The Huron Expositor, 1976-12-09, Page 14Soil and crop Ass. heads of
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ropean formin oas
Boards could consult consumers
Not long ago, this corner decried the situation in On-
tario which has pitted consumer against farmer.
A few years ago, before consumers organizations and
farm marketing boards, these confrontations were few
and far between because farmers were constantly sub-
jected to the ups and downs of supply and demand. Con-
sumers got the lowest prices possible on food products
and nobody cared much that hundreds. of thousands of
farmers went broke. •
The fact that there are fewer farmers — and fewer
farms — in Ontario today seems to have been forgotten
by most people. Mute testimony to this fact is the num-
ber of abandoned farm homes sprawled across Ontario.
It is true, then, that fewer farmers are growing far more
food these days than ever before; that farmers and the
agricultural community have adapted to technology and
change better than even the most modern industries.
Production in the agricultural sector has outstripped
any other segment of the economy in the laSt decade.
----WNeh means that farmers have had to compete to a
greater degree , than any other industry on. this province.
They have had to be competitive to stay in business.
I'm positive these confrontations between consumer
and farmer can, for the most part, be prevented. The
consumer wants a quality product at a competitive price.
The farmer can and will produce a quality product `as long
as he is assured of a reasonable return on his labor and
investment.
When farmers can convince consumers that they are
not gouging the public, the public will accept reasonable
price increases. The consumer wants to be assured that
the price of food is competitive.
Unfortunately, many consumers think that prices have
been administered; that is, artificially set by a consortium
of government officials, farm marketing board officials
and bungling bureaucrats. .
To some degree, in some products, there is a modicutn`
of truth in that supposition.
But farmers and marketing • boards have proven, time
and again against many odds, that even the prices set by
marketing beards which have assumed that power are
fair and reasonable.
And I'm referring specifically to a couple of those abor-
tive attempts by, the consumers association to prove that
price formulas set by marketing boards were too high.
I honestly think that those confrontations could have
been avoided and a lot of hard feelings dispelled between
the two parties if they had been able to sit down and dis-
cuss the pricing formula before either one went off half
cocked and threw baseless accusations at one another.
This corner has suggested many times that any farm
marketing board which assumes the power to set prices
and quotas should have a consumer representative on that
board,
Why invite criticism? Why not consult those most af-
fected by prices? Farmers and farm organizations are
constantly carping at the government for setting policies
and writing legislation for farmers and not consulting
farmers about that legislation.
Farmers., especially the Ontario Federation of Agricul-
ture,, have been bitching at the province for many years
tor not including farmers' in their discussions about pend-
ang legislation.
Therefore, farm organizations should follow directions
from their own people and allow consumer representatives
J, to add to the deliberations. Up to now, most boards have
been reluctant to do this.
To my knowledge, few of them have done it. The Ontario
Farm Products Marketing Board, I believe, has a repre-
sentative from the consumers association — Mrs. Ruth
Jackson — on the board, When she was appointed, a great
many agricultural people objected but 'I believe it was a
good move and should be emulated by other boards.
It could go a long way to removing the confrontation
attitude so prevalent between the consumer and farmer
today.
And anything that' will relieve tension in this troubled
world is certainly worthwhile.
jt •
Jack Riddell MPP (Huron
Middlesex), the agricultural critic
for the Liberal Party, was the
guest speaker at the annual,
meeting of the Bruce County
Federation of Agriculture on
Dec ernaer 3.
He spodi at length about the
farm income stabilization
program calling the governments
original plan "little more than a
public relation exercise" as it
would have covered only 15 to 20_
percent of the commodities which
are produced by Ontario farmers.
"Frankly, we (the, Liberal
party) still have some misgivings
about the proposed plan", Mr.
Riddell skid. "But we hope to
prevail upon the government to
accept amendments which we
have suggested."
These ammendments say farm
organizations in Ontario should
be able to appoint people directly
td the commission, rather than
having all commission members
appointed by the Lt. Governor.
More realistic cost of production
should be taken into
consideration. In addition to
direct cost, the farmer must be
allowed interest on his operating
capital and some allowance for
labour which he has to hire. The
commission should be required to
consult with producer;
organizations or commodity
boards before arriving at a
stabalized price for a particular
commodity.
Where the present bill says the
commission may "consult", the
Liberals feel, it should'', read
"must" consult with 'the Warious
commodity boards.
' Mr. Riddell was critical of the
proposed property tax reform,
stating that it would not be as
satisfactory as the present rebate
system. He said that, "farmers
have expressed' the fear that
payment of taxes by the province
would be tantamount to
government control of their land,
that their status as independent
businessmen is being steadily
erroded, and that the proposed
change in tax structure might be
part of a trend which could
ultimately lead to the government
dictating what and how much is to
be produced." •
He, went on to say that the
,Liberals believed that a far more
equitable and just alternative to
the tax reform proposals would
be, ''to strengthen the farm
economy, and guarantee farmers
a reasonable ,rate of return from
their land, so that they are able to
pay their taxes and other costs
labor."
Mr. Riddell told the crowd of
Bruce County 'farmers that the
agriculture industry must not be
underestimated. Farmers and the
food related industry generate
one out of every three jobs in
Canada, either directly or
indirectly. He reported that in
1974 Canada farmers; 'Paid
nearly $6 million in operating
costs, most of this money going
back into Canadian economy.
