HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1975-07-31, Page 19A CHANCE TO TALK - County councillors got out of the meeting rooms last
Wednesday and met together socially with past county officials and their families.
The occasionwas the annual County Council picnic at the Lions Park in Seaforth.
From left in background are Doug McNeila nd Ralph Jewell, Colborne, Warden
Anson McKinely, Jim -Hayter, Goderich and Reeve Jack McCutcheon, Brussels.
P .(staff Photo)
FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTY - The annual County Council picnic-at the
Lions Park b rought councillors and former councillors -here from allover the
county. Sitting together in the picnic pavilion were, right, former.. Reeve Roy
Pattison of West Wawanosh, Reeve Elgin Thompson of Tuckersmith, Reeve Bill
Elston of Morris and an unidentified man. (Staff Photo)
Your Texaco man.
He delivers.
Any time.
Your Texaco man
knows that when
you Call for fuel
and lubricants
you want
them right
away. Now.
Because
time is
money and
you're not
in business
to waste
either.
Neither is he. That's
why he'll go out of
his way to deliver
his products.
Your Texaco
man. Call
him and
he'll deliver
the finest
fuel and
( lubricants
money
can buy.
Any time.
ROBERT DINSMORE
Seaforfh 527-1224
Farm Services.
Ontario bean growers, dealers
and users seem to be closing
44 ranks and joining together to fight
a proposed hydro plant. in Huron
County. '
To this end, the Ontario Bean
Producers' Marketing Board
OBPMB, held a 'Ibeqn tour" last
Tuesday to educate Inembers of
the media on the importance of
the Huron County bean crop.
The tour began in its London
office, where everyone got a
pamphlet' of information as well
r as a button stating "Be A Bean
Booster." ,
Besides the media personel,
directors of the OBPMB, five
representatives from the four
major canners, representatives
from the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture and Food, and Dr.
Robert Holmes, MP, Lambton-
4 Kent and MPP Jack Riddell, from
Huron attended the tour.
More than a year ago, Ontario
Hydro published a report that
Proposed a long-range power
plant be located in the Blake area.
As of yet, it isn't certain
whether the plant will be nuclear
or fossil fuel, but either .way,
OBPMB feels this spells disaster
to county bean crops.
The OBPMB with the support
of the Ontario Bean Dealers
Association submitted a brief to
the Ontario cabinet when it sat in
London.
In the brief, it .claimed it had
the support of 3,500 white and
yellow bean producer's in Ontario
White beans are highly suscept-
ible to air pollution which could
be caused by the power plant as
well as by the surrounding
urbanization which would accom-
pany the building of the Plant
The group had a tour of the
W. G. Thompson and Sons
operation in Hensall. As John
Hazlitt, a director of the OBPMB.
said "this was to show the kind of
money invested in the bean
industry. As he put it, the plant is
worth `millions of millions'."
SEAFORTH BEANS BEST
Evelyn Simmons, sales mana-
ger for the Ontario Bean Growers
Co-op said the Seaforth area ha'S
the healthiest and best yielding
bean plants in the County and
even while others are having a
bad season, they still manage to
produce a crop.
'I .She said the Seaforth plant will
be expanding this year, with four
new silos going up, and the
creation of perhaps about three
new jobs.
Huron County produces about
40 per cent of theprovince's bean
crop, exports about 75 per cent
and Don Pullen, Huron County
Agriculture representative said
84 per'cent of the land is suitable
for the most well managed
cropping systems.
FUTURE OF HURON
The OBPMB seems to have
taken a bite of a real issue, the
future of Huron County. The
hydro plants represent the trend
to urbanize and industrialize a
9,9144.y whickhas been tradition-..
ally agricultural.
The Ontario bean production is
worth about $2 million and the
total acreage has more than
doubled in the last ten years..
'peter Hannam, an executive
member of •the Ontario Federa-
tion of Agriculture, and a soybean
grower from the Guelph area was
guest speaker.
Mr. Hannam said: "We now
face the unique and unsettling
prospect that one energy supplier
Ontario Hydro, is planning the
future of the province.
A projected need for power,
results in building more 'plants,
which in turn causes industrial-
ization, and a further need for
more power.
The effect will be loss of
productive farmland. "It is mere-
ly a question of whether we want
to come close to self-sufficiency in
food production in Ontario or rely
on foreign food sources," he said.
LESS CHOICE
Mr.'Hannam said agriculture
has less location choices than
other industries and he soggested
smaller power plants be built
within cities or up• north.
