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Times-Advocate, 1982-12-08, Page 22Times -Advocate, December 8, 1982 Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food huron farm and home news Dairy farmers are invited to attend a one -day meeting that will focus on .breed im- provement along with overall herd management. The pro- gram includes personal Rx- perience about upgrading the dairy herd. a practical exer- cise on selection, culling. evaluation. dollars and sense in herd health and dairy•cat- ' tle behaviour and proper handling. • The date for this meeting is Tuesday, December 14. The morning session will be at Er- nie Sherwood's farm - Lot 7, Concession 7, Colborne Cardiff sees some problem The controversial federal proposal for a crown corpora t ion—Canagrex—to stimulate food exports is sound in principle but in prac- tice as proposed it .could be dangerous. Huron -Bruce MP Murray Cardiff warned Tuesday. • "I' support it in principle, but let's be cautious we don't create a.monster that isn't responsible to the people." the Conservative MP told the an- nual convention of the Ontario Vegetable Growers' Marketing Board • The federal -Conservative opposition opposes Canagrex. but Cardiff doesn't take as hard a line as some.Twc years .ago. he sat on a special House committee looking into the proposal. The committee. ex- cept for Cardiff and another conservative. recommended Canagrex be. formed on the lines now being proposed. . Cardiff said that the propos- ed Canagrex gives bureaucrats and appointed directors too much respon- sibility for selling products and deciding on what to plant. both of which are rights he feels farmers don't want to surrender. Andhe's concern- ed that because Canagrex has the power to buy and sell. it competes unfairly with the private sector. Please turn to page 18 A Township ton County Road 25 between Auburn and Carlow) . The afternoon program will be in. Auburn • Cony unity ]fall. - Dennis Martin, Associate Agricultural Representative Yields Up - Protein Do%n Forage and grain yields are above average in Huron this year, but protein levels are lower. • The '82 growing season was colder and wetter in June than normal. Hay harvest was delayed and crude pro- tein levels dropped. Samples tested at the Feed Test Laboratory at the University of Guelph between June 1 and September 30 show hay down 1.5 percent and haylage down 1 percent. Corn silages are also testing lower. • The June rains likely leach- ed nitrogen from the soil before crop uptake. This could cause nitrogen deficiency in ' the August September finishing period. It is more imperative that beef and dairyproducers have their roughages and grains tested so they can properly balance rations. O.M.A.F. representatives will assists in feeding sampl- ing and ration recommendation. Feed test results can be in- put into the BEEF FINISHING COMPUTER PROGRAM. along with cattle cost. interest, treatment and other costs to obtain mineral mix ration recommendation, production cost and break even analysis. The computer run cost is $45.00. Feed testing costs are: Type 1 - Dry Matter, Crude Protein: $10. Type g - Dry Matter, Crude Proteiriv Calcium. Phosphorus Magnesium, Potassium: $17. Type 3 -. Dry Matter, Crude Protein, Calcium, ,Phosphorus Magnesium, Potassium, Manganese, Cop- per, Zinc: $19. Sample bags. and informa- tion sheets are available at O.M.A,F. offices. -Stan Paquette, Associate Agricultural Representative. COUNTY•HONOURS -- Receiving County Honours at Wednesday's Perth County 4-H Achievement Night at Kirkton were Leslie Stephen, Maureen Blackler and Dara Youngson. T -A photo. Two Two teen-agers pranced in- to the restaurant. They were young. fresh faced, clean-cut kids. normal in appearance with the uniform of the young; jeans and jackets. Seated at a table was an older man with his leg in a cast. His crutches were on the floor under the table with about a foot protruding in the aisle. One of the teen-agers trip- ped over the crutches. -Ya dumb farmer!" said his friend. "Watch where you're going." A typical scene? Yes, unfor- tunately, it Was' too typical because, it happens literally hundreds of times a day in various forms. It typifies the prevalent attitude towards farmers and agriculture in this nation. If you are dumb, you are a farmer. You may be other things, too, but you are a farmer, a rube from the boon- docks who .hasn't enough brains to do anything else. "If brains were dynamite," said the youth, "you wouldn't have enough to blow your nose." In most other countries of �a,ns ut app're.abd Br Bao r,aq, fma+, MC FT v 0^. 43B 2( - the world, farmers are treated with great respect. Senior governments provide all kinds of grants, loans sub- sidies and legislation to keep farmers farming. These older civilization have a deep- rooted fear of losing farmers. They know what a famine is. They know how important agriculture is to the welfare of an entire nation. They do not hesitate to grant farmers the respect, even the devotion, that is necessary to keep them producing food. In this country, the opposite is true. Farmers get less and less in the way of government help. Thefederal government, for instance, spends less than two percent of its whopping budget on agriculture. Ever since the days of Sir John A. and Sir Wilfrid, a cheap food policy has been promulgated by governments. - Canadians spend less of their disposable income dollar on food than any other nation in the world with the possible exception of the - United States. Farmers here have' out -produced every other sector of the economy t . In fact, when Canada's in- dustrial workers are failing behind in production. farmers