SAFETY NETS - STILL A BIG ISSUE
By David Morris

Tom Wilson

Tom Wilson decided to become more actively involved in the Ontario Corn Producers' Association (OCPA) a few years ago when he realized that he was one of the larger corn growers in attendance at the local meeting for Lambton County. He allowed his name to stand as a delegate and that led to his election as Director this past winter. He was surprised to learn all that he had gotten himself into. "I thought that I had a pretty good idea about what OCPA did," Tom says, "but Holy Christmas! In fact, I really had no idea what was involved - there's so much going on behind the scenes. It's a lot more work than I realized but I do enjoy it. I'm fortunate that I have two sons in their 20's who both want to farm. That gives me the opportunity to be away and know that things are getting done at home. Otherwise, being an OCPA Director would put a real stress on the operation."

One of the committees that Tom serves on is Safety Nets. "The safety net issue is still the big thing for us as a Board," he notes. "It's our number one concern. We've got to have something set up to replace the Market Revenue Insurance Program. This is certainly the time to act on it. Now is when farmers need support and our governments know that, so they tend to be more responsive than they would be in better times. We have a number of ideas that we're working on, but with so many different commodity groups involved, it's taking a while to come up with a plan that works for all of us. We'd hoped to have something accomplished before the next federal election, but with the way things are going in Ottawa right now, that's looking doubtful. And the provincial government keeps saying that this is a federal responsibility and that Ontario has no more money to contribute, but then, it keeps handing out the dollars to other places."

"I think that corn has been the crop that has been hardest hit by the current situation. If you look at the figures for Ontario for the past 10 years, demand is way up, our production is down and yet there has been no increase in our prices. I don't think that you can say that for any other commodity. Something has to be done to respond to the subsidies in the US. Production in Ontario is going down, but it's increasing in Michigan and Quebec, and you know where that corn is going. It's being dumped in here at less than their cost of production. But our government seems to want to avoid any more trade disputes with the US right now."

Tom is also active on the Grain Trade and Marketing Committee, where most of his involvement so far has related to ethanol. "During the election campaign, the Liberals made a commitment that all auto fuels would contain ethanol by 2007," he says. "We're still waiting for them to show whether they care if it's made here or if they only want it used here. If they don't put a policy in place to ensure that it gets made from Ontario corn, people will either make it here from American corn, or bring ethanol in from the States or Brazil. We've made our case clear to them, but it's their call. Do they want to support Ontario corn growers or don't they?"

Tom farms, with his wife, Linda, and their two sons, on the farm where he grew up near Corunna in Lambton County. "We're just one road over from chemical valley," he says. "My dad and I formed a partnership about 30 years ago. When he died, I took over the whole operation. There was period of about 5 years when I farmed pretty much on my own and then my sons started to get involved. They both want to farm, something that I'm glad to see. It's nice to see the farm passing along from generation to generation." The Wilsons custom-feed beef cattle and grow about 1,500 acres of crop, producing roughly 400 acres of corn, 400 of winter wheat and 700 of soybeans. Because their land is clay loam, they use conventional tillage for corn and no-til for the wheat and soybeans. About 20 acres of the corn is put up as silage to feed the cattle, along with 1,200 bushels of high moisture corn and about 8,000 bushels of dry corn. The rest of their corn is marketed. The Wilsons have their own dryer and 40,000 bushels of storage bins.

Tom is committed to volunteer work, but is careful not to get overextended. "I was active in hockey when my boys were younger, and that included being a Co-Director of the Silver Stick Tournament for 5 years. Now, I'm putting my time into the OCPA. I figure that if you want to do something right, you can only be involved in one big thing at a time."