THE FRINGE

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The future face of agriculture

A farmer friend recently suggested to me that the way things are going, corporations will soon own and operate all the farmland as well as marketing its produce.

I can’t see it happening.

Farmers today have access to the best of equipment and technological know-how. They work non-union hours and in disaster years they take their lumps.

Any corporation that reckons it can make money at grain production where farmers haven’t is out to lunch.

There is a nagging question about the future though. In this current situation, as in the one we hit in the 1980s, a number of farm families will leave farming.

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Producers face the reality of shifting grain price expectations

Significant price shifts have occurred in various grains as compared to what was expected at the beginning of the calendar year. Crop insurance prices can be used as a base for the changes.

I heard the other day about one farmer who operates a township of land, much of which he acquired from departing farmers.

How much land can one farmer farm before he suffers from one-armed paper hanger syndrome?

Are we to revive the big land and cattle companies of the 19th and early 20th centuries?

Have we learned anything about farm management that the Bells of Indian Head and Sir John Lister Kaye of the Piapot area could have used to survive and flourish?

The Achilles heel of big operations is farm labor and farm management.

The big kid who failed grade eight and quit school can’t be relied on to deal with a $200,000 tractor or combine or to assess soil amendments needed.

University graduates, on the other hand, expect to be paid commensurate with graduates going into industry and they want to be paid regularly.

The answer may be in joint ownership with partners sharing both the good times and bad.

How does it look from your swivel chair?