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22 THE RURAL VOICE
"I know from your situation this
has gone at an iceberg's pace. but
there are other that think we can
move mountains."
For grains and oilseeds producers
2004 was somewhat similar to 2003
for the beef industry in terms of
calamitous reversals. Doug Eadie, a
Ripley -area farmer who is president
of the Ontario Corn Producers
Association says the industry is still
in shock over the mid -summer
collapse in prices. Rubbing shoulders
with some commodity traders at a
recent conference he said many of
the most seasoned traders had never
seen a collapse as big.
There were opportunities for
producers to lock in
extraordinary prices early in
the year but many didn't, Eadie says.
And although you might expect the
biggest producers to have been the
ones with the marketing skills to
have forward contracted at strong
prices, it was often the smaller
producers, not the big ones, who took
advantage of the opportunities, he
said. That said, he understands
producers concerns that in early
summer they were looking at a repeat
of the disastrous 1992 growing
season when much of the harvest was
lost because of cold damp weather. It
was only a warm September and
early October that turned the crop
around.
There had been good news in the
announcement that the province will
use the remainder of the $94 million
available in the Market Revenue
Insurance program for payments on
the 2003 and 2004 crops, Eadie said.
He said he's keen on getting to
work to develop a replacement
program for Market Revenue in time
for the 2005 season. The problem is
that the provincial government is so
strapped for cash as it tries to solve
the problems in health and education.
Still, Eadie says, at the recent
Premier's Agri -Food Summit,
Premier Dalton McGuinty told 65-70
farm and agri-business leaders his
government realized the significance
of the industry, and it didn't sound
like the normal political platitudes.
Farm leaders, however, reminded the
premier that though his summit was
intended to chart the future for the
next five, 10 or 15 years for th'e
industry, if help wasn't coming in the
short term there wouldn't be a long
term.
However, this government now
seems a lot more focussed on
agriculture than a year ago, Eadie
said, and the summit model being
followed in bringing all players in the
food industry together follows a
similar model that helped Ontario
surpass Michigan in the auto
industry.
Meanwhile Eadie holds out real
hope for work with the federal
government following the
acknowledgement by Andy Mitchell,
federal agriculture minister at the
annual meeting of the Ontario
Federation of Agriculture that he
realizes the CAIS program doesn't
address the problems in the grains
and oilseeds sector.
Looking ahead at 2005, Eadie sees
little chance of an increase in corn
acreage given the current prices and
the continuing increase in input
prices. Farmers are going to be
looking hard for profitable crops and
many will be looking at edible beans,
but only so many can choose that
course. Not everyone has suitable
land or skills for these bean crops, he
says.
There are reasons for optimism
farther down the road, Eadie says.
"We're working full tilt to try to pull
some things together."
At the Premier's Summit, industry
leaders tried to impress on
government the need for an infusion
of capital into the infrastructure of
the industry, he said. They need an
injection of venture capital to build
ethanol plants and packing capacity.
He sees a minimum of three new
ethanol plants either being in
operation or nearing completion
within two years.
It's important to get the beef
industry back on its feet. Just
imagine what the present low feed
costs would mean for feedlot owners
if they had a healthy market, he says.
The hog industry, a major customer
for grains and oilseeds is healthier, he
said.
But Eadie admits there's a lot of
anger and frustration out there. "It's
going to be very interesting going to
county meetings this year," he says
while joking he might look for a
good used Kevlar vest.0