The Huron Expositor, 1976-05-06, Page 21N
A
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SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED DIFFICULTY — "New producers should have
expected difficulty in getting established," Ken 'McKinnon (left), Vice-Chairman
of the Ontario M ilk Marketing Board, told a meeting of over 125 concerned dairy
farmers in Blyth Thursday. Larry Hunter, Ontario Milk Marketing fieldman, and
Ian Kennedy, Milk Industry Branch, look on while McKinnon explains the farmers'
position.
Dairy farmers say they are
olitical. footballs
for export market
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Report from. Queen's Park
Dairy farmers protest
quota reductions
'4'
—m On Libs are a actsted by BobBobIrottar. Ektal• Rd:, ElnorsTObt, N3B 2C7
INVESTED 80,000 Paul PasSmbre, an Usborne father's dairy herd at the encouragement of the
.Township dairy farmer built this new dairy barn at an Ontario government. Now he faces possible
investment of approximately $80,000, expanding.his . bankruptdy.
Huron will
fly own flag
BY Shirley J. Keller '
With any luck at all, the County
of Huron will be flying its own
ensign by the first of July this
year.
The property committee of
Huron County Council reported
Thursday it has ordered 114
ensigns - 27" x 54" at a total cost
of $2,078.22, from Gamester
Advertising Service Limited.
The blue and 'white ensign
bearing the county crest and the
trillium was the design agreed
upon following a flag contest in
Huron last year. The flag
manufacturer has modified the
design somewhat to facilitate
production. ,
The flags will be for sale
tIrroughoid the. tOurity for abOut
$20 each.
The now-defunct food prices review board has been se-
verely criticized by farmers and 'farm organizations for
the final report which tried to find a villain in the food-price
chain.
The final report of the board before most of those who
were working for it joined the anti-inflation board, includ-
ing Beryl Plumptre, suggested in strong terms that farm
marketing boards were the villains.
Not so. said farmers, Not so, said Eugene Whelan and
Bill Newman„ the federal and provincial ministers of agri-
culture. „
There just ain't no villain unless you can blame world-
wide inflation, they said. But R.G. Wirick. a research di-
rector for the food prices board and now on . the staff of
the anti-inflation board, maintains that "the marketing
board option i to stability in farm incomes) has little, if
anything, to recommend it."
I *disagree with Mr. Wirick although I do not accept
marketing boards without a few reservations. For instance
I do not like complete production control because this im-
plies quotas and quotas have a way of beconiing valuable.
Witness what happened in milk quotas in Ontario until the
milk marketing board put a freeze on the sale price of
quotas.. ,
Those quota prices tend to be integrated into cost of
production and that, it seems to me. is an unfair burden to
place on the consumer because the consumer must pay
more for the product. Policing the quota system can be-_
come an extremely costly procedure, Just ask the. people
in charge of quotas for the Canadian Egg. Marketing Agency..
Marketing boards have their drawbacks.
But until something better comes along, farmers should
pull out all the stops to reinforce them. They need to fight
back when boards. are criticized.
Mr. Wirick proved in his report to the old food prices
board that farmers are no poorer, on average, than any
other Canadian. He says that, in 1970, the average farmer
was making $2.300 less than'tiie average Canadian worker.
But in 1973, the average farmer made $4.000 more' than
the average Cana`clianworker.
Therefore, Mr. Wirick concludes, the average farmer in
Canada is doing fine„ thank yen,
What bothers, ine is something 'that ,has Oen said, before
in this corner. .Why shouldn't most farmers in Onada,
particularly in Ontario, make 1141‘,0411 the average car'
nadian? The average farmer has one ,heiNva .investment
in land, buildings and eqnipmgnt that Ihe average calla,
than worker does not have to lay out to pialce4tiow;
The average Canadian farmer fps an itiVegrnent Of at
least $100.000, probably much mere, in his, operatkkil which
other workers do not have. Is it asking too inueb, for That
farmer to get a little return on his investment?
'omething else that should be taken, into consideration,
to d. is that a great many farmers depend on members
of their families for much of the labor on the farm. IL
really amounts to slave labor, in the long run, for some
family members. They get little compensation for their
toil. And that is another reason why so many young people
have left the farm. They worked like slaves for years siw-
ply because the returns to the farmer were not great enough
to pay them.
When- an opportunity to make some money arose, they
took it. They thumbed their noses at the Old Man and left,
Mr. Wirick's statistics proved that farmers are not poor.
He proved they make just as .much money as the average
worker. But is that enough?
Farmers have to contend with the vagaries of the mar-
ket place. They have a tremendous outlay in capital. And
of far greater importance. they have to contend with the
weather. They take all kinds of risks every day throughout
the planting, growing and harvesting seasons that would
make your average Canadian worker cringe.
Farmers do not punch a clock. They don't gather around
the water coolers or the coffee lounge or call in sick three
days a Month.
If 'Mr. Wiriek's figures are correct — and . I'm in no
position to doubt them — then farmers are making as
much as the,,average Canadian workers. But is it not rea-
sonable to suggest that they should make more than the
average because of-the investmentthey have-and -the-risks
they must take?
(By John.Miner)
".The future though may be too
far. away for those dairy farmers
who have to meet bank payments
now and had expected to cover
their investment by their
increased production... ,
One such case is Albert
• Whiting ' of R.R.#I , Ethel. Mr
Whiting said that because of the
15 percent cut he would have to
sharply decrease his herd just
after he had built it up to 40 cows,
investing from $35;000, to $40,000
in the operation.
