A Salute to
March 2014
Agriculture a special supplement to
The Citizen
Youth in farming 2017 IPM preparation Looking through a ‘rural lens’
The Agriculture Hall of Fame
The history of a farm family The price of farmland An update on PED
The new focus of conservation
PAGE A2. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
2017 IPM logo, slogan to be revealed April 2 By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen The road to the 2017 International Plowing Match (IPM) in Walton is a long one, but there will be plenty to do along the way says Event Chair Jacquie Bishop of Bluevale. One of the first steps will be the revelation of the IPM’s logo and slogan, both of which will be seen in public for the first time at the April 2 Huron County Council meeting in Goderich. The logo and slogan come by way of a contest, which was opened immediately after the June announcement that Walton would play host to the 100th IPM, in 2017. In an interview with The Citizen, Bishop said she received 35 slogan entries and 14 logo entries, but only the very best one of each could be chosen. Bishop’s true focus at the moment, as it will remain for several years, is volunteer personnel and filling the numerous positions she’ll need leading up to the match. The volunteers Bishop does have, however, are enthusiastic and willing to take on anything that is required. “At this stage, the difficulty is holding our volunteers back from ramping up too soon,� Bishop said. “It’s a great problem to have.�
The event’s executive is already in place: Jeff McGavin and Paul Dodds, plowing co-ordinators; John Lowe, tented city co-ordinator; Matt Townsend, RV park co-ordinator; Mallory Kernighan, special features co-ordinator; Roger Robertson and Brian McGavin, administration coordinators; Marlene Munn, related events co-ordinator and Barry Gordon, marketing co-ordinator. The executive, however, is still searching for volunteers as a number of positions have yet to be filled. Three of the areas Bishop says she needs volunteers in most are budgets, the sponsorship committee and the souvenir committee. “[The volunteers] have been dedicating a lot of time, but they’re busy with other things as well,� Bishop said. “But we have a good working group that puts in a lot of time and effort.� She says the executive has been meeting regularly since being formed and has been progressing nicely on a number of issues. In planning for the match, Bishop says the group is hoping to place a large emphasis on the year: 2017, which will be Canada’s 150th anniversary since Confederation. She says it will be a great opportunity for rural communities to get patriotic and that funding is Continued on page A7
Making their footprint Earlier this month, several representatives of the 2017 International Plowing Match (IPM) committee attended the Ontario Plowmen’s Association annual convention, where they showed off all that Walton has, and will have to offer in 2017. Appearing on behalf of the local event were, from left: President of the Huron County Plowmen’s Association Brian McGavin, Princess of the Furrow Tiffany Deitner, Jeff McGavin, Paul Dodds, Queen of the Furrow Jackie Kernighan and 2017 IPM Chair Jacquie Bishop. (Photo submitted)
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Â? Â´ĂƒÂšÂ† ÂśÂšÂŞÂ˛Â§Ă€ÂŞÂŻÂŻÂšÂ§Â˘Â¨Â˘ÂšÂ ÂˇĂƒÂšÂšĂ€Â˘ÂšÂžÉź \ š¯¯À´ šÉÔ Your chair ma’am Jacquie Bishop, a Bluevale area sheep farmer, was named chair of the 2017 International Plowing Match committee last summer at an event called A Celebration of Rural Plowing, which was held at the Seaforth Agriplex. At the event, Bishop spoke about the importance of event volunteers, the availability of which, she says, is one of Huron County’s great strengths. (File photo)
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A3.
Cronin details her personal brush with PED
A difficult job ahead Local pork farmer Amy Cronin, who also happens to be Chair of Ontario Pork, is seeing the organization through one of its most difficult periods in recent memory. Cronin, whose Iowa farm had a brush with porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) around Christmas, is telling Ontario pork producers to keep their farms clean in hopes they will skirt the disease that has killed thousands of piglets throughout Canada and the U.S. Cronin, centre, is seen here last fall at the Farm and Food Care Harvest Gala in Milton where she received the Paul Mistele Award. (Photo submitted)
Through owning a farm in the U.S., and serving as the chair of Ontario Pork, Cronin was hyperaware of the risks of PED last year when it ravaged the American pork industry. She was able to keep the virus off her Iowa farm until Christmas, when she was notified of a single case at the farm. “[PED] was found in one of our sow units and we took immediate action,” Cronin said. “We spent the next week or two in constant contact with our veterinarian. We did the testing and we did everything that we possibly could.” Cronin said that despite immediate action, there was still a great amount of loss at the American farm. “We lost a lot of piglets, so that was very difficult. We were heading into a good market,” Cronin said, “but there is life after PED.” Cronin says that while living through the virus at her family’s farm was an extremely tough time for her, the experience has put her in a good place from which to speak to pork producers in Ontario, as the virus made its way into the province earlier this year. “I can share that with producers here because I have that personal
experience,” Cronin says. “It’s extremely difficult, but if you do what your veterinarian says, you can get back to where you were.” One of the most important messages Cronin wanted to share from her experience was that if a farm is affected by PED, that doesn’t necessarily mean the producers is failing to adhere to good farm practices. In Ontario, especially, Cronin says, the belief is that the virus has been spread throughout the province via feed. At the time, producers were unaware the virus could travel in feed. “So for Ontario farmers, PED came in the feed. That’s difficult because you had farmers doing everything right, and [their farms] still ended up with it,” Cronin said. When asked if she thought she would have to deal with a situation of this magnitude when she first ran for the chair position at Ontario Pork, Cronin says she couldn’t have seen PED coming. “When I decided to run it was because I have a passion for agriculture and a love for the farmers I represent,” Cronin said, adding that Continued on page A10
By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Amy Cronin, Ontario Pork Chair and a Bluevale-area pork farmer, says the effect on porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in Ontario has been somewhat subdued, but, as she knows from a personal brush with the virus, there is still a long road ahead. Though she had not talked about it much publically until speaking with The Citizen, Cronin and her family had PED run through a farm they own in Iowa around Christmas.
PPS changes please CFFO At long last, the Ontario government has released the new Provincial Policy Statement. For the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, this has been a lengthy process with a huge number of stakeholder concerns to balance against each other in their effort to produce the new document. Throughout the lengthy process, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario (CFFO) has consistently called for strengthened protection of our best farm land as a critical longterm strategic resource. The CFFO is pleased to see improvements in some key areas that will help open up opportunity on the farm. The modified secondary uses definition opens up additional opportunities for today’s farms to engage in other means of generating income, including enhanced allowances around agrotourism. The revamped approach to secondary agricultural activity should open up increased opportunity for this type of infrastructure at a scale that can compete in today’s tough business climate close to farms. The CFFO is disappointed with the progress on curbing aggregate Continued on page A10
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PAGE A4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Ag Ambitions program’s first year a succesful one By Denny Scott The Citizen The first year of Ag Ambitions, a program designed to help young people looking to work in agricultural fields, has been a success according to organizer Meriel Cromarty. “The workshops were all full and jam-packed with information,” she said. “The speakers were phenomenal at each event and the youth were presented with so much information on trends and so many opportunities.” Ag Ambitions is a program where, through several different workshops and a final gala event, youth are encouraged to get involved with agricultural industry according to Cromarty. The program ran from late in 2013 until the middle of March primarily at the Regional Equine and Agriculture Centre of Huron (REACH) in Clinton. “Youth could be looking at being a primary producer or manufacturing or research and development, but, as long as it was involved with agriculture, the workshops had something for them,” she said. “So far the strongest presence is primary producers, and the bulk of the students came from farming families and large-scale farming operations so that made sense.” The six workshops, which started early in December of 2013, covered the following topics: Developing a vision, meeting agricultural challenges, developing a marketing and business plan, developing leadership skills and developing accounting and financing skills. The sixth and final meeting was the gala event and included an agriculture panel session as well as a networking opportunity for the involved youth at the end of the meeting. The event was held on March 11 at the Huron County Museum. Cromarty said the success was due in no small part to the speakers who participated in each of the workshops, saying they all did a great job and pointed out several of them. She said the primary success of each participant relied on transparency and simply telling their own story. Dale Donaldson, who owns and operates a farm, spoke about how businesses evolve and provided a great example to the youth of how the students could grow not only produce, but could grow a business and brand as well. “He started with a small flock of geese and now the geese are only about 10 per cent of his over-all business,” Cromarty said. “He talked about how, over time, the business got into processing for themselves, then other people, then adding additives for health and wellness.” Long-time organic farmer Tony McQuail from the Lucknow area was also a good speaker, according to Cromarty, because he presented a great story. “He was interesting and very down to earth,” she said. “Probably more than anything in the presentation, he was good because of his enthusiasm for holistic farm management. He spoke about how, as a family, they make decisions about the farm and about how to run the business instead of having the business run the farmer.” Cromarty said McQuail’s message of finding satisfaction with a business and having resilience in the agriculture sector was also well presented and well received. One of the main focal points of several of the presenters, according
to Cromarty, was showing how agriculture wasn’t all about primary producers but included industrial agriculture and industry in general. “We had Frank Palen, the chair of the Huron Manufacturing Association in,” she said. “He spoke of how new technology and the internet need to be utilized in pretty much any endeavour. He also spoke on the importance of networking and building contacts and how the youth can achieve both through volunteering.” Cromarty said John Kloeze, who owns Actium Resources Ltd., was another presenter who wasn’t a primary producer. Kloeze produced an industrial composter and is marketing them to farmers and institutes. Though his industry is definitely agriculture-based, the main thrust of his presentation was that changing Continued on page A5
First class Ag Ambitions is a program designed to help young agriculturally-minded people realize their full business potential. The first year of the program was successful according to organizer Meriel Cromarty. The first graduating class consisted of, from left, Jenna Howatt, Matthew Nivins, Peter Hendricks, Margaret Vincent, Janita Enter, David Nivins and Troy Leeming (Photo submitted)
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A5.
