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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1967-04-06, Page 12,1/1011EXPOSITOR, SEAFORT% QP4T., APRli. 6, 1907 OME TAX Investment income such as rent, bond or bank interest, dividends etc. does not form part of "earn- ings" for fixing your contribution •under the Cana-- da ana.da Pension Plan. Telephone 527-1250 for appointment. H. G. MEIR PERSONALIZED THE HURON EXPOSITOR Phone 527-0240 Seaforth hen you save the Go -Ahead way you get Life Insurance too! Choose a five year savings goal. It could be as little as $600, or as much. as $5,000. (Your convenient monthly deposit can range from $10 to $83.33.) Whatever savings goal you set for yourself, . that's the amount of Life Insurance protecfion you have, for five years,from the minute you make your first deposit. This is in addition to all deposits made, plus the bonus your savings have earned. Whether you're saving for your children's education, for the down payment on a new home, fora retirement nest egg .. , . or even if you don't Wave a special objective i mind, ask your d Toronto -Dominion Manager about the' Go-Xhea., ay of saving ... Toronto -Dominions, Assured .Savings Plan. No medical is required. • Great Go,Ahead idea from , TORONTO- D o MINION- - The Bank where people make the difference. W. D. STEPHENSON, Manager Seaforth WEDDING INVITATIONS COASTERS - GIFT IDEAS - SERVIETTES THE HURON EXPOSITOR Dial 527-0240 -- Seaforth, r Increased IPopulation Brings Pressure on Farm Production On the occasion of the recent Seaforth Lions Club annual rur- al relations night, Robert J. Wright; Toronto, secretary of United Co-operatives of On- tario discussed changes that could be anticipated in farm- ing practises in the near future. In his remarks, Mr. Wright said: Fust of all let us take a look at some of these major changes: a) The number of farms in United States and Canada has dropped more than 50% jn the last 30 years. It is estimated that in. Ontario by 1981 another 23,- 000 farms will disappear. b) For the" most part, remain- ing farms have taken over 'the land resources of the farms that disappear. This is not en- tirely true, particularly in On- tario as the growth . of the large -centres of population, the super highways that have ,been built all have taken their toll on some of the best agricultural land in tire province. However, the average size of farms is in- creasing. Several years ago a • hundred acre farm might have been considered a good average size farm. Today of course there - are many farms over 100 acres. Their average, (and again there is danger in using averages) but the average size farm as it is projected in 1981 in Ontario will be over 171 acres. These two points then go together, namely a decrease in the number of farms but an increase in the average farm size related to acreage. Fewer, but lamer farms is the trend. c) her is a rapid decline in farm labor. The number of Skil- led and dependable farm labor- ers is extremely Iow, .and also very expensive by all past farm- ing standards. The majority of farmers here tonight could, I am sure, vouch from. personal experience the difficulty of get- ting adequate.farm help, d) The decrease in farm labor and the increase in expense for labor has had- a significant im- pact on the costs of farm oper- ations. Overall costs from the United States, and I -am sure the situation differs very little from Ontario, has risen approxi- mately two-thirds since 1950. Farm operators, are in conse- quence, vigorously seeking ways to save labor, to reduce operat- ing costs and to minimize risk. The result is a rapid transition in the traditional farming sys- tems both in Western Canada and United States and also -here in Ontario. e)' One of these transitional changes is the significant in- crease in specilaization .on the farm. f) The rising costs and . the trend to larger farms and more specialization • of course Means much higher capifal costs. rhe price of land, maphinery and equipment has greatly. in- creased. To get into farming business-- today requires a lot more money than it. did 10 or 20 years ago. Investment has gone, on the average, from $6,- 675 in 1941 to $28,580 in 1961. These are• overall Canadian ,figs ures, but even using averages such as this, dramatically in- dicates the greatly increased capital required to enter farm operation: Naturally, the farm- er, as a business man, is and will be expecting a reasonably good return on his invested cap- ital. Lower Return • It is to be noted however, that farm, enterprise yields • a Cars at Tremendous Discounts , Our BIG SALE Continues 1966 CHEV. '8' IMPALA HX., A.T., P.S., Radia -- Lic. E89866 1965 PONTIAC SEDAN A.T., Radio --Lit. E90663 1965 CHEV. IMPALA Hardtop A.T., Dadio, Lic. E9066I 1964 PONTIAC "8" SEDAN A.T., R., Lic. E90735 1963 CHEVY II SEDAN E8943$ 1963 PONTIAC SEDAN ' A.T. ---Lie. E90740 1962 PONTIAC StDAN . A.T. --. Lie. E90664 1963 MORRIS 1100 SEDAN Low Mitegage, Ltc. E90733 1962 Mercury -Meteor ,Coach A.T., and R. --Lic. H3-107 - 1962 OLDS SEDAN A.T., P.S., and P.H., R. --Lie. E90660 1962 CHEV. SEDAN A.T. — I.ir. E90738 1962 FORD GALAXIE SEDAN A.T., R, P.L, Lie. E90734 ° 1962 CHEV. SEDAN Lic. E90288 1965 GMC 1/2 -TON PICK-UP Low Milegage --Lie. 4887$C MANY 1961 and 1962 CDEVS and P'ONTIACS forth O ? LCT..