The Rural Voice - April, 2019

April 2019

The

Rural Voice THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE ... $2.50 PM 40037593

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MENTAL RESILIENCE One suicidal, the other catatonic, two men share their journeys back to mental health

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Contents The

Rural Voice THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE

20 38

Publisher: Deb Sholdice

30 16 Columns Lisa B. Pot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Departments Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 News & Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Newsletters National Farmers Union . . . . . . . . 4 Grey County Federation . . . . . . . 59 Perth County Federation . . . . . . 60 Perth Pork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Bruce County Federation . . . . . . 62 Huron County Federation . . . . . . 64

Published monthly by: The Rural Voice, Box 429, Blyth, Ontario, N0M 1H0 Telephone: 519-523-4311 Fax: 519-523-9140 e-mail: info@northhuron.on.ca

Editor: Lisa B. Pot rveditorlisa@northhuron.on.ca

APRIL 2019 • Cover Photo Tim Prior with his Wagyu beef.

Photo by Lisa B. Pot

16 Abundantly Marbled Tim Prior’s herd of Wagyu beef cattle, which originated in Japan, make for good eating!

20 From Depression to Hope Sharing stories of mental illness helps eliminate the stigma and encourages others to seek help.

26 Maximizing Social Media Ask yourself who you want to reach and that helps you answer where, what and how online.

30 The Art of Bonsai Robert Traut has been pruning trees for decades to create beautiful Bonsai.

38 Maaskant named to Hall of Fame John Maaskant is to be inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame.

42 Farmers Speak at Forum Local politicians learned about the issues across commodity groups at HCFA farm forum.

All manuscripts submitted for consideration should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs, although both are welcome. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the publisher. Editorial content may be reproduced only by permission of the publisher.

The Rural Voice makes every effort to see that advertising copy is correct. However, should an error occur, please notify The Rural Voice office within 30 days of invoicing in order to obtain a billing adjustment.

Contributing writers: Keith Roulston, Kate Procter, Jeffrey Carter, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, Arnold Mathers, Steve Bowers, Melissa Luymes, Bob Reid, Anne Mann, Nancy Fisher, Dorothy Henderson, Bonnie Sitter and Gary Kenny.

Mailed by: McLaren Press Graphics, Bracebridge, ON Sales representative: Shelley Kroes rvads@northhuron.on.ca Production co-ordinator & Telemarketing: Joan Caldwell Advertising & editorial production: Dianne Josling PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40037593 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 429 BLYTH ON N0M 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca Subscriptions: $20 (12 issues) $35 (24 issues), includes HST Back copies $2.75 each U.S. rates, $65.00 Changes of address, orders for subscriptions and undeliverable copies (return postage guaranteed) are to be sent to The Rural Voice at the address listed above.

A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.

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2 The Rural Voice

Lisa B. Pot Lisa B. Pot is editor of The Rural Voice and farms in Huron County

Stories to encourage mental resiliency Baler twine is handy stuff, ya?

Imagine looking at it, or a piece of rope, and wondering how you might use it to hang yourself in the barn you are working in.

Shocking start to this column, isn’t it? It is distressing, though, the effects isolation, stress, loneliness, depression and fear can have on the human brain.

It’s THE topic in agriculture right now and rightly so ... the stigma of mental health in the farming community needs to be baled up and tossed away.

We just don’t seem like the type of people to get depressed, do we?

Hearty, working in the fresh air, with animals and plants ... seems like a recipe for mental wellness versus mental illness. Many farmers, though, spend days alone. They solve problems alone. Some have ferocious debt and astonishing responsibility, a constant weight on their backs while still meeting the day-to-day demands of keeping animals alive and finances flowing through long, dark, cold, winter days.

I think farmers need more permissions; a hall pass as it were to share their workload and brainload and ask for help. It really is okay, good even, to ask for help.

Stewart Skinner came to that realization before it was too late.

He’s the man who is bravely sharing his story at farm meetings; the man who was planning how he could hang himself in the pig barn as overwhelming feelings of failure filled his mind. He’s so thankful he could still hear a tiny voice in his head saying “You need to get help.”

Stewart walked out of the barn and

into his parents’ house and told them he was struggling. He was met with love and acceptance and more love.

That unconditional love from his parents and his wife jumpstarted his wellness journey.

It’s the message he wants farmers to hear. “Tell people,” he says. Then know that the love of your family is not contingent on your success.

“Knowing people love you makes the other stuff easier to take,” he says.

Sometimes, it’s about loving yourself and protecting your time and energy as Steve Redmond discovered after his “crash”. This man is also bravely sharing his mental health journey from professional success to being unable to get out of bed. Steve required shock treatments to reset his brain. They worked and alongside treatment for hemochromatosis, he has come to a place of hope, joy and intentional wellness. Steve guards his time, his mind and his health by choosing to eat clean, walking every morning, keeping quiet evenings to rest and reset, prayer and observe daily devotions.

Mental wellness requires medication for many and strategies for all.

I thought Stephanie Craig posted a brilliant piece on the Ag Women’s Network outlining how she copes with depression and anxiety. Her strategies include taking medication, five minutes of daily meditation, seeing a therapist, taking phone breaks, journalling, healthy meals, going for a run, spending time with animals and spending time with people she trusts. Search it out. It’s excellent.

We all have our strategies, don’t we? We may not have all looked at baler twine with intentions of selfharm, but most of us have dealt with times when it just gets hard to cope.

We all need permission during these times to choose self-care. We should all create lists of mental health strategies specific to what brings us joy and purpose. I totally resonate with Stephanie’s journalling, running and spending time with animals strategies. I’d add a dose of gardening and some genuine, healing touch from someone you love.

Stewart reminded me that when someone is mentally ill, they aren’t always thinking rationally. Perhaps the most important strategy will always be to talk to those we trust; who can love us when we cannot love ourselves.

I want to thank both Stewart and Steve so much for putting their stories out there. It takes courage to be vulnerable and open and raw; to admit you just can’t do life right now and need to rest, recuperate and choose differently. Rock on, guys, for using your situation to create awareness and give anyone dealing with mental illness the encouragement to reach out.

The onus, though, shouldn’t always be on the one with depression to find their way. Farmers and family members who are in a good place, with energy and joy to share, can reach out.

It doesn’t take much effort to invite a neighbour over or pop into their place with a coffee in hand. It might be just the window someone needs to see light during a dark time.◊

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National Farmers Union – Ontario NEWSLETTER Strong Communities.

Sound Policies.

Sustainable Farms.

Phone: 1-888-832-9638 E-mail: office@nfuontario.ca Website: www.nfuontario.ca

Growing Sustainable Communities: NFU-O AGM and Convention update In February, the NFU-O held our 2019 convention and AGM in Alliston, Ontario. Our theme this year was Growing Sustainable Communities. Co-hosted with the Mono Mulmur Citizens’ Coalition, our keynote speaker Tamer Soliman spoke about The Power of Food: How to Build Community in the 21st Century.

Tamer discussed the issues that are leading us into an age of loneliness through modern lifestyles and technology including our jobs, limited access to nature, and addiction to social media. It’s becoming harder for people to feel connected to each other in our modern world, and this reality is contributing to poor health and depression. However, despite a growing sense of isolation, Tamer believes there are solutions to rebuilding a sense of community.

One of the ways we can do this is through food. During his time in the Cayman Islands, Tamer learned about the deep connection between food and its power to rebuild community when natives of the island started reclaiming coconuts as a vital part of their diet. Tamer’s experience and research showed how the deep connection between local food and community significantly contributes to happier and healthier lifestyles.

