Farmers plan for the future/from page three

Michael Hilborn
Fort Frances Times

A combination declining population, declining, and restricted markets have threatened the viability of agriculture in the district and the only ones who can fix it are farmers.
And the only way they can do that is to hang together.
That was the gist of message and conclusions reached at a special agriculture future workshop held at the Barwick Community Hall last Wednesday.
The workshop was put on by the Rainy River Federation of Agriculture with a view to identifying the factors likely to have the greatest impact on the future of agriculture in the district and to develop a strategy to deal with them.
The tone of the workshop was set by keynote speaker Jim Cumming, and reinforced by workshop facilitator Ed Hoshizaki of Edward Hoshizaki Development Consulting in Thunder Bay. Both men advised the audience their fate lies exclusively in their own hands and unless they came up with a unified plan, they would find the ears of government firmly closed to them.
“If you don’t put a well-reasoned case before the government, you can be sure they won’t listen to you,” Hoshizaki warned.
With that seed firmly planted, people came forward with ideas and suggestions as planned. A number of people grumbled about the amount of red tape and regulation facing their industry, but Deb Cornell of the Rainy River Elk Company had a different view.
“I agree we’re dealing with a lot of regulation, but we’re no different from farmers in Woodstock or California,” she reasoned. Instead of griping about things that are common throughout the industry, Cornell suggested people should focus instead on the things that set the district apart from other areas.
“We should promote our advantages,” she remarked. “Let people know about our pristine environment and colourful history,” she said.
Colin Neilson of Barwick shared that opinion and even took it a little farther.
“I think there is a real opportunity to market Rainy River brand products,” he insisted.
RRFA president Trish Neilson pointed out these things did not come to be by accident and that too should emphasized.
“My estimation of the strength of the district is in the people who live in it,” she pointed out.
However, Amos Brielmann of Barwick pointed out not all areas look neat and pristine. There are some sections along the highway that look somewhat unkempt and might reflect badly on the district if they are not tended to.
Predictably, talk soon shifted to the ongoing debate over an abattoir for the district. This idea has been around for nearly two years and has broken down into two camps. There is little doubt all are in favour of having such a facility in the district. The problems lies in what type it should be. While one group is prepared to put up a provincial facility and has already garnered some of the funding needed, another group is adamant the facility should be built to the more stringent (and expensive) federal standards so that the meat processed there can be marketed outside the province.
Russell Richards is one of the key players in the former camp. He told the group he and small group of friends are preparing a game plan to present to the government with a view to receiving additional funding. He also recommended the plant be manufactured to federal standards, but operated as a provincial facility.
“We can always upgrade it later if necessary, but the important thing is to get it going,” Richards argued.
Others were not convinced.
Kim Cornell raises beef cattle on his farm near Devlin and he was firmly opposed to Richards’s proposal.
“It frustrates me to no end that we’ve already lost one abattoir because it was provincial and now you're suggesting we tie our hands with a provincial plant again,” Cornell stressed.
“There is a market of half a million people in Winnipeg and millions in Chicago that will remain out of reach,” he added.
“And to open any doors on any chain stores, you have to have it federally inspected,” he concluded.
Although the abattoir issue remained unresolved, other ideas fell on more fertile ground. Ted Zimmerman raised the idea of creating a communal feedlot within the district to operate in conjunction with the abattoir. Traditionally, local farmers would keep their animals up to a certain age before sending them off to be finished elsewhere. That, said Zimmerman, is a lost opportunity.
“When I sell my cattle to a feedlot operator, I make a little money,” he explained. “When he sells them at market, he makes a little.
“If we can hang onto them (cattle), then the money stays here,” he reasoned.
Zimmerman suggested forming a committee of half a dozen beef producers to look into the matter further.
The summit wrapped up mid-afternoon on Wednesday, but according RRFA vice-president Rick Boersma, things are only beginning.
“It got a lot of people thinking said,” said Boersma on Friday. “We’re not done with this.
“I think we got people thinking a little outside their borders,” he remarked. “The main thing is, we want all the farming groups to work together and speak with a unified voice,” he stressed.
Hoshizaki felt the exercise was well worth the effort. “We’re pretty happy with how it went,” he concluded in a telephone conversation from Thunder Bay on Friday.
Although the abattoir issue remains unresolved, Hoshizaki felt a great of progress was made in other areas, such as the idea of brand-name marketing and Zimmerman’s feedlot. He also felt some of the issue would be bettered handled at the provincial organizational level, once plan was agreed upon.
“There was a lot of discussion of larger issues, such as BSE, but it was decided those were best handled through larger organizations, such as the OFA,” he suggested.
Trish Neilson agreed the meeting was successful, although exhausting.
“The abattoir became a big issue, of course,” said Neilson from her farm on Monday. “But I think we got the issues on the table,” she added.
She pointed out the basis for a plan of value-added marketing emerged from the conference and she intends to move forward with some of the ideas.
“We will work with the Clover Valley Farmers’ Market and the Rainy River Future Development Corporation to market brand-name produce,” she explained. “This was just a starting point. I think it was a really big step towards developing a plan.
“The task ahead of us now is to make something happen,” she concluded.