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Dick Hoad being forced out of business by a government project – Photo credit: Nation

Dick Hoad has become an institution in Barbados and is greatly admired by many including the BU household. His literary interventions which many look forward to reading on Fridays supported by his entrepreneurial capability manifested on the The Hoad Farm must be encouraged. One would have imagined a progressive government should promote The Hoad Form as a model to be replicated across Barbados. To the consternation of many this Sunday morning the plight of the Hoads caused by government action has created ‘another’ controversy. BU thank family member Crusoe for highlighting this issue in on another blog.

Talking about financial issues and production issues, the story of the Hoad Dairy Farm in today’s Nation should be given full exposure. This is a serious issue, we ask people to be entrepreneurs, to develop PRODUCTIVE industry and not just import, wholesale, retail. This approach is critical to our survival. Here we have a couple who have done just that, now a government body is destroying their business by competing directly. Is that right?

Remember my words from the other blog thread on heritage…Lotta Long Talk, about entrepreneurship etc. Yet, a couple who have done it successfully and should be an example to others on how to do it, are put to the task, but the same government that is advocating entrepreneurship!?!

What I would want from the Minister of Finance is a cost analysis and revenue statements for the Greenland milk producing farm, audited by the Auditor General. That would show if Government is actually making money (said from the moral view), or losing money to compete with a private manufacturer.

What is the betting that after the Hoads are out of business, the Government business would be ‘sold’ to a ‘private entity’. Maybe even a Trini one!!! And some argue this country is just and fair?

This is the same issue that the CBC, whichever Government is in, has the current administrations best buddy as the head i.e. Government s interference in public information and in competing with private entities.

…here is one further irony, a doozer. With all the talk of Common Entrance and Scholarships etc., how important ‘academics ‘is, I believe that one or both of the Hoads are former Barbados Exhibition winners. They have used brains and hard work to develop an industry. Now this!

Then further, they also (pretty sure about Mr., think Mrs. studied at UWI!
They are the proverbial EXAMPLE of home grown success. Now this! Irony in yuh face!

And PROOF of my claim, that we have become a country of form over substance. In three or four years, we will see a picture of a skinteet Minister, handing over the keys of the Government Greenland Goat Milk farm, to some private entity, maybe Trini, claiming how well Barbados and Government has done in developing a goat milk industry and had managed to sell it for a tidy sum. At which point the price of the no competition XYZ milk from XYZ milk farm, former Government farm, will double. Peuk!

This is just how things are here now. Whereto Barbados?


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181 responses to “The Hoad Dairy Farm Issue”


  1. YOU DAVID you are just as dangerous as the NATION embellishing a story to fit your own purpose this is the second time in the day that you have stated untruths about the ministry response to the story UNlike YOU!


  2. http://news.barbadostoday.bb/barticlenew.php?ptitle=Gov’t not competing with goat farmers&article=17925


  3. After last night tarring and feathering of the government the likes of BUSH TEA alias “mr. know it all” and CASWELL the union “know nothing at all”would have posted a retraction and an apology to the government for their procrastinations and misguided oulandish and ridiculous attacks on the government in reference to the HOADS article which was fueled by political propganda ignited by the dirty RAG the “NATION”


  4. Carry on smartly because the government has admitted it is wrong i.e. it will stop selling the milk so that your position has become untenable.

    @ David
    in reference to your above comment
    where is it in any of the published articles did the govt. admitted to any wrong doing or making a mistake.

  5. Observing (and polling) Avatar
    Observing (and polling)

    Whenever there is swift abundant damage control, one ought to look for the fire that was not seen. The ministry knows it messed up on this one…at a time when agriculture is one of the “key” issues…

    Agriculture votes, small farmer votes, st. andrew votes…well well

    Just observing

  6. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Balance

    I feel that I must break the bad news to your wife. Drink goats’ milk will enhance the living: not revive the dead, but at least you will get the consolation of a good night’s sleep.