We were also joined by Ruth Knight from the Soil Health Coalition, who spoke about how soil health mirrors what we perceive

about community building. Soil health is the capacity of a soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans; community health is the capacity of systems within a community to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains body, heart, and spirit of all beings. She also spoke about the Soil Health Coalition in Erin that is measuring total carbon, organic matter, bulk

density, particle size and water infiltration at 28 sites.

We ended the event with a wonderful farm tour of Lennox Farm’s delicious winter rhubarb and commercial kitchen. Brian French and his wife Jeannette shared the history of the fifth-generation family farm.

Thanks to the sponsors, members, and volunteers who made this event possible!

In February the NFU-O held its 2019 Convention and AGM. Newly elected and returning NFU-O Board members in attendance were: Back row, from left, Bernard Foley (Councillor-at-large), Devan Penney (Councillor-at-large), Hilary Moore (National Board member), Don Ciparis (NFU-O President, Region 3 Coordinator). Front row: Ayla Fenton (National Board member), Erin Richan (Youth Advisor). Not pictured: Coreen McNally (Councillor-at-large), Marcelle Paulin (Women’s Advisor).

Coming Events Renfrew County Local 330 – Next meeting is Monday, April 1, 7:30 p.m. at the Barr Line Community Centre. Everyone is welcome.

Ruth Knight from the Soil Health Coalition was one of the speakers at the NFU-O Convention.

A subscription to The Rural Voice is one of the benefits of being an NFU-O member 4 The Rural Voice

Ruralite

“

•

“If I am reincarnated, it would be great to come back as a hen and do what I want.”

“You gotta make

~ MP Ben Lobb after chicken farmers at the

your mental

Local Politician Forum said hens can “be who

health if you

they are and express their natural behaviour” in

keep taking

”

new enrichment barns.

deposits into

withdrawals.” ~ Stewart Skinner, sharing his wisdom on mental resiliency

Changing direction – Courageous acts leading to Beautiful purpose ~Lisa B. Pot

Why shouldn’t you tell a secret on a farm? Because the potatoes have eyes and the corn has ears.

The boss always scheduled a weekly staff meeting at four-thirty on Friday afternoons. When an employee got up the nerve to ask why, the boss explained, “I’ve found that late Friday afternoon is the only time none of you want to argue with me.”

UNSCRAMBLE: The Eyes.

When you arrange the letters ...

They See.

{ •

APRIL INSPIRATION People ask the difference between a leader and a boss.

The leader leads.

The boss drives. ~Theodore Roosevelt

Why are a wise man and wise guy opposites?

} •

April 2019 5

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6 The Rural Voice

While reading about the presentation of Dr. Karen Swartzkopf-Genswein to beef producers at Grey-Bruce Farmers’ Week, I was struck again by the limitations of creating efficiency in the food system by applying industrial principles.

Swartzkopf-Genswein is a researcher with Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, Alberta who has spent 15 years studying the effects of transportation on cattle. Her findings are helping shape the new transport code of practice for cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep and horses that is expected to be in place by 2023.

She told the beef farmers that the stress of transportation has a detrimental effect on cattle, and the longer they’re on the truck, the longer the animals are stressed, the more serious the damage. Her research showed that on a 20º C day with 30 hours on the truck, the average shrink would be seven per cent. That amount increases by 1.56 per cent for feeders, 2.6 for calves and 3.46 for cull cows.

Transportation times can be increased by bad weather, traffic jams, processing necessary to cross the U.S. border (an average of 1.3 hours but in one case 15 hours) and mandated driver rest breaks.

Livestock transportation has become a target of animal rights groups and figures like those related

by Swartzkopf-Genswein make it easy to convince consumers of the cruelty of animal agriculture. The irony is that consumers are indirectly to blame for the situation. Everyone wants to pay less for food and the other necessities of life so they can have more for the things they really want – like Caribbean cruises.

For more than a century food processors have tried to give

consumers what they want by applying the industrial principle of economy of scale to food processing.

Once upon a time cattle were processed in abattoirs close to home, but in search of lowering the cost of a pound of beef to the consumer, packing plants got larger and fewer.

Farmers, tied to the land as they are, remained where they were – so the cattle, pigs, etc. had to travel farther.

As food-processing companies grew larger, they had more clout and farmers got relatively less for each cow or pig or bushel of grain.

Farmers tried to keep up by raising more animals or cropping more and more acres. Seeing pictures of hundreds or thousands of animals in a barn often upsets consumers but, again, they are indirectly the cause.

There’s one place where farmers have found the clout to fight against the economy of scale, at least to a point. The supply-managed dairy system has developed a whole different economic model than their neighbours cross the border in the U.S. The average number of cows in a U.S. dairy herd in 2018 was 234, up from 163 in 2008. (In California, the average herd size is 1,250.) Since 2008 the number of U.S. dairy herds has dropped by 30 per cent.

The average Canadian dairy herd, meanwhile, has 80 cows. Given urban consumers’ concern about animal welfare, this should be a big selling point for Canadian dairy farmers. That’s seldom the story that gets told, however, as most attention is given to higher prices for milk and dairy products in Canada. With their primary focus on the lowest price, urban media and consumers turn a blind eye to animal welfare.

Call me old-fashioned but I’ve got to think that each cow in an 80-cow herd gets more attention than in a 234-cow herd, let alone a 1,250-cow herd. Now I know that artificial intelligence is supposed to be the magic wand that gives herd managers at their computers, the same personal care of each animal (or better) than when farmers had 20 cows.

In recent years, however, we’ve seen through climate change that nature can only be pushed so far.

Finding the balance between efficiencies of scale and natural processes seems more tricky than ever.◊

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APRIL 2019 7

Kate Procter Kate farms, hikes, canoes, and plays guitar in Huron County.

Eagle, dove, owl or peacock?

Life can become complex – with layers of things to think about on a daily basis. Work, family, friends, spiritual, volunteer activities, recreation – the list can become daunting in a hurry. But if we really stop and think about it, a lot of what goes on in our lives comes back to our relationships with each other in some way.

I remember from way back in grade eight (which is a long time ago), our teacher continuously saying… “what we have here is a failure to communicate.” I don’t think we really had a clue what he was going on about – and this

“failure to communicate” is something that requires ongoing practice throughout our lives.

Even with all our modern technology that should make communication easier and better, things still get mixed up. There are misunderstandings and people put their own meaning on words and come up with something that was never intended. What is said isn’t always what is heard. And of course, we all know the basis of having healthy relationships is having good, effective communication.

One of the keys to this is understanding that people communicate in different ways. I don’t mean that some text, some phone, and some yell across the yard.

Go to any seminar dealing with relationships and you are bound to come across some form of personality assessment which usually contains a communication component. Myers Briggs, colours, DiSC, and even the bird assessment are all slightly different forms of the same thing. I’ve gone through them

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8 The Rural Voice

all and they do help you discover some things about yourself and others.

One of the purposes of these is to determine your preferred way of communicating and how it differs from others in your life. Hopefully it leads to better communication between people. Of course it is important not to stick people in rigid boxes and think that these simple ranking tools explain everything about what makes someone tick.

I recently went through two separate assessments during my CTeam course. One is called DiSC, and the other ranks people according to four different bird types. Stick with me – it isn’t as flaky as it sounds. Doing the “bird” assessment is kind of fun and quick but comes up with some surprising insights to help you understand yourself, and others, better. I have used this method before, but this session was led by Dr. John Fast, who provided more detailed insights into the analysis. Dr. Fast is the founder of southwestern Ontario’s Centre for Family Business and author of “The Family Business Doctor” (www.familybusiness doctor.ca).

It works by picking from a list of 60 words which best describe you.