Agriculture, industry leaders teach through program compost to livestock. “You can put in dead stock or industrial compost and black gold comes out the other end,” she said, saying the youth realized there is opportunity in every part of the agriculture cycle from Kloeze. Following the workshops where the speakers imparted their wisdom, youth were encouraged to attend the final gala event which included a chance to rub elbows with agricultural stakeholders from the area. The networking opportunity at the end of the final workshop was set up in a “speed-dating” style, keeping people meeting agriculture stakeholders quickly. “The networking was supposed to
happen after the main event and dinner, but it happened during the gala event,” she said. People mingled and got to know each other, then we did a presentation recognizing their efforts throughout the program. While this was the program’s first year, Cromarty hopes it won’t be the last. This year the program was presented by the Huron Business Development Corporation (HBDC), but organizers are now looking for partners for the next year. “We would love to have a community partner to help support the program,” she said. “We’re just re-applying for program funding Continued on page A6
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We are fully equipped, trained and licensed to: Sharing their knowledge The Ag Ambitions program, which helps young agriculturally-involved individuals develop their business acumen as well as their agricultural knowledge, was a success in its first year according to organizer Meriel Cromarty. She said that the great discussions lead by presenters like Dr. John Cranfield, shown above, are the reason the program was so well received. (Photo submitted)
Continued from page A4 paths is possible for farmers. “He had a background in agriculture and was a producer,” she said. “He talked about being agile enough to make a decision and leave
farming. That was an important message to the youth that farming didn’t have to be a life-time career.” Cromarty explained that, with his composter, Kloeze is now at the other end of agriculture and it’s
important to see how the cycle works. “The new statistic that one out of three bites of food is wasted,” she said. “His product is a composter that digests everything from
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PAGE A6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
MVCA to focus on stewardship, flood control services By Denny Scott The Citizen The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) has been facing tough times the past several years as costs for maintaining the organization have been downloaded to its member municipalities. Because of the download, the organization has been, especially this year, getting away from nonessential services, such as conservation areas and camping sites and refocusing its priorities to include stewardship and flood preparation. The goal is to best utilize the funds available to the MVCA to prevent
Ag Ambitions program looks for partners for second year Continued from page A5 now and getting ready to put together the outline of a newer, bigger program if we can manage it.” Cromarty also said the group would consider working with other groups that look to service the same age group. “We want to connect with agricultural partners to help present the program,” she said. “We want to connect with groups like 4-H and the Junior Farmers, but that is a whole other layer going forward where we would collaborate and engage with youth together.” The one drawback to this year’s success, according to Cromarty, was the lack of consistent attendance. While she said there was a core group of attendees, many came to only some of the workshops. “The purpose of the program was to get the youth focused on agriculture throughout the entire program” she said. “It really helps to connect all the lessons. She said, despite that drawback, the success was noticeable in the youth and in how their families were involved in the program. “Many people brought guests and their families to the final event,” she said. “The parents recognized what they were doing with the program and wanted to be a part of it, which was great.
future ecological disasters which is requiring the organization to cut back from other endeavours. While the two include very different practices, Stewardship Services Co-ordinator Geoff King said the goal of both focal points is the same: building resiliency throughout the watershed. “Building resiliency means controlling water, creating wetlands, soaking up water and preventing the loss of land and nutrients,” King said. “Through the loss of wetlands, the loss of buffers along watercourses due to land and crop costs and erosion, resiliency is being lost in a time that we need it more than ever.” Resiliency is created, according to King, by building the capacity of ecosystems and working with communities to withstand the growing climate changes. King explained that, with extreme weather patterns such as the drier, warmer weather in 2012 and 2013 compared to the more intense, cold, wet weather of 2013 and 2014, resiliency needs to be built into the land to be prepared for any weather conditions. “We have talked about climate extremes, but they seem to have
come into effect a lot quicker than we thought over the last three years,” King said. “We’re trying to build resiliency through flood and erosion control and stewardship practices.” Preparing for both flood and drought is a difficult task, however, and that is why the MVCA has decided to focus almost entirely on that. “There are so many challenges when looking at things like drainage and rural storm-water management plans to foster resiliency,” King said. “We’re trying to hold water back as long as we can and release it slowly to prevent drought, but then we get these big melt events and we’re trying to catch up to those problems.” King said finding a way to maintain the balance between the feast and famine of moisture is the way to build not only resiliency, but soil health as well. “We’re moving to things like tree planting for additional buffer or tree breaks,” he said. “From there, we’re going to conservation systems to hold the water back. That will help build soil health and that’s what we need to do to maintain the conservation systems that go along with it.”
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He said the cost of putting best management practice plans in place on the surrounding lands is a far better prospect than losing the land, especially since it helps the loss of nutrients in the land for farmers. In the 100-year flood line, there is $267 million worth of land that could potentially be lost, meaning that along the shoreline and gullies, there is $366 million worth of estimated land that could be lost if resiliency isn’t build soon. A similar situation exists, according to King, in urban communities within the flood plains of the Maitland Nine-Mile watershed. “The potential for flooding in those lands is bad as well,” he said. “There is some concern with that as there is $140 million in development located in the flood area. When you look at that kind of potential for loss, it’s high.” On the agriculture side, however, alongside land loss, resiliency helps fight nutrient loss in the ground, according to King, which has become a problem as of late. “We’re looking at high-intensity thunder storms and how they affect
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King said systems like the Huron Clean Water Project help encourage that through funding. King said three main areas are considered when looking at preventing damage caused by flood or drought; agriculture areas, municipalities and lake-front. “With the agriculture, we obviously have people living alongside water ways that have to be aware and with municipalities, they have infrastructure like roads and bridges that could wash out as well as municipal drains,” he said. “We also have shoreline communities, which are a big part of the water shed. We have 66 gullies along Lake Huron.” King explained that, without resiliency, lands along the lake and lands in the 100-year flood plains throughout the area are the ones that will see the worst losses. In this situation, he said spending some funds on prevention now could prevent major losses down the road. “Along Lake Huron, we have a potential land loss of 1,897 acres that could disappear due to run-off events and erosion,” he said. “That would represent $89.5 million in lost land. A lot of that land is farm, but a lot is recreation land as well.”
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A7.
‘Pigeon King’ sentenced to seven years for scheme Arlen Galbraith, the mastermind behind a plan to raise pigeons that lost millions for 1,000 breeders across North America, including some in Huron County, was sentenced March 18 to seven years in prison. Operating under the company Pigeon King International, based in Waterloo, Galbraith sold breeding pairs of pigeons at inflated prices, signing contracts with investors under which he promised to buy back the birds they produced at rates that would make their investment profitable. At first the birds were to be sold to other breeders, but later Galbraith said he was planning to build a processing plant to produce pigeons for meat, but the plant was never built. But after a month-long trial last
fall at which Galbraith represented himself without the help of a lawyer, the jury accepted the crown attorney’s contention that the whole thing was a pyramid scheme. Evidence showed that Galbraith had brought in $42 million from investors over a four-year period. He had paid out $30 million to 394 of the early investors in the scheme, but the contracts he had signed obligated him to pay them a further $350 million in the coming years. To find that much by attracting new investors would have required him to honour contracts for $3 billion, the court was told. Despite the money he brought in, Galbraith was personally bankrupt and Crown Attorney Lynn Robinson said there was nothing left to compensate the victims of the
scheme. “There is no money at the end of the rainbow to give back to these folks,” she told the Waterloo Region Record. While he had ignored advice from the judge to hire an attorney during the trial, Galbraith did have a lawyer for the sentencing. David North told the court that Galbraith didn’t live a lavish lifestyle or sock away money and that early investors actually made money. He also pointed out that Galbraith, 67, had lost nearly 40 pounds while in jail since his conviction in December. While acknowledging the deterioration of Galbraith, Justice Gerry Taylor said the main factor in his seven-year sentence was that Galbraith refuses to admit any wrong-doing.
2017 IPM committee seeks cookbook recipe submissions Continued from page A2 available through the federal government for 2017 projects that are tied into the important anniversary. In many cases, however, those applications are being accepted now, years ahead of the anniversary during the planning stages. She hopes the anniversary will make the 2017 IPM a memorable one that, for its differences, will stand out in people’s minds. “We want to celebrate Canada’s 150th with a little something different,” Bishop said. “We want to take it beyond the traditional IPM events that people have seen in the past.” In addition, Bishop is currently in the process of signing lease agreements with all of the Waltonarea landowners who are donating their property for the match and discussing the site with representatives from the Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA). She said there will be extensive consultation with the OPA in the next year, which will, after several site visits, determine the layout of the site and further set the planning wheels in motion. Another project that is underway is a traditional IPM project that has always generated a lot of interest year after year: the IPM cookbook. The books are, Bishop says, historically almost always the highest-selling piece of merchandise associated with the IPM. Often over 10,000 of the books are sold every year, Bishop says. “We are looking for the best recipes from our residents in Huron County,” Bishop said. “The book will also include county information,
along with some photographs as well.” Submissions for the cookbook can be e-mailed to c.corbett@hay.net In June, at a special event entitled A Celebration of Rural Plowing at the Seaforth Agriplex, it was announced that Walton would play host to the 2017 IPM. Huron County had already been named the host of the match earlier in 2013, but where exactly in Huron County was still being determined among four different county sites. Walton was then chosen and presented at the special event in June, 2013. At the event, Bishop was chosen as event chair, as she has been involved with agriculture for decades, and served as a 4-H Club leader for a number of years. Prior to the announcement, Huron County Plowmen’s Association President Brian McGavin said representatives from the OPA were very impressed with all of the sites Huron County had to offer. “They said they’d never had so many beautiful sites to choose
from,” McGavin said at the event. McGavin also said that his grandfather Gordon, who won a Canadian Plowing Championship in 1926, would have been thrilled to host the match in Walton. “He would be proud of this area,” McGavin said. The 100th International Plowing Match is scheduled to take place in Walton from Sept. 19-23, 2017.
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PAGE A8. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Ag 3.0 requires collaboration, direct marketing products in nearly direct marketing. The Nuffield Scholarship is awarded by Nuffield Canada and, for three deserving recipients per year, provides $15,000 to pay for a minimum of eight weeks of travel for study purposes. The recipient then presents a study on what they learned within two years of returning and hopefully applies their experience to the furthering of agriculture in Canada. Through her European travels as part of the Nuffield Scholarship, Creutzberg found her vision to be at the Comptoir Paysan (Countryside Counter), a distribution centre for local producers. “We need distribution centres,” she said in an interview with The Citizen. “We need to develop the link between the farmer and the institution that sells their produce. It’s shown
to work elsewhere, like in France.” She said walking into the Comptoir Paysan was like walking into her vision of how agriculture needs to be. “They have a store and education up front and, in the back, they have forklifts operating, storing produce and bringing it out,” she said. “That’s what we need, we need a place where all the goods are held, produced and processed on site that cuts out the middle-man.” Creutzberg said the business model requires a cash cow and, for the site she saw in France, that was the winery. There were wine tanks behind the storage areas which brought in the cash that made everything economically viable. “Hubs will help with market issues though,” she said. “As the Continued on page A9
In 2012 Huron County dairy farmers produced $101.2 million worth of milk.
