The Rural Voice, 1985-09, Page 76See you
at the Plowing Match
COMFORT CASTRATOR
CASTREITE
BY PRODUCT
FEEDS
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We have just received a con-
tract to sell sweet corn silage.
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Also
• Apple pomace
• Wet or dry corn gluten
• Wet or dry corn screenings
• Hominy
Suppliers of
jjCAINV
Feeds & Animal
Health Products
B & L Farm Services
1-363-3308
Leonard Bob
363-3037 353-5715
74 THE RURAL VOICE
ONE MAN'S OPINION
Changes coming
at a faster rate
I believe that the number of
farmers will decline much more than
it has already. There is, however, an
efficiency of scale that has limits, and
a farm can be too small to be effi-
cient. But there is a point of
diminishing returns where a farm can
become too large to be efficient too.
One cash cropper recently told me
that he sometimes found that he
couldn't give his fields the attention
and the timeliness they need. The tim-
ing of spraying for weed control, he
said, is often crucial, but the weather
might have changed before he could
do all his fields.
The same holds true for the
livestock producer who must breed
his female animals at the height of the
heat cycle for optimum results. If he
is too busy getting his crop in or his
fall plowing done, he may end up
with a number of animals to be fed
for an extra and unnecessary three
weeks. If he doesn't have time for this
or, in swine herds, for cross fostering,
he is too large.
I think that, on average, we are
close to optimum farm size. But this
thought holds true only if we discount
further developments.
We are on the verge of the im-
plementation of biotechnical
developments that will allow farmers
to produce tremendous amounts of
extra milk and meat from single
animals. Just imagine the impact of
20 cows producing the same amount
of milk as 30 cows do at present, and
a pig reaching 100 kg in 120 days.
Then there is the coming increase
of crop yields. Experiments with
growth promoting chemicals are, in
some instances, doubling yields of
barley and spring wheat.
These are not dream figures. They
are expected to be reality within the
next five to ten years. These figures
mean that 33 per cent of dairy
farmers become surplus and will have
to look elsewhere for income. They
mean that Ontario farmers finishing
4,000,000 hogs a year from 290,000
sows will need only 230,000 sows — a
Toss of 600 farmers with sow herds of
100 animals each. It means a doubl-
ing of the surplus of crop land and
the inevitable halving of farm value.
It also means that a Targe number
of farmers must find other employ-
ment and more third and fourth
generation farms will change hands.
Take my own case as an example. I
have had my farm for sale for a year
at an asking price below the replace-
ment value of the buildings. I have
offered a mortgage of 10 per cent.
But I have not even found someone to
make a bid.
In other words, I can't stop pro-
ducing hogs because I can't retire un-
til the sale of the farm gives me what I
need to complete my pension. I don't
believe I am alone in such a situation.
I have called for a comprehensive
study of the future of farming before.
But wiser heads at farm organizations
have apparently decided that short-
term solutions through financial sup-
port for sustained over -production
are more important.
The reported biotechnical
developments, however, demand that
we look to what the future holds for
agriculture. While changes in
agriculture have been rather gradual
throughout history, they have been
coming at a faster rate than ever
before. If farm organizations insist
on remaining on the slow wagon,
Canadian farmers will be going
bankrupt at an increasing rate.
Quebec, a much poorer province
than Ontario, can afford to pay
$1,400 a sow and $50 a hog for pork
producers in pollution prone areas
who leave the business, not to return.
It would cost taxpayers much less to
assist farmers into new jobs and it
would cause farmers a lot less anguish
if they could leave their ailing farms
with dignity intact. ❑
Once you get them rollin',
they're darn hard to stop!