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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1991-02-27, Page 10Page 10 Times -Advocate, Februa 27, 1991 FARM JIPDATF Farmland values remain low in Southwestern Ontario Iiy Adrian Harte EXETER - Even though the Farm Credit Corporation (FCC) is saying that Canadian farmland values have caught up to what they were a dec- ade ago, this is apparently not the case in Southwestern Ontario. The FCC notes the price of farm- land rose last year (July '89 - July '90) on a national average of 3.9 percent, compared to an increase of 4.9 percent the year before. In most provinces, say the FCC, val- ues rose between five and eight per- cent, with peaks of 16.5 percent in Prince Edward Island and up to 35 percent in the Fraser Valley and Vancouver areas of British Colum- bia. Saskatchewan, however, has seen lower farm income prospects cause a drop in land values of a half per- cent. Nevertheless, Barry Menary at Estate Realty in Exeter, disagreed with the FCC's statement that val- ues had returned to what farmland was going for 10 years ago. "We're not experiencing that here," said Menary, noting that he can expect to see land selling at about $1,500-2,000 an acre in this area, even though prices soared to as high as $3,500 an acre in the ear- ly 1980s. Menary also said he hasn't seen an appreciable increase in land val- ues over the last year at all, and that farmland is actually in a holding pattern. "I would say it's right on a par with last year," said Menary. "Years before we could look at bet- ter prices than that." However, Menary said that the local land prices have more to do with the dominance of cash crop farming in the area, one of the hard- est hit by recent low commodity prices. "It [land values] has recovered m some sectors of farming, but we won't be seeing it in this area be- cause of the amount of cash crop farming," said Menary. Nevertheless, Menary said that with the new NISA and GRIP pro- gram introductions, those commod- ity prices may stabilize at higher vels and eventually help bring d values back to higher levels. Until that happens, said Menary, farmers and investors who pur- chased land at peak prices a decade ago will still be hard pressed to re- alie a good return on their invest- ment. Farm Safety Association convention held in March TORONTO - The Eighteenth Annual Coriference of the Farm Safety Association will be held on Monday, March 11, 1991, at the Howard Johnson Toronto Airport Hotel. This year's program highlights a number of excellent speakers on various health and safety topics. Dr. J. Veenstra from Drayton, On- tario, will speak about 'Child Proofing Your Farm'. A young ac- cident victim, Rob Larman of To- ronto, will talk about his accident and how it has affected his life. Joe Morsilto, Policy Analyst with the Workers' Compensation Board, Toronto, will discuss the status of The New Revenue Strat- egy Consultation Process'. Dr. James Rourke of Goderich will speak on 'Reducing farm fatali- ties in Ontario' from a doctor's per- spective. Jim Gibb and Joseph An- drews of the Farm Safety Association will report on the 'Farm Vehicle Road Safety Pro- gram'. Ann Harrison of Don Mills, On- tario, will address the delegates on her experience as the world's first double lung transplant. Agricultural author and lecturer, Sister Thomas More Bertels, of Sil- verlake College, Manitowoc, Wis- consin, will be the guest speaker at the Annual Banquet. GRIP program no solution, but will buy some time TORONTO - The provincial government has given approval for Ontario to participate in the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan (GRIP) for grain and oilseed pro- ducers, Ontario Minister of Agri- culture and Food Elmer Bucha- nan announced last week at the meeting of the Ontario Cattle- men's Association. Deadline for enrolling in the program is May 1, 1991. "We encourage all eligible pro- ducers to enrol in this program," said Buchanan. "It is important that we know how.it is working during the first year of operation. As producers use .the program, we will be interested in their comments." Buchanan said GRIP is a step in the right direction, but it will not solve the fundamental price problems facing grain and oil- seed producers. "Unless market prices improve in the coming years, we will be looking at declining support pric- es. We see this program as a way of providing help to farmers over the next few years. GRIP buys us some time to work with farmers to improve prices and develop a sustainable agriculture over the long term," Buchanan said. The GRIP program is a tripar- tite income insurance program in- volving payments from the feder- al and provincial governments and grain and oilseed producers. Discussions with the horticultural industry to open the program to this sector are currently under- way. The Ontario ministry is offer- ing grain and oilseed producers • the following options: • • market revenue and crop insu- rance, under the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan; or • market revenue insurance only, under the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan; or • crop insurance only, through the existing crop insurance pro- gram. Premiums for participation in GRIP will be announced in the near future. Ontario grain and oilseed pro- ducers can apply for GRIP, mar ket revenue or crop insurance through Ministry of Agriculture and Food crop insurance agents or contact the crop insurance branch at (416) 326-3266. Discussions on the Net Income Stabilization Account Program, designed for individual farmers, are continuing. The province will also encour- age the federal government to treat all provinces equitably on any upcoming "third line of de- fence" adjustment programs. 