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Studying agriculture abroad Gayl Creutzberg, a Wroxeter-area farmer, won the Nuffield Canada Scholarship last year and toured Europe to get a better grasp on agriculture throughout the world. Creutzberg, shown above in France milking sheep at Roquefort Cheese, is a former sheep producer and knows what the current state of agriculture was, what agriculture used to be and what it needs to be in the future to make sure producers stay viable and local. (Photo submitted)
By Denny Scott The Citizen Gayl Creutzberg of Wroxeter knows what Agriculture versions 1.0 and 2.0 look like in Canada and wants to help shape what Agriculture 3.0 could look like. Creutzberg, who won the 2013 Nuffield Canada Scholarship which
allowed her to travel for 10 weeks last year throughout Europe, says Agriculture 1.0 is practised by groups like the Amish and could be considered peasant farming. Agriculture 2.0 is industrial farming as most Canadian farmers know it today. Agriculture 3.0, for Creutzberg, would be a centralized hub that sells
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A9.
New opportunities available in the north: Brekveld By Peggy Brekveld, Board Member, Northern Ontario, Ontario Federation of Agriculture Agriculture drives Ontario’s economy. In terms of actual dollars generated from Ontario farms, primary agriculture contributes $13.7 billion to our province’s GDP and generates 158,000 jobs. Agriculture is on top and we’ve got plenty of potential to grow. Just look to northern Ontario for a great example of the tremendous growth potential for agriculture. North of Parry Sound lies almost 90 per cent of Ontario’s total land mass, and seven per cent of our province’s total farmland. As a farmer in northern Ontario, I’m seeing steady farmland expansion across the region. And with 3 million acres of prospective
farmland in northern Ontario, we’ve got a lot of potential to generate more food, fibre and profits. Expanding agriculture in the north means greater economic growth for all of Ontario. There’s plenty of room and opportunity for new and expanding farmers in northern Ontario. Lower land prices balance the higher costs of transportation – whether you are bringing in farm inputs or shipping out commodities. Growing conditions in northern regions are clearly different. Cooler temperatures create a shorter growing season, but our northern crops benefit from longer daylight hours during the growing season. Northern Ontario is also home to unique micro climates that offer advantages for field crops. Advanced
agricultural research has resulted in some great crop varieties and production methods that enable us to produce valuable field crops comparable to our southern neighbours. As well, a significant amount of northern land is pasture, an efficient way to use rough terrain acres that are otherwise unfit for cultivating and growing crops. As we prepare to answer to the Premier’s challenge to double growth and jobs in Ontario’s agrifood sector, northern Ontario is part of the answer. In 2012 northern Ontario generated more than $170 million in farm cash receipts. Continued northern research and farmland expansion will further raise the economic contribution of the region. Here in the north we’ve got
Food hub best bet for farm sales
Gayl Creutzberg Continued from page A8 markets change, you need a place where many things are sold. Farmers don’t want to mono-crop, so a hub will allow everyone to benefit.� Since she returned from the trip, Creutzberg has been working for the Huron Business Development Corporation (HBDC) to make her vision a reality. “Paul Nichol [of the HBDC] heard my idea and told me to write it down,� she said. Writing the idea wouldn’t be a problem for Creutzberg who is writing for the Nuffield scholarship she received regarding the idea. She produced a 25-page document outlining what a hub would have to be and that started the 5-Star Food Hub. “It’s part of Agriculture 3.0,� she said. “Farmers need to work together to market together, but it goes beyond that.� The 5-Star Food Hub (5starfoodhub.ca), named because it will be situated in Howick which is close to the the borders of Huron, Bruce, Perth, Grey and Wellington Counties, is modeled after a social enterprise business structure, meaning a not-for-profit organization will run the hub and have all profits put back into the hub and the producers who participate in it. Creutzberg said thus far she has received a lot of support for the project. “I have close to 50 letters in favour of the project,� she said. “Many municipalities are interested and, from the two public meetings we’ve had, we had a good response.� She said farmers are interested and a core planning team has been formed from all five counties to work together. “The project is getting somewhat fast tracked because of everyone who is involved,� she said, adding the HBDC has let her know of several grants that should help the
project along. “It really helps that the research for it has already been done by other organizations. Everything that needed to be investigated was part of a report already completed.� While Agriculture 2.0 is the norm, Creutzberg said people participating in Agriculture 1.0 are, in some ways, closer to her vision than 2.0 is, especially with local organizations. She said local Mennonite producers who sell through hubs, are similar in practice to farms she saw in Transylvania on her trip. “They have the highest biodiversity in Europe,� she said. “However, they are using Agriculture 1.0 practices because it fits the terrain.� She said the farms she visited are still using livestock to run their farms and hiring local people to help with the work, which deals with two major issues. “Unemployment there is far less than other places and the communities are much healthier,� she said. “The farmers also said that, since they work independent of any kind of oil-based fuel, that market doesn’t affect them.� Creutzberg said people need to start sharing not only a place to sell their produce but also parts of their business. “Collaboration is the main thing and the big thing,� she said. “Farms need to share their businesses, their knowledge and really create interbusiness offerings.�
The biggest challenges Creutzberg thinks she will face with her idea are the beliefs people hold. “People have to ask themselves, in Agriculture 3.0, why they are doing something,� she said. “Like removing corn stubble, it can help keep nutrients in the soil for the next year, so why are we removing it?� She said many practices have been handed down through the generations and people need to not only realize they have a choice, but to exercise that choice and question why things are being done the way they are when there may be a better way.
untapped acres available for agricultural development and pasture land to accommodate livestock expansion. We’ve got agricultural organizations like the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and our affiliated regional federations to support our farmers and advocate for issues on their behalf. Northern Ontario is home to great potential for agriculture that offers
the promise of more food, more jobs and a greater economic impact for the whole province.
In 2012 Huron County pork producers produced 7.8 per cent of all the hogs in Ontario.
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PAGE A10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Cronin says Ontario producers up to PED challenge U.S.,” Cronin said. “Farmers are working hard to keep [PED] off of their farms. Twenty-four [cases] is still a low number, but that’s still 24 farmers dealing with a very difficult situation.” To help combat the virus, Cronin suggests increasing bio-security measures, but also bringing in a third party to analyze a farm and its practices. Cronin said she learned so much about her own operation when she brought in someone to perform third-party analysis. She also
suggests bringing in a veterinarian to look at farm practices and to make suggestions on how to better them. This spring, Cronin says, she will be installing a truck wash station at her Bluevale-area farm. It had been something she was considering, but with PED now being a real concern, the truck wash quickly moved up the list of priorities. “It was on our list of wants, but we didn’t feel it was necessary, but now with PED, we now feel it’s necessary,” she said.
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Amy Cronin, Chair of Ontario Pork and a local pork producer, says that the key to keeping porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) under wraps is bio-security and a commitment to hard work, but even so, good producers may fall victim to the virus. Cronin, left, can be seen here at the Ontario Pork MPP Reception, which was held late last year at Queen’s Park in Toronto. (Photo submitted)
Continued from page A3 it is not in her nature to quit, simply because a challenge like PED has reared its head. “It is a virus, so we don’t know everything about it,” Cronin says. “We’re doing what we can with the information that we have.” Because PED had been present in
Statement reaction Continued from page A3 extraction in prime lands, despite the requirement for rehabilitation. The organization hoped to see increased limitations in this area. However, the Provincial Policy Statement increased the level of protection in specialty crop areas. Unfortunately, there are very few of these areas that have been identified in the province and stronger guidance from the province is needed in establishing these zones. There are several areas of enhanced environmental protection that may or may not be an issue in different areas of the province. There is no doubt that working towards improved overall environmental sustainability is tremendously important, but the agricultural community needs to be focused on finding workable solutions that protect the environment while still allowing responsible farming practices to occur. The re-development of the Provincial Policy Statement is a monumental task that required careful consideration of a huge number of interested parties positions and opinions. There were some positive gains for the business of agriculture, and for the countryside as a whole. The CFFO looks forward to ensuring that the new policies are ones that are workable for agriculture.
the U.S. since May, 2013, Cronin said Ontario had a nearly ninemonth head start, something she is very grateful for. “We saw some of what was happening in the U.S., so from May to January that let us figure out what we were going to do and put measures in place to reduce transfer from farm to farm,” Cronin said. “It was an opportunity to learn from everything happening in the U.S.” Soon after PED gripped farms in the U.S., Cronin says she and others at Ontario Pork were “well aware” that it was likely just a matter of time until the virus made its way into Canada, specifically Ontario. In preparation for the potential
migration of the virus into Ontario, Cronin says that Ontario Pork held three town hall teleconferences with its producers prior to Ontario’s first confirmed case of PED. The discussions centred on how Ontario producers could best protect their farms from potential infection, including a number of bio-security measures. At the beginning of March, just under 30 cases of PED had been confirmed in Ontario, spread throughout the province since it was first discovered in late January. On March 10, Huron County had its first confirmed case. “What’s happening in Ontario is nothing like what happened in the
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A11.
Bolton follows father into Ag. Hall of Fame deficit the organization carried. He was also the chairman for the First Seaforth Junior Fair from 1959 to 1961. Bolton also served as the Returning Officer for the HuronBruce Federal riding from 19792004, which saw him serve through
largest 4-H and Junior Farmer programs in Ontario. Not long after, he got involved with the Seaforth Agricultural Society, an organization he would be involved with from 1959 until 1980. He was president from 1968 to 1969 and worked towards eliminating the
six elections and a referendum and he was a member of the McKillop Township Public School board from 1965 to 1970. He served as the last chairman for the school board before it was taken over by the county. The Ontario Minister of Continued on page A22
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ESE H T T U O K C CHE Making it official Arthur Bolton of the Winthrop area was honoured earlier this year when he was elected into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame, following his father, Russel, who was elected ahead of him. Bolton is seen here in late 2012, when he was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. (File photo)
By Denny Scott The Citizen Being a part of the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame is a family affair for the Boltons. In 2000, the late Russel Bolton was entered into the prestigious establishment, and 12 years later that recognition was revivified with an entry on the local representation of the wall at the Huron County Museum in Goderich. Two years later, Russel’s son Arthur has now been inducted into the Hall of Fame for his work with the Federal and Provincial seed industries. “It’s a great honour to be accepted
in to the hall of fame,” he said. In 1966, Arthur became a “Select” pedigreed seed producer and since then he has built not only his knowledge of seeds and seed management, but he has also built his knowledge of the proper way for organizations to meet and work together. Bolton, in his youth, didn’t plan on following his father into farming but ended up attending the Ontario Agriculture College where he gradated in 1955 with a degree in Agriculture Engineering. From there, he became the Assistant Agricultural Representative in Huron County, leading one of the
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PAGE A12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Meier family marks over six decades in Canada By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen
The good old days Fred Meier, seen here at the age of 10 on the farm of Elizabeth and Ernest Marty, near the village of Mulchi in Switzerland, made the bold decision to come to Canada in his 20s, a decision for which he would forever be grateful.
