The Rural Voice, 1999-08, Page 66BRUCE
Email. bruce@ofa.on.ca
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551
• The Rural Voice is provided to Bruce
County Farmers by the BCFA.
What's not happening - I don't understand
It's a very rare occasion that I sit
down to write an article. I hope that
those of you who are good at it bear
with me because I'm bound to ramble.
The question is with so many problems
facing the family farm where to start?
Last year in our area we had a
devastating drought. In the grpwing
season, which turned out to be a loose
term, we received 1.6 inches of rain.
Lots of corn was only three feet tall,
first cut hay was poor, and the second
and the third cut were a write-off. A lot
of farmers had to move their grass
cattle early with terrible gains or feed
them on the grass using up their winter
feed supply. Others simply sold their
cattle.
Since the Forage Insurance Program
from Agri -Corp has not proven to be
very effective over the years, there
were only 24 participants enrolled in
the program in Bruce County in 1998.
Bruce and Grey Counties still have
one-third of the beef cattle in Ontario,
so hay, pasture, and all forage crops are
very predominant and important in our
area.
It is our contention that since there
was only one per cent of the producers
who had forage insurance, the program
was of very little help so the
government has to come up with some
type of assistance or relief to help in
this disastrous situation.
It appears the way the Whole Farm
Relief Program was set up that a lot of
people were unable to qualify and this
formula has to be changed 'or
something new developed to assist the
thousands of people who received
nothing.
To give you some background, last
July 1 got four government
representatives up and toured four local
Townships to assess the drought
damage. The general consensus was
that there was a very severe situation
and something would have to be done.
Shortly after this we had a general
meeting in Tara organized by the Bruce
and Grey Federations of Agriculture
with participants from Agri -Corp and
the government attending. We had 350
to 400 farmers out to this meeting
which just proves the great concern
62 THE RURAL VOICE
there was.
A core group got together and
drafted up a survey to get a handle on
the drought damages. We had 1,100
surveys returned and this is how we
established the losses per workable
acre. Many of these surveys were
returned with letters attached to them
that would bring tears to the eyes of
even the most cold-hearted readers.
After talking to several politicians
and having Ed Segsworth, President of
the Ontario Federation of Agriculture
up to tour the area, the Bruce and Grey
Drought Relief Committee was formed.
We sent delegations to Township
council meetings and had motions
drafted up declaring us a disaster area.
These were also backed up by
supporting letters from Bruce and Grey
County Councils.
This is all under the jurisdiction of
the Municipal Affairs Department and
after several months of jockeying back
and forth, they have decided that the
Bruce and Grey Drought of 1998
doesn't fit under their "Disaster
Criteria". We say change the criteria.
Twenty-three townships declared a
disaster, and if this is not a disaster,
then what is?
It seems if you have unusually
heavy rains/flooding which subsides
often quite quickly, the panic button is
pushed and assistance is forthcoming.
Examples of this would be the Eastern
Ice Storm and the situation in
Southeastern Saskatchewan and
Western Manitoba now.
It appears that the Western farmers
may get $50 an acre because of
flooding. We feel the effects of the
drought are far more residual.
After compiling all the information
from the surveys we established a loss
per workable acre of $95.70 in Bruce
County Townships, and $85.82 in Grey
County.
We compiled a huge information
package with a tremendous amount of
data verifying our problem and mailed
it out to several politicians and
government departments so they are
well aware of the added financial
burden this has put on our local
producers.
The provincial government has
hardly sat at all in the last six months,
and then throw an election in on top of
that and it's hard to get a meeting with
these people.
The Bruce -Grey Drought Relief
Committee met with Noble Villeneuve,
the former Minister of Agriculture and
his assistants and people from
Municipal Affairs.
The Ontario Federation of
Agriculture has stayed steadfast in their
push to cover negative margins and
other important changes to the Whole
Farm Relief Program, but to no avail
yet.
I don't understand why the Federal
Government has watered down their
share of the payment so much. With
drastically low prices for most
commodities and farm debt rising
quickly, it would seem like a good time
to step in and grab the bull by the horns
and really do something.
It's very disheartening to hear most
young to middle-aged farmers say they
don't want their children to farm. This
should be the world's most important
profession, yet it has been nearly
impossible to make a living at it.
The recent anti-dumping tariff on
live cattle to the -United States of
America is just another major hit to the
old wallet to the tune of $50 to $60 per
head. Don't ever think they won't be
dreaming up something for the hogs in
the near future.
Corporate farms and foreign
ownership are becoming far too
prevalent, so to avoid the continuing
demise of the family farm I highly
suggest that we become more forceful
and aggressive in our future lobbying
efforts.0
— Submitted by Bill Davis
Elderslie Township Director
BRUCE COUNTY FEDERATION OF
AGRICULTURE
DIRECTORS' MEETING
Monday, August 16, 1999
**NOTE DATE CHANGE**
8:00 p.m.
OMAFRA Boardroom, Walkerton
Members are welcome to attend