WAWANESA, Man. – Seth Cory talks about growing up to become an NHL player and a farmer.
The hockey career could be a good idea, because the need for off-farm income continues to grow in the farming community. That was the conclusion of Statistics Canada after reviewing farm income tax returns for the year 2000.
What the analysis didn’t show is the effort needed by farm families to juggle the responsibilities of managing a farm, raising families and holding down jobs to earn extra income.
Seth said he likes living on the Wawenesa area farm because it gives him a lot of space to play. At the same time, the 12 year old enjoys playing hockey in the winter and baseball in the summer.
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There are three children in his family, including himself, sister Sarah, 14, and brother Nathan, 9. Their parents, Clayton and Carolyn Cory, are kept running between the farm work, Carolyn’s teaching career, volunteering in the community, and getting the children to their many activities.
Carolyn enjoys teaching and her career also is important to the family’s income. Clayton notes grain farming has not been as profitable as it was before 1996, even with the family’s production of pedigreed seed.
“The prices have been depressed for too long,” Clayton said.
“There’s been spikes, but they’re not there for very long.”
Carolyn said the most challenging times are in spring and fall. That’s when Clayton is busiest with farm work and Carolyn is busiest at the Wawanesa school.
For Carolyn, spring and fall present the demands of running to town for machinery parts, preparing meals to take to the field, and “trying to arrange for three kids to get to three different places in the same night.”
Still, there is no self-pity here. Clayton and Carolyn want to be involved in the community and they want their children to also grow up knowing the value of being involved.
“I don’t know that we’re any different than any parents that have two full-time jobs,” said Carolyn, with Seth listening attentively to his parents’ thoughts and interjecting his own at times.
The federal analysis of farm income tax showed that off-farm income accounted for 73 percent of farm family’s incomes in 2000. The off-farm income included employment, investment revenue and pensions.
Janet Smith, co-ordinator of the Manitoba Farm and Rural Stress Line, said off-farm income can be a double-edged sword.
Working off the farm can add stress for farm families already burdened with too much to do. Calls to the stress line reached a new record last month, partly because of concerns about farm finances and the impact bovine spongiform encephalopathy is having on livestock producers.
However, Smith said there can also be times when off-farm income helps ease the strain on farm families since the added income makes it easier to cope financially. As well, a job can provide opportunities to socialize and to spend time away from the farm.
Noreen Johns, who farms with her husband, Lloyd, at Zelma, Sask., said the demands being placed on farm families can be traced to the federal government’s policy on agriculture. She said there appears to be an expectation that off-farm income should be the norm.
The new agricultural policy framework gives her no hope that things will improve in the future.
“What I’ve seen of it scares the hell out of me.”