You can choose any number from the list but what you don’t know when you are choosing is that the words have been positioned on the page in such a way that when you draw two lines dividing the page in half horizontally and vertically, forming four quadrants, you will tend to have chosen more in one quadrant than another. The quadrant with the most number of words is your dominant behavioural style, and, as the name would suggest, is identified by one of four birds: owl, eagle, peacock, and dove.

In a room full of entrepreneurial farmers, it isn’t surprising to see a lot of eagles, who are defined by their drive. Think of another measure – these are the “A” types. Eagles, Dr. Fast explained, will never sacrifice results. They are decision makers, independent, and usually move towards leadership positions. On the dark side, eagles’ Achilles’ heel is that they don’t listen. They can

Kate Procter become dictators and lose followers when this behavioural tendency is taken to extreme.

On the opposite side of this type are the doves. Doves will never sacrifice relationships and are, as the name would suggest, peace-makers.

They are great listeners, team players, and very empathetic. As one person said they “use the carrot before the stick”. The doves’ Achilles’ heel is that they can’t say “no”. When this behavioural tendency is taken to extreme they can become passive and door mats. They are risk averse and avoid conflict.

Owls are very analytical and will never sacrifice the facts. In their world, feelings are inconsequential; decisions are made using facts. These people are very detail-oriented, organized, and systematic. They make sure things are done RIGHT! The Achilles’ heel of this type is that making decisions can become very tough for them because they never have enough facts leading to “analysis paralysis”. They can be tough to work with because taken to the extreme, they are very critical, micromanage others, are rigid, and have difficulty accessing feelings.

Finally, we come to peacocks.

They will never sacrifice creativity.

They are full of energy, enthusiasm, and positivity. They make work fun and are visionary and charismatic.

This group tends to include the biggest risk takers. The Achilles’ heel of this group is that they can find it tough to focus – they are great at starting projects, but not so good at finishing. Taken to the extreme they can overwhelm people with their energy and can lack discipline.

While this is a fun, simple exercise and there are different methods that provide a more thorough and detailed analysis – it does help people to become more self aware. Self-awareness is the first step to improving communication with one another. If you know where your weaknesses are you can work at improving them. Likewise, if you have an understanding of behavioural tendencies it helps you to communicate to others in a way that better suits them. ◊

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10 The Rural Voice

“At that moment, I decided I liked Doug Ford” The day I first met Ontario’s current premier was at the International Plowing Match outside Paincourt in Chatham-Kent last September.

He had just arrived to the VIP plowing location and looked my way with a quizzical expression, recognizing me as a journalist, certainly, and perhaps wondering at my Amish-style beard.

Appearances can be deceptive, however. I brought with me that day the other side of my ancestry which, among other things, includes Scots and Orkneymen – and not entirely of the refined type.

I looked Doug Ford up and down, lingering for a moment on his girth, and remarked, “You could pass for a farmer.”

The implication in my words was not lost on him. But rather than looking angry his expression, it seemed to me, was one of puzzlement and disappointment.

There’s a lot you can learn with an insult. It was at that moment I decided I liked Doug Ford, even though he’s a lad from the city.

In my defense, I was thinking at the time of Ford’s promise, made during the election campaign, to not only address the Water Wells First issue but to hold those responsible for the travesty accountable.

For those of you who may not be aware, water wells over a wide area in the northern part Chatham-Kent failed in the wake of wind turbine construction. Neither the wind farm developers nor the Ontario Ministry of Environment has admitted to any culpability or has investigated the

situation in a meaningful way.

The wind farms were developed by big money interests and, in the case of the North Kent Wind project, included investments from the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and Walpole Island First Nation.

Approval of the North Kent Wind project was granted by the Ministry of Environment, despite concerns raised by area residents, well drillers, and the Ontario Groundwater Association.

As Craig Stainton, executivedirector of the groundwater association, told me, “It’s despicable.

They have created third-world conditions for those home owners.”

I don’t expect Premier Ford to tackle this issue on his own but if there was ever a time for the situation to be dealt with, now is it.

The provincial Conservatives have among their ranks a considerable contingent of rural MPPs, include Monte McNaughton who represents the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding where the problem wells are located.

So far, however, there have only been words of support. No real action.

The reluctance is understandable.

Not only would a dedicated response to the situation put the provincial government in conflict with the wind farm developers, the Ministry of Environment would need to be opened up to investigation.

The situation reminds me of my days on the farm in Oxford when it was time to clean out the pig pens; messy work, no matter how you went about it.

Manure and water wells aside, rural Ontario has a rare opportunity.

There are many MPPs in place who are looking to support their rural constituencies. Why not do it in a way that supports all Ontarians regardless of where they reside?

One idea would be to better recognize the positive outcomes agricultural stewardship can have for the environment.

Not only would the agricultural sector be supported, there are positive implications for the urban areas as well. Everyone benefits from clean air and water. ◊

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APRIL 2019 11

Mabel’s Grill The world’s problems are solved daily ’round the table at Mabel’s Grill.

“You folks doing anything special for Easter?” Cliff Murray asked George McKenzie the other morning at Mabel’s Grill.

“Nah, it’ll be just the wife and me,” George replied. “Some of the kids are going to their in-laws. Then our daughter and her husband are flying to Myrtle Beach for four days of golf – well it will be four days of golf for him. For her it will be shopping for bargain clothes and listening to him bragging about his golf scores.”

“Is that the son-in-law who’s the environmentalist?” asked Dave Winston. “The guy who’s always riding you for keeping cattle because their burps are ruining the atmosphere?”

“That’s the one,” sighed George.

“Apparently burning tons of jet fuel

for four days of golf has no effect on climate change.”

“How about you guys? What are your plans?” Cliff asked Dave.

“We’re going to my wife’s sister’s in the big smoke,” said Dave. “It ought to be interesting.”

“You don’t seem too happy about it,” George noted.

“Well there’ll be eight of us so we may have to eat supper in shifts,” said Dave. “She’s got one of those postage-stamp apartments on the 25th floor of a downtown condo. I suppose if the weather’s warm a couple of us might be able to eat on the balcony.”

“Is it really that crowded?” asked George.

“We were there for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago,” said Dave.

“What I was most thankful for was when it was all over and I could get outside and take my first deep breath in hours. The only way you could take a deep breath in the apartment was if we took numbers and breathed alternately. Even then, we might have sucked up all the oxygen and got light-headed.”

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shaking his head.

“What gets me is the price they pay,” said Dave. “First of all they had to put down a deposit and then wait four years before the apartment was actually built. Then they had to come up with the rest of the halfmillion before they could move in.”

“Half million!” thundered George.

“I remember when that seemed a ridiculous price for a whole farm.”

“Oh prices have gone up since then,” said Dave. “They could get $200,000 more if they sold now. Of course the price of anything they might move to has also gone up.”

“Twenty-five floors,” said Cliff thoughtfully. “Seems like the Easter Bunny might be tuckered out before he hiked all they way up there.”

“I’d guess he skips those buildings,” said Dave. “Nobody there has kids. They can’t afford to. First of all somebody would have to take maternity leave and without two salaries they couldn’t afford the mortgage payment and monthly maintenance fees.”

“I imagine there wouldn’t be enough room for a kid so they’d have to move,” said George.

“Exactly!” said Dave. ‘But it doesn’t stop people from having dogs. I’ll bet there’s a dog in every apartment. And a lot of them are big!

Cleo’s got this Great Dane. If he’s looking out the window and wags his tail, he knocks dishes off the counter in the kitchen. I took Brutus out for a walk one time and, of course, he immediately wanted to do his business and, of course, you’re supposed to clean up after your dog. I should have taken a shovel and wheelbarrow.”

“I read a newspaper article that said that’s a real problem,” said Cliff.

