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This article was published 26/1/2010 (4540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Kerry Arksey says government neglects the cattle industry.
Langruth rancher Kerry Arksey handed out beef to passersby in front of the Legislative Building Tuesday afternoon to call attention to what he says is government neglect of the cattle industry.
The 55-year-old fourth-generation producer has sold off virtually all his cattle and plans to exit an industry he's been in all his life. In exchange for the beef -- he had 400 pounds worth in individually wrapped packages in his truck -- Arksey was accepting donations for the Manitoba Farm and Rural Stress Line, a service he has used.
"I have lost $200,000, plus a couple of hundred thousand dollars in equity," he said. "If I carry on any longer, I'll have to start mortgaging land."
Arksey said federal and provincial governments have failed to help cattle producers, who have been reeling financially ever since the BSE infection crisis in 2003, when the U.S. closed its borders to Canadian beef. The borders later reopened.
Government programs aimed at providing assistance have missed the mark, Arksey said, adding that the final straw was a feed assistance measure last year that paid him only half of what was promised. "I spent $9,000 on feed. I should have been entitled to $7,000 or $8,000. They sent me a cheque for $3,900," he said.
Sheila Mowat, general manager of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association, said Arksey's situation is far from unique. The association doesn't keep statistics on the number of producers who have left the industry in recent years, but estimates that the number of cattle herd liquidation sales has doubled over the past two years.
Most of the problems ranchers face -- from a high Canadian dollar and high feed costs to trade protectionism and onerous regulations not faced by foreign competitors -- are out of their control, Mowat said. The association is lobbying federal and provincial governments for several measures, including price insurance similar to that offered to crop growers, improved hay and pasture insurance to guard against feed shortages, and special payments recognizing the industry's role in protecting wetlands and fragile soil.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Arksey and his wife Sharron met with Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers. Afterwards, the minister congratulated the couple for "drawing attention to a real problem."
He also pledged to improve programs for cattle producers, noting that the industry's troubles will be discussed at a federal-provincial agriculture ministers meeting in Toronto next week.
Meanwhile, Kerry Arksey hopes to get winter work in the Alberta oilfields or maybe the Yukon and come home to his 1,600-acre farm in the summers.
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
