Loading...
Times-Advocate, 1986-06-04, Page 16• Page 2A times -Advocate, Julie 4, 1986 rt ;~ i' tllr i tri"' 'i NEW FLOWER BEDS AT CENTENNIAL — The student council at Huron Centennial School hos under- taken a project of making new flower beds in the front yard. From the left are Shaun Kyle, Scott Miller, Bob Fisher, Jeff Hayter and Dan Upshall. T -A photo This thorny and seemingly un- solvable problem of quotas is rearing its ugly head again. It has been part of farming for almost 20 years. In the last 10 to 15 years, though, the price of quota among supply management com- modities has risen dramatically. For those who do not know what "quota" means, here it is in a nut- shell. It is a farmer's licence to pro- duce in set amounts. Dairy farmers, for instance, can produce only a prescribed number of litres. If they produce over their quota, they are in trouble. They get pehalized by the On- tario Milk Marketing Board. When the board came into ex- istence 20 years ago, farmers who were producing were given -- given, that is -- a quota. They paid nothing for it. Now, it is worth $283 a litre. The same thing is true in the so- called feathers industry: broiler chickens, turkeys and eggs, What supply management has done is add stability to those sectors of far- ming.. But it is a wolf in sheep's Clothing, Why? Because quota prices have gone out of sight. The 10,310 milk producers in Ontario or the 804 egg producers in Asked to dig deep -but into tool sheds Ontario farmers are being asked to dig deep into their shed rather than their pockets for an innovative charitable program -- Farm Tools for Africa. The program, co-ordinated by Global Ed/Med Supplies (Canada) Inc. in co-operation with United Co- operatives of Ontario' is collecting used hand tools for shipment to farmers in Africa. Tools will be shipped with assistance from the Canadian Inter- national Development Agency and distributed through the Christian Relief Development Association, the Eritrean Relief Associaton and the Relief Society of Tigray. "As a result of my visit to Africa three years ago, I have had a conti- nuing interest in organizations that help Africans," said Agriculture and Food Minister Jack Riddell. "The Farm Tools for Africa is an imaginative and practical program I heartily endorse. I would urge my fellow farmers to donate their used tools to their local co-op to help this worthy cause." The United Co-operatives of On- tario, with some 180 locations through the province, have agreed to serve as collection points for the donated tools. You can drop off your used tools to Man at airport: "If Rome wasn't built ,in a day, why did we have to see it in a day?" Furl Wagon any co-op from May 31 to July 3I. GEMS is a registered charitable organization which has for distributed surplus medical 'equip- ment and supplies for developing countries. Last year, the organization collected and shipped 40,000 blankets to Ethiopians who were not only.auf- fering from malnutrition but (rpm ex- posure xposure to extreme cold tempeptur s at nighif. "Our efforts must now be concen- trated on helping the farmers to help themselves," says Doren Wicks, GEMS executive director. "The farmers who migrated to refugee catnps in search of food are now returning to their farms to plant their crops. In many.cases, the farmers do not have appropriate tools to work with and many have to resort to the use of their bare hands." Tools needed include round -nosed shovels, pick axes, hoes, spades, sickles, crow bars, sledge hammers, chisels and hay forks. Other tools required are general purpose saws, brick hammers, brick trowels, pointed trowels, garden rakes, galvanized watering cans, and rod wedges. Power tools are of no use. 'lyse who wish to donate money are welcome to do so through the co- ops. Donations will be used to defray the costs of shipping the tools. For more information about the program contact your co-op or GEMS at (416) 533-3977 and (416) 961-4261. Ontario hold all the production rights in their hands. Nobody else can pro- duce these products until he/she has quota. Those who have it are holding on to it if they wish to stay in business. Those who want to get into the business have to buy their quotas from those who hold it and when de- mand exceeds supply, up goes the price. - So what? Well, just this: The time is fast ap- proaching when, individuals will not be able to afford quota. Only those with great gobs of money will be able to buy it. And who has great gobs of money these days? Not farmers, for certain. No. The people with .money are huge corporations seeking to diversify big business with tots of ac- quisitions ih mind. Those who read the business section of newspapers are well aware of how. big business has money to burn. Big' business wants to buy-64•buy, anything, everything, as long as the boardrooms are happy. As soon as the boardrooms learn that ying say, milk quota, is a. liceriFe to make money, they will sure as hell be in the market for milk quota. And when big business moves �u, w Pet)* to,. that' so -Balled the family farm? arm disappears• tkRlhy; noow'ttiatlafd prices have fallen, has become the biggest single cost to get into farming. Quota for a family dairy farm can cost as Much as $300,000. Quota for a viable egg producing farm can run even higher, as much as $800,000. I do not have a solution to this pro- blem but a solution to the high cost of quota is going to have to be found. Farmers cannot have it both ways. They keep screaming for all kinds of special legislation to protect them. They want to preserve the family farm. But they go blithely on in supply management circles, watching the price of quota go higher and higher and offering no suggestions to im- prove the situation. An answer must be found soon or the family farm will go the way of the wind hill and the binder. Big corpora- tions will buy the quota and indiviudal farmers will be left in the barnyard sucking the. hind teat. And they will have nobody to blame but themselves. :11 ri,`s u -'?. 