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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1979-06-21, Page 26SEAFORTH JEWELLERS . t l] ,riC' 'H1E HURON EXPOSITOR* 4PNE. 10.79. Damp Latta,saretapo,ovatadb,Moot.onsr,tidal* aio:.;t✓tma* .Cone N311;7Cr The campaign. against marketing boards The headlines are in the dally papers, Even the se -called Canadian edition of the Readers Digest is doing n. I'm talking about a campaign in this country, whether by chance or design, todiscredit marketing boards., 'les. insidious. It starts with a feww editorials in big newspapers. Then,: some major magazines get on the bandwagon followed by the electronic media, Pretty Soon, everybody and his dog has a distprted idea:. of farm marketing boards. By that time, itis too late to stop the impetus. Farm marketing boards, eSpectalls' those boards which practice supply management, are i disfavor, The politicians see it as a great method of getting votes,. They make promises during election campaigns.. The entire structure of orderly marketing, fought for by farmers for 30 years; comes tumbling down,. You think I, am painting too dismal a picture? Did you read the indictment of the Ontario Milk Marketing Board t in Reader's Digest in the June issue? The story was condensed from a smaller circulation, magazine, the prestigious Harrowsmith, .• Here's another headline: Eggs cost 9 to 14 cents a dozen too much in Canada, villian is the Canadian Egg • Marketing Agency, Want more? Here it is;, Farm boards blamed for milk price increase,; - I could go on but I'm sure you get the point. The signs are all appatent:'Farm's 'golden era' could be threatened by more price rises,' said the Globe and Mail less than a month ago, There are those, of course, who on testify that the golden era has never arrived. But you'll have a tough time convincing most housewifes; battling inflation every week, that food 'prices are not too high in Canada. The farming community; always divided in this country and 'always fiercely independent, must collectively fight this campaign before it gets to where it hastoo much momentum: to stop,, Too many people spent toomany years, too much time and talent, to get the powers necessary to fight in the. marketplace, to have it destroyed now. Those who remember the early; days of the flu -cured tobacco board or the early days of the ,hog marketing board can attest to, the- great hegreat struggles farmers went through to organize themselves to have those rights demolished. And'the buyingower ins .those days' from the large food p g corporations was not as concentrated' as it is today. To lose the :right: to collective marketing now would be a disaster for the farm community. - But 1 can See it coming. There are only a handful of people speaking out now for farmers. That handful gets Smaller Aller every year as the farm cotnmunity continues to y Shrink. Less than six per cent of the population is now activel • engagedin producingood, y f It's unfortunate, for instance. that stories against Marketing boards get much bigger lav and publicity than those in support. i do not reeall the big urban papers givin much publicity to the fact that ;farriers accepted! a smaller increase in the price of milk May 1 than they were entitled to take, .:Le all farmers could hay a demanded more. By the formula in price -setting. they could have received more but they didn't. The Globe and Mail did give it space but few other metropolitan papers, did, The battle lines arerbeing drawnu it'goingto be the F. s rest of the population against 'farm marketing boards and, the farmers again fighting a losing battle all by themselves. Now is the time to do something. about i. Whenever these stories against marketing boards appear, a single, strong farm voice should bert74ady to refute them. And. farmers should be prepared now to spend shore dollars to get people and politicians on their side. The big corporations dont stint on public relations, budgets. The more stories against marketing boards that get planted in big circulation publications, the tougher the farm fight is going to'be; It's unfortunate that farmers aren't as experienced at. planting good stories in their favour as they are in planting crops. • gricrew ready to work A team of :experienced young people will come to your farm to help you catch up on jobs that , have been neglected. Aminimal fee is charged for.' one crew (five :Frew I members) to come to your farm for an eight hour day to, "work. The tasks these crews will undertake can range from painting, fencing and general, cleaning up:to hay- ing, 'cleaning pens; to har- vesting. : • Farmers are encouraged to call their local Ag. Office, as soon as possible, in regard to Agricrew, as the program•. is basedon a first=come-first L11GHT`LUNCH SERVED DAILY Help: us celebrate the opening of our•new 5,000'sq: ft. addition. FREE PARKING FOR OVER 50 CARS served basis. Many calls have been.•' received now from farmers and the crews are raring to'.. begin on the June 25th starting date. To hire Agricrew or.. for more information, call Fern'' Cole; Huron -Perth Co-ordin- ator in the Stratford Agricul- tural Office at 271-0280. There has -e been ,a number. of barn firi:s cur near barn fire* inrecentyears. Many of them occur at this time of ',ear.. Damp. cut hay is often theteason, There: are three reasons why we ,get caught storing vtit 'hay too soon. Firstly, today's hay nurtures have a.. higher per cent legurm and they take longer to dry. Secondly, we don't handle t,cut hay and; thus we assume that it's drier than it really is. The trend tct,.°:tr14 Butting has increased: the chances: of "storing hay .0 little on the clamp side." Double cltekk cut hay" be. fore you put it m. Check it p .,,, `-tan- �o again in storage. Sp. n eiolts combustion can hap, pen. Barns are an expensive item to repl.a.e. P : irese rvativt:s really aren't th • answer, Ho. baled at 20°a moisture. is sure to be safr . and won't need a pre- servative. He re-servative.:He sting problems s m b' with bales are' not serious a e . 