The Rural Voice, 1998-08, Page 54the article. You can restrict livestock
from a section allowing it time to rest
and to regrow. You can prevent
livestock from regrazing and thus
overgrazing forages. In this manner,
you will allow the plant to refill the
root reserve system. Plants that have
a larger leaf area left after grazing
can rebound more quickly. It
provides more area for
photosynthesis and helps to maintain
a larger root system. Seven days of
overgrazing can delay regrowth by
two weeks. You can never afford
that delay, but especially during a
drought, it is too expensive!0
Defining the
industrialized farm
By Tim Blackwell, Anna Bolinder,
Arlie Eriksen
What makes an industrialized
farm different from a non -
industrialized farm? Is it size? Is it
corporate ownership? Perhaps the
difference is best defined by attitude.
On industrialized farms, farming
is a business and returns on
investment are the reason to be in
business. On non -industrialized
farms, the farm is also the business,
but the reason to be in the business
of farming goes beyond returns
measured in dollars and cents.
This point is illustrated in a story
from Dr. Bernard Rollin at Colorado
State University. Dr. Rollin was to
speak at a cattlemen's meeting.
During the previous year cattle
prices had been extremely poor. An
agricultural economist spoke
immediately prior to Dr. Rollin and
talked about partial budgets,
opportunity costs, marginal returns
and the like. He finished by saying
that the one positive result from the
extended period of low prices was
that ranchers were beginning to
understand that cattle farming was a
business, not a lifestyle. When Dr.
Rollin took the podium he noticed
that the audience seemed annoyed
with the last presentation. He began
by saying that although he was not
from a farm background, he had sat
in a number of ranch kitchens and
50 THE RURAL VOICE
Advice
ranching sure looked like a lifestyle
to him. The applause which
followed, he said, was not for him,
but was meant to send a message to
the previous speaker. That audience
did not come from industrialized
farms.
We should never ignore the
business side of the farm. A swine
farm should operate close to the
biologic limits of the pig. The
important biologic .limits of the pig
are: 20 -plus pigs per sow per year,
less than 3.0 feed efficiency from 50
to 240 lbs., and less than 170 days
from birth to 240 lbs. However, if a
non -industrialized swine farm is
attaining these goals and generating
an income which is sustaining the
farm and the family, it is time to put
the business side of pig farming on
the back burner. Instead of single
mindedly striving to increase dollar
returns, a financially secure farm
could try to decrease labor
requirements, make the animals
more comfortable, improve
environmental practices or reduce
pharmaceutical use. On a financially
secure farm, a goal could be to make
the farm family happier for each
additional dollar an hour spent on the
farm.
What would returns on equity
look like if we started measuring
happiness instead of dollars? Can
anyone be content if they are always
comparing how much money their
farm returns compared to the
neighbour or the average farm in
Ontario? When is it all right to stop
striving to make that extra 50 cents
per pig? Can a temporarily empty
farrowing crate be just that — a
temporarily empty farrowing crate?
Or does it have to be seen as lost
income? If a non -industrialized farm
is financially secure, how much
emphasis on dollar returns is in the
farm's best interest? All farmers
should be financially responsible and
ensure that the farm remains solvent.
But on industrialized farms, the
owners never stop striving for higher
returns. Every non -industrialized
farm should come to a point where
the owners say, "these returns are
adequate" and then move on to other
challenges whose outcomes are not
measured in dollars and cents.
How many of us will look back
on our lives and wish we had
received a higher return on our
equity?
The owners of an industrialized
farm squeeze all the money possible
out of the farm and, if returns are
good, they enlarge the farm in order
to increase their returns. Owners ot`
industrialized farms believe no farm
is ever too big and say ridiculous
things like "if you're not growing,
you're dying". They choose to
forget the many businesses which
collapsed because of over -expansion.
Owners of industrialized farms say
"if you can't measure it, you can't
improve it". People who live on
non -industrialized farms are more
likely to believe, as A.J. Balfour did,
that "The three greatest things in the
world — love, beauty and happiness
— have this feature in common, that
they are utterly incapable of
measurement."
If the accountant tells the owners
of an industrialized farm that returns
have fallen below a predetermined
point, the farm is sold and the money
re -invested wherever better returns
can be had. People on non -
industrialized farms do not sell their
homes and lifestyles in order to re-
invest the money at higher returns.
On a non -industrialized farm, if the
pigs are losing money, the pigs are
sold, not the farm.
When the bank manager is at the
door, the farm family must pull
together to generate every cent
possible from the farm. Such a crisis
can bring a family closer together.
Sometimes a crisis on one farm can
bring a whole community closer
together — provided of course it is
not a community of industrialized
farms.
Farming is a physically and
financially challenging business.
Farming is a business and a
potentially very rewarding lifestyle.
On industrialized farms, the owners
believe a farm can provide you with
a living. On non -industrialized
farms, people believe a farm can
provide you with a living and a life.0