  7. @ observing and poll
    Haven’t you noticed that there is no one here fanning the flames except you . even CASWELL has withdrawn his services to hoads. all he seems interested in now is “raisin g the dead” CANT BLAME HIM. “CALLING LAZARUS!

  8. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    AC

    Sorry to disappoint you but I am still here. I was quite busy today and did not have much chance to check the blogs.

    I am not trying to convince you that you are wrong: you already know that, but one thing that I can say about you is that you don’t let being wrong deter you.


  9. @ David

    I had already seen this link which is why I knew that one object of the gov. research was to cross-breed ‘temperate’ goats. In fairness, ac is right when she says that there is no admission of ‘wrongdoing’. Obviously there is going to be milk to be sold off, Miller has suggested passing it on to government establishments. Presumably the Hoads would not want it if only because the ‘market’ is not there for it all and it would be difficult to sell it as “Hoad’s’ milk for legal reasons. I don’t get any sense of intentional competition from the link though – indeed, quite the opposite. What do you think government shouild do with its milk?


  10. @ ac

    ‘You David are as dangerous as the Nation’

    LMAO

  11. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Robert

    I have seen more than my fair share of official excuses, and trust me when I tell you that they are usually designed as a facing measure. In most cases, they contain enough factual information to be believable but they hardly ever contain the whole truth. I am not saying that the explanation given by the ministry official falls into this category but it leaves me to wonder.

    However, that is the stuff that good civil servants are made of: they make their minister look good. And with this bunch it is very hard.


  12. @ Caswell

    Yes, thankyou. I’m sure you’re right to be wary. It’s a problem we face with most things I suppose – ‘enough to be believable but not the whole truth’.


  13. The ministry was selling off the milk which created a problem for the Hoads as reported in the Nation newspaper.

    The ministry post-brouhaha has made a statement to the effect “Dr. Blackman suggested that the Ministry could again approach Mr. Hoad about buying the Ministry’s goat’s milk at a reasonable price and marketing the product, so the Ministry could concentrate on its research.”

    If the ministry was not doing anything ‘wrong’ why would it claw back from its position of dumping milk in the market?

    In fact why would they want to sell the milk to Hoad?

    As blogger might suggest, this is called deductive logic.


  14. On another note, it is interesting the person the ministry sold the milk to went out of business.

    It would good journalism if the Nation i.e. traditional media did a followup on this story to determine why the other farmer went out of business.

    Some of us always get carried away with the minutiae of the argument.


  15. David what do you suggest that the ministry did with the milk?after all they say they used the goats for breeding research to determine milk quality and the milk produce they did not use who do you think that the govt got the goats for free and does not the research cost money so what is wrong with the govt trying to find a business to buy the milk? that does not have any thing to do with the govt being in competition with the hoads the Hoads did decline buying the milk from the govt after all isn’t fair that the gvot recoup some of the money from the funding of the research possibly by selling the milk than letting it go to waste or would you prefer the taxpayers money used for the research be thrown down the drain


  16. the story in the Nation was an embellishment of the facts which could have been easily sorted out by addressing both sides of the issues.


  17. @ David

    Yes Blogger might call it that…but then Blogger does a lot of calling and his credentials as a logician are very suspect…lol


  18. @ ac

    That means leavig your bias’, suppositions, conjectures, prejudices behind. Do you always do that? Does the ‘third estate’ ever do that? Do any of us ever do that? A lawyer might – if only to see what case he has to meet – but that’s prudence rather than anything else – well mostly.


  19. Again…what is the price the consumer pays for ‘gov goat’ milk? The point being that if it’s not much less than Hoad then the poverty argument falls away. But, of course, that leaves untouched the possibility that with two lots of milk, supply by far outstrips demand….which I suspect is the real problem. If so, then – again – what should government be doing with its ‘gov goat’ milk? I assume that gov is not in the business of ‘gov goat’ milk production rather than ‘gov goat’ research….but that the milk is an inevitable by-product. Or is the argument that there is a grand conspiracy to out-Hoad? Presumably not since gov ‘s happy to sell its milk to Hoad at a reasonable price. But then why would he want it?

