HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-09-09, Page 12Page 12'
Times -Advocate, September 9, 1987
1
OFFICIAL OPENING - Agriculture minister Jack Riddell talks to
Erika Schuster, owner of CROPCO, after a ribbon -cutting ceremony.
Looking on is agronomist John Beardsley.
Crop consulting firm
under new. ownership
Exeter resident Erika Schuster has tralization by marketing services
taken over the former C.A. Crop Con- through a system of local '
suiting firm headquartered near independently -owned franchise of -
Centralia on Highway 4. Agriculture fices was Erika's idea, and the ba§is
minister Jack Riddell joined Miss of the new company.
Schuster and CROPCO personnel in Erika brings to CROPCO first-hand
a ribbon -cutting and sign -unveiling experience with both the operational
ceremony to mark the official open- and management sides of farming.
ing of CROPCO on September 3. She grew up in Austria on a dairy -
cash -crop farm, and has her master's
degree in business administration.
She worked as a management trainee
at Canadian Agra when she first
came to Canada two years ago. (She
is now a landed immigrant, looking
forward to becoming a Canadian
citizen). -
John Beardsley has joined CROP -
CO as chief agronomist.
Eric Devlaeminck, previously
employed as a field technician for
C.A. Crop Consulting, is now a CROP -
CO franchiser working out of an office
on his farm south of Exeter.
Field technician Dave Wheeler,
agronomist Anne Verhollen and
receptionist Deb Morley remained on
staff to work for the new company.
-You have now
until
Sat.. Sept. 19
To take
advantage of
tese low, low
prices
CROPCO offers to act 'as a bridge
to transfer technology from the
researcher to the farmer. Services
provided include comprehensive soil
analysis that takes into account past
management practices. topography,
soil type and problem areas: in-
dividualized recommendations for
fertilizer, herbicide and insecticide
applications; plant tissue testing;
crop monitoring and scouting; in-
frared aerial photograpjiy:prepara-
tion of budgets and computerized
year-end reports.,
CROPCO has acquired the pro-
grams developed by C.A. Crop Con-
sulting Services Inc. over the past
three years. The concept of decen-
A few genuine heroes exist in
Canada, too, and the one I'm thinking
of is not like 011ie's Follies south of the
border.
To my knowledge, Yew people have
seen this chap as a hero. I'm speak-
ing of Randy Gregg. late of the Ed-
monton Eskimos. now a member of
the Canadian Olympic hockey team.
We heard so much about the deci-
sion of Wayne Gretzky when he was
deliberatingabout whether or not he
weuld play for his country in the
Canada Cuptournament.
Vet. Randy Gregg has walked away
from a big salary with the Edmonton
Oilers to play again for the Olympic
Team.
He is. in my books. a Canadian
hero.
Ile will be travelling extensively in
a series of exhibition games with this
young. untried team. Ile has a wife
and two children of whom he is excep-
tionally fond. yet he will leave them
for a year to unselfishly give of his
time and talents. Ile will return some
of the glory he has seen as a member
of three Stanley Cup teams to his
country. -
Those who followed hockey to its
weary conclusion when the Oilers won
the Stanley Cup again the first week
of June. are well aware of how much
Gregg contributed to that team. His
brilliant career in sports may con-
clude with his contribution to
Canada's Olympic team.
At university, he was named athlete
of the,year while getting his medical
degree. Ile was captain of the Olym-
pic team in 1980. Ile spent two years
as a player -coach in Japan before
coming hack home to join Edmonton
in 1982.
He played for the Oilers for five
years and the team captured three
Stanley Cups in those five years. Ile
was also on the 1984 Canadian team
that captured the Canada Cup in 1984
International hockey people usually
suggest that the Canada Cup is
emblematic of the best hockey team
in the world, in spite of what the Rus-
sians say.
His ability on the ice cannot be
questioned.
I lis ability off the ice also cannot be
questioned. He obtained his medical
degree while continuing to be active
in both amateur and professional
hockey. That, in itself, is admirable.
I have nevermet Randy Gregg but
would consider it an honor to shake
this young man's hand. I do not know
how much he wasmaking as a player
with the Edmonton Oilers but it was
probably in the six -figure bracket. To
give this up to play on the Olympic
Team -- which is almost sure to be a
loser -- is a wonderful decision on his
part.
Hockey has come a long way in re-
cent years, especially to this old fool
who remembers playing on a mill
pond with a coupre of Eaton's
catalogues stuffed in heavy woolen
socks as padding. I can also recall
skating as fast as I could to get back
to solid ice after chasing a puck off the
pond to the river. 1 could hear the
thinner, river ice beginning to crack
under my skates.
Thank God I was small and short
and weighed less than 120 pounds
soaking wet. Those catalogues would
have carried me to the bottom in
seconds. We lost the puck to the thin
ice but we never lost a player.
Kids don't play on mill ponds
anymore. We worshipped hockey
heroes then and'most of them were
worth worshipping.
Randy Gregg is a hockey' hero in
my books. He would have had fun
playing hockey on a mill pond, I think.
Bring your room measure -
WORLD PLOWING KNOWLEDGE ---- Shown discussing procedure
prior to judging at the Thursday 4•H competition at the Huron plow-
ing match at the farm of Jack Riddell are judges Keith Leslie of
Georgetown and Roy Craig of West Caledon. Leslie has plowed in
world matches in recent years. T -A photo
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