The Rural Voice, 1992-07, Page 10See our Display at
"Forages Now, July 9/92
Victor & Margaret Roland's
Hwy. 87, Harriston
5 miles west of Harnston
THE AMAZING
HAY $AVER
:ii
Keeps bales off the ground — No
spoilage, entire bale is consumed
— rugged 2" angle iron and 1 1/4" high
tensile steel tubing, wood floor optional.
Sizes for 4' or 5' bales.
One Piece or Knocked Down.
$550 - $600 Patented 1988
THE
SUPER SPEAR
.
f'-
Canada's best value in bale spears —
fits most loaders — handles all sizes
of bales, 5 different designs including
Quick Tach assemblies e.g. NH, JD,
Frey, priced as low as $225
• Fence Gates • Pen Partitions
••• Eeze Roll Wagons '•'
Call for the name of your local
dealer, or buy direct
ell
• elf?
MANUFACTURING INC.
ST. JACOBS, ONT. (519) 664-2232
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith
What to do when
A new term has come into the
language in recent years as women
try to hold down a career and still
carry on the traditional roles of moth-
er, homemaker and wife. Women
who try to be
everything are
called Supermom.
Maybe a new
term should be
made up for the
modern farmer
who tries to be a
business exec-
utive, a botanist,
a mechanic, a
chemist, a finan-
cier, a marketing
expert, a geneti-
cist, an environ-
mentalist, an en-
gineer and mach-
inery manufacturer, a bookkeeper and
on and on.
A farm leader recently was talking
about the impossibility of a farmer
being good at all the things he's
supposed to be good at these days to
be competitive. It makes you wonder
if there can be a future for the lone -
wolf farmer who tries to do every-
thing himself.
Various approaches are being
suggested for solving the problem.
Farming in the future could be like a
franchise with the franchising
company providing expertise.
If you buy a franchise for McDon-
ald's, for instance, there's a formula
you follow that helps you become a
successful business operator whether
you've had a lot of past experience or
not. You go to Hamburger University
and learn how to run a franchise.
Of course McDonald's has care-
fully chosen the site for your restau-
rant using their market research staff.
Their architects have also designed
your building. When you go back to
run your new restaurant, there's a
complete instruction book on how to
deal with any problem that comes up.
The thinking of some entrepre-
neurs is that they would put together
that kind of package for farmers.
They'd provide superior breeding
stock, for instance, provide the train-
ing in how to get the most production
Roulston
farming is too much
from that stock, help with the design
and financing of the buildings and
look after marketing of a brand-name
product with the kind of value-added
pricing you can get instead of no -
name marketing through regular
channels.
That kind of solution may be acc-
eptable to some farmers but the ind-
ependent streak of many Ontario
farmers may make them balk. Being
a franchisee is uncomfortably close to
being an employee — except you get
to put up a good bundle of cash for the
privilege.
Maybe in looking to the past we
can find a solution for the future.
When I was growing up everybody in
our neighbourhood didn't try to have
every piece of equipment for himself.
We shared: one farmer providing one
kind of equipment, another some-
thing different. Some, farmers who
couldn't afford equipment, provided
extra labour. Everybody gave up a
little independence but gained.
It's been the history of farming in
North America. Faced with battling
the wildemess, farmers had to work
together. Somewhere along the way
farmers lost that willingness to co-
operate, began to want to go it alone.
Neighbourhoods were just places
where people lived, not where people
shared a social and business life.
Maybe returning to the old ways is a
solution to the growing complexity of
farming. Maybe farmers can share
expertise in informal or formal
arrangements. A good business
manager could take over more of the
management for several farms. The
person who's handy with equipment
could oversee all equipment. A good
herdsman could share his skills to
oversee several farms. It would mean
each farmer would give up a bit of his
independence, but still keep more
than he'd have if he was a franchisee.
It would keep control at the neigh-
bourhood level, and help rejuvenate a
sense of rural community at the same
time.0
Keith Roulsion is editor and
publisher of The Rural Voice as well
as being a playwright. He lives on a
small acreage near Blyth, Ontario.