The Rural Voice, 2005-01, Page 3About this issue
Looking ahead .. .
The beginning of a new year is traditionally a time to
look ahead and after the disaster of 2004 in agriculture, the
urge to search the horizon for any sign of clearing in the
black clouds for the coming year is overwhelming. There's
the temptation to say that the past year was so bad the next
one has got to be better but then we thought that at the
beginning of 2004, didn't we?
In the beef industry, of course, the one event most
looked forward to is the reopening of the U.S. border to
live cattle shipments but even though hope is held out,
there's a troubling lack of certainty. Meanwhile other
efforts to remedy the oversupply of Canadian beef continue
with the hope of reducing the industry's vulnerability to the
future trade actions. We have a report from the beef
symposium on the situation with beef.
The situation is also difficult in sheep because of the
border closure and in pork because of concerns over the
U.S. anti-dumping duties, again issues that breed a great
deal of uncertainty because they're beyond any sort of
Canadian control. Meanwhile record U.S. crops sent prices
for staple commodities like corn and soybeans plummeting
in the later half of 2004. Is there any recovery in sight? We
spoke with several leaders in these fields.
The current financial crisis only compounds the problem
of an aging farm population and the need to bring in a
younger generation to take over. Some farmers have been
open m saying they would discourage their children from
taking up farming. Despite the current problems, what can
we do to help the next generation carry on the farming
tradition? We spoke to several industry leaders.
Beef has taken the rap in recent years for problems of
too much fat in North American diets but research is
showing that forage -fed beef can be the solution to many
nutritional deficiencies such as the need for more Omega 3
fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid in our diets. At the
recent Forage Focus Conference, Dr. Ira Mandell from the
University of Guelph spoke on how farmers can feed to
create these healthy nutritional ingredients in the meat and
milk of their animals.
Making the most of forage can help dairy and beef
farmers cut costs and be as efficient as they can be even in
these tough times. The Forage Focus speakers offered tips.
There was some good news at least for members of the
Gay Lea Foods Co-operative when the co-op announced
record sales, record profits and record dividends. We have
a report from the zone 1 annual meeting held in Brussels
December 6.0
Update
• • • and back
Hard to believe it, but 2005 marks the 30th anniversary
of the birth of The Rural Voice.
It was 30 years ago in June that our first issue was
mailed from Blyth. Back then it was a tabloid newspaper
that was distributed to members of the Huron County
Federation of Agriculture. Coverage was soon expanded to
Bruce, Grey, and Perth Counties and by 1977 the
publication had turned into a magazine to give greater
impact both to stories and to advertising.
The publication has had various owners through the
years being bought by McLean Bros. Publishers of
Seaforth in 1978, Gunbyfield Publishing Limited m 1982,
Signal -Star Publishing in 1990 and back to Blyth with
North Huron Publishing Company, a community -owned
company, in 1991.
Throughout the coming year we'll have articles
reflecting back on those 30 years and the changes that
agriculture and the rural community have seen as well as
what some of our former columnists are doing.0
'Rural Voice
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Editor & Publisher: Keith Roulston
Editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron Cty;
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.;
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
Contributing writers:
Bonnie Gropp, Carol Riemer, Ralph
Pearce, Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Sandra
Orr, Janice Becker, Larry Drew
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Gerry Fortune
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Allen Hughes
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