“Apparently some lazy owners are letting their dogs poop in the stairwells or the parking garage and not cleaning up after them.”

“Can you imagine the smell?” wondered George.

“Seems in some buildings they’re giving dogs DNA tests. Then if they find poop they ship off a sample to a lab and find out whose dog it is and fine the owner.”

“Now there’s a job I could do without,” said George. “All day long testing dog poop for DNA. Yuck!”◊

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Viewpoint Amanda Brodhagen grew up on a farm near Rostock, works in agriculture policy and is a first-term rural councillor.

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About this time a year ago, I was interviewed at a Junior Farmers’ Association of Ontario March conference where I was vying for an international exchange to the United Kingdom. One of the interviewers asked me what value that I could bring back to my local community. I remember boldly responding by saying that one day I wanted to be a municipal councillor and how I felt that learning about rural issues abroad would hopefully make me a better leader.

I was fortunate enough to win a three-month exchange to the UK. But leading up to my exchange, I remember being frustrated with a few issues that were happening locally, so I decided to think seriously about running for council. In the end, I decided to file my papers just days before I left on a plane for Northern Ireland – the first stop in my exchange. Throughout my threemonth stay, I kept checking the municipal website to see if anyone else had filed to run against me and no one did. I came home as an acclaimed councillor for Ellice Ward in Perth East, the only acclamation in the local election.

I was surprised! I had no doubts of my abilities but wondered if the locals had as much confidence in me as I did in myself being a young woman who at the time was approaching 30. How did I get where I am today? By getting involved in my community. I like to think that my involvement in Junior Farmers has helped prepare me for the task of being a councillor, from understanding how effective meetings are run, to sitting on committees and reading budgets. It is these skills that I learned in Junior Farmers and they have helped prepare me to be an effective councillor.

Viewpoint Interestingly, our Mayor is a Junior Farmer alumnus and she has also made reference to the skills that she learned in the rural youth organization. She felt that many of those skills have been transferable to her role as a municipal leader. Junior Farmers has taught us both how to be leaders in our communities.

The role has been interesting, in a good way. I enjoy asking questions, hearing from delegations and being able to offer my perspective as a young person and someone involved in the agricultural community. One neat thing about our council is the diversity. We have men and women from different age demographics which makes for good debate and, in my opinion, better decision-making.

My advice for young people is to get involved – whether that is by volunteering for a cause or an organization you are passionate about or even doing what I did and throwing your hat into politics.

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April 2019 15

Beef

“Wa” means Japanese, “gyu” means cow

Future young sires at Grazing Meadows Wagyu owned by Tim and Donna Prior take a pause in their pen while the cows thrive outdoors (with indoor access) grazing in summer and fed hay in winter. Wagyu cattle are known for their marbled meat.

The Wagyu breed is Japan’s national treasure believes entrepreneur, Tim Prior, who is creating a fullblood herd at his Brussels farm, Grazing Meadows • By Lisa B. Pot • 16 The Rural Voice

T

he nightly ritual for working Wagyu cattle in Japan is massage, followed by dose of beer. This, it is said, is what creates the marbled meat this working breed is known for.

While Tim Prior has fed beer to his Wagyu steers as part of a marketing campaign, he has never massaged his cattle and yet his Grazing Meadows Wagyu cattle raised outside of Brussels, Ontario still produce meat so marbled, a prime rib steak sells in restaurants for over $150 a plate.

How much Japanese lore is true about Wagyu cattle and how much is made up, he can only guess. What is real is Prior’s excitement over introducing the Wagyu breed, its marbled meat and the opportunities for all breeds in the beef industry. All this was apparent when chatting with the Brussels entrepreneur while sampling Wagyu for the first time.

“You just have to try it. It’s the only way to really understand why I’m so excited about it,” said Prior, coming in from the barn where the cattle are housed. Three future sires fill one pen, younger calves another, and growing steers race about in an outdoor yard. Despite the bitter temperatures, the cow herd was calmly eating hay outside. The cattle have access to indoors and fresh water but prefer the outdoors. In summer, the cattle eat well on fresh pastures via the rotational grazing system in place on the farm but in winter, they thrive outside, protected by a wooden wind barrier. If it’s not the ideal time to photograph the cattle, it most certainly is the right time to chat indoors while sampling the marbled meat.

Marbling is the amount of fat streaking within a cut of meat and ranges from select (slight marbling) to Prime (abundant marbling).

Marbling is associated with flavour, tenderness and juiciness. Wagyu would be considered Prime Plus, said Prior.

It’s what attracted him to the breed a decade ago while he was raising Black Angus cattle as a supplement income to owning Brussels Agri Services Ltd., and the Cowboy Loft in Brussels. At a Cattlemen’s conference, he listened to a pair of Australians espouse the merits of the breed. Prior was intrigued. The breed appealed to him as a businessman looking for a niche market but also as an entrepreneur who could bring this exotic breed to Ontario. It’s good he did it then because Japan no longer allows exports of live Wagyu cattle “In my mind, it’s their national treasure,” said Prior. There are, however, many Wagyu breeders in the United States and Australia.

He honours the cow’s Japanese heritage by giving all the cattle foreign names. Tour the Grazing Meadows Wagyu website and you can see pictures of the cattle, including Suzukuma, Michito and Fukuhira.

Through a combination of buying full blood Wagyu and introducing full-blood Wagyu semen and embryos into his Black Angus heard, he now has 33 fullblood Wagyus,

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which will increase to 43 fullbloods next year. In a few more years, his entire herd (his facilities can house a 55-cow herd and their calves) will be full-blood Wagyus. The goal is to market Wagyu genetics via cow and bull sales. Currently, he is culling the Wagyu/Black Angus crosses though he admits the calves coming off these crossbreds are often beautifully marbled and have significant weight gain over calves raised by fullblood Wagyu mothers.

“That’s the one thing, Wagyu mothers can just spit those calves out. I can drive down the lane and see one is about to calve.

When I drive back five minutes later, the calf is sucking,” said Prior. While good mothers, Wagyu mothers are not notable milkers. They don’t make great udders and can’t support multiples.

Every breed has its management strategies and Wagyu cattle, as a premier meat breed, would not be considered an ideal commercial breed due to the time it takes to finish a Wagyu calf.

Angus (and other commercial breed) calves can finish in 16 to 20 months while a Wagyu calf needs 27 to 28 months.

“In order to get the marbling, Wagyu needs to mature longer,” explained Prior.

Also, Tim feeds a custom “Japanese recipe” he learned via research into Wagyu cattle, has it mixed especially, and finishes the animals on this speciality grain ration and dry hay.

Consumer acceptance of the price point for a Wagyu steak takes some time. Still refining his marketing strategy, Prior is expanding his outreach. Half a dozen restaurants are now serving Grazing Meadows Wagyu. More meat is sold from his farm freezer, with Tim offering 20pound boxes of mixed cuts for $375 a box. Since most of his time is required at his business, he doesn’t have the time to market individual cuts or at farmer’s markets.

18 The Rural Voice

Tim (right) and Donna Prior enjoy a good steak but they only treat themselves to their own Wagyu steaks six times a year because the meat is worth over $150 as part of a restaurant meal.

Labelled Prime Plus, the meat of the Wagyu breed is abundantly marbled, creating a tender, juicy steak. Prior sells the meat, frozen, in 20 pound boxes.

Interestingly, he and Donna only eat their own Wagyu prime rib six to eight times a year. It is a luxury item, even for them, and as a marketer of Wagyu meats, he knows his meat boxes have to contain a variety of cuts, including the very best ones.

