The Rural Voice, 1982-05, Page 12Swine Symposium '82
by Gisele Ireland
A record breaking crowd of 1200 was
present at a unique meeting in the
Stratford Fair Grounds on April 2. The
Swine Symposium is a joint venture of
Huron, Perth and Oxford Pork Producers
Assoc. in conjunction with the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture and Food. The
symposium dealt with 'human relations'
as opposed to the usual format of
production techniques and recognized
that human relations is an important
aspect of today's farming business.
The first speaker of the morning session
was Dr. Hiram Drache, who has inter-
viewed hundreds of successful farmers
from around the world and analyzed the
results. He addressed the audience with a
"Portrait of a Successful Farm Couple".
His emphasis on success centred around
the mate in your farm enterprise and how
to make adversity and a powerful
motivation to s^rceed work for you. He
spoke at length on the differences
between a success and a failure in the
agri-industry. He warned there is a price
for every r. s'ard, but that the price must
be p..ui f,t •r.. . .cache claims bad years
make good managers. His table of
Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan
bankruptcies showed some interesting
statistical causes: 35 per cent poor
management; 34 per cent high interest
rates; 27 per cent over borrowed. 18 per
cent overspent (personal), 11 per cent low
price for product, 8 per cent spent too
much on machinery, 8 per cent no crop
insurance, 8 per cent over expanded, 2 per
cent bad luck.
Dr. Drache advised that farmers who
don't panic, and can sleep with an
enormous debt load looming over them.
will succeed. He also claimed that the top
15 per cent of farmers who are innovators
and early adopters of new ideas will be
more successful compared with the other
85 per cent who are majority adopters,
later adopters and never adopters of new
technology in agri-business.
The second speaker, Dr. George
Ashman, from the psychology department
at Kingston General Hospital brought
information on managing yourself and
dealing with tension and stress. If you are
a self deceiver. he said, your problems are
not recognized and cannot be dealt with.
PG. 10 THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1982
Charlie Farquharson.
Some problems have no solutions, but the
purpose in analyzing them is to minimize
the obstacles and emphasize the rewards.
He warned when we have no goals. or
have lost our goals. you lose hope. which is
the major factor in success.
Dr. Ashman told the audience that you
have to like yourself in order to success-
fully deal with others. Your total "ego"
state should not be totally committed to
one activity because a failure in this area
would be devastating to the psyche. Don't
set impossible goals for yourself; failure is
a part of life and has to be accepted the
same as success. or illness related to
stress will appear. Fatigue is a major
indicator of stress; forgetfulness and
inability to concentrate or sleep arc
others. These are the signals to back off
and approach the problem from a different
angle or get away from it altogether. This
sounds good, he admitted, but difficult to
apply in farming.
The noon break featured Don Harron as
"Charlie Farquharson" and his entertain-
ment lightened the moods of everyone.
His versions of words prompted much
laughter from the audience.
The first speaker in the afternoon
session was Dr. Dave Downey, an
Agricultural Economist in the United
States and he directed his message at
communication. Messages received in
early childhood are ingrained in the
subconscious and color dealings and
decisions as adults, he said. Dr. Ashman
dealt with the problem of prejudices which
he claims are opinions formed without
logical reason. He demonstrated that we
all have levels characteristic of an adult. a
parent and a child. Which level we operate
in when determines how effectively we
communicate.
He stated we can never control others,
just ourselves, but that we are capable of
affecting the environment of others so that
the response we want can be achieved. He
played a tape of a typical husband -wife
conversation which ended in disagree-
ment because of the vaccillating re-
sponses from the adult. parent. and child
segments of our brain. Dr. Downey feels
that the more secure we are in our
relationship, e.g. husband -wife. the less
effort we make to choose our words and
tone our words to effective communication
Dr. John Howard's speech dealt with
the physical effects of stress. Dr. Howard
is from the University of Western Ontario
where he teaches business administrat-
ion. Dr. Howard stated that we have
brought all major infectious diseases
under control and now 70 per cent of our
chronic diseases and illnesses stem from
stress. How severe the conditions are
depend on how we treat our bodies and
how we deal with stress.
Stress is cumulative and affects women
and men. The hassles in daily life are
accelerating and with 40 per cent of the
women in the work force, they are now
under the same stress that men have been
under.
One of the major causes of stress is the
uncertainty you face in your job or
profession. You get a sense of helpless-
ness and impotence when solutions are
out of your control. Having power over
yourself and stressful situations is a most
effective stress fighter. Being happy with
your job or profession is also a good
indicator of how successful you will be in
fighting stress.