The Rural Voice, 1989-04, Page 56Keeping Crops Profitable
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54 THE RURAL VOICE
NEWS
DISTRICT 2 OPPOSES
SHEEP AGENCY
If the decision taken at a meeting of
District 2 sheep producers last month is
any indication, many Grey and Bruce
County sheep farmers will be voting no
in the referendum to decide the future of
the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency
(OSMA) in the next two weeks.
At the meeting, says District 2 chair-
person Wayne Fitzgerald, who farms
near Ripley, 90 per cent of those in
attendance did not support OSMA.
The referendum, called after three
years of OSMA's operation, was an
option built in when the agency was set
up. The referendum question, to be
voted on by producers of sheep, lambs,
or wool, reads: "Do you support the
continuation of the Ontario Sheep Mar-
keting Agency?"
Of the approximately 4,200 sheep
farmers in OSMA, more than 500 are in
District 2, but Fitzgerald says he thinks
the agency will get a yes vote. "We're
kind of an outlaw district."
Fitzgerald says OSMA was initially
expected to take the role of a marketing
agency, with supply management
"down the road." But he says resolu-
tions to this end passed at annual meet-
ings have "never really been acted on."
Fitzgerald wants a real marketing
agency and a base price put on lamb.
Instead, he says, the agency has been
stressing production, "which has
dropped our prices." The sheep market,
he says, reacts dramatically to any in-
crease in supply — prices "bottom out"
quickly — and sheep producers depend
on a small but relatively profitable eth-
nic market for selling lamb.
OSMA is dominated, he adds, by the
75 to 80 per cent of part-time farmers
who form the base of the sheep industry
in Ontario. But many producers in
District 2 have larger or full-time opera-
tions and derive much of their income
from sheep. Many of the small produc-
ers like the social aspect of OSMA, he
says, and haven't gotten behind market-
ing resolutions.
He says that expansion caused by the
Red Meat Program's requirement that
producers maintain a minimum number
of ewes to be eligible for capital grants
didn't help the situation. "There was