He said the James Bay project
in Northern Quebec is being built
to supply power to United States,
why can't Ontario hook into that
system?
MPP Jack Riddell said he has
taken a stand against any nuclear
power plant in Huron County.
He said if people invite indust-
ry into the county to the detriment
of agriculture, they will be
making a big mistake.
Mr. Riddell predicted that the
location of a power plant could be
used as "red-herring" this com-
ing election, but he said he didn't
think power important, if people
don't have enough food.
Mr. Hazbitt said during the
tour a power plant could mean to
many people, more jobs ,and
higher wages, but then it could
competitively price the farmer,out
of business , by increasing land
prices and wages.
-Jack Sant, a representative
from Libby, McNeill and Libby of
Canada said: "Progress will
occur, but not at the expense of
prime agricultural land."
Larry, Inglis, repregentative
from Canadian Canner Ltd, said
his company was concerned about
the threat to the bean crops as
they are a large buyer of beans.
POWER VS. BEANS
The OBPMB is preparing to
fight the power plant on the issue
of protecting prime agricultural
land when it submits its brief at
the Porter Commission this .fall.
As Mr. Hannam said: "Hydros
plans threaten the viability of
agriculture in.s Ontario because
there are no feasbile alternatives
to producing food on good soil in a
good climate."
"We cannot encourage the
'destruction of good farm land and
we cannot sacrifice important
segments of our industry such as
sugalr beets or white beans to
short-sighted planners," he said.
I
kr
FOR All YOUR LUMBER & BUILDING SUPPLY NEEDS
OIJ Ci
picnic in
Sea forth
Bean tour
MarshaIls opposition to power plant
Members and former inembers
of Huron County Council and
their families bad their annual get
together at the Lions Park in
Seaforth last Wednesday. A good
crowd sat down, to a picnic supper
after a prograi of races and
.games and time to chat. "
Winners of the events were:.
Boys 5 and under- Larry
Bunking, Jan Davidson; Girls 5
and under- Colleen Miller, Hea-
ther Tinney; Boys 7 and under=
Mark. Morrissey, Ian MacKinnon.
Girls 7 and under- Angela
Miller, Colleen Miller;' Boys 9 and.
under- Bill Jewitt, Mark Morris-
sey; Girls 9- and under- Carla
Thompson, Barb Morrissey. Air
Boys 11 and under-
Brian Shortreed, Shephen Riddell
girls 11 and under- Caroline •
Miller, Jill McCutcheon; Boys 13
and under- Dave Alexander,
Brian Shortreed; Girls 13 and
under- Shelley McLeod, Caroline
Miller.
County Councillers' Timed
Walking Race- Joe, Miller. Past
Wardens' Timed Walking Race-
Wm. J. Elston. Past Wardens'
Wives Timed Walking Race- Mrs.
H. Johnston. '
County Councillors' Wives
Timed Walking-Race- Mrs. Allan
Campbell. Girls' Kick the Slipper
(under 21). 1st: Donna Riddell,
2nd: Connie Murray. Ladies' Kick
the Slipper (21 and over)- 1st:
Marylou McKinley, 2nd: Mrs. J.
Riddell.
Boys Draw (under 15)-' Paul
Jewitt, Mark Morrissey. Girls'
Draw (under 15)- Laurie , Hayter,
Colleen Miller.
Current year's County Council-
lors' Draw- Joe Kerr, Clifford
Bray. Current years' County
Councillors' Wives Draw- Mrs. R..
Gibson, Mrs. A. Campbell.
Men's Draw Prize (15' and
over)- Don S. Pullen, John Manly.
Woniens' Draw Prize (15 and
over)- Mrs. Jack Reavie, Mrs.
Lorne Murray.
Olest Person- Arthur Nicholson
Youngest Person- Lee Gibbings
and Supper Draw- Hugh Manly.
Old sayings die hard.
Such as: It's like looking for a needle in a haystack,'
Did you ever try to find a needle in a haystack? To, be more
specific, when wits the last time you saw a haystack? I mean the
old-fashioned, piled up haystack, not the pilesof baled hay on
farms today.
Few young people have but these old-fashioned methods have
a way of coming back to haunt progre armers. Experiments
in the last decade may se arance of the
now-conventional hay balers. +matter how easy implement
manufacturers make it, hayin is a long, tough, back-breaking,
finger-blistering chore.
