The Rural Voice, 1985-07, Page 13Don Hill, president of the Grey County Federation of Agriculture, says that if the price of food were to increase the
way car prices have increased over the years, farmers would be enjoying a high standard of living.
pessimistic about the Cattlemen's
Association. "Having gone to the
Cattlemen's Association annual
meetings for the past two or three
years, I just cannot see that organiza-
tion moving into the twentieth cen-
tury," he says.
Despite low commodity prices, Hill
believes that there will always be
livestock in Grey County. "We don't
have the options that other counties
have. We have severe land restric-
tions." He includes the rolling
topography, stones, drainage, and
weather conditions among the pro-
blems facing farmers who are looking
toward farming alternatives. Grey
County has the most cows to the acre
in the province, with an average herd
size of 20 to 23 cows.
With few alternatives to beef cows,
Hill believes that there will be more
pasturing and crop rotation as
farmers look for less costly ways to
raise beef. "Suddenly it became a lot
cheaper to build fences than it did to
build silos, grow corn, and buy
harvesters," Hill says.
An increasing amount of corn
ground going back into rotation
means that the returns may not be as
high, but the profit to farmers could
be better, Hill says. Grey County is
not faced with the soil erosion pro-
blems that are common in other
counties. "We don't have large tracts
of cultivated land. There aren't
massive areas draining the watershed
and most fields are in crop rotation."
While Hill also finds that the cost
of credit is far too high in relation to
the price for product to the farmers,
he believes that Grey County farmers
are more cautious about borrowing
money than many other farmers.
"We have a very solid group in Grey
County with some pretty strongly
held convictions about being respon-
sible."
"I don't think anybody wants to
see a neighbour out of business, but
we have a lot of farmers in Grey who
could have built a barn or bought
farms in the 1970s. I guess they've
paid part of the price over the years
by not having the kind of facilities
they wanted. A lot of those people
who didn't make expenditures and
struggled along, if they had a son or
daughter, would find it difficult to
get them started in farming," Hill
says. Planning doesn't always work
out as it should: "I renovated the
barn this past winter, then the price
of pigs went down to 58 cents a
pound. That's luck, isn't it?"
The Grey County Federation of
Agriculture is also involved in the
hydro corridor issue. "I'm kind of
proud of the Grey federation," Hill
says. "They didn't take the 'not in
my back yard' attitude. The power is
there and it has to get out. What real-
ly matters is how many people it af-
fects and what it does to the coun-
tryside."
With less prime farm land in Grey
County than in some other areas, a
hydro corridor would not be as
detrimental to agriculture, but it
would have an impact that Hill
believes must be considered. "You
can go through crop land and not
cause nearly the destruction as you
would through a forest. You can
replant corn and beans, but you can't
replant a forest." Tourists and urban
JULY 1985 11