The Rural Voice, 1989-07, Page 8VARNA GRAIN
We are ready to receive your
1989 Wheat and Canola
• 2 Receiving Pits • All Harvest Services Available
Contact: VARNA GRAIN
Pete Rowntree at 233-7908
or HILL & HILL FARMS 233-3218
Hill AND
Hill
FARMS
VARNA ONT.
Ready to
receive your
1989
WHEAT
AND CANOLA J
We have a good
selection of all
varieties of
seed wheat
Custom
combining
and trucking
available
WHEAT* BARLEY
CORN • SOYABEANS.
M FIRST LINE SEEDS
6 THE RURAL VOICE
FEEDBACK
Dairy Policy: an open letter
Dear Mr. Mazankowski,
I am writing this letter over the
recent decisions your government has
made regarding the capping of indus-
trial milk prices for 20 months.
Let me introduce myself. I was
born in Holland and immigrated to
Canada in 1950 when I was five years
old with my parents and five brothers
and sisters. My dad wanted to be a
farmer and couldn't do it in Holland.
He came to Canada as a farm labourer
— rule of entry at that time — and did
so for four years. He then worked
with an older farmer in a 50-50 part-
nership for two years. He then bought
the farm for a dollar down, which
gave him 21 cows, 15 young stock, 5
pigs, 3 horses, 150 hens, and 200 acres
(100 tillable). I joined him in 1964.
We were industrial shippers of milk.
We have struggled to improve and
expand our farm over the past 25
years. Stability came to the industry
in 1965, starting with the Ontario Milk
Marketing Board, the federal subsidy
in 1968, and market share quota in
1971 and the cost of production
formula. Dairy farmers were finally
able to make plans, they were able to
see a future and build on it. Sons
came home and either took over the
farm or joined their fathers, as I did,
and everybody was optimistic.
The government was quite content
with the way things were going for the
dairy farmer. We have a system that
gave a farmer a fair return for his in-
vestment and labour, and consumers
were content with a stable price for
our product, and no more surplus of
dairy products. At one point, Canada
has a surplus of 350,000 pounds of
butter, a whole year's need (mid to
late 1960s), and who knows how
much skim milk powder.
Our system was the envy of the
world. Up to this date, 22 countries
have studied our ways and used all or
part of our marketing system.
Enter Brian Mulroney and his de-
regulation staff, free trade, and GATT
negotiations. During the election of
1988 you stated quite clearly that
supply management and its underpin-
nings would stay intact for the dairy
industry. We had a five-year dairy