�gr M VI/ IMS TO 900, otos far lower return than thato. other business. Food ehains i the United States chalk up 17% return on equity capita investment before taxes. Th average return in farm ente, prise does -not approach • thi figure, As a result of the changes in agriculture we have seen farm output increase in Ontario by 37% over the last 12 years. The greatest increase has been in vegetables, livestock and poul- try. As indicated this 37% in- crease in output was produced by 32% fewer workers. How- ever, in spite of the increase in production or productivity, . we have had not a corresponding increase in return to the farm- er. In fact if we accept the def- inition of ARDA that gross farm income of less than $31750 is poverty on'.the farm, then 48% of our farmers are living in a state of poverty. - In examining these changes, we must do sp in terms of an ever increasing demand for food, not only in Canada but in the world today. Our total On- tario population has increased 660,000 in the last five years, or about 110,000 per year. By the end of the century the pop- ulation in Ontario will be double, ar about 14 million people. Canada's total will be at least 38 million. In North America 200 million of us to- day have about HALF as much. wheat and corn in the continen- tal granary as we had five years ago. The butter stocks we had Wit up in Canada have large- ly disaPPeared. Even today we have .moved away from farm surplus. We can expect to have increased emphasis placed on increased farm production to meet- the food. requirements ,of a rapidly growing population; both here and abroad. As we are all aware, there is a great deal of resistance on the part of the consumer to higher food prices. In recent months we have witnessed the forma- tion of consumer groups pro- testing to the government in' the high price of food. Yet you and I know that the return to the farmer is •very low in `spite of tremendous gains in produc- tivity. Many farmers feel them- selves caught in' this trap f a 1 r - s every spiralling c of costs to the produtiey here they are . asking and demanding fur- ther action from the govern- ment for higher prices on farm products. The government finds itself in a real dilema. Certain- ly the problem is extremely complex. Three points should be kept in Mind: a) We all appreciate 'that food production will have to be in- creased to 'meet the, needs of •the growing population. b) Agriculture, to produce the food (requirements, finds all production - costs increasing: land, machinery, labor, produc- ti u''supplies, etc. c) As a nation oras ndiv_idctal consumers is it reasonable to ask the agricultural industry to produce the food requirements, when the return is so small, or to put it' another way when 47% of the producers are exis- ting on very marginal .incomes. To have a healthy and prosper- ous agriculture, some way will have to be found to increase the net income of the primary pro- ducer. , ' Increased Demand • The increase in population in Ontario besides -meaning an•- in- creased demand for food, also means more agricultural land taken out of produ tion. By the year 2 a large ur- ban sprawl is projected ,for south-western Ontario. I would suspect}that as land is sold for non-argieultural uses, more in- tensified farming will move north. For example, Huron County will probably see the value of farm land increase and with increased farm specializa- tion and production. Farming, while it will contin- ue to be a way of life for many, Will be operated more and -more as .a corporate business. Like any successful manager, the farmer of the future and today for that matter, will keep ac- curate records of production, performance, fixed and variable expense, gross return and net earnings, using all the uptodate methods that we use in any business operation. I mentioned • earlier, the in- crease 'in specialization in par- ticular crops or Livestock. As a result, purchase ,of supplies and services have increased and the eantribution of the farmer's land and labor to the process has diminished in relative im- portante. These developments have placed premiums on time- ly and correct management de- cision. Poor decisions can bring financial disaster quiekly. There are four level.§ of • computer so- phistication available to farm - ens: 1) Farmers provide figures for tax return 2) They provide some figures for oost analysis, cost per'acre, cost per hour, per machine op- eration, 8) inter/Mae analysis which might coati more , detailed in- formation such as hour' of lab- or put into ugrit s opposed to *heat; comitarabte Bolts of feed as opposed to yearlings,'ete.. 4) Linnear programming which all in all would provide some important answers as to where to buy and when to, sell. At the fourth level there could be continuing analysis of all details of the farming opera- tion. The computer could, pro- vide answers about the perform ance of a lot of feeder calves acquired from a certain source ti}eir rate of gain, feed conver sion, health records during feed ing compared with a lot bought somewhere else. This could help the farmer to decide where to buy. Throw in cost ..accounting and linear programming can answer that other vexing ques- tion, when to sell. The day is coming soon when we will have enough informa- tion to feed into the computer to find' the least cost method of producing each farm product. I use these examples to illus. trate the facrt that farming to- day is a highly complex busi- ness and is more and more em- ploying many of the* techniques that other industries also em- ploy. To illustrate .this a little further, in the world of bust-• /less there is great emphasis placed on management develop- ment. Similarly with present day and future farmers there .will be an increased emphasis on education and learning. The modern successful farmer is anxious to learn about new dev- elopments not only about tech- nical agriculture, but farm man- agement and agricultural busi- ness.. Farming has come a long way in this area. In common with the present day businessman . the present and future farmer will Probab- ly have more formal education and' be better informed and be better managers than their forefathers As in any business, this process of development will. not slow down. _1 To be successful and to com- pete in a very competitive en ' terprise; the farmerwill, lteep abreast of changing conditions s in agricultural business and ad- o just to meet these changing f trends. e Certainly as a manager, in d common with all busilWss, the a successful marketing of his pro- a duct will continue to be of prime concern to the farmer. How the marketing of farm pro• duce will be dope in the future is difficult to predict, although we can expect to see further use of marketing: -boards, mark- eting co-ops, es the farmer at- tempts to gain greater bargain- ing strength in the sale of his product. , We can at best guess at some - of the implications of the chang- ing agriculture business for the urban dweller. For business generally to • service the agri- cultural segment successfully they too must keep abreast of the rapidly changing agricul- tural industry. As indicated, you will be generally dealing with men that are capable managers. add are better informed, and will .expect a wider variety of service and .competitive prices. Business dealing with the .farm trade, whether- in machinery, equipment, facilities, produc- tion products or finance must be informed and acquainted with the needs of the modern day farmer, and his business must be geared to meet these needs. Certainly the need to main- tain and improve farm income will be of continuing concern. It is certainly not a simple ques- tion, but'ene that .will have to be resolved. From its record, agriculture and the farming pop- ulation, can be expected to util- ize all modern techniques . to keep its production of farm products geared to the rising demands of the market. It can be relied' upon to produce at the lowest possible net costs, using the latest in equipment and technical.know how. To de so means a rising investment in individual farm operations. The cost of everything going into farm production has also risen with very little increase, if any, n the net return_l.2-the_farmer,... These are the things that all of us shouldkeep in mind.Un- derstanding this situation I -am ure will make us less critical f any legitimate action • of the armer in trying to improve his conomic situation, or of the ifferent levels of government. s they bring in policies to chieve this end. SUPER Lis(c.11 William M. Hari FUEL ETC. None 527*0870 -- Seaforth DID YOU KNOW ...that Sun Life of Cantdt is CMS st the world's lcadiiug life insunmos companies, with 150 bcauth throusialst Nardi Asaatioar. At del Soft Edie rive eawr. agibe deadommal ' ow JOHN Ja WALSH Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada Phone 2714000 =- 48 Rebecca St., STRATFORD WANT ADS BRING QUICK RESULTS: Dial 527-0240. GOOD SERVI E AT LOW, LOW COST 1965 CHEV. BISCAYNE-6 Cylinder 1965 CLASSIC SEDAN 1964 MORRIS OXFORD 1963 CLASSIC SEDAN 1962 FORD WAGON 1962 AMBASSADOR 1961 RAMBLER . . Come and See the NEW 1967 MODELS MILLER . MOTORS Phone 527-1410 Seaforth American Motors Dealer Get the '67Hniode1. It's available only at our Q -Center. • Now Superafor Quality White Bean Production It's made to order for men like you, successful growers who now want even higher profits. Super Q is designed to do a specific -job in a complete fertility program . , . a program designed to produce the highest profit per acre. You need this year's Super Q to grow this' year's best White beans. Why ? This year Super Q is especially formulated and thoroughly evaluated for your area ... it's designed for use only in the most advanced White Bean pro- duction programs...the Super Q plan - is a unique combination of world- wide research and local experience. Our '67 Model is up-to-date—based - on a rigid analysis of the specific requirements for growingtop quality white beans. 'Super Q assures profitable produc- tion with a complete White Bean' growing plan ---a Quality Plan. Make '67 a great year for White Beans. Your White Beans. Get Super Q. Super Q is formulated .for the top farmers' White Beans in Huron, Perth and, Middlesex counties by:- REAP y:-REAP FERTILIZERS' LIMITED gt.sviinkAmito E: e-r,,e tt, °iii fir A• Rio) .' A A d 1 i • 4.