The Rural Voice, 1986-02, Page 72BRUCE COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
446 10th St. Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
Prices are falling along with the snow
Welcome to another year! Now
that Dec. 31 is past, prices are fall-
ing along with the snow. Snow
storms must be related to grain
prices because you seldom hear of
a good snow storm. Bad storms are
quite common and when they are
over, you have a different perspec-
tive of the world outside.
However, let's be more op-
timistic in this first month of the
new year. In just three more
months, the snow will be gone and
life will be created anew again. The
grass will grow and have to be cut;
trees will leaf out and the spring
flowers will bloom and fill the air
with that fresh fragrance of spring.
And then we can change from go-
ing to meetings to going to the
field, to prepare for another boun-
tiful crop for us and possibly a
disaster for Brazil or Russia. (I
don't wish them bad luck but it
sure would help our prices!)
Isn't it wonderful that in our
world, where those countries that
can afford it have more than
enough to eat and cannot sell the
surplus at a profit, that our resear-
chers (and we do need them) are
developing new ways to produce
more with less. For example, the
latest farm sector to hit the press,
the stalwarts of our communities,
are the dairy farmers. Surely they
must be jumping for joy that
within a few years, they will only
have to feed half as many cows and
do half as many chores and still get
the same amount of milk. Or as it
has already been stated, only half
the number of dairy farmers will
be required.
Even though the world popula-
tion is predicted to increase by
several Canadas by the end of this
century, with the continuing ad-
vances in science and technology,
probably even fewer farmers will
be required to produce a sufficient
quantity of food. For our dairy
farmers, it is inevitable that some
will not have to continue milking
and they probably won't have to
go into beef or hogs to help the rest
of us meet those demands either.
Maybe they can grow ginseng.
However, maybe before they
have to grow ginseng, Prime
Minister Mulroney will have us
70 THE RURAL VOICE
free trading wtih the U.S. This
may be his way of reducing the
portion of the federal budget spent
on agriculture.
Instead of us fighting with Ot-
tawa for a stabilization payment
on our products, we will receive a
deficiency payment from the U.S.
agriculture budget because that's
who we will belong to. What's the
difference between a stabilization
payment and a deficiency pay-
ment? According to Uncle
Webster's book, they would both
qualify as a subsidy.
Meanwhile, the U.S. keeps ad-
ding on more countervail duties to
offset our massive subsidy pro-
gram. Probably their logic is, that
if serious bargaining ever does oc-
cur, it will appear that they are
making great concessions by
removing these duties that are not
fair or justified to begin with,
while we will have to give up what
little protection we might have and
expose ourselves to the massive
U.S. production. Oh well, c'est la
vie!
Grant Collins
Second Vice -President
Bruce County Federation of Agriculture
TOWNSHIP CANVAS DATES
Feb. 3-6 — Elderslie, Brant
Feb. 10-13 — Bruce, Greenock
Feb. 17-20 — Huron, Kinloss
Feb. 24-27 — Culross, Carrick
March 3-6 — Kincardine
Bruce County
Federation of Agriculture
Meeting
February 24 1986
1:30 p.m.
Walkerton OMAF Office
OFMA
MACHINERY DEPOT
Paisley, Ontario
NOG 2N0
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