    I’m sure that Hoad’s milk has a very faithful following and, as the result of this, the ‘new faithful’ like me and Balance..


  20. David

    According to what I read the Ministry approached Hoad offering to sell its milk to him and Hoad declined the offer. Hoad subsequently sold his herd ? to another farmer who took up the offer but eventually went out of business, the Ministry having no viable market then sold its milk to the Supermarket.

    It would be interesting to get Hoad’s version of this sequence of events, did Hoad sell off some of his herd to a potential competitor? How about the other farmer why did he go out of business? Despite what Caswell wrote how strong is the market for Goat milk in Barbados? I also question the sale of unpasteurized milk by commercial entities (that is a matter for the Health authorities to decide) but couldn’t this be part of PHD offerings?

    As is usual in Barbados things are not always what they seem, there is always another story behind the headlines.


  21. @Sargeant

    It appears not to be a slamdunk (clearcut) matter.


  22. @ David

    Which is why, as this thing unravels, the argument that gov, supported by taxpayers’ dollars, is unfairly competing with an honest entrepreneur looks increasingly simplistic.


  23. But how nice that this debate, though controversial, is being conducted in the way it is. AC, stoic, undeterred and questioning, is RR for once yet whatever acrimony there is is cushioned by gentle humour – which is how it ought to be.


  24. The cold fact IS the milk being produced by the government experimental station has created unfair competition in the market. Bear in mind the objective of the station as stated by the government official.

    The discussion therefore must be how does government plan milk distribution to NOT create unfair competition. This is a different argument. More to this will be revealed in time.


  25. “I’m sure that Hoad’s milk has a very faithful following and, as the result of this, the ‘new faithful’ like me and Balance
    Sorry to say RR and no offence to Mr Hoad or marketing officer Br Franklyn but i have to admit that the milk that i tasted from Greenland is far more palatable than Mr Hoad’s. My little girl wouldn’t even drink it and like me she ain’t scornful when it comes to her belly.you may also wish to know that in the early nineties milk produced for sale at Greenland livestock station used to be packaged in ziplock like plastic bags.


  26. @ Balance

    Oh well …back to the drawing board. I thought the milk very rich and creamy. But I’ve had nothing to compare it with. In fact I’m trying to find some ‘gov goat’.


  27. @ David

    So gov must organise our lives by planning milk distribution for itself and Mr Hoad? But – as a loyal Hoadist (now) – it will be interesting to see what you’ve got up your sleeve.


  28. i will bet that if the govt gave away the milk there are those among us still would complain that the govt is stopping the hoads from making a living. because people don’t have to buy hoad milk no more. so the question is “:What does the govt do with the milk so as not to upset the customers and friends of hoad? after all the goats can’t stop making milk or can they?


  29. What is about milk in Barbados? First Hoad can’t sell his milk to the Supermarkets and now PHD can’t sell its milk in Trinidad. I can’t believe that PHD wait 18 months to raise the alarm about this but Bajans are so laid back that Good Friday could come on a Monday for all they care.

    How about retaliating against the Trinis? Hit them where it hurts – in their pocket book- don’t boycott their goods as boycotts never work but introduce a bill to nationalise BNB (Owen could sell it back if he gets into power) and see how quickly they sit up and take notice.

    Trinidad has been pushing around the other islands in the region for a long time its time that Barbados grow a backbone and kick the T&T schoolyard bully in the gonads if they don’t Trinidad will continue to run roughshod over us.

    Enough is enough.

    http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/pdh-block/

  30. Jack (does he have a knob or tits) Bowman Avatar
    Jack (does he have a knob or tits) Bowman

    I always read Hoad on Fridays. I can’t remember the last time he didn’t make me cringe. All those knob & tit jokes that weren’t even funny in the 1970s.

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