Village Squire, 1975-10, Page 11Some of the publications put out by the Hensall firm Agri -book.
Agri -who?
First class publishing firm
For more people Agri -book might be a
secret code word or something of the kind. It
isn't exactly a household word even in the
village of Hensall, though it's the name of a
firm that has become well known in the farm
publishing business. Ironically, the village of
Hensall doesn't have its own weekly
newspaper, but, it has a firm that produces
quality farm publications that circulate all
over North America.
Hensall was the chosen home for Julian
and Jenny Bayley and J ulian's brother Adrian
who run Agri -book and Agri -press the farm
advertising agency as much by accident. The
Bayleys came to Canada in 1969 from
England where they had a background in
farm publications. They wanted to start their
own publishing business here but had little
money. They did it, however, with the help of
Floyd Barrett. Floyd was a columnist they
invented to plug various farm products. The
trio bought full page ads in various farm
publications and then sold the space to
advertisers who had Floyd to promote their
product. Jenny dressed up the whole effort
with her skill as an artist.
The idea proved a success, giving the
Bayleys both the revenue ihey needed and a
good many contacts with companies dealing
in farm needs. Floyd later died a timely death
but he'd started the ball rolling. Soon they
were publishing some 22 tabloid newspapers
for various companies such as BP Farm
almost unknown in own
Progress, White Cockshutt's Better Farming,
The Big '0' Drainage Review and Beaver
Lumber's Beaver Builds.
When the Bayleys came to Canada they
had already decided they wanted to live in the
country. They bagan to look for the kind of
house in the country Julian and Jenny
wanted: a farm house that had the basics but
left plenty of scope for the decorating ideas
the Bayleys had. They almost bought a house
in Elora, but at last found one near Hensall
an(' that's how Agri -Press came to call
Hensall home.
The office of the company was first set up
in a store on Hensall's Main street but soon
became too crowded. The company next
moved to a large house on main street and
now is planning a move to an even bigger
headquarters.
After settling in Hensall they began to work
on their plans for the future, unique new
concept in farm publications. They were
ccivinced that the present national farm
publications in Canada just weren't doing the
job they should be. One of the problems with
farm publications is that they have
tremendous peeks and valleys as far as
advertising revenue goes according to the
season and what farmers are doing at that
time of the year. The Bayleys came up with a
solution to the problem and first tried to sell it
to some of the large trade publications of the
country like Maclean -Hunter and Southam
back yard
press, but to no avail. So they went at it on
their own.
The new concept was to produce several
annual publications each geared for the
month in which the advertising was most
needed. The idea was to come up with
eventually one publication each month but
each one dealing with a specific area.
There is, for instance, Corn in Canada
which now has an Ontario edition, a French
edition for Quebec and a western edition in
the planning stages.
Then there's one of particular interest
locally, Beans in Canada. There's Herd
Health and Hygene for the dairy industry
with an Ontario, a French edition and a
western edition. Poultry in Canada serves the
poultry industry and Drainage Contractor
covers the farm drainage scene all over the
continent. In January comes a new book,
Canadian Farm Banking which will try to
improve the knowledge of rural bank
managers and credit officers about the farm
scene. Elevator Manager is Another new
publication for Western Ontario.
Has the concept been successful? Well take
Drainage Contractor for an example. The
1976 edition, the third issue, is now in the
planning stages. The first issue ran 40 pages.
The second jumped to 148 pages. This coming
issue will run in excess of 250 pages and the
printing bill would be enough to buy a farm in
VILLAGE SQUIRE/OCTOBER 1975, 9