However, as an entrepreneur, he is very intrigued by successful businessmen such as Peter and Alice Eschelman, founders of Joseph Decuis, which transformed their farm and local town by marketing farm tours, creating a retail emporium, a fine-dining restaurant and vacation rentals all surrounding the Wagyu cattle. Could it happen in Brussels?

Does Prior want to add to his responsibilities? Is there possibility for partnerships down the road? Prior smiles and his entrepreneurial spirit is intrigued but time is an issue.

Already, he has partnered with

Cowbell Beer Brewing Co. to launch Wagyu burgers from a couple of Wagyu cattle which were fed beer.

Every night, Tim would pour a bottle of Absent Landlord on the animal’s ration of pellets in “spirit” with his Japanese counterparts and in marketing cohesiveness with Cowbell.

All things are possible, admits Tim, who has long been a promoter of community and promoter of agriculture via his business, his own farm tours and community engagement.

It’s clear Tim thrives on starting something new, being involved, and sharing his ideas about raising cattle and collaborating with other businesses. He travels extensively with his wife, Donna, and when they do, they look up other Wagyu breeders to learn management

strategies and share their passion for the breed. “We have these cattle in common and then we are instant friends,” he says.

Wagyu meat, as a premium product, serves a niche market within the collective beef farming sector but

Prior does believe it is possible to make a living raising Wagyu with the right marketing techniques. For the Priors, the Wagyu herd is a supplement income and a satisfying project for Tim who loves working with cattle. ◊

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Health • By Lisa B. Pot •

Building mental resiliency Worry less about fixing and more about loving say two men who have lived though mental breakdowns

Stewart Skinner (left) a hog farmer near Listowel and Steve Redmond (right), owner of Redmond Agronomic Services, have each struggled through a period of mental illness and now, feeling hopeful about the future, they are sharing their stories to encourage the agricultural community that hope, help and love are all waiting.

I

nstead of mental health, Listowel-area hog farmer, Stewart Skinner, prefers to talk about “mental resiliency” as he shares his journey from considering suicide by hanging in his pig barn to mental health advocacy.

“Everybody has their own level of mental health,” says Stewart. “It’s something everyone is mindful of whether they are fully aware of it or not.”

Mental health or resilience has been a farm-meetingfocus this winter season as more farmers are becoming aware how isolation, stress, finances and overload are leading to mental heath issues. Organizations like Grey Ag Services are offering courses on mental health for farm families, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) has a mental health “first-aid kit” online and distress centres take calls 24 hours a day from people in crisis.

Perhaps, though, nothing is as valuable as one farmer admitting his struggles, sharing his story and offering strategies other people can learn from. Stewart and another face of agriculture, Steve Redmond, shared their stories 20 The Rural Voice

with The Rural Voice in an effort to reduce the stigma of mental illness in the rural community and encourage others to monitor their own mental resilience

Stewart Skinner

S

tewart was in his late twenties and working on his parents’ hog farm through tough financial times in the 2000s. Things were looking up in 2011 and then the industry took another sudden downswing in 2012. It was a stressful time.

Stewart was proud to be the next generation working on the family farm but along with that legacy came stress to live up to his forebears; his own expectations, and that feeling of making his parents proud.

On top of that, he saw his peers starting families, advancing their careers and moving ahead. “I felt that when I compared myself to my colleagues, I wasn’t stacking up,” admits Stewart.

At the time, he wasn’t able to pinpoint these issues as particular stressors. This is wisdom he has gained on his

journey. Back then, all Stewart knew is that he was stressed, under pressure and feeling so very low.

He did know he was an emotional person and in rational moments, he recognized self-blame about the farm’s financial situation wasn’t his fault.

“You know, those rational thoughts were just as painful because I could see how out of control things were getting,” remembers Stewart.

It came to a head one day while he was working with the pigs. “I found myself trying to think of the best way I could hang myself in the barn,” remembers Stewart. “I wanted to commit suicide but as I was coming up with a plan, a tiny voice crept in that told me I needed help.”

Stewart left the barn and reached out to his parents. It was a profound moment because it revealed a truth to him that set him on the path to recovery.

“On that day, I learned that regardless of my finances and what state the farm was in, my parents and my wife loved me unconditionally,” says Stewart. This was a breakthrough of sorts; the understanding that the love of family was not contingent on farm success.

It launched his commitment to mental resiliency.

Stewart did go to see a psychiatrist but when the doctor pulled out a prescription pad, he knew that while pharmaceuticals are good and necessary for many, he wasn’t going to choose that route.

The next six to nine months were quiet months. He and his wife, Jessica, quit farming and Stewart would spend the next two years in Queen’s Park working as a policy advisor. The change gave him some much-needed perspective.

He also decided to trust in his faith to lead him to the next step which came most unexpectedly.

After listening to a Kenyan-born speaker at a runner’s club, Stewart was intrigued by the man’s stories of farming in his African country.

“I reached out to him and to my surprise, he told me he would love to talk about farming and would be at my place in two hours!” remembers Stewart. The pair sat at the kitchen table, drank tea, and the man from

Kenya dropped his own bombshell.

“He told me he’d been praying for a farmer to come back to Kenya and that I was that farmer.”

Stewart was dumbfounded and pretty sure he wasn’t that farmer.

However, a few months later he was on a plane to Kenya where he was struck by the rampant poverty and subsistence farming in that country.

“Yet everybody was smiling,” remembers Stewart.

The trip further consolidated the truths Stewart needed to learn to

break free from the grip financial worries had on him. Mainly, that “consuming things does not give you the happiness of being loved and loving other people and being part of a community of people that cares about you.”

This newfound awareness was slowly transforming his belief system and his approach to life and farming ... and is a truth he keeps reminding himself of with subsequent trips to Kenya.

“I tease my wife that in lieu of

April 2019 21

therapy, I buy a ticket to Kenya every few years,” says Stewart. “The truth is I still like stuff. I enjoy a good meal and wine and really enjoy travelling and those things require money.” Keeping in contact with his Kenyan friends remind Stewart he doesn’t NEED those things.

As Stewart earned more mental resilience, he and Jessica made the decision to return to farming in a way that would allow him to maintain a high level of mental health. Knowing he preferred to manage, problemsolve and create markets versus the daily routine of chores, Stewart

developed a production system using the strengths of Amish farmers to grow organic and certified-humane pigs for a niche markets.

“I do as much paper pushing as manure pushing but that suits me and I enjoy it,” says Stewart.

Stewart now shares his story with other farmers and says those who hear him talk are always curious why he wanted to kill himself. “I try to explain my mindset. It wasn’t that I actually wanted to die. It’s that I wanted the pain to stop.” Remember, he says,when you are seriously ill, you do not always have the benefit

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of rational thought.

With years of being intentional about his mental health, Stewart also shares his thoughts on mental resiliency. “You gotta make deposits into mental wellness if you are making withdrawals,” he says. For instance, he has been busy lately with special projects and speaking engagements. Stewart and his wife are noticing that he is more tired than usual, his temper is closer to the surface and he’s becoming more insular and wanting to withdraw and not interact with his family. He has made too many withdrawals and needs to make a deposit.

For Stewart, that often means more rest and taking a “me” day.

That might mean taking a nap, or playing video games for an afternoon, or connecting with his support system (close family and friends).

“I take a day for myself so that, hopefully I do not have to take a month down the road,” says Stewart.

He encourages everyone to learn their own “warning” signals.

Also, he wants to remind people to keep talking about mental health.

“For some reason, someone may have heard about it 18 times and it takes that 19th time before they seek help.”

Moreover, he encourages those who work in the supply sector to identify early warning signals in their customers. For some farmers, it’s the feed salesman who is the only person they chat with that day.

Lastly, he encouraged the support persons to worry less about fixing and more about loving. “The best things a support person can do is reinforce that their spouse/friend/family member is loved and valued. When I know people love me, it makes the other stuff easier to take on,” says Stewart.