That they spent more than one
billion dollars on machinery
expenses and produced enough
farm eommodities to account for
near1)0 four billion dollars in
export sales.
The MPP from , Huron-
Middlesex emphasized the need
in Ontario for a long term land
use policy, with the province
setting the overall guidelines and
leaving the rest to the municipal
government. He said that urban
planners estimate that every time
our population increases by 1,000
people, between 300 and 1200
acres of land are converted to
urban use. A university research
project has indicated that for
every acre of farm land actually
used for development purposes,
something like 1.6 to two acres of
Brucefield
Correspondent
Mrs. Hugh Berry
Brucefield 1.0.0.F. held h
successful card party on Friday
evening, Dec. 3 when the
following winners are: Ladies'
high, Mrs. Percy Campbell, Low ,
Miss Jean McEwen. Lone Hands
, Mrs. Norman Riehl, Men's High
- Robert Dalrymple, Low, -
Gordon Richardson. Lone Hands -
W.D.Wilson. Lucky draw - Bill
Rogerson.
Mr. and Mrs. A. Cribbon,
Toronto are visiting with their
sister Mrs. E. Paterson and
mother, Mrs. M. Sholdice who is
a patient in Clinton Hospital.
Sympathy is extended to the
family and friends of the late Mrs.
John A. McEwen who passed
away suddenly at Huronview,
formerly of Brucefield.
and realize a fair profit from their land are taken out of production.
"This province has plenty of
, room for houses, commerce,
urban industry, recreation and
agriculture," Mr. Riddle said.
"However the peopole who will
live here , say 50 years from now,
will be happier, healthier and
more prosperous if we give more
thought that we have been do-.
the past to the question f
Centralia students build
We have a New Shipment of
Centralia College of
Agricultural Technology has
come up with an unusual
approach to its agricultural
structures course.
J. A. Underwood, head of the
college's agricultural engineering
department, puts students to
work constructing a t farm
building.
Last fall, about 45 students
worked on a 26-foot by 16 - foot
storage shed. This year, 50
second-year students are working
on a 16-foot addition.
"We're not trying to m ake
carpenters out „of these
students," said Mr. Underwood..
"We're just trying to give them
some practical experience so;they
will know the basics."
The experience will behelpfid
to students When they begin
farming and have to deal with
building contractors.
According to Mr. Underwood,
the program is popular with
second-year students at the
college.Most of the approximately
50 students enrolled in the
agricultural business ,
management program have
selected the structures course as
an elective.
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85 Bale Handler / Crop Choppers / Crop-Carriers 60 50 40
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770 Forage HarfeSter /.1032, 1033 Bale Wagons 160 130 100
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structure,
In France fanners literally hate
dead furrows and almostall of the
plows were reversible nioldboarci•
on reversible disc plows. slides
were shown to the Huron farmers
of the yarrow chisel plows,
reciprocating harrows, rotators
and deepetillage instruments in
action. dol
Corn planters used in many of
the Huropean countries also had
interesting features which' Mr.
Daynard would like to see
adapted to work on Canadian corn
planters if they can be made to
work under North American
planting conditions.
Many of the Eurolaeati concepts
are presently incorporated into
the research program at Guelph
as growing conditions in the corn
areas of Europe and Canada are
similar,
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▪ Hwy. 86 East of Winghom 3 57-343 5
A large. number of Huron
County farmers attended the
annual meeting last Thursday
night pf the Huron Soil and Crop
Improvement Association and
heard about crop methods in
European Countries.
The guest speaker was Terry
Daynard of the Crop Science
Department of the University of
Guelph. Dur ing the summer of
1975, Mr. Daynard visited the
agricultural areas of Fryce,
Italy, Yugoslavia and Hungary.
The farms he visited ranged
from a Low of 10 acres in
Yugoslavia to 80,000 acre
commune farms in Hungary.
At the present time, Terry
Daynard is \doing research at
Guelph to develop a system for
handling corn stalks. In
Yugoslavia he discovered, small
pockets of corn scattered along
the hillside where farmers picked
their corn by hand and then went
back to harvedst the stalks. The
management praCtice has been in
use in Yugoslavia for 400 years.
The Guelph researcher was
amazed that Europeans harvest
corn much wetter than Canadians
do. He brought some seed back
and grew it at Guelph. Last fall
they were able to combine it quite
successfully at 50 per cent
moisture.
Many of the Europe corn
'hybrids appear to thresh much
easier thin Ontario hybrids.
In France fuel costs are about
50 per cent higher than Ontario
and consequently they are also
trying to make their corn dryers
'more efficient.
Mr. Daynard believes the
Europeans have done a great deal
more experimentation with tillage
equipment than the Canadian or
American farmer and research
personnel in these countries have
studied the effects of various
tillage implements on the soil
Farm income plan topic at Bruce Federation
which land should be used for $
which purposes."
The annual meeting concluded
with the elections for the new
executive for the coming year.
Those gaining office were,
president, Brian Ireland, a dairy
and 'hog farmer in Culross
township, first vice president,.
Eldon McKinnon, a beef farmer
in Elderslie, second vice,
president, Hold Poechman, a
swine and poultry farrier in Brant
Township.
1111.
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