The Brussels Post, 1976-07-28, Page 14SF
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Farm prices worse
in Australia,
local man says
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Compared to their Australian
counterparts, Canadian farmers
have little to complain about and
should be happy with what they
have, according to Gerald Van
Donkersgoed, .21, of R.R. 3,
Brussels who has recently
returned from an agriculture
exchange trip to Australia.
"It is really depressed down
there," he said. "Some of those
Quebec farmers who protested on
Parliament Hill should have gone
there and they would thank their
lucky stars they are where they
are."
Mr. Van Donkersgoed, whose
father has a chicken farm near
Brussels, spent five months on
the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Christie
of Glengary, Victoria, which is
about 100 miles east of
Melbourne, Australia. The
Christie's milk 110 dairy cows on
their 160-acre farm which is
located in the heart of Australia's
dairy country.
The Australian dairy farmer,
like the Canadian, is under a two
quota milk marketing system with
more money paid for fluid milk
than for industrial milk, according
to Gerald, but the return to the
farmer is based on the butterfat
content. Fifty cents per pound
butterfat is the current price
which works out to about $2.00 to
$2.50 per hundred weight milk
shipped, considerably less than
what Canadian farmers are being
paid, even with the new surplus
levies.
Not only is the milk price very
poor in Australia, but the sale
price for cows is . Jisaster,
Gerald said. He recalled one time -
when the Christie's shipped a
Jersey and a Holstein and got
paid only $3 and $15. On a later
shipment, he said, the farmer was
unable to even get a price for his
cows and had to return them
home.
"The Australian farmer has the
advar age of not having a large
capital investment, though," said
Gerald.
Because of the milder' weather
cattle don't have to be housed
throughout, the year at all, he
said. The only cattle buildings on
the farm he stayedat:were a
"double six herring bone milking
shed" and one or two shelters for
the calves, or the "poddies's' as
the Australians call them.
Gerald said that he found
farming in Australia was much
more relaxed than it is in Canada.
"Here you have to do a year's
work in six months, so you have to
hurry to get your work done.
There they have all year, so there
is no big panic if things don't get
done. It was hard getting
adjusted to that," he said.
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Another . difference Gerald
found was in the seasons. On
January 3 the temperature was 40
degrees celcius, Gerald said.
"On New Year's Eve, we sat
around a. bonfire all night. It was
kind of nice," he said.
Unlike Canada, where much of
the precipitation comes in the
spring and summer, Australia
..receives most of its rain in the
winter, which makes farming
more difficult, Gerald said.
In the winter, they receive from
35 to 40 inches of rainfall, but
'during the summer from Christ-
mas to the end of February they
received maybe an inch at most
while he was there, he said.
Gerald originally learned of the
exchange program through a
newspaper advertisement when
he was a student at Old's College
of Alberta. The college, which
was started in Denniark, does a
thorough check on*everyone who
applies, asking for references and
police reports. Once an applicant
is approved, the college then tries
to line up a job for him with a
family in a foreign country. If they
are successful, the applicant is
then responsible for paying his
own way there.
Gerald, who hopes to work for a
time on a farm in Europe at some
future date, recommends the
experience to anyone.
"The family I was with adopted
me as a son," he said. "I got to
use the car anytime I wanted. It
was pretty good."
Although the trip was educa-
tional, the education wasn't the
most important thing to Gerald.
"The people I met was the big
thing. Everyone was really
friendly."
Never
THE. BRUSSELS POST, JULY 106
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HOME FROM AUSTRALIA —. Gerald Van Donkersgoed of R.R. 3, Brussels is back
home after five months of working on a farm in Australia. Milk and cattle prices are
much more depressed there than they are here, hereports.
Story and photo
by
John Miner
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