1 , A_y Riddell tables report from farm task forc An Interministerial Task Force on Finance is aia�esteirlon and of farm assistance programs. Agriculture andRiddell tableddFFood Minister Jac, 100-paos report complied by representatives of the Ministry d Treasury and Ecbnomicw and the agriculture ministry in the legislature today. The report identified major pro- blem areas in the agriculture sector as -- cost and availability of credit; high capital requirements for agriculture; commodity primes and incomes; farm management; and other conditions such as social and employment services, difficulties in. adjusting output and excessive debt loads. , - - Area crops looking good Brian Hall, farm management specialist with the Clinton OMAF of- fice, reports two notabte trends this spring in Huron County. - Carola acreage has jumped to 20,000 acres, a 15 percent increase from last ytear. For the first time, 5,000 acres of hard red spring wheat has been sown here, mainly north of Highway 8. Hall said farmers planting the western varieties used for making bread are hoping to tap into the local market, and potential returns look encouraging. White beans acreage is up 40 per- cent from 1985's 34,000 acres, and corn is down 10 percent from last year's 250,000 acres. . Hall reports spring planting is on target. Most soy beans are now in, and farmers are working on white beans, potatoes, and late rutabagas. The wet weather delayed corn spraying beyond the two or three leaf stage in some cases, forcing growers. to use Atrazine rather than -Dual or Bladex. Hall concludes that so far, everything is looping good. • Seaforth mai captures. title Paul Dodds, 19, of RR 1 Seaforth has won the Canadian junior plowing championship in Olds, Alta. He received a silver trophy, plaque and a pin from Jim Armstrong of Walkerton, president of the Canadian Plowing .Organization, during an awards dinner in Olds. The Canadian plowing champion- ship was held last week in conjunction with the World Plowing Match star- -c ting today in Olds. Dodds, -former reserve junior plow- ing cl amplon,,wentIp-tbe junior Qom- ' petition when Ontario junior cham- pion Tom Robinson of Cookstown was unable to attend. TurDCO nd'$ Sake. for �• a E - THE SUPREME uRNCO ROTARY HO EROSION FIGHTER T WEED KILLER LLER AND EROE Bullt by Yetter • Spoon -billed teeth rake through the ground . shattering crusty soil . . . kicking out weeds for a positive kill . . chemicals are introduced into Me weed root zone — that's the Yetter Rotary Hoe way cit cultivation. Plants show more uniform growth. Row crops and bedded plants are cultivated with equal ease and without modifica- tion Where wind erosion is a problem. the Yetter Rotary Hoe forms surface pockets that arrest blowing top -soil in one pass The Hoe is also useful in incorporating pre- viously broadcast wheat and other small grains. FARM SUPPLY LIMITED 236-4934 Sales and Service - Repair 22 Main St. E. Zurich 236.4321 1r • "Treasurer Robert Nixon and I established this task Freesia August to look at INntf steps we could take in the short, term and in the long term to' alleviate some of the pressure on the community," said .. of the recommendations of thisi report formed the basis for the improvements in three financial assistance programs announced in last week's provincial budget." Among the recommendations for immediate action in the report were enrichments and expansion of the Beginning Farmer Assistance Pro- gram, the Ontario Family Farm In.. t Rate Reduction (OFFIRR) program, and the Farm Operating Credit Assistance Program. In the longer term the task force called for an on-going review of cur- rent financial assistance programs; exploration of Alternative fanning ar- rangements such as share -cropping and leasing; assessment of trust com- panies' entering the farm credit market; and a review of credit legislation, in particular Section 178 of the Bank Act as it applies to the Personal Property Security Act. 4r The task force recomrnenda the federal government exarpine guarantees for private through the Farm Credit (FCC), expansion of the IFVfiniending to include intermediate-term assets such as equipment, and amendment to the Farm Improvements Loans Act to include guarantees on fixed-rate loans. Among the long range ideas for fur- ther study the task force pointed to the role of part-time operators, credit unions, alternative new debt in- strumeats and the feasibility of a Registered Farm Investment Fund and a, joint interest subsidy program by leaders and government. It recom- mended- a review of all (current legislation concerning farm taxes. "Governments can mitigate the most harmful effects of the transition to new economic realities but cannot reverse the trends in the global economy," said Riddell. "I think the key point the task force identifie51 is that government's role should be to ensure that the industry is strong enough to take advantage of emerging market opportunities," said Riddell, RIVAL 11 a 000 LC 1a01111005 RIVAL—the new trifluralin herbicide from Hoechst, that gives you a choice when up till now your only trifluralin solution was Treflan*. For those who have decided on trifluralin in pre -plant incorporated weed control. The chow is yours. Available at YOUR PFIZER AG. CHEMICAL DEALER Trepan` — notated/0 trade -mark of El, Lilly and Company. Eta co Products Division. Ek Lilly and Company (Canada) (-united. is a (watered use. HOECHST CANADA INC HEADOFFICF • MONTREAL AGRICIJI TURF DIVISION 295 Henderson Drive RrJ,na S,skalchewan S4N 6C2 vs t H,,echsl }i Hoechst u AMIBEN� to give you effective broad-spectrum You can depend on AMIBEN0' to you effective broad-spectrum weed control in white beans. Now, with each 208 Titre drum you purchase, you will receive a FREE TRANSFER PUMP or CASH EQUIVALENT• Each drum of Amiben treats approximately 45 acres (treated area varies depending on soil type, weed pressure and herbicide program). Supplies of drums are limited, so be sure to order from your participating Pfizer dealer today. Distributed by CROP PROTECTION DIVISION TUTHILL FILL -RITE Wansfer Pump Model 112 Complete with telescopic suction pipe, 8 -foot hose and nozzle. lApproxknate R $alt Value 5150.00) LONDON, ONTARIO • Mahon N a nelWred Y.dernark of Union Carbide Ayrimatural Products Carpany Inc • one( .ted on drama a Amiben M,b$CWa ordy.