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The Rural Voice, 1978-04, Page 41Szute ecict4 ede44tloa NEWSLETTER o� 41cdtae PROFILE -BRIAN IRELAND Brian Ireland is the President of the Bruce Federation of Agriculture He is 33 years old and married with four children. Brian manages a farrow to finish hog operation, and a registered Jersey dairy herd of 55 cows on his 340 acre farm in Culross Township. Brian is presently a director of the Local Agriculture Manpower hoard, co-ordinator for the 4H programmes at the Teeswater Agricultural Society, and according to his wife Gisile, a husband •soupreem"..All in all he is a very busy young man. He moved into this present position well qualified. He is an Honour graduate of Western Ontario Agriculture School, Ridgetown. For six years he was employed by United Breeders. He received the 4H Leadership award in 1973 and has been a director of the Teeswater Agriculture Society for eight years. He has been a director for the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture for seven years and is a past president of the Culross -Carrick Federation. Brian is concerned that farmers achieve a fair return on their management, labour and investment. He wants to see farm communities become more organized and have more clout in dealing with agricultural problems. Brian feels changes should be sought in tarriff structures, to give our farmers protection against low price imports of products that can be readily produced at home. His hope is to see farmers enjoy a 'high class status" and be recognized as major contributor to the economy, not just "hayseeds". His work with the Federation should help to achieve these aims. AREA FARMERS CONVERGE ON OTTAWA Nine farmers from Bruce County joined members from Huron and Perth to attend the Ontario Federation of Agriculture Co -Conference in Ottawa. The more than fifty farmers went on a bus to Ottawa and joined 1200 more to attend a meeting at the Chateau Laurier Hotel. Commodity groups and farmers gave their unanimous support to four main objectives. They demanded expanded markets for farm products both at home and abroad. OFA President, Peter Hannam stressed that farmers will not accept a cheap food policy. -"Probably the greatest achievement the government food strategy conference can make is a greater awareness of tarm problems. Farmers are caught in a vicious cost -price squeeze which has driven net incomes down for three years in a row. Farmers are being increasingly forced into debt and it has become almost impossible for your people to get into agriculture. All the signs are present to indicate that our industry is in serious trouble. We had hoped that the National Food Strategy Conference would address itself to these issues but it has not. Instead, the structure of the Conference is such that agriculture will be treated as only a peripheral issue. This is completely unacceptable to farmers and it should be unacceptable to every citizen who is concerned with the future of this country." The Honourable Eugene Whalen, Federal Minister of Agriculture was in attendance. The Minister stated his support of marketing boards and said he would resign if he thought the Government would do anything to hurt Marketing boards. The very orderly meeting underlined farmers concern for their future. It also demonstrated visibly that agricultural producers are serious, sensible and controlled citizens. BUSY WEEKS Bruce County Federation members have completed four very busy weeks. On Feb. 14th we held a corn marketing seminar in the O.M.A.F. offices, Walkerton. This meeting was reported in the March issue of Rural Voice. The following week three members from Bruce, the writer included, were fortunate to attend a rural learning seminar. Roy Pennington, Jeanne and Albert Simpson, Elmwood were among 60 other delegates from Ontario at the week long seminar. The theme of the conference was "Effective Leadership for Rural Community and Marketing Organizations," and was eventful. As well as providing more understanding of the nature of leadership, the program covered effective speaking communications, personal development, confrontation and negotiation. The art of learning new strengths in these areas was presented by qualified resource people. Ed Smee, the principal speaker, spent many years ,orking with the Secretary of State and was no stranger to this topic. The Rural Learning Association will be holding the Bruce County Folk School in Paisley, April 6 to 9th, if you are interested in a new rural learning experience you should attend. Further information is available from the Rural Learning Association, R.R.1 Hastings, Ontario, KOL IYO. Nine farmers from the Bruce Federation joined the members from Huron and Perth to bus down to the Ottawa conference, covered in this month's Rural Voice. On Tuesday, March 14 we held our monthly membership meeting in the Mildmay -Carrick Public School. The more than 30 members present completed usual business and then listened to Mr. John Barmby of Farm Credit. He gave a brief outline of Farm Credit's past performance and some indication of their future aims. He pointed out that on March 10, 1978 the Federal Government stated plans to increase Farm Credit's funding to 3.75 billion dollars. They also increased individual loans to farmers of all ages to $200,000. Mr. Whelan had stated that the need for farm credit does not stop at a set age. The 35 -year-old limit will remain however for borrowers phasing into farming. Mr. Barmby did point out, however, that this year's Ontario budget of 165 million has not been changed, so there will still be many frustrated applicants. His talk was frank, informative and very much appreciated. On March 15 Brian Ireland drove down to the monthly meeting of the O.F.A. at the Holiday Inn in Toronto. This meeting will likely be reported in the Huron Federation Section. We will be holding our annual Bonspiel at the Paisley Curling Rink, on March 16, and on March 17 we have our annual "Meet the members" night. Since both of these events are too close to press time they will be covered next month. Our next monthly members meeting will be in Parkhead Hall on April 11 at 8:30. The guest speaker will be Bill Crawford O.F.A. fieldman from Huron county. THE RURAL VOICE/APRIL 1978. PG. 41.