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The Rural Voice, 1982-04, Page 6RALHEN HAMPSHIRES Registered R.O.P. breeding stock RALPH HENDERSON R.R. 1, Atwood, Ont. (519) 356-2656 SEED Now Available BARLEY • Bruce • Massey • Herta • Keystone • Trent • Perth • Mingo RED CLOVER • No. 1 & Plowdown TIMOTHY & ALFALFA WHITE BEANS • Kentwood & Seafarer Order directly or from your local dealer Art Bolton 527-0559 Russell Bolton 527-1428 PG. 4 THE RURAL VOICE/APRIL 1982 LETTERS Money by the pailful We enjoy reading the Rural Voice, also it's very interesting comments and stories. I noticed you state that you would be happy to print our comments. We attended the Huron Cattlemens Association meeting in Clinton recently. This was called to discuss and vote on supply management for beef cattle. We have been in dairy and beef farming for 32 years. We farm with our son Gary; together we have 180 head of cattle. This isn't very fast growth, but we started in 1949 with 2 cows and grew gradually with our own management and very little borrowed money. We hope to pass our farms on to our grandchildren and keep them in the family, but if supply management be- comes law this could become impossible. As soon as there is a quota on any product, it starts to fall into fewer and fewer hands. There is 7 percent fewer dairy farmers every year. After a few years of supply manage- ment, egg marketing has now apparently fallen into the control of two men; one controls 50 percent, the other 20 percent here in Ontario (Quote from the London Free Press, Nov. 19, 1981, page Al). Once there is quotas, it becomes very hard for a young farmer to start farming in these areas. At this meeting we had three speakers, one for market quotas, one against, one sitting on the fence. What shocked me the most at this meeting was that the speaker who wanted quotas had a 3000 head feedlot which now sits empty. If quotas were law, he could keen to 2000 head of cattle, give or take a few head and my son and I would have to cut back to 120 head or so after 32 years of getting our herd established. Another question asked was would packing plants who have fed cattle over the last five years get a quota? The answer was yes. Then a man got up and said his young son was just getting started into beef farming and had three cows plus six heifers bred for next year and what quota would he ke'" The answer was he would have to cut .,ack to 2 cows., This kind of thinking on the part of supply management has got to be out of this world and it's no wonder that the ordinary farmers there voted it down 125 to 42. It's certainly sad some farmers took out large government loans to go into the cattle business. I don't think you can stay in the cattle business with government loans ana give back 20 percent of your assets every year, but I don't think small farmers should bail them out with marketing boards. Mr. Whelan wants quotas really bad and it isn't any wonder. The government would like their money back, but if the government would have just stayed out of farming in the first place, the beef farmers wouldn't be in the trouble they are now. I have always thought that beef barns should be built with the profit from the sale of beef, pig barns with the sale of pork and dairy barns with the sale of milk products. If we stuck to this formula, supply would be a lot nearer to the demand. I see the government lending money to farmers by the pailful to go into enterprises that are already in trouble, and if you can't make a profit on your own money, how are you going to on 20 percent money? You know in Poland they have had state controlled marketing and farming for years now and if it wasn't for food coming in from free enterprise countries, they woula starve. t!o we want this? You bet we don't and God help Canada if we ever do. Glen Van Camp R.R. 4 Brussels, Ont. Rural Voice gets results I am extremely pleased with the results of your free classified ad section. Throughout the past months, I have advertised and sold a cream secarator, hay, straw, and three farm fridges. We have had excellent response and I did not have to spend a cent! In these hard times every farm should look around to find things that he or she is not using and advertise it and see if someone else can use it and put money in your pocket at the same time. Farmers enjoy dealing, and 1 would like to see more of what farmers have for sale in our area. It took the Rural Voice to find out that a fellow farmer three miles away needed straw. Yours very truly, David Drummond We are always anxious to know what readers think of our magazine and the columns, features and news items in it. If you have something to say. send your comments to the address below. Letters should be concise. and signed. Because of space limitations we reserve the right to edit. The Rural Voice, Box 10, Blyth, Ont.