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Feeling like his life has never been better, Steve’s eyes tear up as though he can hardly believe he has reached this place of hope and joy.

There was a time when his family worried he might not make it, after mental illness and hemochromatosis brought him to a catatonic state which required eleven electro convulsive therapy treatments (ECT) to “repair� his shut-down brain.

Believing many professionals in agriculture are dealing with severe stress, Steve hopes by sharing his story he can help others avoid the “crash� he experienced in September of 2017.

Looking back, Steve can see that while he had a great childhood, both his parents had their own mental health issues. As he became a professional, Steve had “low times� during periods of high stress. He can now see through his career transmutations how extremely long hours, conflict with managers and a major house renovation pushed his mind and body to the limit. “Men are taught to tough it out and I think I had to hit rock bottom before I would seek help,� he says.

By the spring of 2017, while working as a Precision Agriculture Specialist for a large company, Steve was making great money but working long hours. He had a fulltime assistant and yet he found that by 10:30 in the morning, he was desperate for a nap. “I just kept pushing through,� he remembers. He had promised a friend he would do the MS Bike Ride from Grand Bend to London, a ride he’d done joyfully for five years previously. “That was the toughest ride of my life,� he said.

The week following the MS Bike Ride, he was soil sampling. It was extremely hot, there was no shade and every hour, Steve had to lie down in the only shade provided by his truck. “I just felt I had to do this.

There was no choice. I was loyal and this was my job,� said Steve. He places no blame on his employers; this was stubborn-male stuff.

However, being a very social, communicative and verbal man, he notes that throughout his career, when he didn’t feel supported and encouraged by his managers, it was

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particularly stressful and hurtful to him.

At home, he felt more pressure due to a home renovation. His parents had always espoused the belief system that you do it on your own – hiring contractors wasn’t for them.

It was all too much.

After working that hot day he came home and crawled into bed.

Very few were allowed admittance as days stretched into weeks. His wife, Mary Lynn, was desperate to get him care but Steve was barely able to move, spending his days curled up in a fetal position on the bed, not talking and hardly eating.

When he was finally admitted to Victoria Hospital in London at Mary Lynn’s insistence, Steve had gone from 150 to 119 pounds. He was characterized as having a major depressive episode with psychotic features (such as persecutory delusions) and catatonia.

He doesn’t remember anything from his first two weeks in the hospital. Mary Lynn had gotten power of care and agreed to ECT treatments to wake him up. It took three shock treatments and a large dose of lorazepam before he was snapped out his catatonic state.

To “repair” his brain, Steve would have eight more treatments. They were hugely effective, as were the prayers coming from 21 churches for Steve’s healing.

“I firmly believe God told me that He had a plan for me but since I wasn’t listening, he was going to knock me to my knees,” says Steve.

“Then He gave me a recovery for a reason.”

Recovery was slow. Life had changed forever. He was still very tired and returning to work was a gradual process. Through a naturopathic doctor, Nicole Rush, Steve learned he had a geneticallypassed high iron blood disease called hemochromatosis. Treated by giving blood on a regular basis, this reduces the side effects of high iron which include chronic fatigue and joint pain.

A year later, Steve is a changed man. He still naps but he feels energetic, hopeful and filled with a

God-given purpose to share his story, succeed at his business and pursue new avenues of ministry.

He speaks at agricultural events about his experience and relishes the energy. “I haven’t felt like this since I was 25,” he says. In November, he climbed the CN Tower, raising $3,000 for charity by reaching his goal of accomplishing the feat in less than 20 minutes. “I started sucking wind with 30 floors left and I told God that if He got me to the top without stopping, I would do whatever He wanted,” recalls Steve.

“When I reached the top, the time was 19:59.” hen asked for advice on how his fellow professionals can see the warning signs of mental illness and how they can prevent it, Steve says it’s important to note that everyone’s mental health journey is truly a unique experience. What he has learned from his own situation is that if you don’t feel supported in a work relationship, you need to develop a strategy to deal with stress or leave the job.

In terms of managing stress, Steve says there is a physical, emotional and spiritual component. Always fit and a healthy eater, now Steve and his wife walk each morning to feel the sun and energize the body. He also practises yoga and stretches daily. Emotionally, he shares his story and invites others to share theirs. Spiritually, he spends more time in prayer and meets with a spiritual advisor once a month.

He is also intentional about keeping evenings sacred as time to rest and rejuvenate. He consciously works only 40 hours per week.

Steve encourages farmers to make sure they take breaks and consider collaboration. “There is so much information to process and so many decisions to make, they need somebody to help them,” he says.

Finally, make yourself and your home a “safe” place for others, says Steve. “Invite your neighbours for coffee and create that sense of community.”

There is hope for the many who suffer, says Steve. He wants to be a voice for that hope. ◊

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April 2019 25

Advice

Maximize your social media platforms Ask yourself who you want to reach and why, then offer an authentic and engaging voice say media experts

W

hen terminology like “building buckets”, “contents calenders” and “predictive algorithms” are used to describe the strategies for maximizing social media, then it’s no surprise pre-millennial generations are overwhelmed by the many options.

Hence, there was an eager crowd taking part in a workshop called Maximizing Your Social Media Results put on by Grey Ag Services in February. Primarily, the workshop attendees wanted to know how to market their businesses.

There are so many platforms, they said. Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Pinterest, YouTube ... which one is the best? Which one should they use? Who is where on what?

Course facilitator Kelly Ward, the Supervisor of Brand Services for Foodland Ontario could sense the need from almost everyone present to optimize social media without being manipulated by it.

Drawing on her experience marketing Ontario food, Ward led the group down a clear path to understand the options, the audience, the questions to ask and how to organize content.

Equally knowledgeable is Victoria Berry who, as a communicator, gets excited about all the social media tools available. Berry manages the communications for Grain Farmers of Ontario and had several bits of advice for this story.

To be effective on social media, the first thing you have to do is ask questions, advised Ward and Berry. The first one being “who”.

“You need to understand who you are speaking with,” said Ward. As a brand supervisor for Foodland Ontario, her principal audience is grocery shoppers and she knows those shoppers range in age from 24 to 54 and are 60 per cent females. What influences this audience? Also, who will be the “who” five to 10 years from now?

Sharing an insight from when she returned to school to earn her masters, Ward had to buy the course text book.

When she’d taken her undergrad, these were actual books and cost hundreds of dollars. She was thrilled with the deal when she found the text book online for $20. However, her classmates laughed at her for not being able to find the textbook free online.

The next generation will communicate differently; the “who” will always be evolving. Ward’s daughter’s teacher records audiofiles on how he grades assignments. It’s how he communicates with parents.

The next question to ask is “where.” Ward reviewed all the major platforms to rate their audience, relevance and potential uses.

26 The Rural Voice

Understanding who your audience is and where to find them is the key to choosing when and where to connect with people on social media says Kelly Ward, the Supervisor of Brand Services for Foodland Ontario while speaking at a Grey Ag Services workshop.

“Facebook is still the big guy in the room,” says Ward.

With 1.3 billion users, it far surpasses Twitter’s 600 million users. However, it’s geared more towards building relationships versus conversation about news and articles on Twitter. Pinterest is a scrapbooking tool while YouTube is more for those searching “how to” information.

Instagram is a visually \-based approach to conversation and building relationships.

Twitter can be chaotic, says Berry, but is a hub for the rural community to share information.

• By Lisa B. Pot •

Almost all rely on a great photo to draw attention and all serve a purpose.

“Fish where your fish are,” advised Ward. Other options can include WeChat and Weibo, Chinese platforms which are also becoming popular.

