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The Rural Voice, 1977-12, Page 17Little Royal draws judge's praise Gordon R. Crow, a noted judge of beef cattle had high praise for the Walkerton Little Royal fair recently. Mr. Crow, of Guelph, was judge at the show and sent along his comments to the fair board afterwards. He noted that there were many good herds in the show with quality from top to bottom of the classes. The class of market and 4H steers he termed as "one of the finest I've judged this year. The top steers were equal to those at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto, also with more cattle in all divisions." Egg Marketing Board said not forever Critics of marketing agencies may be relieved to hear that present marketing schemes aren't necessarily forever, at least according to Bill Doyle, head of the new marketing branch of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Speaking recently in Toronto at a seminar on Canadian agriculture's ability to compete, Mr. Doyle said "CEMA (the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency) isn't necessarily forever ... It could be phased out after the industry is secured." Such marketing systems, he said, are set up by the farmers to meet competition, often against things beyond their control such as world surplusses and trade and tariff imbalances. Farmers feel they need to have the power to regular supply to demand and to set fair prices. Yet if stability can be returned to the agriculture scene. he said, it's possible that the free market system might return. "1 don't think there's any doubt that if CEMA had not come into being when it did (1972), then the Ontario egg industry would be concentrated in too few hands," Doyle said. One fear farmers had in the early 1970s was that egg production would be taken over by large corporations. Deputy federal agriculture minister Gaeten Lucier, top civil servant in his department, didn't mince his words at the meeting of the association. He said farmers are going to have to step away from "isolationist" thinking and agree to discuss the direction of Canada's food industry with a view to the good of all segments of s6ciety, not just the farm segment. Consumer advocates would also have to think of the farm sector, he said. When one member of the group suggested government bureaucracies be diminished, Lucier retorted, "More and more people in Canada are looking to the governjnent for solutions... It's impossible that miracle solutions will come strictly from the government." All segments of society will have to take more responsibility in finding solutions before there can be any reduction in the civil service, he said. "Unfortunately there is the growing tendency for governments to become more involved and take away the responsibility from those directly involved in the problems." Lucier and Dovle both aereed with Dr. Gordon MacEachern, president of the independent Agricultural Economics Re- search Council, that assessments will have to be made on how much Canadian farm products should be protected and to what level. MacEachern said Canadian agriculture is not remaining competitive in the world market and laid much of the blame on government support programs for Western Canadian wheat and grains. Because of the high supports levels, particularly in transportation, these com- modities, often used as animal feed at home, add eventually to the cost of such meats as pork and poultry, making those products uncompetive with imports, he said. "There's more protection now (for farm products) than there's ever been... We tried to do a lot of things, but we ended up doing a lot of things not very well," MacEachern said. Doyle and Lucier said they weren't as "pessimistic" about Canadian agriculture as MacEachern and said many of the protective systems in agriculture were a reaction to unfair competition from abroad. Peanut research gets $118,000 grant Agriculture Minister Eugene Whelan has announced a grant of $118,379 for a peanut growing project in southwestern Ontario. Agriculture Canada's contribution under the New Crop Development Fund represents about 63 percent of the total project cost of $186.129 for 1977. Researchers at the University of Guelph are studying the feasibility of peanuts as a new cash crop in southwestern Ontario and as a replacement for, or supplement to, the tobacco crop in the tobacco -growing areas of the province. Canada is now almost entirely dependent on imports of confect- ionary and processing peanuts from the United States. This is the fourth year Agriculture Canada has assisted the peanut project. Agronomic, economic and engineering research has been conducted at Agricul- ture Canada's Delhi Ont., Research Station and on farms in the immediate neighbor- hood. Research indicates that peanuts have an economic potential in Ontario when yields average two tonnes per hectare. Research trial yields have averaged close to three tonnes per hectare and studies continue to match this record in field trials. Agriculture Canada's New Crop Deve- lopment Fund was established to bridge the gap between basic research results and their practical application in the field. The Fund, with an annual budget of $1 million, assists groups with the development and production of new crops and varieties and with expansion of established crops into new areas. Free marketers win at pork seminar Freemarketers carried the day when Agriculture Canada brought together key pork industry people for a national pork seminar in Montreal in early November. Some people at the meeting were for a closed market system, with A.J.E. Child of the Burns Foods Ltd. going so far as to say the industry could be made a public utility, but in the end it was those in favour of uncontrolled production who dominated the discussions. For once consumers and producers both agreed they didn't want supply manage- ment, though for different reasons. Producers felt they can compete internat- ionally and want the freedom to increase production to meet such market opportun- ities. Consumers felt that controlled supply would increase prices. All consumers want, says Catherine Lisiak of the Fredericton office of the Consumer and Corporate Affairs ministry, is a fresh product, high quality, fair prices and freedom to buy where they want. She said farmers predictions that they can raise per capital consumption to 60 pounds per year were overly optimistic. A hog producer, Doug Farrell said Canadian producers could compete on the world market but they should also be getting a bigger share of the Canadian market. Canada exports high-quality cuts of pork to Japan but overall is a net importer to the tune of 1.7 million hogs per year, mostly from the U.S. Mr. Farrell also wondered why Canada has to have a cheap food policy. "Why can't we pass on the real costs of production to the consumer," he said. Ag. Societies hold district meeting The largest crowd ever to attend the annual meeting of District 8 of the Ontario Association of Agriculture Societies close to 200 persons, was on hand for the meeting Oct. 28 in Hensall. Art Peppen, Associations director of the Agriculture and Horticultural branch of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food said his office is attempting to secure extra monies from the government for a fund which aids fall fairs if severe weather conditions should befall them. He said that the $12,000 the fund contains is usually adequate but with the bad autumn, the fund is almost depleted. Fairs needing money can get up to $1000 in aid. THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 1977,PG.17.