Bales of hay can weigh between30 and 70 pounds. By the end of
the first day of haying, they seem to weigh twice as much. A
number of systems to improve the lot of the farmer during the
haying season have been tried but manual handling, even with
bale throwers, has, not been eliminated.
In addition, farmers have been confronted with a severe
shortage of reliable farm labour and increased costs for the
labour they have been able to get.
Although tainted with a brush that colours them averse to
change, many farmers have been looking at highly mechanized,
one-man systems for harvesting and handling hay.
The ideal system has not yet been devised but implement
manufaturers are coming close and one of these systems uses --
you guessed it -- the old-fashioned stacking System. One of the
fore-runners in the experiments has been the McKee Bros. Ltd.
firm right in the heart of southwestern Ontario.
This new system utilizes a forage harvester -- shredder, cutter
or blower -- and a stack-forming unit. The stacker is simply a
large forage wagon into which the hay is compressed. The
formed stacks can be unloaded and even reloaded for removal to
where the stock is located.
McKees have perfected the system to the point where the
company 'has expanded four or five times in recent , years.
Although the idea has not been accepted to any great degree in
Ontario yet, record sales have been chalked up „in the plains
states across the border.
One of the biggest drawbacks to acceptance in Ontario is the
cost. Depending .on the system, the farmer must spend between
xxisitor
Your provincial government has recently
established the Ontario Beef Calf income
Stabilization Program—a voluntary program
designed to:
• stabilize the income of recognized beef
calf producers in Ontario;
• encourage a continuing steady supply of
Ontario-produced beef stocker calves.
It will establish a floor on the amount of
money a producer may expect to receive in
years of poor calf prices.
APPrOCiallii4 fri Bob Timor, PO 267; Elmira .
$7,000 and $29,0Q0 for equipment. Uniess'thai. tArriler!ean. seta:
great deal of custom work, he'll be a long tinielbaliti#400aSelf
out, if you'll porde*, the pun. Farms in the 'states. arc usually
larger than those is Ontario.
However, with the increased costs.of feed grain ..anda greater
emphasis on forage crops, the stacking systemVIII Catch on hOte
in a few years.
Another system being tried is called the macrobale in which
large, circular bales are made. These bales weigh between one •
and 3,000 pounds and, naturally, have to be handled by
machines with a front-end loader or a bale handler or a bale
carrier. ,Big problem, though, is storage. The handsome,
much-used bank barns of Ontario do not lend themselves to this •
method because 'a large, single-storey space is needed.
Any method is an improvement over handling bales. And the
bales are certainly an improvement 'over the older, methods. I
remember helping out Ran my uncle's farm years ago,dnring the
summer. A buckrake was used to move the loose hay to the
horse-drawn wagon. The nets were put down on the wagon every
foot. At the barn, the hay was gathered in the nets and carried
along the track into the mow.
The nets were opened with a trip rope and the loose hay
dropped. Operating"this trip rope was important. The old farm
dog followed the youngsters all over the place. Unfortunately, he
alWays.followed us into the barn. At least a half-a-dozen times,
, the old fool got himself snarled in the trip rope ' and the
hay was dropped in inappropriate places.
Usually, right on uncle's head.
He finally kicked us out of the barn *until- each load was
cleared. '
Like I say, any method that can be so easily foiled by a couple
of kids and a stupid farm' dog is easily improved.
A Tradition
v Fair Prices and..
Personal Service
This is what Ontario is doing
to stabilize the income of
beef calf producers.
Every producer of beef calves in the
province (including cream shippers) is eligi-
ble to participate in this program, which
forms the first part of an overall. Farm In-
come Stabilization policy. You can partici-
pate, by contracting to join the prograM for
a five-year period and by paying an annual
fee for every eligible beef cow you enroll in
the program. Your Ontario government will
also contribute to the program.
For 1975, your fee will be $5 oer cow,
however, for this year fees are deferred
until payments to producers are made. The
provincial government contracts to make
grant per cow to participating producers if
the average market price for Ontario-
produced stocker calves falls below the
stabilized price of 50C per pound in 1975.
Payments will be made in December or as
soon as possible thereafter.
The enrollment' period for eligible produc-,
ers in 1975 ends AuguSt 31.
Complete information on the program, as
well as enrollment form and contracts, are
available at your local office of the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Ministry of Agriculture and Food
William Ste..zrt, Minister
igsn...neuna
Government of Ontario
William Davis, Premier