ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER 20 INDUSTRY NEWS Conventional wisdom often warns against thinking too much about the past because there’s no changing it. Yet there’s a difference between living in it and fondly reflecting on where a person’s come from and what they’ve accomplished. Keith Black understands that. Stepping down earlier this year as director of Grain Farmers of Ontario’s District 8 (Huron), he assesses his 12 years of service, marking many of the changes that have taken place as part of the third generation on his farm. Black is primarily a cash-cropper with roughly 250 acres in North Huron, southwest of Belgrave, rotating soybeans, wheat and corn grown on 175 acres. The remaining 75 are rougher ground on which his son-in-law pastures cattle. That was a switch from the days when Black pastured his own grass cattle, which he’d purchase in the spring and feed them through to the following winter. THERE FROM THE START In addition to his service as a director, Black’s time with boards and organizations predates the Grain Farmers of Ontario. He was a director with the Ontario Soybean Growers the year before the amalgamation with the Ontario Corn Producers Association and the Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board. He was also a long-time member of the Huron County Grain Farmers. “Huron County was a bit different because we had a soybean board, a wheat board and a corn board, but we always met jointly,” says Black. “We kept separate books, but our meetings were Ralph Pearce Farming through change From slower markets to global volatility, Keith Black looks back on 12 years of leadership joint, so we were ‘semi-organized’ before the Grain Farmers of Ontario organization.” When asked about some of the more significant changes he’s witnessed, Black points to the technologies now available to growers and levels of uncertainty and volatility that are ongoing realities. In terms of the advances, he acknowledges that farming has always embraced the drive to expand operations. In his local region, supply management has driven a lot of the expansion, with advances in technology leading the way. Although he avoids saying it’s right or wrong, he believes it has helped create more competition. Where the pace of change is a more imposing concern for Black is in the barriers facing younger producers. In his estimation, it’s far more difficult now than 30 years ago, partly because costs are so inflated today, but that’s only part of the equation. “When we started farming, we basically started with nothing,” he says, noting it required some custom work and off-farm jobs to garner wages coming in to the farm. “We managed to pay our bills. But now, with the price of land, the price of machinery, that off-farm income isn’t big enough to do that, and that was just with buying a farm.” The only way Black believes someone starting from scratch can make it – without any connection to the farm – is with rented ground and possibly a partnership with someone. Or they might have to work for another grower and buy or lease land, or do custom work. Starting literally from the ground-up or even buying a farm with good used machinery, it can be overwhelming, not to mention difficult to cash-flow. On top of that is the uncertainty with global conditions and the impacts on trade caused by tariffs and policies from other countries, as Keith Black (right) was honoured for his 12 years of service as District 8 (Huron) Director with Grain Farmers of Ontario by Chair Jeff Harrison (left) and Lisa Thompson, Minister of Rural Affairs and Huron-Bruce MPP.
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