1 Milk marketing board election MISSISSAUGA - John Core was re-elected Chairman and Peter Oos- terhoff was re-elected Vice - Chairman at a special meeting of The Ontario Milk Marketing Board held recently. Core has been Chairman since January 1990. He had served as Vice -Chairman of the Board since the summer of 1986, having served since 1981 as an elected member representing milk producers in Lambton, Middlesex, Kent and Es- sex Counties. As a member of OMMB, Core serves on the Federal Dairy Task Force, is a director of Dairy Farm- ers of Canada and sits on the Cana- dian Milk Supply Management Committee. He is a past director of the Ontario Dairy Herd Improve- ment Corporation. Core and two brothers milk about 70 Holsteins on their 60Q -acre farm near Wyoming in Lambton Coun- ty. Vice-Chairman Peter Oosterhoff was first elected to the Board in 1975 and is in his fifth term repre- senting milk producers in the coun- ties of Wentworth, Niagara North, Niagara South, Haldimand and • Brant. He is Second Vice -President of Dairy Farmers of Canada, has served on the Advisory Committees for Milk, Cheese and Transporta- tion as well as a number of other Board committees. He is Second Vice -President of it' Dairy Farmers of Canada, has 11 served on the Advisory Committees j for Milk, Cheese and Transporta- tion as well as a number of other Board committees. 3, Oosterhoff; along with his fami- ly, milk about 50 Holsteins on a their 400 -acre farm near Beamsville, Ontario. Board chooses Seaforth man SEAFORTH - Jim McIntosh, an egg producer from Seaforth, Ontano has been elected by the 70 egg producers of Huron County, to his second term as their director to the Ontario Egg Producers' Marketing Board. McIntosh with his wife Bren- da, and their son, daughter and son-in-law operate McIntosh Poultry Farms Limited. The farm includes nearly 30,000 lay- ing hens, pullet growing facili- ties, a farrow to finish swine op- eration, a feed mill and a rotation of corn, wheat, barley and soybean field crops. Both Jim and Brenda are active in a wide variety of agricultural organizations as well as local community affairs. Policies and operations of the Ontario Egg Producers' Market- ing Board is the responsibility of 15 producer -elected directors. Thirteen of these are elected by egg producers in 13 zones, or ar- eas of the province; two are elected by pullet producer,s or farmers who raise chicks to egg - laying age. In each zone, producers elect a set number of Committeemen who then elect a Director for that Saone, Pullet producers elect ,Committeemen to vote for a pullet producer Director for each half of the province. Directors are elected for a one year term. OD Efil -v2 CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS Kime,Mills,Dunlop. Chartered Accountants Daniel B. Daum, B.A., M.Acc., C.A. Manager 412 Main St., P.O. Box 2405 Exeter, Ontarlo NOM 1S7 (519) 235-0345 Fax: (519) 235-3235 John A.M. Norris CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT 197,Nlin Street South, Exeter, Ontario,N ,11WIB'citix Tel: (519) 235-3240 Fax: (519) 235 3246 1i Trying to preserve the family farm is like trying to nail jelly to a wall or like trying to preserve a di- nosaur, said an old friend. "And why do farm writers like you keep trying?" he asked. "The family farm is dead in most states in America and what happens over there eventually comes to pass here." Why must it happen here? For more than 30 years, I have 'been saying that the family farm is worth preserving because of the way of life it exemplifies, the val- ues that it embodies. I admired Gor- don Hill, a former president of the old Ontario Farmers Union, and also a former president of the Onta- rio Federation of Agriculture. "Farmers," he said, "cannot be compared to other businessmen. They are different. Don't ask me how they arc different but they are. They arc just different." They arc and the family farm is different, too. I have never heard it expressed better than at a recent meeting in Guelph. Gary Comstock, a Men- nonite philosopher from Iowa, and Martin Oldengarm, executive direc- tor of the Christian Farmers Federa- tion, were speakers at a conference organized by the Christian farmers. Comstock cited a recent novel by Wendy Barry called Remembering wherein two types of farmers and two types of rural communities were outlined. One is a "successful" farmer who tills, 2,000 acres with hugostnachines but "no birds sing, the farmland has no trees or gar- dens, the man's wife has left him and his children have left the farm. The other farmer is an Amish Mennonite with 80 acres in Penn- sylvania and his farm has a wood - lot, a garden, lots of singing birds and children. And his neighbours, because they farm only about the same number of acres, have the same thing and there are lots of children and a happy, caring com- munity with schools and alt kinds of social institutions. "A small family farm is like a, household," said Comstock. It nur- tures a complete pattern of life in- cluding faith and important values. "I don't want people to live like the Amish but society can learn from their values" because they live with restraint and within their limits in materialistic terms. In this dog -eta -dog world when„ nothing but the bottom line is seen by banks and accountants and busi- ness managers, farmers are embar- rassed, bashful, perhaps even ashamed, when asked to talk about the virtues and values of farming. Why? Because it is not macho to talk about virtues, said Oldergarm. Farmers find it difficult to tell their neighbours and friends about their difficulties, especially if they are financial difficulties. Then, an unidentified lady, bless her wonderful heart, said Christian farmers need to redefine the mean- ing of success and hold up the im- age of loving, caring men, who take time to teach their children, to take part in the community." , "There's too much emphasis on money," she said. "Why are we overcome by imag- es of success that mean profit?" asked Elbert van Donkersgoed, a man who in his quiet way with the Christian farmers has done more for agriculture than almost any one person. "What's needed is a rural society where neighbors are neigh- bors." Amen to that. It wasn't that long ago that rural people were a breed apart. They cared about their friends and neighbors and did not see them as competitors but as companions along the way. That feeling of brotherly love is still there, although it may be la- tent in some hearts. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to make it come alive again. 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