25°*0 moisture. provided the aeration is adequate in stor- age. H tor-ttge.1•t i testing to 30% ure r i must reared tc tst ._. With a pure acid" product at a 2' rate, Such a product is not available in Perth county, to the best of our knowledge, in addition, a preservative only means a: ,one to two hour, earlier start, as: nay loses moisture at a rate of Z to 5 per ceitj; ooa geed drying day. - Iesearcners don't support the practice of spreading salt on top of the bay in a mow,. The moulds causing heating, are found throughout the U ' hay, niform coverage is. Necessary: Treating the first Slice of bread with a dash of salt won't stop the loaf oa ff from spoiling. A temperature tester is easily made, .Drill: a few holes in the bottom six inches of a 14 inch by 8 foot steel pipe, Place 5 sharp plug t lug in he end g of the pipe and force it into the hay. Lower a Veterinary - type thermometer down The. pipe en a string,. The hay should be checked'. daily, if the , temperature is 150°F. It should be checked. every four hours Wit's 160°F. At 175°F fire pockets may be developing;. The fire depart- ment should be called to wet down and remove the hay. At temperatures higher than 175°F the hay will burst into flames on contact with air. A pumper should be on stand- by, Workers in the mow Should stand on planks and have safety ropes to avoid falling into burnt out areas: Horsetail is BY PAT LYNCH, ALAN W. SCOTT, TED ROT111ML This past a intep' we told. you :at Crop uneetings not to worry= abouthorsetail it. doesn't reduce yield. This past sprung, many farmers told us of fields *here horse- tail has reduced yields. In two cases': the horsetail grew to 1 i to 2 feet tall. Field horsetail is a peren- nial weed. 11 is often de- scribed As "that.: little plant that looks like a pine tree." .It generally only grows 8 high, In June, the plants. have green, Slender,' erect' hallow stems. The stems are• leafless but with whorls of 'b' sting the BY CLIFF MATTKEW$, 1gricultural,C Rep, t?xford County Some may ask O y cattle cycles must he. There will be cattle eyeles as sure as Weather affects crops and the time span from conception: to .consumer takes three years. The ,business; is. highly conpetiti%e.. It is a fundamental characteristic or 'the 'beef production business. Ontario beef :pro- ducer's compete on world market. Even economists agree, Virtually perfect fect.amp" etition exists on'thetproduction side of the industry. Over a complete cycle, the price to producers equalsthe cost of production. The 'range :iia individual costs dictates which producers will receive the greatest. return for their labour, investment and management. Producers must be efficient in all major factors of beef production. That is - if they wish' to stay in business through nvo or three cycles, A well known cattleman in Oxford °County sums it up quite well. He feels most years only one of the three sectors of the cattle industry gets a good' return - the grain producer; the calf producer, or the feedlot operator. Sometimes twO out of three, Rarely, if ever, all three. This leads to another consideration to coping with the cycle. Risk. The impli- cations are greater for the potential new producer. Risk and the cattle cycle go hand-in-hand, The low equity operator has little to fall back on, Perhapls even one turn cattle cycle of high cost feeder cattle and low price tinished cattle can cause a gttiek exit from. the business. A smallloss can be Compounded if purchased feed prices rise .osier the feeding period. New producers with low equity can offset. risk by growing their basic feed require. menns„ Generally there is less risk in feeding calves. Anegative margin on short -keep cattle can produce a loss in excess of the cost of grain. Another hedge is .13,1,:lown only a,;potf n; of the cattle and. fceding the rest on a inistom basis, , Cowfcalf operators are .also subject to ups and downs of the cattle cycle. However, with an average herd sine of twenty-five cows in Ontario, most herd owners reduce risk with income from another .enterprise or off -farm work,' The commercial cow/calf operator with calves rind cull cows as the only sources of income cannot look to alternate sources of income, Stabilization programs can soften the crunch, but are not very palatable to many producers. This is especially so when calf. prices are on the upturn. Perhaps the only other way a newt', specialized cow/calf operator can hope to cope with the cattle cycle is with a high level of equity. . The present state of the business. side Of the cattle cycle dictates ` efficiency, a relative high level of equity and risk reducing methods coupled with sound financing, indeed reducing to 8 branches at nearly every node. It is on page 13 .of Publication 505, Ontario Weeds. We checked the research- ers: and there is some dis- agreement among then!: One thinks that there is no yield. reduction , another thinks there is, One thinks we have' a., giant horsetail while anoth- er thinks we just have ordin My , horsetail •growing under ideal conditions, it seems that yourown experience will be the best guide as to whether°you are suffering crop loss due to this weed. How can you control it? The most effective chemical is MCPA: MCPA sprayed on grain, should keep horse- tail in check. ,In corn, if the corn is 'more than 6'' : high, you have to use drop pipes -to make sure that no 'MCPA gets in thewhorl of the corn plant. MCPA is- registered for use on corn, but it can be hard on the corn: However, if you are carefulof how and whenyou use it, there is no problem. Read the label for application directions. Corn plants can be brittle after spraying . with 'a hormone herbicide. Do not 'scuffle for 2 to 3 weeks after spraying with a hormone herbicide The bad news about all. this is the horsetail .. will regrow again this veal.. The yields tis to merely burn of rain will brine new growth MCPA ten the to off. The next; shower . Classified Ads a p pay dividends. WEDDING. N S :THE: HURON EXPOSITOR FORD IS RETURNING TO SEAFORTH! STOREWIDE SALE Reductions in all departments Come in and say hello. AVE .$1,000 Gerard '• Collins, 9 pc. Oak DININGROOM SUITE our reg. price 53,995 2,995 RECLINERS and PLATFORM'ROCKEP 4*. -yam: Q►-,oT, % TO ,) 3O°,o p� ra OFF Our Reg. Price M. WED..-FRI. SAT. UNTIL76 CHESTERFIELDS & CHAIRS LOVE SEATS sPtcl A.41- 110% ts'Ing Strathroy, 7 pc, Oak DININ`ROOM SURE our reg, price '1,949 See our selection, of LIVINGROOM SME' CHAIRS our reg. price '189 NOW` r ONLY Many Speciais Such As 4 PC. FLORAL CHESTERFIELD SUITE Our Reg. 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