The Rural Voice, 2002-03, Page 24ick Robso
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Jn the friendly rivalry of farmers,
where getting a couple of bushels
more corn to the acre or starting
harvesting a day earlier can bring
bragging rights at the local coffee
shop, Rick Robson wins hands down
when it comes to starting planting.
When Robson goes to a meeting
of the Bruce County Federation of
Agriculture, where he is currently
vice-president, he can tell fellow
directors he's already started planting
by the time the January meeting rolls
around. Robson and his wife Donna
operate a greenhouse business on 100
acres on the edge of Kincardine.
Planting season for bedding plants to
be sold to customers starting in May,
begins in mid-January.
"We're on the land right now," he
says one blustery day in early
February with the windchill rating at
20 below outside. "We harvest when
everybody else is sowing."
Of course he won't do much
bragging about his tractor and seed
drill ... all the planting is done by
20 THE RURAL VOICE
hand.
There aren't many producers of
bedding plants among the ranks of
Federation of Agriculture members.
In fact when Robson served as a
regional director to the OFA. he was
the lone representative of the
horticultural industry (other than
tender fruit growers) at Toronto
meetings. "And yet we're a huge, $6
billion industry — bigger than corn,"
he says.
Despite the fact he grew up in
Montreal and greenhouse growers
don't often see themselves as
farmers, Robson sees the
connections. For one thing, he tells
other hor4cultural producers, some of
the issues OFA is dealing with like
labour issues, are also areas of
concern in their industry.
But the similarities go further.
Like other farmers, for instance,
Robson has had to adjust to a
marketplace that's constantly
changing. When he first took over the
business 18 years ago, for instance,
about 80 per cent of the plants grown
were sold wholesale to large retailers
who set up those "instant nurseries"
each spring in their parking lots. He
could see the writing was on the wall
with rising costs and reduced
margins, Robson says and the
opening of a Walmart store locally
was the final straw. The couple
stopped producing wholesale plants
and concentrated on growing the 20
per cent retail section of the business.
The early years it was tough, he
admits, but things have improved as
the years went by.
Competition from those large
volume nurseries that sell bedding
plants almost as a loss leader is hard
for many of the small greenhouse
operators, he says.
"You either have to be a small
vertically -integrated operation or the
big guys who deal on volume and
(lower) price. If you're not in either
camp it's difficult. Like all farming
the middle producer gets the
squeeze."
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