The Rural Voice, 1983-08, Page 22i �
isk
HAMPSHIRES
and
SPOTS
Registered R.O.P.
breeding stock
RALPH HENDERSON .
R.R. 1, Atwood, Ont.
(519) 356-2656
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PG. 20 THE RURAL VOICE, AUGUST
1983
FARM NEWS
and is set according to the discretion of
each provincial board.
The Ontario Egg Board in 1973
established the exemption level for On-
tario at 500 birds, one of the highest ex-
emption levels in Canada. The Board
believed this number of hens would allow
small, "backyard" producers to sell extra
eggs to their friends and neighbors, at
roadside stands, and so on.
However, the Board has found that
growing numbers of iMregulated pro-
ducers are marketing eggs through
regular grader -to -retail channels. As a
result, the number of surplus eggs is in-
creasing dramatically and the Board's
surplus removal program is being heavily
burdened.
The Ontario Egg Board hopes the new
regulation will help reduce the increasing
level of excess eggs for which there is no
market. It notes that since the number of
eggs produced in Ontario is carefully co-
ordinated with consumer demand, grow-
ing numbers of small unregulated flocks
are producing a considerable amount of
eggs that are not needed.
Farmers struggling
for survival
"Farmers are struggling for survival"
was the message heard loud and clear at
the first international farm crisis con-
ference in Ottawa, with delegates from
Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
Most of the organizations represented
were recently established farm sur-
vivalists groups, formed in the late 1970s
when interest rates rose and commodity
prices fell.
Allen Wilford, president of the Cana-
dian Farm Survivalists, said the con-
ference establishes the fact that farmers
the world over are facing the same crisis.
Delegates maintained that higher
prices for commodities were the key to
world economic recovery.
"The bottom line Is (commodity) price,"
says Neal Rogers, executive vice-
president of the American Agriculture
Movement. "If that U.S. farmer out there
had a price, he could afford to stay on the
land, he could afford to pay his taxes and
he could afford diesel fuel."
In reports on their countries, speakers
said farmers were leaving the land: In
Europe, half a million farmers leave the
land each year; in the U.S., the farm
population is a third of what it was in
1945, and in Italy, the number of farmers
has been halved in the past 25 years.
One of the final resolutions stated that
"the exodus of people off the land must
stop. All foreclosures must be stopped
now."
Wilford says we must work to get
farmers working together on common
ground.
Many delegates also felt it is time for
farmers, instead of bureaucrats or
agriculture ministers, to discuss their pro-
blems. They said farmers would have to
get into politics up to their ears. 11
Number of birds
decreases to 100
The Ontario Egg Producers' Marketing
Board has approved a regulation that will
allow people who do not possess any egg -
laying hens to keep up to 100 birds. Prior
to the regulation, anyone entering the egg
business could maintain up to 500 birds
without requiring a quota.
Current unregulated producers, those
who now own 499 or fewer hens, will not
be affected by the new regulation. That is,
anyone now possessing hens will not be
required to reduce his flock.
The number of birds an unregulated
producer may keep without having to own
a quota varies from province to province
Texas cattle prohibited
Agriculture Minister Eugene Whelan
has signed an Order in Council prohibiting
the import of cattle from Texas. More than
2,000 Texas cattle herds were in quaran-
tine for the disease brucellosis as of April
30, 1983.
However. state regulations to control
brucellosis and movement of cattle out of
the state have been challenged in court
and state officials lack the legal authority
to carry out control measures.
Subsequently the U.S. Department of
Agriculture imposed a quarantine on
Texas cattle but breeder associations
succeeded in gaining a temporary injunc-
tion preventing the quarantine. As a
result, there is no assurance that infected
cattle will not move out of Texas.
"We support the U.S.D.A. in its efforts
to control brucellosis in Texas, particular-
ly because we are at such an advanced
stage of eradication of this disease in
Canada. We want to avoid any possibility
of cattle from Texas introducing infection
here," Mr. Whelan said.
Less than 100 herds are now under
quarantine in Canada for brucellosis. Only
five of these have confirmed infection.
About $100 million has been spent
since 1977 when the revised brucellosis
eradication program was launched to
eliminate the few remaining sources of
brucellosis infection from Canada's cat-
tle.
Agriculture Canada and U.S.D.A of-
ficials have discussed Canada's pro-
posals for stricter regulations on cattle
imports from the U.S. where eradication of
brucellosis is not as advanced and poses
a potential threat to Canada's program. ❑