The Rural Voice, 1981-03, Page 41Grey County Federation of Agriculture
Newsletter
Federation supports county council's
bid for the 1986 Ploughing Match
The Grey Federation of Agriculture held their monthly
meeting in Markdale, Jan. 28/81.
Highlights of the meeting were the County Federation's
decision to support county council's bid for the 1986 Ploughing
Match; representative of Grey F. of A. attended the "Ontario
Conference of Agriculture 1981"; and O.F.A. is lobbying the
federal government for additional funding for Farm Credit
Corporation at the present rate of 12' per cent.
Ruth Hamill reported plans for the annual bonspiel are
finalized and only two rinks were still open for Feb. 21st.
The "Meet the M.P.s and M.P.P.s Night" is tenatively
planned for a Saturday dinner meeting in the Rocklyn
Community Centre. Affiliates of the Grey Federation will be
invited to present briefs.
HURON FEDERATION
(cont. from page 40)
Board of Directors Report
Exports are the key to expanding Ontario's farming industry,
the Directors of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA)
were told at their January meeting.
This came from long time OFA memh⢠,ohn Sokol. Sokol, a
beef producer and economics professor at York University, has
just returned from a 31/2 week trip to South and Central America,
where he was studying the potential for farm exports.
Sokol said that three years of reduced world food supplies
were providing many opportunities, particularly in communist
and third world countries. He predicted Canada's 1980 food
exports would reach $7 billion.
Sokol urged the OFA to continue to push for a national food
export agency. The idea for the agency first surfaced at the
OFA's 1978 Convention and was promised in the 1979 federal
Throne Speech. The agency. called Canagrex, is being stalled by
bureaucractic red tape.
Sokol and Canagrex would do a_lot to reduce the duplication
and confusion caused by sales missions being sent out by nearly
every provincial government. He also pointed out communist
countries and many third world countries prefer to deal with
government agencies.
The OFA Board then turned to the problem of skyrocketing
interest rates. They passed a resolution calling on the provincial
government to continue the interest rate subsidy program
introduced last year.
In all, the OFA Board dealt with 26 resolutions covering black
bird control, more funds for tile drainage, erosion control on
Lake Erie, the Russian grain embargo, rural hydro rates,
problems with the Manitoba Hay relief program and other farm
issues.
The 102 directors from across Ontario received good news
from Membership Committee Chairman, Keith Matthie.
Membership on January 6th stood at 24,409 and he predicted
OFA would meet its goal of 25,300 by October 1st. Last year,
OFA membership grew by 6.5 percent.
PERTH PORK PRODUCERS
(cont. from page 37)
elected council men are allowed to vote.
Banquet tickets for guests will be
available.
1980 PRODUCTION
The statistics for production in 1980
are out. OPPMB sales in 1980 passed the
4 million mark and at 4,175,897 hogs are
up 10.7 per cent from 1979. The average
graded price was $59.43 down from 1979
by 3.66 per cent. Perth is again the
leading county and with a production of
502,256 hogs produced one out of eight
hogs sold in Ontario. Below is a
breakdown of the number and size of
producers in the county.
NOTES FROM THE PROVINCIAL
BOARD
SULFA RESIDUE VIOLATIONS
Although publicity on this topic has
diminished, the problem still exists. At
the recent meeting of the Canadian Pork
Council, Dr. Tittiger reported that in
1980 there were 57 violations in Canada.
During the monitoring and surveillance
procedures his department found that
25% of the cases of sulfa residues
resulted from the improper use of the
drug; 18% came from cross -contamina-
tion on the farm; 15% resulted from
improper mixing at the feed -mill and 3%
came from water medication. During
1981 there will be an increase in the
number of tests.
AFRICAN SWINE FEVER
This disease invaded the Western
Hemisphere in 1971 when the industry in
Cuba was badly hit and the swine
population had to be eradicated. In 1978
it again hit in Brazil and the Dominican
Republic and in 1979 it settled down in
Haiti. The United States Department of
Agriculture are working in Dominica to
eradicate the disease by slaughter and
compensation at a tremendous cost.
There are very strict regulations concern-
ing the importation of live hogs or
uncooked pork from these countries.
Even the air -line garbage from these
areas must be officially destroyed.
ONTARIO SOW-WEANER
STABILIZATION
For the first six month period of the
Plan there were 4,413 sow-weaner
producers enrolled. Renewal forms are
being mailed directly to all these
producers so that they can register for the
second six month period, covering the
period from October 1st, 1980 to May
30th, 1981.
Registration forms for new enrollments
to the Plan will be available at all County
O.M.A.F. Offices. The declaration date
will be February 1st, 1981 (the number of
sows you declare must not exceed the
number held on the farm as of' that date).
The final date for application will be
March 1st, 1981, for the remaining 4'%
years without any penalty.
THE RURAL VOICE/MARCH 1981 PG. 35