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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-11-11, Page 11LK I Huron dome and farm news *RINGS ®NECKLACES *BRACELETS *BEADS aped ra gent 11 T. DAVID. GODElliCII 5114-1173 Last call for beef assistance Applications for beef cat- tle assistance on cattle sold as stockers or sold for 41 Mazda B20�O UNBEATABLE PRICE TREMENDOUS CAS MILEAGE 38 MPG (7.5 11100 Km.) QUALIFIESS TAX 7% REBATE M AZ p A Test Drive Mazda's B2000 Unbeatable Pickup Truck. Price'does not include Freight, P.D.I. and Tax 4— THE MORE YOU LOOK'THE MORE YOU LIKE„ 1 MW MOTORS SALES & SERVICE 184 EAST ST., GODERICH 524-2113 F81-3 7 '.•s G�..Y :`tri' •(. • slaughter in 1980 must be fil- ed on or before November 30, 1981. Details for Slaughter Animals:.. 1. Amount of Assistance - $40 per head. 2. Eligible Animals - Cattle owned by applicant and fed in Ontario for at least 60 days prior to slaughter. Animals must be sold for slaughter in 1980 and graded A, B or C. , 3. Applicant must be a resident of Ontario in 1980. 4. Purchase and sales receipts must accompany application. 5. Applicant must have sold ten or more slaughter cattle in 1980. 6. Final application date is November 30, 1981. 7. A properly executed af- fidavit may be requested. 8. All Applications are sub- ject to audit. Details for Stocker Cattle: 1. Amount of Assistance - $20 per head. 2. Applicant must have been a resident of Ontario in 1980 and sold a minimum of ten stockers in 1980. 3. Eligible Animals - pur- chased by the applicant as calves and fed in Ontario for 150 days and sold for finishing purposes in 1980. They must have weighed 600 pounds when sold. 4. Other criteria is the same as for the slaughter program. Remember, applications are available at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices. Apply on or before November 30, 1981. • —Stan Paquette, Assoc. Ag. Rep. Huron Soil and Crop Improvement Assoc, If you're interested in im- proving crop production with up-to-date information on new hybrids, seed germina- tion, red clover plowdown, weed control and con- servation, then plan to at- tend the Huron Soil and Crop Improvement Association annual meeting. This year's annual meeting will be held on Thursday evening, November 26 at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. The social hour will begin at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m, and the meeting to follow. Tickets are $10 each and include county membership for 1982. Tickets are available from township directors and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food office, Clinton. —John Heard, Assist. Ag. Rep. - New book ,A nein book about the pro- vince's Junior Fanners is. sure to be a bestseller in rural•Ontario. The 220 -page, soft -covered book features more than 75 photographs, many from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food files. A Rural Legacy is available for $10 through the Junior Farmer clubs and from the Junior Fanners' Association of Ontario, 801 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario MSS 1Z1. Four-year-old Amy Smith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Doug Smith of Goderich, holds an oddity grown in the garden of Mrs. Carl Anderson on Bayfield Road -a cucumber resem- bling 'asnake! (Photo by Bob Henry) „. fiI .'�...5✓,?..sr ON �'•. '', 4'�'''�A`.+��'`:�....x.r,';. rr ROUL SHOES•LTD. 12 THE SQUARE GODERICH 524-8505 WOMEN'S rrEw pRESS&wCASUAL SHOE SALE 010 OFF AIR STEP • SELBY TENDER TOOTSIES • SANTANA DUTY SHOES •CLARK LOGROLLERS (Fiat dl wedge) •ALL HANDBAGS 20% OFF !,\ DON'T FORGET' Reduced EWINTER BOOTS 20 9 DAYS ONLY THURS., NOV. 12th TO SAT., NOV. 21st ALL SALES F1NAL - NO EXCHANGE - NO -REFUND - NO CHARGES r, ;f. T.ikc gold in the ground and pearls hene.rth the sea. all the beauty of your precious diamonds goes unnoticed when trapped in a faded, worn or out- moded setting. We can free your treasure from its hiding place 'vith a new and attractive setting from 1lidcic•n Treasure. Visit our showroom and hrowse through the wide selection of c•apti\ at ing designs. Yta.f11 he sure to find a ring, pendant or earring set that al- lows the trate value of your gems to shins through. Give your diamonds the rebirth they descn.c After all, you deserve the hest voter (Barn( Inds haw e tar offer. GODERICH SUNCOAST MALL 324-2924 SQUARE 424-11.141 JEWELLERY KINCARDINE SUTTON PARK MALL 546-4151 GODERICH G ": TAR, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER11,1961--PA4G..E 11 NF FOOT IN THE FURROW by Bob Trotter "Burn down your cities and leave our farms and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country," William Jennings Bryan once said. It is just another way of saying that when agriculture pro- spers, so does everybody else. I followed an American car for a few miles the other day with an Ohio licence plate. A bumPer sticker proclaimed that Farming Is Everybody's Bread and Butter. It surely is. . At a time when the world is experiencing its greatest population growth, when the supply of food in the world should be doubled, farmers are facing the toughest time since . the Great Depression. Bankruptcies have increased' phenomenally. Farmers are being forced to sell off stock to pay interest on bank loans. This makes for less production next time around. The ramifications of these things haven't hit home on this continent yet. But they will. • It couldn't be happening at a' worse time. It has been mentioned before in this column, almost to the point of boredom: A hungry man, when he sees his children starving with bloated bellies and bald heads, is a desperate man. A desperate man will kill for his family. Much more grain is available in Canada this year and there are fewer hogs to eat it. In the five major grain producing and exporting areas of the world, production is up 12 percent but demand has inched up only one percent. In the rest of the world, recent data released by the Cana- dian Wheat Board indicates production is dropping. The world wheat harvest is estimated at 447.5 million tonnes, down three mflilion tonnes from forecasts in July. Them as has, gets. The