This year, a local family will be celebrating its 62nd year in Canada, after making the trip from Switzerland and the Meiers’ contribution to the world of agriculture cannot be disputed. Fred Meier, now of East Wawanosh, was born on March 20, 1928 in St. Gallen, Switzerland, by a name many no longer know him by: Fritz. St. Gallen is one of the highest cities in the country with an elevation of 675 metres, His father, Johann Jakob Meier, was born in Switzerland in 1896 and his mother, Elisabeth Minna, was born in Germany in 1905. Looking back on his life in Canada, Meier, in an interview with The Citizen, says his time has been “very good” in the land of opportunity that is Canada. “I saw that [in Canada] you could do something, you could get to somewhere,” Meier said. “At the time, you could get started here for just a little. I didn’t have much, only a few dollars.” But it was from those humble beginnings that Swiss Valley Farm between Blyth and Belgrave was born. Meier was just six years old when he was placed in foster care with siblings Elizabeth and Ernest Marty, near the village of Mulchi. It was there that Meier began learning about hard work. When Meier was 11, World War II broke out in 1939 and soldiers were needed to defend the Swiss border. With men called to defend the country, there were many job
openings on local farms, a business that was booming with the demand for food. At the age of 16, Meier left the Marty farm to work on a large dairy operation, where he would stay for two years, until he decided it was time to learn a trade. In those days, Meier says, there were no trade colleges, but a trade certificate could be earned through working on a trade site for six days, and attending classes once a week. It was this motivation that led Meier to learn how to earn a living as a cheese maker, a trade that would turn out to be very helpful when he would eventually make his way to Blyth years later. Not long after he learned his trade, however, Meier was conscripted into
the Swiss Army for a period of 17 weeks. It was during this time that he learned marksmanship and a number of other combat skills. Once those 17 weeks were up, Meier looked to continue his cheesemaking studies, which consisted of a three-year apprenticeship. He eventually landed at a cheese factory in Hausen, a small village near Zurich, where he would eventually complete his training. During his time at the Hausen factory, Meier joined a Swiss men’s choir and a first aid club, sponsored by The Red Cross Society. It was at first aid training that he met Johanna (Hanny) Kilchenmann, the woman who would become his wife. Hanny had worked for a Continued on page A13
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A13.
Canadian journey one of hard work, perseverance
Building a life Hanny, left, Fred, centre, and Fred Jr. Meier, right, are seen here milking the family’s young herd of Holstein cows in 1966. The family’s herd would eventually grow to 90 milking cows by 2005. (Photo submitted) Continued from page A12 professional couple with two young sons in the city of Chur. She would eventually return to Hausen, however, where she met a young man named Fritz who would sometimes walk her home after first aid club meetings. Another pivotal moment in Fred’s life was in 1951, when he first learned about Canada, by way of a colourful magazine advertisement celebrating all of the economic opportunities the country had to offer. At the time, representatives from the two major Canadian railway companies, Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, were travelling through Switzerland recruiting immigrants to come to Canada and work. Meier began reconsidering his future, thinking to himself that while he could make a living as a cheese maker in Switzerland, he likely would never become wealthy at the position. He had been considering a
certificate that would make him a master cheese maker, which could make him the head cheese maker at one of the local Swiss co-operatives. After meeting with one of the railway representatives, who had nothing but good things to say about Canada, however, Meier cancelled his master’s application and began to plan his route to Canada. After taking some preliminary English classes, Fred was planning to set sail for Canada on March 15, 1952, just under a week before his 24th birthday. Before he left, however, he had business to attend to and asked Hanny to marry him, to which she agreed. He promised her he would return in two years’ time and they would tie the knot in Switzerland. Fred’s trip took him across the Atlantic Ocean and landed him in Halifax, at which time an entirely new trip was about to begin. Fred jokes that he saw more of Canada than most Canadians see, as he was travelling to Prince George,
British Columbia. He travelled there by train, by way of a ticket that cost $75. “I wasn’t scared, I knew you could get a job easily in Canada,” he said. Along the way, he took note of the Canadian landscape, saying that from the east coast to Winnipeg was all bush, and from Winnipeg, it became all prairies. After working for the Canadian National Railway, not on a farm, but in a hotel, for four weeks, and not receiving any payment, Fred began considering another option. A girl he had met in Switzerland had a brother who owned a farm near Glanworth, Ontario, just south of London. Fred bought a ticket from Kamloops, British Columbia to London, which was about as far as the money he had would take him. It was April 26, 1952 when Fred arrived in London and began working at a dairy farm with a herd of Holsteins owned by John Biser, who told Fred there was a job on his farm if he wanted it. Fred worked just south of London for a year before news of a cheese maker job in Blyth made its way to him. He applied for the job and met Carman Hodgins, the manager of a Blyth farmers’ co-operative with whom he would work until November, 1953. When he first met Hodgins, he introduced himself as Fred, as Canadians were having trouble pronouncing Fritz, and he hasn’t looked back. In December, 1953, Fred kept his promise and returned to Switzerland to marry Hanny. They were married
on Saturday, Feb. 13, 1954. The couple then travelled to Canada by way of a boat from La Havre, France. During the eight-day voyage, Hanny cross-stitched a table cloth, which she still has and uses on special occasions. When they arrived back in Canada, they ended up with Tom Patrick and his family. Tom was a MPP for Middlesex North at the
time, first elected in 1943 on the Conservative ticket in that election. It was Tom and his wife Florence who helped the Meiers assimilate into Canadian life, teaching them how to drive and how to read English, with the help of local newspapers such as The London Free Press. The Patricks soon became a very Continued on page A15
Market value Fred Meier, left, was involved with local muncipal politics for two decades. In 1980, an East Wawanosh Councillor resigned from his position just three months after the election. Meier let his name stand and he was chosen by council, which opted against another election. Fred is seen here in a local parade alongside fellow councillor Don Schultz. (Photo submitted)
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PAGE A14. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Good Food Box changes name, delivery schedule By Denny Scott The Citizen The Good Food Box is about to become even better according to organizer Gayl Creutzberg. Creutzberg explained that, in just a few short months, the county-wide program that is operated through local libraries will become privatized as start-ups funded
through the Huron Business Development Corporation (HBDC) are designed to do. “When the HBDC takes on a project the idea is to make it sustainable,” she said. “The Good Food Box has been going for more than a decade supported by grants and now we’re going to transition it to a sustainable, private business.” The transition will see the
program called Farm to Table Box. One of the biggest issues that the Good Food Box has run into, according to Creutzberg, is the idea that it’s aimed at a particular audience. “We have to remove the perception that it’s for any one group,” she said. “It’s available for, and good for everyone... The motto, ‘Good for you, good for me, good for everyone’ perfectly shows what the aim is.”
The enterprise is designed to get more local produce into all Huron County kitchen. Currently the boxes are sold through local library branches, however Food to Table Box organizers are looking for partners throughout the community and can deliver to any site that has 10 or more orders. Aside from the name change, the newly private organization will deliver twice a month three seasons
throughout the year. From May to November, two boxes will be available per month while one will be available from December to March. During the spring, summer and fall, pick-up dates are the second and fourth Thursday of each month. During the fall pickups are on the second Thursday of each month. For more information, visit your local library or www.farmtotablebox.ca
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The Good Food Box no more The Good Food Box will be undergoing several different changes in the immediate future, starting with a name change and including new drop-offs throughout May and September. The program will now be known as the Farm to Table Box. Shown are volunteers at one of the drop-off points, Huron Tractor, in Exeter. From left are Jenn Case, Cate Denomme and Kara Doyle. (Photo submitted)
Ontario farmers need to look outward; Hall Peter Hall, Vice President and Chief Economist at Export Development Canada (EDC) spoke at the Agricultural Management Institute conference last week. The EDC is an export credit agency whose goal is to provide innovative commercial solutions to help Canadian exporters and investors expand their international business. Peter argued that the world is heading into a period of global growth and that Ontario farmers need to look outwards to find new opportunities. Hall demonstrated that key economic indicators are pointing towards growth potential in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries of over three per cent, indicating that there is pent-up demand. For instance, housing startups are climbing in the U.S. and while they are starting to fill marketplace demand, it is apparent that demand still exceeds the housing start-ups that are available. This pent-up demand can be found in other areas of the economy as well, such as the automobile industry. The developed world is ready for growth. Hall argued that increased consumer confidence in the U.S. is Continued on page A15
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A15.
Keeping busy the key to long life says Meier Continued from page A13 important influence in the Meiers’ lives, a family they still keep in touch with to this day. They would both continue to work on Patrick’s farm for years after his death. It was around this time that Fred and Hanny officially became Canadian citizens. Over the next few years, Fred would work a series of jobs, including a stint in carpentry, but in 1965 the Meiers bought the farm of Walter Oster, located on Hwy. 4 between Westfield and Nature Centre Roads. On Dec. 30, 1965 the Meiers moved onto their new farm. In 1966, Fred began working at the Gay Lea Co-op in Blyth, the same place he worked as a cheese maker over a decade earlier.
After the Blyth plant closed in 1969, the Meiers began remodelling their home barn to accommodate dairy cows. The herd would eventually grow to 90 by 2005. From 1980 to 2000, Fred served as a councillor for East Wawanosh Township. He first applied for the position when, in 1980, a councillor resigned from his elected position just three months into the term and council opted to appoint a replacement, rather than hold an election. Fred also served as a member of the Gay Lea Foods board of directors for 16 years, three of which he was chairman of the board. Fred and Hanny had three sons, Fred Jr. in 1955, Oscar in 1959 and Christopher in 1962. They now have a number of grandchildren
and they are great-grandparents as well. Fred attributes his and Hanny’s long and successful lives to staying active and healthy along the way, which he says is the key to any successful life. He says the most important aspect is to always keep moving. “If you stop,” he says, “you’ll be in the ground.” The Meier family history was compiled for the 60th anniversary of Fred’s trip to Canada, in 2012 in book form by both Fred and Hanny, with the help of local historian Cheryl Cronin. Fred and Hanny continue to live at their East Wawanosh home on Hwy. 4 where they are now retired, but Fred will still chip in and drive the occasional tractor.