continue to improve. Without agriculture, 43 jobs of every hundred would disappear. But still, farmers get less for their efforts than their ci- ty brothers and sisters. And it isn't improving with age. The farmer who grew the wheat gets less for the wheat in a loaf of bread than the per- son who makes the wrapper for the loaf. You pay $1.29 for a .can of apple juice. The farmer who grew the apples --nursed and nurtured them through an en- tire growing season: nursed the trees for five Nears ; pick- ed and sorted the fruit --gets 17 cents from that can of juice. The firm that made the can gets more than the farmer. A bag of white beans sells for $1.15: The farmer who grew the beans gets 37 cents. But, here is the clincher. Here is what angers the farmer. Three` years ago. farmers got 26 cents for those beans which sold for 61 cents. The gap between the price the farmer gets and the price you pay for those beans gets wider and wider, even when farm production costs'are go - r Huron F of A await details Land fax to be eliminated The Ontario Government will eliminate taxes on pro- ductive farm land, Dennis Timbrell, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, announced at the Ontario Federation of Agriculture's annual 3an- quet, in Toronto recently. Based on current projec- tions, this will save Ontario farmers twenty million dollars compared to the pre- sent rebate system. Under the new proposal, farmers will pay taxes only on their houses similar to other residents in the same community. The lot under the housewillbe only assesed at fifty percent of the value it would be if it were a severed lot. Timbrell said the present system of rebates will con- tinue for the 1982 and 1983 tax years. The new proposal will take effect for the 1984 taxa- tion ' year. The present minimum qualifying amount of five thousand dollars gross production will be raised im- mediately to eight thousand dollars: in 1984 it will be rais- ed to twelve thousand dollars for southern Ontario and eight thousand dollars for northern and eastern Ontario. Merle Gunby OFA Board Member from northwest Huron and OFA Executive Committee member said, "We are pleased the Ontario government has finally acted. Over ten , years ago the cabinet" recognized that .On- tario farmers were paying a disproportionate share of Municipal costs, when they were introduced the twenty- five, then fifty percent pro- perty tax rebate for farmers and managed forest owners,. after a wide spread protest led by OFA. This decision means we will have the security of a legislated policy rather than one that depends on the whim of Cabinet." Tony McQuail, president of ing up, up and away. "We are vying for more respect from the government and the public. We are deter- • mined to convince them of our true worth, of our need and our right to a bigger slice of the economic pie." So said Ralph Barrie last month at the Ontario Federa- tion of Agriculture's annual meeting.. It will be a long, hard strug- `.. gle to gain that respect but it is sorely needed. Huron County Federation of Agriculture said, "The con- cept is a good one, it is fair that farmers will now be tax- ed on the same basis as other residents." Both McQuail and Gunby cautioned there are several details in the policy that are worry -some, and OFA will continue to work tp have these changed or improved. Some discussion occurred on the issue at the convetion Many topics at OFA event Farm bankruptcies were discussed a number of times during the Ontario Federation of Agriculture Convention, held in Toronto recently. One resolution regarding the Ontario Farm Adjustment Assistance Program (OFAAD) brought a lot of interest. It -was felt by many ISM's that the program should be updated to include more farmers. One main problem with the program was of the use of the work "equity". For an example. If you hap- pen to have some land bought a number of years ago, the in- flation value may put you over the eligability point of the program, even if you have more land bought a a high price more recently. So in fact a lot of farmers that are in need of some help are turned down. It was also realized that this program was the only one we farmers have. So after mak- ing some changes to the resolution, and with understanding that OFA will help pressure for more im- provements, to•better suit the needs of Ontario farmers, we passed the resolution. At the Tuesday night ban- quet, Minister of Agriculture for Ontario, Dennis Tim- brell, announced that the pro- gram was being extended for another year. Wednesday of the Conve- ntion Honourable Eugene Whelan, Minister of Agriculture of Canada, spoke. He said, he had 50 hog farms for sale in Quebec through Farm Credit Corporation and expected another 50 in On- tario in the next three months. Not very comforting words for farmers. prior to the announcement, and questions were raised by Huron delegates and others. It was explained that the method of establishing tax rates would remain the same, municipalities would remain the same independence from the provincial government, and that the Rural Ontario Municipal Association sup- ports OFA's formula for tax rebate. Earlier this year, the On- tario . government shelved plans to implement this policy. "It took a pretty big shove from OFA to have the government reconsider. I think it says something for the effectiveness of our organiza- tion," Gunby said. McCann Redi-Mix Inc. DASHWOOD, ONTARIO ALL TYPES OF CONCRETE WORK REDI-MIX CONCRETE & FORMWORK PRECAST PRODUCTS DEALER Phone Office MANGERS SLATS STEPS 237-3647 CURBS Lloyd 236-4819 Good corn in the bin on time. 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