The Rural Voice, 1985-11, Page 10SHIFTING GEARS
In the following pages, The Rural Voice looks at farmers coping with financial crisis.
Some are forced to redirect their farming operations. Others must create alternative
employment. The adjustments don't come easy.
Losing the farm
Eugene and Brenda Swain are now helping other farmers who have lost or will be losing
their farms.
"B
ut when it's a farmer,
he loses not just his
job, not just his house,
but a way of life, something that is in-
grained in his blood."
On a spring day in 1981, Eugene
and Brenda Swain of Highgate lost
their farm. Eugene returned from the
hospital where he'd been visiting
Brenda and their brand new
daughter, Janine, to find the bank
had seized his pigs. In 1982, the bank
sold the couple's farm; it wasn't until
the summer of 1983 that the Swains
really started to rebuild their lives.
But instead of finding a new vocation
and silently melting into the
mainstream, Eugene Swain keeps
talking about how the loss of the
family farm changed their lives. He
hopes that this is one way of remind-
ing others that the financial crisis
tacing Ontario farmers hasn't disap-
peared. There are problems on the
farm that have to be addressed if the
farming community is to survive, says
Swain. "Farmers are still losing their
farms and the grief goes on."
Today Eugene Swain is studying
for his Bachelor of Arts degree at the
University of Western Ontario. He's
also a candidate for the United
Church ministry and serves the three-
point charge of Highgate, Morpeth,
and Turin, located in Kent County.
The Swains will remain in Highgate, a
farming hamlet, until 1986, when
Eugene has finished his B.A.; then
they hope to be accepted in another
rural charge where Eugene can preach
while completing his three-year
Masters' program in theology.
8 THE RUR,11 VOICF
by Alice Gibb
The Swains have always been
church -goers, but it was back in 1978
that they stopped going largely out of
habit; and made a new commitment
to Christian life. The following year,
noting that "basically I've always
been a farmer," Eugene bought his
father's 100 -acre farm outside Dut-
ton. The Swains named their place
Gainsway for Christ Farms; their 200
sow farrow -to -finish operation pro-
duced 2,000 hogs annually. Swain
bought additional land to raise more
feed for his livestock. But in the sum-
mer of 1980, "hog prices went down
and stayed down and interest rates ...
started to go up dramatically," Swain
recalls. Unfortunately, this was just
the period when the couple refinanc-
ed their operation and borrowed ad-
ditional money to upgrade the barns
and some farm equipment.
Even though the writing was on the
wall, they didn't realize that they
were going to lose the farm, says
Swain. "That's still true today. Most
farmers don't recognize or realize
what's happening."
From the fall of 1980, when things
started to go wrong, to mid -1983,
when Swain decided to enter the
ministry, the family's life "was in a
turmoil, for sure — but in a kind of
vapor -lock," says Swain. They not
only lost their home and livelihood,
but Eugene's father suffered a heart
attack and stroke which affected his
speech and his right side. And the
same bank that had foreclosed on
Eugene's and Brenda's farm also
foreclosed on his brother's business.
In October of 1983, with Swain
already back at school, the couple
was invited to take over the three-
point charge at Highgate, just 30
miles from their former home, for
nine months — their stay was later ex-
tended.
"We were thrilled that this was a
rural charge," Brenda says, "because
we could identify with the people."
And the fact that they have personal-
ly experienced the loss of a farm has
helped them in counselling other
farmers or farm couples "who have
lost or are losing or will be losing
their farms," says Swain. Although
Kent County is perceived as a pros-
perous cash crop area, Swain says
poor corn and soybean prices are for-
cing more area cash croppers out of
farming.
Losing a farm, the Swains em-
phasize, is different from simply los-
ing a job. If someone had worked for
General Motors for ten years, was
laid off, and eventually lost his home,
the experience would be tragic, Swain
says. But a year down the road that
same man might get work in the Ford
plant. Soon he's back on his feet
financially and can start buying a
home again.
"But when it's a farmer, he loses
not just his job, not just his house,
but a way of life, something that is in-
grained in his blood," Swain says.
Last year, invited to speak at a
Huron County farm meeting, Swain
recalls jotting down ideas for his talk.
"I started off with 'I used to be a