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A true heirloom During the eight-day trip from France to Canada after she married Fred Meier in Switzerland, Hanny spent her time on the boat embroidering this table cloth. The Meiers still have the precious family heirloom and will use it for special occasions. (Photo submitted)
Farmers need to be ready, says Hall Continued from page A14 holding steady and this psychological outlook will provide momentum as the world moves out of the recession. Meanwhile, European governments are moving away from austerity measures, demonstrating that they believe that a period of growth will resolve many of the issues Europe has experienced over the last five years. Finally, Hall argued that the “chatter factor” is significant. The focus of the news media has been away from austerity and doom and gloom. Instead, we are hearing more and more good news stories that are hopeful and encouraging. The media is reporting on a global economy that on the mend and things are beginning to looks rosy again. For Hall, all these factors point toward the urgent need for Ontario agriculture to be ready for the opportunities ahead or risk being left behind. If the sector truly wants to maximize the benefits that come from the return to prosperity, we need to look for opportunities to sell
Huron In 2012 pork County oduced ers pr produc nt of all the ce . 7.8 per Ontario s g ho in
to the growing middle class in emerging economies that will experience the most growth. He argued that the world is ready to move out of recession and is poised for a new period of growth. Ontario agriculture needs to be ready to chase down the new opportunities that will emerge in the years ahead. For our part, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario (CFFO) will advocate for government to play a strong role in helping Ontario’s farmers to seize these opportunities and grow the farm economy.
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PAGE A16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Close to a dozen property owners help with 2017 IPM In an emotional interview with The Citizen, Jack and his son Joe and daughter Peggy Sloan say the decision went much deeper than competitive plowing and community spirit and was viewed within the family as a tale of rural triumph and Continued on page A24
Association President Brian McGavin, however, returned to the site in the spring of 2013 and, as Jack’s son Joe puts it jokingly, turned on his salesman’s charm and soon enough the Ryan family was on board, but not before a family-wide consensus was reached.
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Selection Sunday It was a warm Sunday last summer when Walton was announced as the site for the 2017 International Plowing Match (IPM). The announcement was made at a special event called A Celebration of Rural Plowing, that was held at the Seaforth Agriplex. The match will bring together over a dozen landowners and involve an unprecedented amount of community cooperation. Pictured here are several members of the Huron County Plowmen’s Association and members of several of the host families, including the Ryans and the Ringgenbergs at the summer, 2013 event. (File photo)
By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen The 2017 International Plowing Match (IPM) is now set to go forward with an unprecedented amount of community participation and history behind it in Walton. While the Ryans’ home farm on North Line will play host to some of the match’s main attractions and Ringgenberg family site will complement the Ryans’ there are
nearly a dozen property owners who will be lending their land in one way or another to the historic event. Early last year it was announced that Huron County would host the IPM in 2017, which will be the 100th match in history (not the 100th anniversary match, which was held last year in Perth County) due to several years lost to war. Last summer, with four Huron County sites in the mix, it was announced that Walton, a community with so
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A17.
The inner workings of a local CSA farm By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen While community-supported agriculture (CSA) is gaining steam in areas like Huron County, it remains an unknown to some unaccustomed to the new farming model. The concept was first brought to North America in the 1980s, when it sprung up in the U.S. More recently, however, it has become a way for young farmers to make the best use of a smaller parcel of land and begin to see profits right away, as opposed to waiting years after start-up to creep back into the black. CSAs have also gained ground with the popularity of the 100-mile diet and a growing interest in buying local and knowing where your food comes from, offering people locally-grown food from local farmers. Locally, there are several CSAs serving northern and central Huron County, including A Still, Small Farm near Brussels, operated by Andrew and Becky Courtney; Mulberry Hill Farm at RR3, Auburn, operated by Nancy Hislop, Koert Organics near Seaforth, operated by Dave Koert and Whitefield Farm near Lucknow, operated by Blair and Jessica Morrison. All four options deal in produce predominantly, but CSAs can come in all shapes and sizes, producing everything from fruits and vegetables to eggs, chicken and beef. There are well over 100 CSAs located throughout Ontario offering a number of different products. The concept is simple. Prior to a CSA’s growing season, people pay to be “members” of the CSA, essentially paying for their fair share, depending on the size of the crops and the number of members, of the year’s harvest. Whitefield Farm, for example, has fluctuated between 200 and 250
members in its two years, providing its members with 18 weeks’ worth of vegetables throughout the growing season. What arrives for members each week, either by delivery or at prearranged pick-up locations throughout Huron County, is dictated by growing seasons and member demand, says Jessica Morrison, who lists the CSA as her full-time job. Earlier in the season, members receive a lot of greens like lettuce and spinach, which will eventually give way to vegetables with longer growing periods, like carrots, potatoes and onions. This year, she says, the growing season will be dictated, largely, by the weather and when the ground finally thaws out, as it will for just about every farmer in Ontario. No matter the start date, she says, there will be 18 weeks of produce, whether it ends later than the 2013 season or not. Historically, however, Morrison says Whitefield Farm has begun planting on the Victoria Day weekend, near the end of May, so unless the cold weather persists for much longer than anticipated, things should be running as normal. Right now, however, things are relatively slow at Whitefield Farm, as Morrison spends her days taking in memberships and preparing for the coming season, which includes pre-buying thousands of dollars worth of seeds. Morrison, however, does things a little differently at Whitefield Farm, offering vegetables that are produced organically, at a location that has a very low carbon footprint. As previously reported in The Citizen, Jessica and Blair live in a straw bale home that was completed just a few years ago. They also farm the old-fashioned way, using horses and no machinery, meaning that life at Whitefield Farm is very labourContinued on page A18
Proudly representing Huron Agriculture At all levels of government, we work to promote and protect Huron farmers and their families and our rural communities. Contact us with concerns or questions HCFA: 1-800-511-1135 or 519-482-9642 www.hcfa.on.ca email: ofahuron@tcc.on.ca
Market value Jessica Morrison and Whitefield Farm have moved to a farmers’ market-style presentation for their community-supported agriculture (CSA) members. Members meet Morrison and her interns at a set drop-off location every week and shop the containers to see what she has for them this week. (Photo submitted)
PAGE A18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Organic sector looking at small-scale certification A working group committee to look at certification concerns and ideas around small-scale and local organic farms and businesses has been set up by the Organic Federation of Canada as part of the review of the Canadian Organic Standards currently underway. The working group convenor is the longtime organic farmer, a St. Helens-
area man Tony McQuail, who served as executive assistant to Ontario Agriculture Minister, Elmer Buchanan in the 1980s. The working group is made up of representatives of organic organizations from across Canada. The first effort of the working group is to gather information from small scale and local organic farms
All-inclusive Jessica Morrison of Whitefield Farm is seen here showing a young person a thing or two about farming the organic way. Morrison says it is her intention to hold more such events, bringing in members and their families to help out at the farm if they wish or just learn a little more about where their food comes from. (Photo submitted)
Some garden crops started early at CSA Continued from page A17 intensive. The concept first made its way to the Morrisons through Tony and Fran McQuail, organic farmers from the St. Helens area. They ran an organic CSA on their farm for a number of years before passing it along to Vicky Morrison, Blair’s mother, who ran it for five years on her property, Grassroots Rural Retreat, also just east of Lucknow. For three of those five years, Jessica was very involved in the process at Grassroots Rural Retreat, getting more involved every year. Vicky eventually then asked Blair and Jessica if they would be willing to take over the operation and Jessica says she and her husband felt they were in a good place to do so. “Honestly, it was a good fit for me. I got my degree in Horticulture from the University of Guelph, so this is what I’ve trained for,” Morrison said, in an interview with The Citizen. When the planting process begins later this spring, Whitefield Farm, as it did last year, will be bringing on a new group of interns who will work at the farm through the summer and live in small yurts on the property, when it is warm enough. Because the growing season is so labour intensive, however, she needs to grow things that make sense with her workforce and also with their workable acres, which is relatively small compared to many of today’s farms. The farm, Morrison says, is an 80-acre parcel, about half of which is workable. Twenty acres are used as pasture, while the garden and crops comprise about three or four acres of the Whitefield Farm property. Morrison says she’s able to start some vegetables, such as onions and potatoes, in their house while it’s still cold outside, growing potatoes in small glass
and businesses across the country. A questionnaire has been prepared, which is being distributed at various organic conferences and events this winter as well as being available online by following a link at http://organicfederation.ca/ McQuail said they are gathering information about why people decide to certify or not and ideas for how to develop an organic certification process that is appropriate for smaller scale and local organic businesses.
“Our current certification process is designed for maintaining the organic integrity of products in long supply chains which is appropriate for interprovincial and international trade. It appears that a number of local producers growing for farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture and other short supply chains feel the current system doesn’t work for them.” McQuail said. “Our goal is to come up with recommendations for a certification process that will support
the local organic sector.” The working group will review the comments and suggestions received by April 11 and will use this information to draft recommendations which will be shared with the organic sector over the fall and winter of 2014-2015. Comments during this consultation period will inform the final recommendations which will be presented to the Canadian General Standards Board as part of the Canadian Organic Standards review.
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A19.
Blyth’s Brigham entering second year as beekeeper By Denny Scott The Citizen Pat Brigham is helping herself by keeping her grocery costs down and helping her neighbours by pollinating their crops by practicing beekeeping in her own back yard. After taking a beginner beekeeping course at Chatsworth Honey last year, Brigham picked up two hives and all the necessary gear to keep her bees happy and started her own apiary. “I’ve been interested in beekeeping for a long time,� she said. “A couple years back I had a swarm in my haymow.� Brigham explained that, while the brush with the honey bees, which ended poorly for the bees as they weren’t identified as such and
In 2012 Huron County farms grew 12.6 per cent of all the soybeans produced in Ontario.
killed for safety’s sake, was her most recent experience, it wasn’t the first. She said for years she has been interested in honey bees and, after realizing there was a hive on her property, she figured
she could start two more. “I talked to my neighbour and he agreed not to use anything that would hurt the bees,� she said, adding the bees pollination will help Continued on page A25
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MVCA looks to combat land loss by building land resiliency Continued from page A6 inputs, manure and fertilizer,� he said. “The run-off causes it to get away quickly. We have to develop resiliency through storm-water management to prevent that.� Another aspect of building resiliency is building up forested areas according to King. “We’re looking to improve wood lots and forests in the area,� he said. “There is lots of potential for the establishment of buffers. We have over 30,000 acres of stream buffers and connections across the watershed and we’re trying to connect wooded areas together.� King said there are two demonstration projects, the Scott project in North Huron and the Garvy Glenn project in AshfieldColborne-Wawanosh, both of which demonstrate the method and results of building resiliency. Other demonstration sites exist south of Goderich and some are being considered up stream of Listowel and Harriston. “We’re using those sites as both an example and a learning experience,� he said. “We’re trying to monitor them to see how we can reduce and slow erosion.�
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PAGE A20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Farmland prices plateau after years of growth By Denny Scott The Citizen It has become a lot harder to both expand and break into farming in the past few years as land prices have skyrocketed. While prices are different across the country, Huron County’s median price has doubled since 2010, ending 2013 at $14,000 per acre. The cause of the influx varies according to different experts, however everyone essentially attributes it to higher commodity prices. Rick Lobb, broker with Royal LePage Heartland Realty out of Clinton, says the explosion can be traced to having a good outlook. “Farmland has gone up an insane amount over the past four to five years, though it is plateauing now,” he said. “The commodity prices have gone up and, when they go up dramatically as they have, it creates a scene where producers have a positive year or two and start to look at being able to expand.”
