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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1974-07-18, Page 15Cros sr* Itatittift, Whigkaas Await Tlamill sad Moot Forma Coot* donde 10roll*by to the i'*mildw' q, ,,,t11004 ea 3.1 milers lo web el It* lionieed in Th. tistow I . &mot, 11. Wirigliorn Auric. t Forest C 4f derat. by IN or Brost 'limited. At thirteen Charlet Watson was walkipg . the , streets of. Toronto, looking for a job, He finally got one .. , as a laborer, At 51 Charles Watson still does quite a bit o walking, But for a job? a�th jb anmister!. laborer? I haven't done a hand's turn 1n a year and a half." C So, what does he do? .,If you want to get down to brass:tacks, you could say "anything he wants to". .And it would be the truth, be, cause in the 30 years since he left the one room schoolhouse in Egremont where he received' all of his formal education, outside of some.night school "courses in'. presidency of companies,.most .of which he. founded His w.� anin7ur: nitian? "Work, orgai ization, and Most importantly, a genuine like fo .what" rwas l doing," oin g+ Istheid ex-corppration president: and current Wat-Cha Farms pro - prietgr a millionaire? Ills son, Charles Jr., answers with little doubt, "Oh, yes." ,. l: Is he a m lti*mil ion ? . u r ) air�e , Charles Jr, hesitates a moment, not, sure of what constitutes. a multi -millionaire. So, f give him m y definition; sOrneone who ,has. assemble d more than two million dollars.' .. "Oh, ' that's for sure: later . life, " ,Charles Watson 'Would Ch 1 the amassed an empire to which the: hero ' of the greatest rags -to - riches' story ever written would proudly lay claim.' When he retired from the Nisi- ' nessworld da to failing health. in . Nevembear of last, year, he hung up, a holster bulging "with th same ar es Sr. go m- route]and do it all over again if he had the dance? "I'dbe delig .ihted to!' . He wouldn't change one move'? "I wouldn't'' 'do .anything differ- ent," the pauses, then jokes, " .. . except own the world." old'bu$ir, at administiration 100- , because m' f aping is the dent at WilfridUniver- sity, Laurier �nl!�I r- sity, is sixth generation of , Watsons: to mate .a farm in the Mount Forest-Egremont area, The Watsons now ow.n a•total of �f2 farms .in the district, averaging 100 acres. each-, The original spread in Egremont is still being farmed.. - Mr. Watson star. his. first farming akn i operation n about'.12 ry ea B,years ago with purebred:black Angus. It was a cow -calf operation. that was "pretty. depressed at the• tame').. The venture w not'a viable one, so it was'' disposed of. However, the millionaire's. ambition to "improve the farm. ing. situation". was great and he continued his efforts. These farms were almost abandoned, when _ we took them over,°Some of tli'e.land had never even' been broken." " i ..w:. s l l ,•1 of the fittestand so nu d" on the' elements, The money that : been; a- ted, in thef ams'USN* -;b'w'>a generated the farms.,, them- selves This is.a 'straight' ea otitlay';" he °says. "We've taken some lure, cleaned It up, removed the rubble and made it a viable o ration, I is now one of the best farms north of Toronto. ' This is the lit". • There is, still_ another "t, Orr in the story of Wat �Farn s. Its is one of" the lar t "full -French Charolais breeding establishments in North Amer and ranks with the'best in,,the world. Wat Cha is also the first .fad; land?" He sticks, to the hard and fast rule of improving the land to., its "greatest ;.productivity!' for roughage for the cattle. Wat-Cha Fa inowdedicates '. itself, as it set outto do, ,to ,the production of- a better quality genetic, seed stock, "There is a great .need to have animals for good growth, seed conversionand cutoblhty, ' says Wat-Clha's pro- piietor. "Exotics, pal ticularly° Charo- lais, gave us more dollar return than any 'other breed. This . is what induced its into breeding Charolais seed stock cattle." ' Before deciding on what breed to use °for Wat-Cha Farm Mr.. Watson did extensive investiga- , tions of the new ' breeds in Canada, the United States and in this area to introduce lade, Europe, scale corn . operations, "`We selected rhe finest ,bl°ad- s. full - Mr. Watson has always a ms ,. ow many pawn produce per a Still he wouldn't say Wat-Cha hi elf '`H P01145 lines, we could secure " he say Charles Watson Jr., a 20 -year- farms has been totally successful meat can we s French Charolais sale in Canada ;:held the weekend of June 22 at fat -Cha, Sponsored by Coast Coast Charolais Management Ltd., the sale `grossed over ' mil+on dollars in 37 lots. The sale had the greatest ceptanee and.highest averages the history of all animal sales "We just knocked the roof out of sale averages," says the host of the event. The top. female, a five .year-old cow consigned by Wat-C ,% The end result was the first ' ,a " . R ,4 A}` J Y .,x41444 t1 . 