"There will be- a shortage next
year and I will have to build it up.
The government is making a
roller coaster out of it! Now I can't
• pay the principal on the loans
which I took out, specifically
because of the Ontario
government's policy, I'm facing
bankruptcy because the govern-
ment isn't keeping its word,"
said Whiting.
Whiting has calculated that the
15% cut will mean a loss of $3,500
• in income.
"I'd like to take a can of milk
and dump it over the whole
country", said Mr. Whiting ,,who
was detained by police and later
released after and warned in
Toronto for dumping milk outside
the Ontario legislature last week.
*'We are just political footballs for
the export market with industry
getting the benefit."
Alice Burt of R.R.#1, Ethel, is
another dairy farmer who will be
hurt because of expansion.`Over
the last two years the Burts have
built up their 'dairy herd and are
now caught.
"This month we are
overshipping by 10,000 lbs. and
next month we ,will be over-
shipping by t5,000 lbs. In order
for us to stay within the quota we
will have to cut our herd size by
half or dump our milk." she said.
Mrs. Burt has no intention of
taking the situation sitting down.
"By the time I get finished
everyone in this country is going
to know what happened,." she
said.
She said she planned to form a
feminine delegation and go 'to
Ottawa but she refused to say
when they would go.
"They are not going to have a
chance to put up barricades on us
like they did in Toronto".
Mrs. Burt said prOducers aren't
allowed to. advertise, but that
several people around' Ethel
intended to put up signs with just
"Surplus" written on them and
this would mean that anyone
could drop in and obtain milk free.
or leave some money behind.
Mrs. Burt said that the Ontario
Milk Marketing Boardd—Should
raise the price of 'butter, since
they were losing that tnarket
anyway, and lower the priCe of
skim milk powder.
"That way the surplus will be
taken care of." •
Paul Passmore is a 23-year-old
dairy farmer in Usborne Township
who also greatly expanded his
dairy, operation in the last year.
Mr. Passmore built a new dairy
barn at an investment of
approximately $80,000 and
expanded his herd size from his
father's original fifty cows to a
hundred at a cost of another
$50,000. Now he has his back to
the wall with not much room to
turn.
"Why should the industrial
milk producers take the brunt of
,the problem. Why aren't the fluid
producers being penalized? Only
80 percent of their milk goes to
fluid and the other 20 percent
goes into industrial. If you took
away the milk from the fluid
which goes into industrial there
wouldn't be the surplus problem.
I think the Ontairo Milk
Marketing Board should be called
the Ontario fluid Milk Producers
marketing Board", Mr. Passmore
says.
'Mr. McKinnon of the Milk
Marketing Board claims the
board did consider cutting back
those who hadlluid quota as well
but decided against it.
"Pe ople are going into group
one (fluid) to protect themselves
against such situations as the.
present one, We could see no
reason to 'discriminate. against
them.".
'Mr. Passmore says that it will
be very difficult for him to obtain
any more quota so that he
wouldn't have tq cut back his herd
drastically.
"Unless you know somebody
who is 'selling out y ou can't get
quota. It's going to be who you
know, not how hard you work or
what you know', he said,
A lot of industrial producers
would be willing to take less if
they could sell it all", said
Passmore. You just can't switch a
cow on and off..
"I wish a hundred times every
day that I had never built that
barn. Dairy farming is hard
enough without .having to worry
about selling the damn stuff.,"
By Murray Gaunt
Harry Parrott, Colleges and
Universities Mini;ter, said this
week he = will' make an
announcement within two weeks
about "differentials" in
university tuition fees for foreign
students. , .
Foreign students on student
visas comprise five per cent of
Ontario university under-
graduates and fifteen per cent of
graduate students. ,
It appears that Ontario has
decided to charge foreign
students a foreign student fee
surcharge, and only the amount
remains to be decided.
A number of angry dairy
farmers turned up at the
Legislature this week to protest
the recent milk quota reductions
of fifteen per cent by the Federal
Government.
The Provincial Government
"an' involvement through
the Ontario Milk Marketing
Board and also through the
provincial program called IMPIP,
which was, a . program the
Province announced in July of
1973 designed to encourage
industrial milk production in the
ProVince.
Now there is a surplus of milk ,
and many dairy producers feel
that, since they were encouraged
to increase production by the
Province, the Province now has a
responsibility to assist them
through this difficult adjustment
period.
In conversations I have had
over the past- number of weeks,
,and particularly the last few days,
with the Minister and Deputy
Minister of Agriculture, I am told
that the Ministry is studying
several alternatives to try and
assist_produeers-teetbpe with their t
reduced income due to the
cutback.
The existing distribution
system for Wintario lottery tickets
will be scrapped when the
Olympic , Lottery operation in
Ontario is.wound up, according to
Culture and 'Recreation Minister
Robert Welch,
He indicated it will probably be
'replaced with a system that
requires fewer distributors,
generally handling more tickets,
once incomes have to be'derived
from a single lottery. The official
agreement under which Olympic
Lottery tickets are sold in Ontario
expires at the end of August.
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Seed Corn
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United RX30
Trojan . • e TX90
Dekalb XL 12
Northrup King PX20
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