He said that, while prices are now down a bit, over the past few years, producers have been willing, due to the positive climate, to over-pay for a property creating the trend. “People could pay high land values for a plot of land and that’s something they normally wouldn’t do,” he said. “But with the recent increase in growth and farming industries like crops, dairy and chicken, they are able to justify over-paying by looking at the overall cost of their holdings.” Claude Robin of the Zhand Team out of Kitchener said that land is an investment and, for some reason, it’s being looked on favourably right now. “The land, for some reason, is perceived to be a fantastic investment because of the increases in value over the last three to four years,” he said. “However, land is like any other commodity except it can’t be moved. The increases are not steady.” Robin said that, while over the past three to four years, prices have
raised dramatically, it could be another three, four or up to seven years before another increase happens. “The increases just aren’t steady,” he said. “You can go several years without an increase, then it doubles, compensating for the years of not growing.” Taking land values into account over more than a century, Robin said that, without looking at the return on investment on crops or rent, land value increases, on average, six to eight per cent annually. “It compares to long-term equities in the marketplace,” he said. “If you have an appreciation of six per cent and a return on interest of two to four per cent dependent on productivity, you’re likely looking at a seven to 10 per cent return on investment on the price of land.” Robin said that, while it may look like a good time to buy, things fluctuate. He said lands are going for the same prices this year as they did last year and, with low interest rates, Continued on page A21
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OFA keeps ag. issues central By Mark Wales, President Ontario Federation of Agriculture There’s a lot of speculation about a provincial election in Ontario. And whether voters are called to the polls or not, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) continues to champion agriculture in the halls of Queen’s Park and in constituency offices across the province. Farmers may be less than one per cent of our provincial population, but agriculture is still Ontario’s biggest economic driver. It’s our job to remind as many MPPs and policy makers as often as we can about agriculture’s significant role in Ontario. And that includes raising issues and concerns affecting Ontario farm businesses. The OFA regularly brings matters to the attention of our elected officials. We advocate for why the government needs to allocate money in the upcoming budget to rural infrastructure development and expand natural gas throughout rural Ontario. We talk about our concerns with the recent increase in minimum wage and regulatory red tape that hinders our productivity and our bottom line. Agricultural issues must be addressed in the upcoming provincial budget and understood by
all parties that help shape the legislative environment for agriculture. The OFA supports the government’s efforts to reduce poverty and help Ontario’s working poor. But we don’t see a minimum wage increase as an effective strategy. In our submission to the advisory panel, we reminded government that previous minimum wage increases actually reduced seasonal and youth employment and failed to assist low income workers. The OFA recommended alternative strategies to reduce poverty and we encourage the government to look at our submission again for other ways to address this societal issue. The Open for Business process is working, so let’s keep the momentum going. Ontario farmers have stated clearly that regulations are the number one issue affecting their businesses. Open for Business has allowed the OFA to address regulatory concerns across ministries and reduce some of the crippling red tape farmers face. The best part – this process doesn’t cost money – it’s an open dialogue that benefits everyone. And when it comes to the level of services available across rural
Ontario, let’s be clear – rural Ontarians want the same services our urban neighbours enjoy. We’re talking about access to quality health care and education and well maintained roads and bridges. The OFA believes raising the standards of these services to match urban communities means rural Ontario can be more competitive in the production and transportation of our food to markets. And that translates to more local, fresh food for everyone in Ontario to enjoy. Speaking of better rural services, extending natural gas pipelines to rural Ontario will give us access to lower priced energy, saving rural residents and businesses thousands of dollars each year and attracting business development in our communities. Better business and household savings will add up – creating more jobs and generating available household expenditures. There’s hardly a time when some form of election talk isn’t spreading through the countryside. And regardless of the political atmosphere, the OFA is keeping agricultural issues front and centre with government and policy makers to improve the investments and regulations affecting our industry.
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A21.
Growing Forward 2 applications not complicated By Denny Scott The Citizen The Growing Forward 2 program is the culmination of several different programs funneled into one over-arching system, which aims to help provide new funding opportunities for farmers.
The new program, however, has hit a bit of a stumbling block according to Ontario Soil and Crop Regional Program Lead Lois Sinclair of the Belgrave area. “The biggest issue is that people aren’t aware,” she said. “Growing Forward 2 includes many aspects, like seminars and workbooks, that can really help people plan for the
future for their farm.” The five-year policy framework program consists of six focus areas: environmental climate and change, business leadership, labour product enhancement, plant and animal health, market development and assurance systems. It covers many different learning and funding opportunities, some are new and
High prices prevent young people from entering agriculture Continued from page A20 there is still a lot of buying going on. “Five to six years ago, stocks were growing 20 per cent and land was growing two per cent, it didn’t look good, except as a long-term investment,” he said. “You can look at the phenomenal growth on the land over the last three or four years but farmers, when they are buying, look at 40 crop seasons, or a lifetime farming it, when they look to purchase.” Lobb said that, if people can average the price of formerly purchased land and still have a lower value on their holdings, they are willing to pay more for a piece of land they really want. Tendering hasn’t helped that issue either according to Lobb. “Tendering may be the way to go for a small farm or for certain things, but it can result in dramatic increases which is where some of the stories come from about people paying large amounts for property,” he said. “There is no list price, the buyer puts down what they will be willing to pay and there will be a higher price for people if they want the land badly enough.” Lobb said there can be lots of reasons for paying higher-thannormal values, but it usually doesn’t make sense unless commodities are very high. “People may not like paying extra money, but if it’s important, or if the desire is there, they will, and that
fuels price increases,” he said. “That’s where you get, in isolated cases, people talking about buying or selling land for $18,000 an acre.” Robin said that tendering, and auctioning, can also go the other way. “In our experience, buyers don’t like tenders or auctions as much as other methods of selling,” he said. “Buyers like to know what they are against, price-wise, and like to have information listing agreements showing the lot and what is on the farm. Tendering is often as is and producers don’t know their competition. “Tender or auction agreements are almost always written to protect the sellers as well,” Robin said. “A lot of my buyers are very uncomfortable with that process even when public institutions like conservation authorities do it.” While Robin says there is still a place for alternate methods of selling, it’s a very specific niche. “You need banks and infrastructure for most sales but, if you have a little 50 to 100 acre parcel with six neighbours interested, anything will work,” he said. “You might be able to save a little on costs by tendering or auctioning in that situation.” Tenders or auctions aren’t as prevalent as they may appear, according to Robin. “It’s definitely not as significant as
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it’s perceived,” he said. “You just have to look at real estate sections, then look at farm tenders in most magazines to give you an idea of the percentage of farms sold by tender.” The land increase in price is a very big burden for anyone looking to get into farming as well. It’s so bad that Lobb said it has completely locked out new farmers. “It’s virtually impossible to start up in this day and age,” he said. “You don’t see start-ups anywhere, what you see is established empires increasing in size. “Small, family farms are disappearing and unless you already have land to borrow against or you’re buying from family, it’s impossible,” he said. “You just can’t borrow that kind of money because banks won’t lend large amounts of money so someone can start a cash crop or chicken operation.” Lobb said it’s unfortunate that prices are where they are because they hurt the opportunity for new, younger farmers with fresh ideas to get into farming. “You see University of Guelph graduates who can’t ply what they’ve learned,” he said. “Unfortunately I don’t know how that changes.” In 2012 Huron County poultry producers marketed 7.8 per cent of all the poultry produced in Ontario.
some are established, like the Environmental Farm Plan. Sinclair says that, aside from letting people know about the
program, which offers training and financing opportunities, letting them know they can handle the Continued on page A27
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PAGE A22. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Bolton reflects on a lifetime in agriculture Continued from page A11 Agriculture appointed Bolton to several different committees, boards and arbitrations throughout the last five decades to help represent the best interests of the farming community. Bolton has been a member of the following organizations: the Farm Machinery Investigation Committee, from 1962-1964, which prepared a report for the Minister on warranty issues and other problems; the Farm Machinery Advisory Board, from 1964-1969, which dealt with complaints and ruled that manufacturers must supply repair parts for at least 10 years after a machine is first sold in Ontario and the Crop Insurance Commission from 1970, which originally offered coverage for nine crops and eventually, over the following 10 years, was responsible for coverage for 30 more crops and the Crop Insurance Arbitration Board gave final rulings on crop coverage claims. Organizations he has been a part of include the Canadian Seed Growers Association, which he has been with since 1995 and was president from 2001-2003; the Canadian Seed Institute; from 1999 to 2005, the Ontario Seed Growers Association since 1980 and was president of from 1993-1994; the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement association from 1993 to 1994; the Huron Cattleman’s Association from 1971-1979; the Huron Soil and Crop organization from 1982-1990; and was president of in 1989 and the Ontario Agricultural College Alumni
Association from 1955 to 1970 which he was president from 1960 to 1965. While all his experiences have been important, he said a few stick out. “I nearly made a career out of being the return officer,” he said. “I’m out of it now, but I was with it for a long while. “The school board was also a memorable experience,” he said. “We had our own buses and they all met in Winthrop. Kids would get off the bus they got on in the morning and jump on one to go to the independent schools. We also had buses that ran part-way through the day for the kindergarten classes, which ran half days and it worked. That was the big thing. It seemed complicated, but it all worked very well and we all worked together.” Aside from being named to the Hall of Fame, Bolton has several other awards to his name. Most notably he has received the Agricultural Service Diploma which was presented to him by the Seaforth Agricultural Society in 1975 for meritorious service to agriculture. He was elected a Robertson Associate in 1979, the highest award for a member of the Canadian Seed Growers Association for Service to the Association and Canadian Agriculture, and last year he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal for his work in agriculture. Through the years of being part of organizations, Bolton has learned a lot about how a meeting should be run and people know to call him if
CFFO responds to Premier’s challenge By Nathan Stevens Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne recently challenged the Ontario Agri-food Sector to generate 120,000 jobs and double the rate of growth in the industry. As a grassroots organization, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario (CFFO) has spent some time consulting with its members on potential ways to respond to the challenge. The CFFO believes there are several key initiatives that can help the sector grow successfully.
