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The Rural Voice, 1998-08, Page 8A NEW CONCEPT FOR HANDLING BALES • two 5 1/2- augers provide positive gentle lift • eliminates troublesome chains • space saving vertical positioning • reverse for loading out of mow • low maintenance — durable Delron bearings • all drive and controls conveniently at ground level AUG -A -BALE also. Mow systems - installation available WEBER LANE MFG. (1990) CO. R.R. 4, Listowel, Ontano N4W 3G9 519-291-5035 REPLACEMENT CHAIN Pintle & hook link chain for stable cleaners. 0 0 Call for VOLUME DISCOUNTS Also replacement chains for most manure spreaders, feeders, conveyors, etc. CALL US FOR A PRICE ON LUCK// GRAIN BUGGIES & '''NOW MIXER WAGONS LYNN LOWRY FARM SYSTEMS LTD. R. R. 1, Kincardine, Ont. 519-395-2615 Wingham Area (John) 519-357-2018 We Handle Everything (Almost) 4 THE RURAL VOICE Keith Roulston Betting on cheap transportation As several Ontario farm commodities take aim at the export market, farmers in western Canada are changing their export strategy — the result of the government's move, three years ago this month, to kill the Crow Rate transportation subsidy. Because the government provided a one- time payment to compensate farmers, and because wheat prices were historically high, the effect of the change has only become evident in the last year —but the impact has been profound. Could we be building a house of sand? For a farmer in Portage, Manitoba, for instance, freight costs for wheat increased from $9.56 per tonne in 1994-95 to $31.90 in 1997-98. One Saskatchewan farmer shipped some feed wheat and got $2,400 for it — plus a freight bill for $2,200. As a result of the soaring transportation costs, western farmers are changing their whole agricultural system. Fed costs have dropped, encouraging livestock production. Farmers are turning more to altemative crops that bring more income per acre. The western farm economy was built on cheap transportation. The Crow Rate was part of a deal, dating back to the days when the railway was built, to perpetuate cheap transportation for export grains. One can argue that this kind of export subsidy helped distort international markets. Western farmers felt it helped them have a level playing field with areas like the U.S. midwest where the Mississippi water transportation system gave farmers cheaper transportation costs. But the effect of the demise of the Crow should make the rest of us stop and think about building an economy based on cheap transportation. I suppose there are lots of people farming these days who don't remember the energy scare of the early 1970s. Our world turned upside down for a few years when the Arab oil-producing nations managed, in a rare show of solidarity, to enforce a cartel to punish the friends of Israel and drive up oil prices. For a few years we had to re- examine all aspects of our lives: increasing insulation and weather- proofing of our homes, re- engineering our cars to go farther on less fuel, reducing speed limits and curtailing the amount we drove so we could save gas. We began to look for local markets, not international ones. Farmers first began to explore things like ethanol gas production, harnessing the wind to create electricity and using methane from their manure to heat buildings. The oil embargo eventually fell apart and we went back to the belief that cheap fuel would last forever even though conservationists tried to make us see we were living in a fool's paradise. But with globalization, we are building a world economy based on cheap transportation. Ontario has seen a building boom based on the idea that we'll supply pork to Japan and China. Our government is rumoured to be pushing some of the supply -managed commodities to give up policies based on self-sufficiency in order to aim at export markets. What happens to our export -based policy if petroleum reserves should dwindle and prices rise to ration the short supply? What happens if a major oil producer decides to play with the market? Do we have a trumped up war in order to bring the country back in line? Just like the farmers who depended on 1800s transportation rates maintained by the Crow Rate, we've been subsidized by the past — in our case, vegetation from millions of years ago that became cheap petroleum. If we build an entire economy based on the premise this will go on forever, we could be riding for a very hard fall.° Keith Roulston is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice. Ile lives near Blyth, ON.