I am proud to call myself a dairy farmer. What I am NOT proud of is the fact that DFO believes they can solve any challange or issue facing the industry by simply increasing our within quota levy fees!! The previous writer said it best, our population continues to increase, milk consumption Does NOT. In my opinion, DFO has lost touch with the real issues and is run by a group of people who wouldn't know what a cow looks like if it landed on their lawn!

the only issue DFO cares about, is keeping quota values high so that the people who acquired quota for nothing, or next to nothing, can retire as multi-millionaires. There is no other issue, real, or imagined.

They can lower the price of quota to 1 $ a kilo that does not mean they are going to get all the quota they want. For one thing you got to lower the price they get for milk and sell it in the stores for a lot less than they get now to get any increase in quota. No one is going to buy any more dairy produce just because they lower the quota price or take it away from the farmers,the farmers,processors and stores has to work together to lower the prices consumers pay not just one group..

It's rather contradictory to expect farmers, processors, and retailers to work together to lower milk prices, when it's only farmers keeping them high in the first place.

Lower consmer demand, and high quota prices, are both the direct result of high farm-gate milk prices, and nothing else.

Every articles that i seen or read in all the farm magazines is when the quotas went the farmers recieve a lot less for their milk but the price in the stores still remain high so go figure?????

Post new comment

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
Image CAPTCHA
We welcome thoughtful comments and ideas. Comments must be on topic. Cheap shots, unsubstantiated allegations, anonymous attacks or negativity directed against people and organizations will not be published. Comments are modified or deleted at the discretion of the editors. If you wish to be identified by name, which will give your opinion far more weight and provide a far greater chance of being published, leave a telephone number so that identity can be confirmed. The number will not be published.