Snapchat was an up and comer but it has earned an reputation as a sexting app and there is a lot of distrust surrounding it, said Ward.

“People go for the fun filters but in terms of engaging people, it’s a harder one. The return is more challenging on Snapchat.

“However, everything is constantly changing,” qualified Ward. “Snapchat could come up with a new offering that makes it the big heavy.” hen there are the blogs, vlogs and podcasts. “Social media really is a huge umbrella term.

I like to think of it as contact, communication and media consumption,” said Berry. “And no, you don’t have to use them all!” she said, allowing the inexperienced user to give a sigh of relief. For instance, if you want to connect with friends and family, you likely would not use LinkedIn which is about professional contact and “not a place where you share funny pictures of your cat.”

Each platform has its own predictive algorithm, a coding that predicts what you want to see based on past behaviour. It’s similar to retargeting. Click on a link for cameras and you will soon find camera-related advertisements sprinkled on your pages.

In terms of your own personal pages, you can monitor success simply by looking at what posts have

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performed and which have not. If a post doesn’t engage the audience, change it. Each platform has an analytics section you can check to see who is looking at your posts.

Once you established the who and the where, the next questions to ask are “why”and “what”. Why are you posting and what motivates people to share your posts?

Of the moms Foodland Ontario is trying to reach, Ward’s research indicates 74 per cent of them will share content that informs or educates others while 58 per cent will share if it makes someone smile.

Others share because a post has an interesting point of view, is entertaining or reminds people to focus on the positive.

What do they share? Of those polled, 61 per cent of moms will share funny stories that make people laugh, 58 per cent share parenting tips and 52 per cent share coupons, deals and contests. Only 19 per cent said a business brand is engaging.

What this should tell people wanting to post about their business is that your posts need to be engaging.

“If you write it and you are bored, your followers will be too,” said Ward.

Posts need to be intentional and specific to your audience. “What a mom finds compelling is different than college or highschool kids,” explained Ward. rain Farmers of Ontario has two main branches, explained Berry. One is to reach farmers and the agriculture community and for this, they rely on Twitter using the hashtag #OntAg to share research papers, good articles,

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pricing and to promote podcasts.

“We also have a robust website for information” said Berry.

The consumer face of GFO is the “Good in Every Grain” brand which Berry promotes on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

“We looked at where our audience – youth and parents – were and those were the sites they were on,” said Berry. erhaps the most important point is that social interaction needs to be authentic. “Choose authenticity over gratuitousness every time,” said Ward.

Foodland Ontario has professional photographs taken of its recipes which are used to promote Ontario food. “But when I post a picture of a recipe I made in my old crockpot, it gets more traffic than the staged photo everytime,” said Ward.

“Probably because the viewers also have an old crockpot and want to make it too.”

So “how” can rural entrepreneurs engage and attract attention?

“Well, video killed the radio star,” said Ward, using a song title.

“Anything moving will outperform

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28 The Rural Voice

text 100 times over.”

With these buckets in mind, she Berry agrees. “It has to have a then creates a content calendar. visual ... maybe a dynamic Every month, she fills in the squares individual, or a few photos, or short to include a post about farmers, or clip of video,” she says. resources, or holiday feasts of Facebook Live has become very culturally diverse foods. popular. Content isn’t expected to be “I can do this in advance because I highly produced. Ward referenced know what works. It takes me about Kristen Hampton who does a bit half a day for all channels. Then I called Product Test Tuesdays. Where can spend the rest of my time does she video it? In her car office. It reacting to real-time stuff,” Ward is very simple but authentic because of her personality and her approach.

It’s important to “find your voice” said Ward.

When considering how to present Foodland Ontario, Ward knew they wanted the voice to embody warmth, community and fun. So they include playful, mix in “warm and familiar” and wrap it with “intelligent and connected”.

Tone is also important.

Again, referencing Foodland Ontario, Ward say they wanted to refer to Foodland as “we” instead of “I”.

Formal words like “are not” were replaced with contractions. Enthusiastic “we love” is good but Social media is more than a checkbox. It expressions like “totally needs to be responsive says Victoria Berry, awesome” are over-the-top.

Communications Manager for Grain Also, responses were Farmers of Ontario. prompted with questions like “doesn’t that look delicious” instead of asking for explained. interaction with statements like Engagement is key, says Berry. “share with your friends.”

“Social media is not just a checkbox.

Within each social media platform It has to be responsive,” she says. are options, such as Instagram stories How successful all the planning which Ward says tend to linger and posting is can be checked with longer than a static photo. In terms of analytic data, reminded Ward. This is selling direct, Facebook Marketplace important for an effective approach. is like Kijiji and allows sellers and Don’t forget to use your own buyers to connect. You can also contacts, says Berry. “Our first great create a VIP group to make exclusive resource is our community,” she offers and control the output and says. “It is okay to self-promote. It input. maybe gives you a sick feeling in When it comes to output, there are your stomach but ask your friends easier ways of doing things. Ward and family to like your page and says she categorizes what she wants engage. If you have something cool, to include by “building buckets.” For tell people! If you have done great Foodland, these buckets (or themes) work be proud of it and share it!” are breadth, farming, resource, depth, When you share, use hashtags. culture and holidays.

They can help direct the audience “I deliberately curate my and create a conversation. In terms of information that way,” says Ward. marketing success, Ward said she

couldn’t “hang her hat” on them but they can work and are just plain fun!

Other tips Ward and Berry offered to maximize social media included: • Influencers (social media personalities) can promote product by photographing themselves using it. Just make sure their brand is one you want to be affiliated with.

• Use scheduling tools and apps like Hootsuite to serve as a dashboard to automatically post your information and track responses.

Other scheduling apps include Zapier and If Then This That (IFTTT) • Another question to ask is “when”. Ward sees a spike in Foodland Ontario posts after 9 p.m.

(44 per cent) and a smaller spike after lunch (16 per cent). No one is looking at it on Saturday mornings.

• Ward says remember to manage your social platforms. It can take 10 minutes if you are efficient. Take a look at direct messages and notification in the morning and afternoon and respond. “You will get a lot of return for that.”

• Paid ads, or boosts on Facebook are effective. Facebook has tutorials on how to use boosts.

• Berry says blogs are becoming the new media; the new person people turn to for a credible voice and a source of information Upcoming trends that Ward revealed are the use of chatbots.

Chatbots will create auto responses to frequently asked questions.

Augmented reality ads, such as allowing you to apply a shade of lipstick to a picture of your face, will become more popular. There will also continue to be more crossover between platforms.

Kaitlyn O’Neill, a marketing coordinator with Roberts Farm Equipment, who was taking the Grey Ag Services course to get a broader understanding of social media, said the concept of a content calender will be really helpful.

“I know I spend too much time thinking up things every day. This will really streamline it,” she says.

Her co-worker at Roberts, Brittany Blakely, a precision farming specialist, agreed. “I really needed a greater knowledge of the tools to target our intended audience in less time. This will help.” ◊ April 2019 29

Gardening

Patience can produce perfection in Bonsai Bonsai will outlive their owners and can die if someone doesn’t understand the techniques of this Asian art form • By Bonnie Sitter •

A

s a child of nine in Sudbury, Robert Traut, now of Perth South near Kirkton, decided to plant maple seedlings in acorn shells as an experiment. It didn’t work, but a seed was planted nevertheless!

Fast forward to Grade 11 in London, Ontario. An ad in the London Free Press caught his eye.

There was a nursery called Fitzsimmons in St. Catharines offering rooted cuttings for bonsai growth. Robert arranged to get a ride to the nursery from London and a lifetime of studying, growing, pruning and perfecting the art of Bonsai was begun.

