HomeMy WebLinkAboutSaluting Huron County's Agricultural Industry, 1987-03-25, Page 30PAGE A30. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1987.
to town
economic impact
in community
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Farming has big
Problems on the farm, whether
as dramatically evident as last
fall’s flood that wiped out most of
the white bean crop in northern
Huron, or things like a five dollar
drop in the price of hogs that might
go unnoticed to most village
residents, reach right into the
pocketbooksofurbanaswellas
farm people, a survey of local
business persons shows.
Not only do farmers have fewer
dollars to spend themselves in
main street business, but their lack
of buying power means less work
for other people and thus less
money for them to buy things. Jim
Hows on of Howson and Howson
Ltd. the largest employer in the
Blyth area says most of his
employees have fewer hours of
work to their credit this year than a
year ago.
By contrast, if farmers were
more economically sound there
would be more jobs for non-farm-
ers in the area, says Neil McGavin
of McGavin Farm Equipment in
Walton. He points out that many
farmers now have off-farm jobs
they’d rather not have if they could
make ends meet on the farm. If
they could stay home, doing what
they’d prefer to do, it would open
up many jobs in the county’s towns
and villages for others.
Jean Oldfield of Oldfield Pro
Hardware in Brussels says the
hardware business has changed
like farming has over the years to a
low-margin, high-volume busi
ness that means fluctuations in the
local economy are important. Her
family’s store, she says, is as
dependent on the price of hogs,
beef and eggs as are the farmers
themselves.
Stores like the Oldfield's that
depend on farm customers are
squeezed two ways by the ongoing
farm crisis. As farmers unable to
make a living leave their land,
there are fewer customers to shop
in their stores. In addition the
farmers who are left have less
money to spend.
The decline in farm population
changes the economics for every
one who is left in farming, Neil
McGavin points out. At one time
hisdealershipusedtosell 40 balers
a year at $1,500 each. Today sales
aremorelikelytobesixorseven
but the cost has escalated to
$10,000. The manufacturers still
have engineering costs and other
overhead to recover on a smaller
volume so the cost is pushed up. In
an effort to lengthen production
runs machinery companies have
been gobbling each other up at a
rapid rate in recent years.
While a frighteningly large por
tion of the farming community is in
financial trouble (George Mc
Laughlin, chairman of the Ontario
farm debt review board recently
IT IS WITH GREAT PRIDE THAT
I REPRESENT THE FARMERS OF
HURON-MIDDLESEX IN THE
ONTARIO LEGISLATURE.
CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING
AMONG THE MOST PRODUCTIVE
AND EFFICIENT FOOD
PRODUCERS IN CANADA.
Jack Riddell
M.P.P. HURON-MIDDLESEX
MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD
predicted as many as 10,000 to
15,000 of Ontario’s 50,000 farmers
could be forced off the land in the
next three to five years) it has
become obvious that there is a
great diversity in farm income out
there.
Neil McGavin says it was sad
before the end of 1986 to see some
farmers come in, looking to buy
new equipment to get a year end
tax writeoff while others were
coming in, wanting to sell equip-
mentsothey could afford to pay
their property taxes.
Harvey Snell, a Blyth grocery
store owner who has many farm
customers, worries about the large
gap between the well-off farmers
and those who are in trouble. If
farm population continues to drop
eventually food production will be
concentrated among few enough
producers they will be able to
dictate prices, he said. Then food
prices will rise drastically.
Urban workers have a minimum
wage but the farmer who doesn’t
supply management is stuck with
whatever the market will give him.
He thinks urban people should
press government to do something
to guarantee farmers have a good
enough return on their investment
to stay on the job.
If Mr. McLaughlin’s prediction
came true, smaller communities
would be hit hard. The smaller the
community, the more dependent it
is on the farm population, the
heavier the damage would be. Neil
McGavin sees rural churches and
stores, which may be serving too
few families already are endanger
ed. Imagine one third fewer
families using local facilities. Jim
Howson wonders about the ex
pense of operating recreation
programs if there are fewer
children on the farms and if the
farm families that are there can’t
afford the cost of hockey or figure
skating registration.
The boom and bust cycle of the
farming business these days can
throw uncertainty into urban busi
nesses as well as farms. Jean
Oldfield says the Pro Hardware
chain of which her family’s store is
a member, had been trying to
persuade the Oldfields to build a
new store for several years but
because of the uncertainty of the
farm economy, they had resisted,
opting instead to expand sideways,
taking over other stores. Recently,
she says, they have been glad they
made the decisions after hearing of
two other stores that did build new
facilities and are in trouble because
they couldn’t meet the higher
overhead with poor receipts.
Even when a business isn’t
Continued on page A31
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