OCR Text |
Show October UTAH FARM BUREAU Page 2 Some from the ed The Alternative to Joining the Program Whats A The Utah State 1969 xarfc Fair For? Fair for 1969 is history and happily so for some who had the thankless job of trying to coordinate the gigantic exposition. The Fair's office is always a hectic e beehive of activity during the Fair, with the Fair's personnel trying to answer questions both from exhibitors and g part-tim- e experience. help hired to bridge the the Now that the 1969 Fair is over, planning for 1970's Fair begins, and that is no easy job, either. The move of the Holiday on Ice show from the small colliseum on the fairgrounds, to the Salt Palace, was a gamble that seemed to pay off well More people attended the ice show than would have been able to on the fairgrounds. And most important, a good number of them used part of their ice show ticket stub to see the Fair. The move that tore out the concrete floor from the colliseum, and dumped truckloads of sand on the floor and hosted the horse and cattle judging in the building, seemed like another good move. More talk next year will bring more people in to -- Recently a group of Illinois farmers drove their tractors to Washington, D. C.f where they held an orderly demonstration and confronted Senator Dirksen with their objections to the Farm Bureau program he had introduced in the Senate. The Senator's untimely death took him out of the controversy, yet the farmers, unhappy with his answers, grumbled that "a lot of Farm Bureau policies would be cancelled after this." bur minds this means that Farm Bureau hasn't done a very good job of explaining the economics of the problem to those To affected. full-tim- nerve-rackin- see these events. A move that was satisfying to us, Ideally, since the farm payment programs have forced the commodity prices down over the years until they are at present levels, farmers should refuse to support them by not signing up. Realistically, however, the farmer producing wheat, cotton, feed-grain- s or soybeans, feels he must sign up or take only the miserable market price. He signs up because he is afraid of trying to make it without the program's subsidy check . rock-botto- m So, this group of farmers who drove their tractors to Washington represent many across the country who have the idea that the Farm Bureau is trying to cut them adrift in a sea of market confusion. They can see nothing but lower prices ahead. fact is, that the Farm Bureau program introduced by the late Senator Dirksen and 21 other senators, represents the best route yet proposed to take us out of the swamp of low prices. By phasing out the program over several years, (even with our level of production) the market price would adjust present for the removal of the supports. Meanwhile the proposed program's plan' to retire whole farms (with no grazing) will cut production. The too-hig- h One thing is fairly certain. The programs are not satisfactory to Congress at the present time. They will be modified in the near future. Almost sure to come is a limitation on payments to individual farmers. Because of the high cost of the programs, other cuts will also come. We hope they will follow Farm Bureau's lead by adopting a program that will permit orderly marketing and let farmers sell their commodities for fair prices. The alternative is for farmers to get out of the areas of farming covered by the price support programs. Citrus farmers, for example, don't worry much about the direct payment question. Neither do apple growers. Or producers of garden vegetables. These crops involve higher risk factors than wheat or feed grains, but they also bring higher profits. Some new crops do offer promise for the man wishing to relieve himself of the worries of the price support programs. Various oilseed crops show great promise. More than a few farmers have traded problems for profits by moving into production of flowers, seeds and bulbs, or tree farming. brings the 1970 Utah the on Find Farm Bureau Talent fairgrounds for the first time in many years. With the event staged on the grandstand, publicity will now be able to bring fairgoers to the Talent Find. It has always been a remarkable show and it will now receive attention. the Fair that has always been irritating to One aspect of us personally, is the carnival They tell me that as carnivals camivaL And it's true, we go, the SJM Shows is a high-clawe have seen much worse, but get rather upset about it just the same. Most fair managers insist that they need this type of thing to balance the fair. "Something for everyone, seems to be the some well-deserv- ed ss argument Nevertheless, we get rather disgusted with such things as a trailer with lurid art inviting you to see ing is a murderously competitive business.' And no remote-contrprogram administered from Washington could ever hope to account for all the variables of the individual operations of ten million ol farmers. original true bloody story of Bonnie and Clyde, accompanied by a We also public address system underlining the come-on- . the little kind a of humans more than get sleezy perturbed by manning the various rides in the carnival Our children are naturally attracted by the bright lights and the motion of the d old girl on a rides. Putting a three-yea- r horse, I was informed in foul language by a bearded bum reeking of alcohol, that my ticket was for the smaller Touring the carnival I discovered that nearly all the rides were manned by this sort of people. If we can't have the carnival without that, kind of men running il we believe that we can do without it very nicely. A similar problem was faced a few years ago by a fair manager who found that the fair he had inherited as a newly appointed manager, was a combination of cheap carnival rides, shill games and salesmen of everything from vacuum cleaners to miracle additives for auto engines. Attendance was miserably low. He decided that he certainly wouldn't take his family to that fair, so he set out to change it In analyzing the situation, he decided that he would return to the original idea of a state fair. He threw out the carnival and set up strict rules for the type of commercial exhibits pertoo-lou- d merry-go-roun- merry-go-roun- d. mid-weste- rn mitted. event The new fair manager dusted off the that had been shuttled off of center stage into musty comers. He made large productions with big prizes out of cake baking and pickle making contests. He pushed farm attractions such old-fashion- ed as horse pulling with the massive Clydesdales, Percherons and Belgians. He promoted tractor pulling contests, giant pumpkin competitions, watermelon seed spitting contests (with local dignitaries doing the spitting), square dance calling, hog calling contests, and much, much more. Many would shake their heads at this type of idea. City people aren't interested in animals and all that sort of thing, they say. But city people came along with country people and that fair went into the black the first year. But making a profit isn't the important thing in our view. It's making the fair a wholesome exposition of the talents and products of the state's most important resource it's people. UTAH FARM BUREAU 1T1 NEWS Published each month by the Utah Farm Bureau Federation at Salt Lake City, Utah. Editorial and Business Office, 629 East Fourth South, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84102. Subscription price of twenty-fiv-e cents per year to members is included in membership fee. Entered as second class matter March 24, 1948 at the Post Office at salt Lake City, Utah under the act of March 3, 1879. UTAH FARM BUREAU FEDERATION Whatever the approach to the problein, there are no easy answers for security on the farm. No matter how you slice it, farm- the Elmo W. Hamilton, Riverton S. Jay Qiild, Cleafield Mf- - Willis Whitbeck, Bennion V. Allen Olsen Kenneth J. Rice OFFICIALS President Vice President Women Farm Bureau Chairman, Executive Secretary Editor DIRECTORS District One, A. Alton Hoffman; District Two, William Holmes; District Three, Jack Brown; District Four, Don Allen; District Five, Ken Brasher; District Six, Lee Barton; District Seven, Richard Nelson. |