The Rural Voice, 1990-04, Page 12LIQUID MANURE
CUSTOM SPREADING
• Agitating • Hauling
• Spreading
4200 gal. truck
10' self loading boom
flotation tires for on-farm
— highway tires for long
or dry weather hauling
round the clock capability
for rush seasons
spread 350,000 gal./day
competitive rates
early pay discounts
Leo's Liquid Waste
Disposal Services
R. R. 2, Moorefield NOG 2K0
519-638-2319
EASY LIFT
DOORS
SALES • INSTALLATION • SERVICE
• RESIDENTIAL GARAGE DOORS
• redwood • plywood • steel
• ELECTRONIC DOOR OPENERS
COMMERCIAL, INDUSTRIAL,
OVERHEAD DOORS
IN
J Wood J Insulated Steel
J Steel V Fiberglass
' Expert Installation Crew
' Complete Inventory
' Free Estimates
Come and see our show room at
515 James St. S.
St. Marys, Ont.
519-349-2355
8 THE RURAL VOICE
ONE MORE NAIL
IN THE COFFIN
Keith Roulston, a newspaper publisher
and playwright who lives near Blyth,
is the originator and past publisher of
The Rural Voice.
At a recent Federation of Agricul-
ture meeting, an accountant discussing
the Goods and Services Tax said it
would have a "minimal" effect on
farmers, but would increase borrowing
costs and make a good bookkeeping
system essential. In other words, it's
likely to be one more nail in the coffin
of the small family farm.
The family farm may still be the
most efficient way to produce food,
but efficiency is no longer just low
production costs. Today, the financial
clout to be able to borrow money at
reasonable rates and the ability to
absorb higher administrative costs and
pass them along to the consumer are at
least as important as the ability to
produce good products at low prices.
A farmer today has to be good at
an impossible number of tasks. He
has to be an expert in soils and some-
thing of a chemist to apply fertilizers
and herbicides properly. He has to be
a mechanic and an amateur veterinar-
ian. He needs to be enough of a
stockbroker to read the futures market
and enough of a lawyer to understand
the papers the bank wants him to sign.
And as if the odds against being
good at all these things aren't enough,
somebody's always throwing on a new
handicap like the GST. It's like the
juggler who has been doing a good job
with three knives — then somebody
throws him a fourth.
Everyone in business is worried
about the GST, but some of us can at
least control our prices enough to
recover the extra costs — or we hope
we can. And, compared to farmers,
most of us require a relatively narrow
spectrum of knowledge to make our
businesses operate.
Smart businessmen try to build a
team of good people. If I know I'm
not good at book work, I hire a book-
keeper. If I need somebody with skills
in marketing, I'm crazy to try to do it
myself. I try to expand my business
so I can support the specialized team
I need or can at least hire consultants.
But the family farm works on too
slim a profit margin (some would
wonder what margin at all) to be able
to afford specialists. While farmers
struggle to wear many hats, it is still
cheap labour that gives the family
farm its edge over the corporate farm.
And every time a new weight like
the GST is loaded on the family farm,
the balance tilts a little more in the
corporate farm's favour. The corpor-
ate farm can get better financing to
help the cash-flow situation until those
GST rebates come back from the gov-
ernment, and it can afford the staff to
do the bookkeeping.
If the same way, the corporate farm
can employ mechanics to keep expen-
sive equipment primed. It can afford
the veterinary care and the experts in
soils and chemicals and feed formula-
tions and, perhaps most important, ex-
perts in marketing, because only farm-
ers who can get a grip on marketing
seem to be able to anticipate the profit
margins that make farming viable.
Unless we can find new solutions
to these new burdens, we may end up
with a handful of companies control-
ling food production. Those who want
to work in agriculture will be employ-
ees, not owner -managers.
Like Elbert van Donkersgoed of
the Christian Farmers, I worry about
this. Those with a real stake in some-
thing care about it much more than
those who aren't so involved. The
homeowner generally looks after a
house better than a tenant. The em-
ployer cares more about the company
than the employee.
Our entire rural way of life is built
on the involvement of the farm family
both in producing food and in produc-
ing a strong community. If we chase
the families out of farming and replace
them with employees, will we lose
what is best about rural life?0