Cattlemen wrangle with cash crunch

Ken Johnston
editorial@RainyRiverRecord.com

A cash crunch was a topic herded onto the floor at the annual meeting of the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association (RRCA) in Stratton last Wednesday.
Long time cattle producer Ralph Hunsperger raised the issue of payment after a cattle sale. In the past big buyers came to the Stratton sales barn with a blank cheque in hand. They would then fill it out that day and the RRCA could pay producers that day.
However that policy has changed and now the buyers must go back to their operations and issue a cheque from home. That means there is as much as a five day delay in getting enough cash to pay local producers.
RRCA president Tom Morrish said that larger sales barns have the assets on hand to pay producers immediately. “We only have three sales a year and do not have the assets to get a $1 million line of credit to tie us over.”
Last year the RRCA had nearly $2 million in sales go through the sales barn in Stratton.
Another problem tied to the delay is the fact that the local sales are on a Saturday. Morrish said, “If we had it on a weekday it would speed things up,” noting that the weekend adds two more non-banking days to the delay.
While there seemed to be no one pushing for the sales to be moved to a weekday, Morrish said, “The (payment) problem is a high item on our agenda to get resolved before the next sale.”