nations which are not starving have more than enough. In addition, the price paid to the pro- ducers is dropping because the supply is greater than the de- mand. It is, says the Wheat Board, an illustration of how powerful the influence of the United States is in the rest of the world. They have a surplus. Down goes the price of grain, just when producers need more for their products to circumvent mor- tgage foreclosures and bankruptcies. It is a vicious, endless Circle. And don't start placing the blame at the feet of marketing boards, especially quota-. setting boards. Their prices are monitored so closely that the ripoffs, if there are any, are not being engineered by farmers. If you want a good example, look at chickens. You would think with a surplus of feed grains, prices for those grains would be lower. They aren't. Feed mills are charging about three percent more this year for chick feeds than last year. The markup between what supermarkets paid processors and charged consumers was about 23 cents in May of last year. The markup by September had jumped to 42 cents a pound. That's an increase for supermarkets of 19 cents a pound in 16 months. Not bad even when you consider that their costs have not increased any more than thatof•farmers, yet they are getting the biggest hunk of the consumer buck at least on chickens. While many farmers struggle to make ends meet and are producing more than ever, half the world starves and farmers are going broke. There's got to be something wrong with the system. Propane more attractive fuel As gasoline prices rise, propane isbecoming more attractive as an alternative fuel for farm machinery, but the economics of converting vehicles is still a concern. "You've got to look at every individual case :and consider conversion costs, propane costs, availability, storage costs, annual fuel consumption and the number of vehicles to be con- verted", says Ron Mac- Donald, of the Energy Management Resource Cen- tre. It is feasible to convert gasoline engines to propane. Potential farm applications include farm trucks, cars, gasoline -powered swathers and combines. The federal government, through the propane vehicle grant program, now offers farmers and businessmen a taxable grant of up to $400 for each°vehicle converted to propane use. The Ontario Government exempts conversion kits and converted vehicles from sales tax. Tractors and small trucks for farm use are also exempt, from sales tax. Many Ontario farmers already use propane for home heating and crop dry- ing. But when it comes to converting vehicles, each case must be examined closely to see if there are savings for the farmer. Con- version is only worthwhile if the machine is used exten- sively, says MacDonald. A conversion kit, plus in- stallation, costs from $1500 to $1900, he says. There are many brands of kits now on the market. To be eligible for the$400 grant, an authorized Class A mechanic with an S6A certificate must install the kit. A consideration . for farmers converting vehicles to propane is the need for a special storage tank and pump, says MacDonald. Even rental for a pump may cost up to $40 per month. Despite these drawbacks there may still be. savings. In the Guelph area, a farmer driving a truck 16,000 kmver year (10,000 miles) at 3.6 km per litre (10 miles per gallon) could save $600 to $800 in the first year on fuel, depending on the efficiency of the propane conversion. The provincial govern- ment does not levy a road tax on propane, or other alternative fuels, and pro- pane is now much cheaper than gasoline. In the Guelph area, propane delivered to bulk tanks costs 19.3 cents • per litre (86,1 cents per gallon) — about half the cost of gasoline. Propane users report mileage of anywhere from 85 to 100 percent of mileage ob- tained •with gasoline. As a fuel, propane can burn more completely and efficiently than gasoline, and results in less engine wear. Users report longer engine life and lower maintenance costs. Propane is within delivery distance in most parts of On- tario. Through prior ar- rangement with a distributor, farmers can be sure of a secure supply, 'says MacDonald. - As for future • supply, Canada produces 120,000: barrels of propane per day as a by-product of natural- gas aturall gas and oil refining. Only. 50,000 barrels are used in Canada, the rest is exported. arming in state of emergency says Barrie The provincial govern- ment should declare a state of emergency in agriculture,_ Ralph Barrie, President of the Ontario Federation of Agrikulture (OFA) ' • said recently, while presenting OFA's annual brief to cabinet. • "The economic situation is' • • critical' because of high in- terest gate and low com- modity pric s," Barrie said, "but it's aggravated even more by the deluge of rain 'we've been having. Record rainfall in Ontario has delayed - cornharvest and ruined many crops. . Yr.rrunt.yrqi'C: )MY,laIrt.\r,•rCr;,r! 1,111,4 "There are many 'desperate, disillusioned farmers out there, who have been coun- ting on this, harvest to make ends meet," Barrie said. Barrie told Premier Davis . that this emergency requires prompt 'government assistance in the form of short-term loans at subsidiz- ed interest rates. Barrie told the Cabinet that bankruptcy and bank survey figures are not telling an accurate story. . "If the Bankers Associa- tion survey commissioned by this government shows 1,000 farmers in dire straits, I would be inclined to multip- ly that figure by 10 to get a truer indication of the pro- blem." • • Barrie. censured the Cabinet for offering only limited assistance to farmers, despite promises for up to $125 million in aid. "All we've seen is under $50 million for beef . feedlot operators. Our industry deserves more than a token handout." OFA's two vice- presidents, Ron White and Ron Jones, also addressed the Cabinet, encouraging the government to head the ad- viceOFA offers in its brief. Make it -you and 9(1 -DOOM together! Now that he's part of the Bombardier team, he can provide vole and your family with everything needed for maximum outdoor enjoyment, this winter. 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