The first part of the challenge is to generate additional jobs. An honest assessment of primary agriculture points towards the need for the processing and further processing sectors to generate the vast majority of jobs. There may be areas of growth in some sectors such as greenhouse expansion, but agriculture is looking towards technology to improve efficiency, allowing fewer farmers to do more. This is hardly a new phenomenon, as Continued on page A23
they have a question or an issue. “I know Robert’s Rules [of Order, the handbook for meeting procedures used by many organizations] pretty well,” he said with a laugh during an interview with The Citizen. “People know me because of things like the Huron County Hog Producers and their debate about production marketing boards.” The story goes, according to Bolton, the producers association was having many ‘exciting’ meetings regarding the creation of a hog production marketing board. “The president and secretary came to me and asked for help in chairing their meetings,” he said. “I said I would, but it wasn’t long before I wondered what I was getting myself into.” After boning up on his rules and on the producers’ bylaws, he helped the organization come to a conclusion regarding the decision. “I’ve used that information ever since and it has come in handy quite often,” he said. “Last year, for example, I consulted on bylaws for the Canadian Seed Growers Association.” One of the great lessons 4-H members learn, according to Bolton, is how to successfully and correctly run a meeting. “It’s something that’s never mentioned at 4-H meetings, but they are taught it,” he said. “You can always recognize that when children in the 4-H program get to meetings. It’s a great thing that they are still doing that because it’s really worthwhile and valuable.” Bolton was born in Seaforth on Sept. 13, 1931 and attended school at S.S. #6 McKillop and subsequently Seaforth District High School. He married Marie Allan on Oct. 22, 1955 and has two children, Carl and Janet. Bolton has five grandchildren, Jessica, Matthew, Samuel, Grant and David. He received a bachelor of science agriculture diploma granted by the
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A23.
Huron County to create ‘rural lens’ for policy By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen A proposal to view all policy through a “rural lens” failed at the provincial level, so it has returned to Huron County where the process has begun again at a grassroots level. The concept was first proposed by Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn at a meeting of Huron County Council approximately two years ago. Huron County’s proposal ran through its planning department, and was then forwarded to the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA), where it sat “on a shelf” for over a year, Ginn says. With over a year of inaction from ROMA, Ginn brought the idea back to the county, where a committee was formed over six months ago. Now, Ginn says, the committee is just months away from presenting a near-completed version of the lens to council for adoption. The idea, at its most grand level, Ginn says, was that the provincial government would adopt a “rural lens” before making any policy changes. Ginn likens it to the consultation and consideration processes that take place between policy-makers and First Nations communities and accessibility organizations. “We’re trying to develop what the lens should look like,” Ginn said in an interview with The Citizen. “What needs to be developed is a lens so we don’t lose our rural heritage. It sounds simple enough, but it has to be effective.” The committee, which Ginn is on, consists of approximately 10 members, including councillors,
staff members, representatives from agricultural organizations and two consultants, both of whom are no stranger to Huron County and rural affairs: Dr. Wayne Caldwell, a professor at the University of Guelph and Cathie Brown, who was formerly the Project Manager of the Drinking Water Source Protection Joint Management Committee for both the Ausable Bayfield and Maitland Valley watersheds. At the county level, Ginn says, the committee is hoping to distribute three-fold brochures to every county staff member that implores them to ask themselves a series of questions when developing a new policy or project. The questions will be aimed at how new policies and new projects will affect Huron County residents, with their specific set of needs and restrictions. One of the county-specific issues is transportation, taking into account that Huron County has no public transit options. Many of the other factors pertain to Huron County residents, who are often older, generally have lower incomes than much of the population and, on average, are slightly less educated than those in an urban setting. Ginn says that implementing a rural lens in Huron County will likely not change day-to-day business locally, as most local policy-makers already take their population and surroundings into account. However, having the lens in place at the ground level in Huron County, Ginn says, allows the concept of a fully-formed rural lens to be shopped to other area counties and then perhaps back to the province,
but in a much more completed form. The lens, he says, will lean heavily on the “pillars” of the Huron County Community Sustainability Plan. Ginn says the committee is hoping, however, with the lens to not add another level of bureaucracy to the planning and development process. He says he’s hoping that the lens can be “applied” to a potential policy in less than half a day, using a minimal amount of staff time. The concept, Ginn says, was born out of a one-size-fits-all approach to policy-making that has been coming out of Toronto for decades. Ginn says it has been happening for too long and it’s time to ensure that rural municipalities have their say when it comes to planning and policymaking. “I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard someone complain about a policy made in Toronto, but applied to rural Ontario,” Ginn says. “So how do we remedy that? We build a lens and take rural communities into consideration.” Ginn says he has long had problems with the Provincial Policy Statement’s planning elements and how it has forced a Toronto-centric view of planning ideals onto rural Ontario, where they clearly don’t work. “One sizes does not fit all and things like the Provincial Policy Statement serves the needs of a larger city, not rural Ontario,” Ginn says. “It drives me nuts.” Ginn says that many in rural Ontario have already accepted that they won’t get help from the provincial government when it comes to policies, so they are more
Premier’s challenge accepted by farmers Continued from page 22 ever since some clever fellow invented the wheel, there has been the need for fewer farmers to work the same land. Where primary agriculture has the potential to lead the way is in productivity improvement. For the CFFO, this means, first and foremost, a more strategic approach to water management throughout the province. We believe that an integrated system of irrigation, drainage and storage can have economic, environmental and social benefits. Many Ontario farmers have already invested in drainage, but the adoption of the other two practices is more limited. The industry can improve both the amount it produces and the stability of its output with a more strategic approach to water use. However, there is little value in flooding our markets without a growing processing sector or new export opportunities abroad. The CFFO also believes that government can play a key role in gathering market intelligence for our farmers and food processors. There are multiple avenues to be pursued in this area. With the growing number of free trade agreements that the federal government is pursuing, there is value in the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF) knowing what opportunities exist in these markets for our home industries. Furthermore, there is value in OMAF gathering information for new food companies, both foreign and domestic, to set up shop in Ontario. The Premier has challenged the
than happy to take the task on themselves. However, with planning restrictions, like those in the Provincial Policy Statement governing land use and rural severances, he feels that the provincial government isn’t just not helping rural Ontario, but hurting it as well. “It’s like trying to fight with one hand tied behind your back,” Ginn says. Once the lens has been approved by Huron County Council and adopted by the county, Ginn says the committee plans to either return to ROMA with the concept, bring it to the Western Ontario Warden’s
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PAGE A24. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
Too early to know winter’s effect on crops: Hall By Denny Scott The Citizen With a long, hard, cold winter nearly behind producers, there is some question as to how the growing season will be affected for both inputs ready to go into the spring ground as well as winter wheat laying dormant under the snow. Unfortunately, for producers in both situations, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Farms and Rural Affairs Canola and Edible Beans Specialist Brian Hall says there are still a lot of unknowns in relation to the long, deep freeze Ontario has been under. “It’s hard to determine right now how the season has been and will be,” he said. “Right now there’s probably not huge impacts with the cold temperature and snow we’ve had.” Hall said the winter could have
both positive and negative effects, though neither will begin to show for some time. “The winter could mean a reduction in insects and diseases, but it could also impact some growing cycles,” he said. “Assessing impact at this point would be hard to determine. Insects and disease, however, are a two-fold story. “A lot of the factors for those will be based on how the spring is,” he said. “Insect population especially is driven by soil conditions and temperatures then. It’s a much bigger factor.” As far as over-winter crops, like winter wheat, the remaining days before spring temperatures return will have much more of an impact on the crops than on the past few weeks. “Winter wheat is like alfalfa in that it’s worse when you have quite a bit of freezing and thawing,” he
said. “We had one thaw, that’s not good, but it could be worse. Having snow cover is actually better.” Like the insects, the remaining spring weather will determine how winter crops progress during that period. Hall said what happens with the remaining snow will play a bigger factor than the winter months before. “If we have a quick melt or if there is lot of ponding of water in the fields for a number of days, it’s going to much harder on the wheat,” Hall said. “If we have a mild melt, it can be better and be good for the crop. One of the concerns in an area like Huron County is where there is snow mold that comes in the spring.” Snow mold is a turf and fungus disease that harms grasses after the spring thaw. The cold winter and heavy snowfalls are actually a boon for over-winter crops, Hall said, since
Ryan says hosting IPM a celebration of past challenges Continued from page A16 perseverance through tough times. “We definitely looked at it as a celebration,” Joe said. “My parents went through a lot of hard times. They worked through really tough times just to make ends meet, so to have something like [the International Plowing Match] now, here in Walton, it’s a celebration to be sure.” Jack lost his wife, Marianna, in 2012 to ovarian cancer, which changed the outlook of the entire family, as she was a very special woman for a lot of reasons. “That was a big factor in this whole deal,” Jack says. “We’ve been through a lot of challenges, a lot of stress over 43 years of marriage.” Sloan says that while Marianna may have passed away over a year ago, her spirit is still very much with the family. “She’ll be keeping an eye on us,” Sloan says. Jack agrees, saying that his inspiration to host the match on his farm had a lot to do with the memory of his wife. “She should be all in this mix,” Jack says. “She was a farm girl.” Marianna, Jack says, was a dedicated farmer’s wife, working as hard, and sometimes harder than him on the farm. She also worked as a registered nurse practitioner (RPN). Joe says that his mother always did everything she could to help the family, even if it meant returning to school at an advanced age. “When things got tough around the farm, mom went back to school,” Joe said. “I think that meant a lot to Dad.” Jack, however, didn’t make the IPM decision alone. When he began seriously considering hosting the match at his farm, he called all of his children to Walton so they could meet and sign off on his decision. If all four of his children, Steve Ryan of Brantford, Joe, Peggy and Monica Ryan of London, weren’t in favour, he says, he wouldn’t have gone through with it. “Having the kids here was important,” Jack says. “This has always been a family farm.” Jack is right about that, as he has, over the course of his life, simply worked his way around his current property block. Jack was born on a farm just south of his current farm and over the course of his life, his homes have
remained on the same block, in one location or another. Richard Ryan first settled in McKillop Township in 1855 and it was Jack’s grandfather, Robert, who then bought the property in 1895. Jack says that while his property, originally purchased by his maternal grandfather, Robert Reid in 1895, is certainly not short on family history, he’s happy to see the match make its way to Walton to celebrate the history of a few other of the community’s historic families. With Gordon McGavin, who was a Canadian plowing champion in 1926, and the rest of his family, Jack says, it’s only fitting that Walton host an International Plowing Match. “[Gordon] would be proud of this area,” said Brian at the summer, 2013 event entitled A Celebration of Rural Plowing, where Walton was announced as the 2017 IPM site. “He’d be proud that it was anywhere in Huron County, but to be in this community, with all he did over the years, he’d certainly be proud.” Jack says his family hasn’t been overly involved in the world of competitive plowing over the years,
but they have always attended local plowing matches and International Plowing Matches if they were close to Huron County. In fact, attending last year’s IPM in Perth County, Sloan says it was a real eye-opener, knowing at the time that a similar celebration of rural life would be held in Walton in just a few years. Similarly, Albrecht Ringgenberg, says that his motivation behind donating his land was also the good of the community. He’s aware of the competitive plowing history in Walton and he feels there is no better community to play host to the match. “It’s just a really good thing for the community, with all of the history and the people; the McGavins,” Ringgenberg said in an interview with The Citizen. Ringgenberg says there is still plenty of work for him and his wife Annelies to do to prepare for the match, but he’s excited for it to come to the community. Jacquie Bishop, chair of the 2017 IPM, says she is currently in the midst of preparing leases for the Continued on page A26
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they have been well kept under the relatively thick layer of snow. One thing is for certain, however, with the longer-lasting cold, planting is going to be much later this year than it was last year. “We’re not going to have things start or continue quickly at this point,” hall said. “Last year at this time in March, and a little later, we did have some people that had started to do some frost-seeding of spring cereals or putting nitrogen on winter wheat. That’s not going to happen now.” While Hall said the weather can swing quickly in March, it doesn’t seem likely. That said, Hall said his contacts at Environment Canada aren’t really leaning one way or the other on
where the weather is heading. “Things could change quite quickly and we could still potentially have what a lot of producers would consider an average spring for getting their field operations done but there are some concerns, especially with the amount of snow we have,” he said. “The best we can do is an educated guess. Hall said he really couldn’t hazard a guess on the impact of the winter until it had completely ended and the thawing was complete. “Closer to spring, in early to midApril, we may have an assessment ready for the coming planting season,” he said. “Until then, we just have to wait and see how the thaw comes.