8DIN POOLS IDE -,-Charles Watson, retired president of 67 companies including the Peel -Elder group that developed the Shoppers' World complex in Brampton, relaxes by his pool at Wat-Cha Farms, on Highway 6, near Mount Forest. At the age of thirteen he was walking the streets of Toronto looking for a job. Today, he.is a multi -millionaire, retired at 51. FEED CONVERSION—Charles Watson Sr. and Charles Jr. ._.how one Of their, full -French Charolals bulls In the Wat-Cha Far ms show ring. Wal Cha Parma' has Alec#ed the finest bloodlioes available, resulting in al million ,dollar full French Charolais sale on the June 22 weekend bringing in breeders from all over the world. Mr. Watson says raising beef cattle reli+s on "good feed conversion and oonverting feed to meat faster and betters', hell o1 an'opportnPitY in farming y►.in , toda', But .he adds . that too' many farmers are farming 'be- cause -cause the ,� . y inherited �tcd apt and, along with farming, they ;inherited a certain philosophy that` they'll' al- waysbepeer and ,just work the land to h aR. "Many can't wait to sell out and many mere aleady have. To farm puts, the•worst fate a for many years was that their :chit- dreri would never gets off the farm, Their, mothers would pray every night that they could be more than farmers. And this isn't right, because farmers and) and- ownerswjll ,oneday very loon be the elite of this society. " "Farming 'will ' be among the most respected professions and no longer looked (down upon by others, , ..:+ Historically, . Cajiadians ,h$Ye been br , t; up�ona. p�l�phY ofsurviv believes Mr, Watson but` "now We're producing much more inn 'agriculture with only one-third of the farms,•' a He says, "There were all kinds of people ,here, for. our. sale,' with ac- net worth in excess of 100 million in dollars. Five `private jet planes were parked at the Toronto Air- port while they were here." •The millionaire from that one- room school in Egremont has started companies on less than ha $18,000 in 1959-60 and watched them produce profits in excess of six million dollars last y alone But he is out. of the cow r tied world now and Vis.. `gore cfl$fltai p odtio toads it this point. "I could go out right . now and vent . make a ton of money in agricul- nd �'e because it's so disorganized at°the moment." ,; e Still, the headaches are many in operating a full -French Charo- lais breeding establishment. To _ import, an exotic, recognized as such if it is an import from other eet- tion than, the British. Isles or Europe, in fantastic prices are commanded. t • There is also extensive red tape Farms,: sold for $65,000 including its calf. attended h y Jot'o>aia breed-- Passport Charolais Sale. Next year's Charolais sale at Wat-Cha will be a five-day e instead of two with better a more convenient accommoda, tions supplied, perhaps in th 'form of a trailer camp. It will be held June 27 through July and will be part of a build up program to the World F era of Charolais Breeders' • ing to be held July 3, 4 an 5 Calgary to coincide with ` tha city's famous Stampede. Breeders from 55 countries wi attend the second Wat-Cha sale next year and, since) Wat-Cha is going after an export business into South America, Latin Amer i ca and some African countries "We're looking forward to these breeders being here for another sale,"says Mr. Watson. How can any one bull be wor upwards of $50,000? That's question Wat-Cha's owner i asked frequently. To explain why, he uses as an example Bingo Belphegor, a ful .French Charolais bull in which h has part ownership and the firs A.I. Sire in the world with an or- ganized progeny sales and pur- chase program. "We have sold over one million dollars of that bull's sperm and we'll probably sell another two million worth. He has sired over 30,000 sons and daughters, which, in turn will produce sons and daughters that will get good qua- litybeef in the butcher shop. That is why this particular bull is worth over a million today. "The question every good farmer and breeder must ask himself is `How do I change one acre of land into good productivi- ty to get onto the shelf in the but- cher shop?' "The whole thing relies on good feed conversion; converting feed to meat faster and better. "We must produce animals with a good growth and conver- sion factor ... Many farmers are in the hole today because they're spending money to put fat onto their beef, while the butcher and the housewife spend their time trimming it off. People don't want to eat fat. They want meat. And that is what good breeding is all about. Why pay for fat? "We must constantly try to get good quality beef onto the con- st*mer's table at a price he can afford to pay. More is ore starvation in the world today than we have ever had before ... and in the face of affluence. This is why good, modern, scientific agricul- ture ial Mbusiness of tomorrow. keg roust be made available at fair prices." Mir. Watson believes there is "a and a long waiting period. Before ll a breeder can get a permit he must make up a written breeding program proposal and submit it to the Health of Animals Branch of the Department of Agriculture in Ottawa. Of approximately 9,000 pro- grams submitted per year only a few hundred are accepted be- th cause the capacity of quarantine a stations is limited. If the breeder is granted a per- mit he must then select his ani- mal from the country of its origin 1- before it is six months old, due to e the danger of hoof and mouth dis- t ease. (Continued on page 2) DELIGHTED TO—Would Charles Watson Sr., millionaire, go the same route and do it all over again ifhe hard the. chance? He answers, "I'd be .delighted , to., Would he ' change an"ything? "I wouldn't do anything different," he pauses, then jokes "... except own, the world." 400 HEAD ---Charles Watson, owner of Wat-Cha Farms, Highway 6, Mount rest, ha about 400 head of full -French Charolais cattle on his 12 area farms that aver a 100 acres each. Wat-Cha, is one of the largest full -French, Charolais breeding operations in North America and ranks with the best in the world.