The Rural Voice, 2002-08, Page 69People
Perth 4 -Hers visit Saskatchewan
An enthusiastic group of 10 Perth
County 4-H members and two
chaperones left Ontario in mid-July
for a week-long visit to members of
the 4-H Homecraft Club of Kelleher,
Saskatchewan.
Taking part in the trip west were:
Evan Baker, Philip Biihler, Laura
DeKroon, Laura Hutton, David
Kolkman, Matthew Kolkman, Laura
McKenzie, Erica Murray, Andrea
Neubrand and Shannon O'Rourke.
They were accompanied by
chaperones Barb Elg and Nellie Van
den Hoven.
The trip is part of the 4-H Youth
Exchanges Canada program, funded
by a grant from the Department of
Canadian Heritage. On August 13, 10
members of the Kelleher 4-H program
along with one chaperone will visit
Ontario, staying in homes mostly in
the Mitchell and Monkton areas.
Objectives of the program include
improving the knowledge and
understanding of Canada among
Canadian youth enabling them to
learn first-hand about the history,
geography, economy, institutions,
cultures, communities, languages and
other aspects of their country.
To help pay for their trip the Perth
County group conducted barbecues at
the Mitchell Farmers Market, sold
chili at Midnight Madness and held a
car wash in Mitchell with the
facilities of the Mitchell Car Wash
donated by the owner. Other
businesses were also strong in their
support of the group.
When the Kelleher group pays their
return visit they'll visit St. Jacobs
and the farmers market, the corn
maze near Newton as well as Niagara
Falls, Goderich and the Stratford
Festival.
According to Elg and Van den
Hoven, the 4 -Hers have shown a
mature and positive attitude beyond
their years in preparing for the trip.0
Helmut Sieber back in Canada
Helmut Sieber, who amassed huge
acreages in the 1980s in northern
Huron and southern Bruce Counties,
the Thedford Marsh area as well as
20,000 acres in Manitoba is back in
Canada and ready to start buying
again, Ontario Farmer's Jim
Romahn reports.
Sieber's ambitious plans to create
several vertically -integrated farming
and agri-businesses imploded in the
1990s following a $350 -million
lawsuit by on-time partner Christian
Straube and the bankruptcy of his
publically-traded company Canadian
Agra Foods Inc.
Sieber told Romahn he had spent
the last two years in Dubai because
all his assets were frozen by the
courts due to the Straube lawsuit. He
couldn't buy or sell anything and
couldn't set up new businesses in
Canada so he went to Dubai and got
involved with "food and beverage
companies". That led him, he said,
into acquisitions and mergers and he
made a lot of money.
Though he returned to Canada July
1, Sieber said he will continue to do
business in Dubai where there are 28
million people within 100 km and
228 within 1,000 km.
Sieber said he has reached an out-
of-court settlement with Straube and
aims to settle all the remaining
lawsuits and outstanding issues with
his old businesses by the end of this
year. That way he expects to be in a
position to start buying up land again
when a price crash he's predicting
arrives in the next year.
Sieber sees interest rates rising and
says those farmers who paid high
prices for land based on low interest
will be squeezed. With prices for
grains and oilseeds already low, the
rising costs will force bankruptcies,
he predicted. Farmers nearing
retirement will want to sell out.
Sieber said that though western
Ontario farmers at first were hostile
to him in the 1980s, they came to
realize that he provided a floor under
local land prices because he put
millions of dollars into the local
market.
Sieber said he stopped buying land
in the 1990s when farmers started
bidding higher prices for land for
their own expansion plans.0
Wayne Stoltz heads
Dealers' Association
for 2002
Wayne Stoltz of Stoltz Sales and
Service in Listowel is president of
the Ontario Retail Farm Equipment
Dealers' Association (ORFEDA)
for 2002.
Wayne and his younger brother
Keith started Stoltz Sales and
Service 25 years ago on July 1,
1978. At the time Listowel was an
open point so the brothers began
their business as a Case IH tractor
and farm equipment sales and
service outlet with four employees.
Today the business has 18
employees at its Listowel location,
just north of town on Hwy. 23. The
company also has a store in Elmira,
operated by brother Marlin and at
Mildmay, operated by Glen
Schierholtz who was their first
employee, who is a co-owner of
that location.
The company also has a sales
staff of 10 covering an area from
Kitchener -Waterloo to Tobermory.
Stoltz succeeded Jerry Martens
of Avonbank Farm Equipment as
ORFEDA president.0
Home creates interest
in alternative power
sources
If you buy an old feed mill to
convert it into a house, it stands to
reason you're willing to look at
alternatives and a Teeswater couple
is looking not only at alternative
living accommodations but ways of
lighting them as well.
Bert and Stella Metcalfe
purchased the old feed mill in
Teeswater four years ago and
decided they wanted to use the
power of the Teeswater River
nearby to generate power.
Now their home is also the
outlet for their business of selling
wind and water turbines and solar
panels, particularly to those who
are beyond the power grid.
The old mill was gutted and
now the grain storage area has been
turned into bedrooms and the
bagging room into a kitchen.0