NORTH GOWER — After more than half a lifetime as a leader and as a beef farmer near North Gower, 71-year-old John Newman sold the farm and on April 25 his equipment was auctioned off. The man has been a leader everywhere he turned, heading Canadian military intelligence training and most recently serving as Ontario Cattlemen’s Association director for Eastern Ontario. He was a city boy who at age five lived in other people’s barns when he got the chance. He wanted to buy a farm, so he went to work one summer at age 12 on Harold Craig’s dairy farm in what is now Kanata. His future wife, Marion, lived on the farm next door, which is now Scotiabank Place and home to the Ottawa Senators hockey team. She took note of the first time she saw Newman. "I remember seeing him come in one morning for Sunday school," Marion said. "He never came back."

He was a keener for some things. He graduated from Kemptville College in 1953 at the age of 17. But he was too young, he said. "I couldn’t get a farm loan and my father didn’t have any money."

So, he went back to work on another farm. He worked one year on Robert Spencer Sr.’s hog farm at Kinburn and then at the nearby Ferguson dairy farm. His brother was in military training and told him "Join the army for three years, save your money and buy a farm."

So, Newman joined the army and stayed 38 years. From 1983 to 1987, he was responsible for training all military intelligence in Canada at Base Borden, northwest of Toronto, but spent much of his career in Ottawa. He bought the farm in 1966 but didn’t retire from the military intelligence corp until 1992. He would have retired a year earlier but when the first Gulf War broke out he was asked to stay on to plan support for intelligence personnel sent to Saudia Arabia and reporting to U.S. general Norman Schwarzkopf.

But he never lost touch with Kemptville college. In the early 1990s he joined a save-the-college committee that included auctioneer John Joynt. They held meetings at Guelph,where they argued to keep the college open.

Through the year, however, Newman insisted he was still farming full-time. "I was full-time between the hours of 4:30 p.m. and midnight," he laughed. "I remember coming home and getting on the combine."

He and wife Marion had five daughters, which isn’t a bad thing when you’re farming, he said. "Why do you want boys? The girls attract boys and the boys want to show you how strong they are."

He and his wife came home after a weekend away and four of the boyfriends had taken 1,100 square bales off one of the fields and stacked them all in the barn. "That was great," Newman said. "We should have stayed away longer."

But the extra help doesn’t last forever. After the daughters marry them, they don’t come around so much anymore, he said.

Newman had a certain way about him, a quite, serene confidence, that people look up to. He could be sitting in a crowd of beef farmers at a meeting and when those gathered at the microphone didn’t have the answers they’d look for him. He remembers every role he played with fondness. "I have met a lot of hard working, good, wise people. I’ve held a lot of leadership positions and I’ve always found I had the support of the people."

His downside in farming is every farmer’s woe. "The volatility of prices," he said. "One year you’re getting $1.38 (per lb.) for your calves. A year down the pipe, you’re getting 80 cents. If you have investments or off-farm income you survive. But people can’t stand much more of it. Small dairy farms are threatened. Large hog farms are suffering even more. They’re worse off than the cattle. The situation today was all based on the government encouraging farmers to enter the global market. But then you get over-production or other problems. Look at ethanol. It’s ruined the livestock business," he said.

"I don’t have any solutions. That’s the way it’s been for 40 years. If you don’t like it, get out. The government can’t help you all the time. Nobody helped all those people laid off from Nortel."

But young farmers do have opportunities, he insists. "There’s an opportunity for young people now. In livestock, everything is cheap, cheap, cheap."

Except for land prices in sought after areas, you can find cheap land around Vankleek Hill, Renfrew and farther north, he said. He remembers buying cows for $1,500 and now they fetch $500. "That will turn around. They’ll be worth $1,500 again. People will retire. The herd population will decrease and prices will go up. We’re going through a lot of frustration right now.

"There’s a human side to this too," he said. "It causes a huge amount of stress, health problems or even a break up of the family."

Government programs must resolve this volatility, he says. "You have a problem today but you don’t get the payment until 2009. You can’t pay your bills. There’s a delay in the program. It’s crazy."

So, the government sets up a cash advance program but you have to pay the money back by the end of the year and you’re still in a cash flow crunch until the government stabilization program kicks in another six months or more down the road, he said.

As for Newman, he won’t be playing that game anymore. He and his wife bought their retirement home: the brick bungalow next door. And what’s he going to do? "I’ll probably drive a tractor for the guy who bought my farm."