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Beekeeping not necessarily a huge time investment Continued from page A19 with plants and crops. “I didn’t harvest any honey last year, which is a good thing because of how long and cold a winter it is, but I’ll be looking at harvesting in the future.” Brigham explained keeping bees isn’t a huge time investment outside of harvest time. In the spring, a thick concoction of sugar-water needs to be put out for them to help jumpstart the hive after a long winter of dormancy and a few times a month she checks on the hives to make sure diseases and predators aren’t a problem. She also said the sugar-water mixture needs to be put out after harvest, which is typically in September, to make sure the bees have enough to get them through the winter. Brigham said that, aside from the course, which was well attended and had between 25 and 30 people from as close as Huron County and as far away as Toronto, her initial investment was approximately $1,000. That bought her two hives, a halfsuit which covers her arms, head and legs, a smoker and a hive tool, which resembles a small pry-bar. The smoker calms the bees so the hive can be inspected and the hive tool allows the hives to be opened. Brigham explained the hives, shortly after being closed, are sealed by the bees so they
need to be pried open to be checked. The course allowed participants to suit up and handle hives and watch the bees, which Brigham said was a very interesting experience. “Seeing the bees work was really educational,” she said. “They taught us that the bees communicate through movement and showed us what their dances look like. It was very informative to watch and learn.” While she couldn’t put a number on how populous her hives are, she said there could be thousands of bees in them. “There are a lot of drones in each hive, as well as workers and queens,” she said, adding, with a laugh, that all the workers are female because women work harder. “It’s neat to watch them and check in on them.” Watching the bees bring the makings of honey back to the hive is also a unique experience according to Brigham.
“It’s definitely neat to see,” she said. “They have honey pollen built up with them and it looks like they are little sheriffs with their sides filled.” Seeing those bees laden with pollen is a good sign and speaks to the amount of foraging materials
there are in the area for the hives. Brigham said she plans on taking an advanced course as soon as she is able to and it will hopefully help her split her hives when they get big enough. For those looking to get involved, she says the biggest hurdle is fear.
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PAGE A26. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
IPM host land has to grow alfalfa, hay to be ready Continued from page A24 participating landowners to sign, which will then make the site official. For the Ryans, they will soon be in the midst of their own planning, in preparing the land for a plowing match that is still years down the road. Jack’s land, which has historically been home to soy beans, corn and wheat, will soon be growing alfalfa and hay, which has to be grown several years in advance in order to
serve plowing match purposes. The new crops will be grown on Ryan’s property in the spring of 2017 and 2016, and perhaps even 2015. “Everything else will just have to be put on hold for a few years,” Jack said. McGavin says, in an interview with The Citizen, that two of the most basic factors that first led him to Ryan’s property were his need of a largely accessible site and a site with three-phase power, which
Ryan’s farm does have. He also says, from a very basic level, that it’s nice to have a location that is geographically central to the county. In discussing potential Huron County sites with representatives from the Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA), however, McGavin said that all the county’s potential sites were great, but one of
the biggest factors that led the OPA to Walton was the enthusiasm in the community. “It just made sense with all of the history in this community,” McGavin said. Ryan’s farm, McGavin says, was also a site that would be ready to go quickly and would need little preparation. “Hensall was a good site,”
McGavin said, “but in the end it came down to the enthusiasm of the Walton community and the threephase hydro that we needed.”
According to the 2011 Census, Huron County farmers provided the equivalent of 1,400 full time jobs.
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014. PAGE A27.
Next GF2 implementation funding intake coming soon Continued from page 21 application process is also a major concern for the Ontario Soil and Crop Association. “The producers can handle these applications on their own,” she said. “They don’t need special consultants to help.” Workshops and information regarding the focus areas are delivered through the Ontario Soil and Crop Association and two different funding opportunities are also delivered. Producers can take advantage of free workshops, seminars and webinars covering the six focus areas, she says. For training, assessment and planning projects, which are also called capacity projects, 50 per cent funding is available, up to $350,000, through the Growing Forward 2 program for any developments meeting one of the six focus areas. The second opportunity is implementation of a plan, which can receive funding of up to 35 per cent of the total project. “The implementation funding is more work and thought to prepare,” Sinclair explained. “You have to have a plan before you seek implementation.” Sixty per cent of the funding is provided by the federal government with the provincial government picking up the remaining 40 per cent of a total pool of $3 billion across the country. Innovation is key, according to Sinclair, when preparing the applications, though beyond that she can’t really assist people with the applications as field staff like herself are no longer the ones who review them. “Field staff will still be able to help, but the applications aren’t viewed by us,” she said. “That’s done at the Guelph level... We can help with planning, but one-on-one assistance with the applications won’t really help.” At any given time, for the 50 per cent cost share applications, a producer can have two applications in. With the implementation programs, or the 35 per cent cost
share applications, however, applications can only be submitted during certain intake windows and only once per window. “The next window is April 1 to May 1 for those projects,” Sinclair said. “Applications from April 1 to May 1 will be accepted for projects that are set to run from April 1 2014 to March 31, 2015.” The applications are judged on merit points, however the exact scoring is an unknown for field staff. “We don’t know how they are valued and what is looked at,” Sinclair said. “That way there is no upper hand as to what gets accepted.” Due to the fact that application scoring isn’t known outside of those who review the applications in Guelph, there aren’t any guarantees with projects, according to Sinclair. “Two identical projects could be submitted, but there isn’t anything to say that both will be taken,” she said. “There’s no guarantee that similar projets will receive funding. Both funding projects have been open since 2013. Sinclair said the best way for producers to help themselves and to receive help from field agents like herself is to start on the ontariosoilcrop.org website and click “Learn More”. “The guidebooks on the site are there to help,” she said. “It’s far better for the producers to read through them and contact us with questions they have, that way we can better help them and spend less time on individual issues.” Sinclair says deadlines for the programs are based on government year-end schedules, which don’t match the end of a typical fiscal year. She said if people have questions they need to get in touch with her, regardless of what value they think the question has. “There are no stupid questions,” she said. “There are questions and producers deserve answers and that’s all that matters.” Those looking to get in touch with Sinclair should e-mail her at lois.sinclair@ontariosoilcrop.org or call 519-955-3139. If the new system doesn’t fit a
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Brussels Livestock
Sale Days Tues. 9 a.m. Fed Cattle, Cows, Bulls Thurs. 8 a.m. - Drop Calves 10 a.m. - Veal 11:30 a.m. - Lambs, goats & sheep Fri. 10 a.m. Stockers 2014 Special Spring Sales Easter Lamb & Goat Sales Thurs., March 27, April 3 & 10 starting at 10:00 a.m. Stocker Sale in lieu of Good Friday Sat., April 19 Sale starting at 10:00 a.m. Vaccinated Sales Mon., April 28 & May 12 Sale starting at 10:00 a.m. sponsored by Huron-Perth Beef Producers
Confidence • Trust • Service WESTERN STOCKERS AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE SALE Visit our website at www.brusselslivestock.ca Email us at: info@brusselslivestock.ca
519-887-6461
project, which is rare according to Sinclair because the focus areas are so broad, she said there are other programs available and she can help people look into them. Like many of the projects in the Growing Forward 2 program, however, a completed Environmental Farm Plan is necessary. “We have projects like the Grassland Habitation Farm
Incentive Program that people can look into if they are interested in that kind of project,” she said. “It’s a big program, but producers do have to complete an Environmental Farm Plan.” The best advice Sinclair could give any producers looking for help is to check the website often. “We try to send out e-mails and use Twitter when available, but the
best thing to do is keep on top of the program,” she said. “We’re a delivery agent for these programs, we act on what is given to us to help producers.”
In 2012 Huron County farms grew 12.1 per cent of all the fruits and vegetables produced in Ontario.
We Buy Your Grain Direct.
Expand your market Please contact your local grain marketing expert. Danielle Stam 905-464-8538 | www.bungeservices.com
PAGE A28. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014.
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