aj said:
JIT...the USA sent a lot of what I consider to be cowards to Canada from roughly 1968-1973. They had strong beliefs against the war but ultimately they were cowards. It doubled the courage of Canada by 3 fold. You had a 7 million dollar operation left to you. You are down to the last .5 million. I guess thats admirable in some ways. it seems like to me you are going backwards a little bit.
I like your math aj... you say the US deserters doubled the courage of Canada by 3 fold. Interesting math you use. I hope you are not insinuating that I supported the draft dodgers who came to Canada during that time. I do not know any of these people, but if I did, I probably would have helped send them back to your country.
Actually if you want to know the truth, unlike most people, I have actually paid for my farm twice, and I was not left an operation of any kind... at least yet. In 1989, we lost 523 head from our farm, when CFIA ( Canadian Food Inspection Agency) moved in and destroyed every animal on our farm except for our dog. We were told we had a brucellosis reactor, so over a period of two days we pulled blood from every animal. All the cattle were destroyed the next day and two days after they were all dead, we found out that every animal had tested negative including the suspected positive animal.Several months later, I found out that the suspected positive animal had parts of her body sent to most every lab in North and South America ( including the Foreign Disease Control Center in Atlanta) as well as Europe, and in every case, the test results were negative. The animal suspected had been sold to a breeder in North Carolina, and this was found when she was export tested. She was a brucellosis vaccinate and whether it was her titre that set this gong show off or not, I will never know. As a result of our herd being destoyed over 10,000 head across Canada were tested, all with negative results ( cattle were tested in every province across Canada as we had sold cattle to all provinces in the year previous to this happening) . If I ever write a book, there will be more than a few chapters on this event, and if anyone should believe in conspiracy theories, it should be me.
To make a long story shorter, this almost put us down as we lost over $400,000 just in the valuation the government officials placed on the value of our herd. My valuation was considerably higher than this. It was the 75th anniversary of our herd, and I do not know what valuation one would place on 3 generations of building a herd and the genetics involved. We only received a small fraction of what our herd was worth simply because the Canadian government had not looked at the maximum compensation rates for government ordered depopulation for over 20 years and it was totally outdated. I am not looking for any sympathy from anyone, but I am simply stating some facts. I think I have endured more adversity than most will ever see in 3 lifetimes. The only thing that saved us, was that I had always maintained no debt on my purebred herd, and we used our purebred herd as security on our feedlot cattle. It was also fortunate that we had just shipped out another 400 head or we would have lost over 900 head when this happened... and that would have finished us.
So, as a result, I had to refinance my farm for a second time. I paid for it once and had just got clear title on it, and I then had to refinance it again, and pay for it a second time. Right now I am 12 months from making my last payments on buying my farm for the second time.... and when that is completed I will not owe one red cent to anyone on earth. Quite frankly, I do not have any regrets as to what life has given me. I have had the opportunity to do exactly what I wanted to do in my life, and I have enjoyed it.I maybe did not get the opportunity to do it exactly in the order i would have preferred, but such is life. The only regret I have with what happened in this situation was watching what it did to my parents as they lost absolutely everything they worked for in their lives, in a few short hours. My mom died 4 years after this event, and looking back, her health problems started shortly after this happened. My dad is now 85 and he is still my partner in this place, and he still works here on a daily basis. Part of him died that day, but he continues on and he has allowed me to build this place back and he has been a great help. At 85, he can still outwork me on some days.
So, just to set the record straight, I have not been left any kind of farm, at least yet. I may inherit his part of the farm if he passes, but most days I expect he will outlive me. Quite frankly, I am quite proud of how we have struggled through this adversity and built a viable operation again.I am really looking forward to having every cent of income coming straight into my pocket, without having to turn around and pay a lender. I normally do not comment on this, but as usual, your comments are tasteless and totally uncalled for. Again, you have made comments on something that you know little or nothing about, and on something that is none of your concern or business. I will be the first to say, that I have made lots of mistakes.... probably more than many others, but I truly hope I have learned something from every mistake I have made. My net worth will never be near 7 million unless I get lucky and will the lottery jackpot, but right now it is considerably higher than at any previous time in my life. Looking back, I have no regrets as to the road I took to get where I am today. There were many days along the way, that it would have been very easy to simply walk away and take one of the good jobs I have been offered from time to time through my life. Right now, I can truthfully say that I am pleased with the choices I have made, and life is getting better every day.
I was not going to even comment, as I felt that aj's comments here should make their own statement as to the person he is, but I decided I should set the record straight as I do not want anyone to assume anything that is not correct. I hope I have made my position on this subject clear enough.
I do not want to hijack this important thread so I would appreciate no comments on what I have written. I maybe should have PM's aj with these comments, but I thought it was important to set the record straight to anyone who read his below the belt comments.
Again, I wish to send my condolences to the families and friends of the man who lost his life and whom this thread was started. I hope everyone will remember to use common sense and proper caution when working with livestock. Working with livestock is a great way to learn life lessons, build character and family ties, but please remember the important words in the original comments in this thread.