Bonsai is an Asian art form using cultivation techniques to produce small trees in containers that mimic the shape and scale of full-size trees Robert said that watering bonsai is very critical. Whether indoors or out, attention must be paid. Each tree has be watered until the soil is saturated.

The trees grow in very little soil and must be pruned carefully as soon as they bud out. For pruning, they are taken out of the pots and all the soil is removed from the fine little roots before they are cut off. The crown and leaves are also pruned and then the bonsai is placed back in the soil and new soil is placed around the roots.

Bonsai has been described as an art form and Robert is, indeed, an artist. Through years of repeating the pruning process, the miniature trees are prized like a painting. Two prized bonsai of his are Ficus Benjamine, selected because they have small leaves in good proportion to the tree trunk. The larger of the two trees is 30 The Rural Voice

Robert Traut of Perth South is a fan of creating Bonsai, the Asian art of pruning and care to produce small trees that mimic full-scale trees. Crown, leaves and roots are pruned. Two prized bonsai are the Ficus Benjamines he is holding. The larger one is 20 years old.

20 years old and the other is 15 years old.

Some bonsai are kept under grow lights while others are wintered in his garden protected by wire fencing to keep the rabbits from eating his treasures. When they bud out in the spring he will lift them from the soil and prune them too. Then he will repot them for his patio. He has Sugar Maples and a Korean Hornbeam in his garden waiting for budding to begin. The maples that he started from seedings from his neighbour were about six inches high and he trimmed the roots and twisted the four tree trunks together. It is now a wonderful specimen that it is seven years old.

Robert turns the pots on the deck so none of them start leaning too much in one direction. Like houseplants they turn to the light.

Robert said the easiest bonsai plants to grow are figs. The hardest are azaleas. Watering is critical.

Sometimes he puts some wood sorrel in the small planter with the bonsai.

When the sorrel wilts, the little bonsai needs a drink too.

Robert suggests purchasing, or borrowing from a library, a book with a “How To Bonsai� theme if you want to study Bonsai.

Bonsai incorporates horticulture, design and balance, artistry to make it appealing.

Patience is impor-tant too.

Sometimes when the owner of a bonsai dies, the tree dies as well, simply because someone in the family has not studied bonsai. He hopes to get his grand children interested. â—Š

Clockwise: Robert Traut (right) says books are a great resource to learn bonsai; Robert checks the maples and Korean Hornbeam bonsai wintering in his garden; tools of the trade; a bare bonsai gets some light after a winter stay in the basement; a freshly pruned Chinese Elm bonsai.

April 2019 31

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519-338-2688 32 The Rural Voice

Recipes by Dorothy Henderson

Green, fresh and so very healthy for you

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ditor’s Note: The Rural Voice is excited to announce the recipes column will now be a rotating column between three esteemed chefs/cooks and bakers: our very own Anne Mann who will be focusing on gluten-free recipes; Nancy Fisher, an engaging blogger and instagrammer and Dorothy Henderson who has enjoyed a variety of careers: music teacher, mental health worker, writer, Christian educator, leadership developer and, until her retirement, minister of Caven Presbyterian Church in Exeter. Dorothy grew up on a farm near Kilsyth, Ontario, which contributed to her life-long interest in growing and cooking. Since moving to South Huron 10 years ago, she has taken a keen interest in locally sourced foods, gardening, Kirkton Horticultural Society, Communities in Bloom and running an annual Culinary Camp for Children. She is the author of two recent books: Loving it Local: Enjoying fresh local foods (gardening and cookbook) and The Season for Strawberries (a novel); a sequel novel is due to come out this month. he fresh edible greens of April are a welcome sign of spring.

Leafy greens, especially dark greens like romaine lettuce, spinach, swiss chard and kale are considered super-foods. They offer colour, a variety of flavours and are packed with nutrients.

Take swiss chard for instance.

One cup of steamed swiss chard provides 214 per cent of your daily needs for vitamin A. This promotes heart, lung and kidney health. The same cup of swiss chard provides 53 per cent of your daily vitamin C requirements. Vitamin C acts as an antioxidant, reducing the risk of chronic disease and battling high blood pressure. The real hero is Vitamin K (for bone and blood health). There is a whopping 716 per cent of your daily requirements in

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Curried chicken salad (top) combines chicken and greens for a light supper.

Fruits and greens also pair very well as in the salad (above, right) or topped with tikka (above, left) which are little strips of meat marinated in spice or sauce. one cup. (Source: www.nutrition data.self.com) Because vitamins are sensitive to heat and water, it is important to minimize boiling greens. The best methods for nutrient retention include eating them raw, in soups where the vitamins are retained in the broth, by stir frying or by cooking them quickly in a microwave. Cut out thick centre stalks to cook a minute longer than the leaf.

If you find cooked greens too bland, add herbs, a dash of hot sauce, garlic oil or butter with salt and pepper.

When spring greens are abundant try this simple and delicious soup. It may be made be spinach, young kale or swiss chard as well.

Cream of Fresh Lettuce Soup 6 cups of lettuce (approximately) 1 cooking onion 1 cup green peas (I use frozen) 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth 1 cup milk or light cream Salt and pepper to taste Directions: • Wash the lettuce thoroughly and leave to drain in a sieve or on a clean tea towel. Save a few leaves for a garnish.

• Chop the onion and add it with the peas and broth to a large cooking pot.

• Bring to a boil and add lettuce.

• Turn the heat down and cook, slowly bubbling, for 15 minutes until the vegetables are very soft.

• Purée in small batches (so it February 2019 33

Recipes doesn’t splash) with a standard or hand blender.

• Stir in milk/cream. Adjust seasonings.

To serve, garnish with a pinch of finely chopped lettuce. reens and chicken make a great combination for a satisfying lunch or light supper. Toss a generous helping of crisp greens with a light dressing (2 tsp oil, 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice, dried herbs) and top with a hearty chicken salad. Add a toasted English muffin. Serves 4.

Curried Chicken Salad 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts ½ cup mayonnaise 1 tsp lemon zest 2 tsp lemon juice 1-2 tsp curry powder (to taste) 2 green onions 1 celery stalk ¼ cup dried cranberries (optional) Salt and pepper to taste Directions: • Slice chicken and, in a large pot, barely cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook slowly for 10 minutes. (Alternatively, baste the chicken breasts with mayonnaise.

Sprinkle herbs on top and roast in 375°oven for 25 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165° Fahrenheit.) Cool the chicken.

• While chicken is cooking and cooling, combine mayonnaise, lemon zest, lemon juice and curry powder.

• Chop the onions and celery.

• When chicken breasts have cooled, cut into bite-sized pieces, add the onions and celery, stir in the mayonnaise mixture, add the cranberries if using and pile onto the bed of greens.

Tikka with Greens and Fruit Fruits and greens combine well so be adventurous in adding strawberries, oranges, apples, grapes, blueberries, and raspberries or dried fruit to a salad. Sprinkle the salad with toasted almonds and cashews and you have a beautiful and delicious dish.

Top with chicken, beef or pork tikka. The term “tikka” comes to us from Indian cuisine referring to small pieces of meat marinated in spice or sauce. Tikka may be cooked on the barbeque (about 10 minutes) or under

G

34 The Rural Voice

the oven broiler.

Ingredients: 3 chicken breasts or 1-pound grilling steak or loin pork 2 cooking onions, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, grated 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp curry powder ¼ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp cumin Pinch cayenne pepper, salt and pepper ¼ cup oil 1 cup yoghurt or kefir Directions: • Prepare the meat by cutting into bite-sized cubes or strips.

• In a large zip-lock bag or bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients.

• Add the meat, stir and marinate overnight or for a few hours.

• Soak bamboo skewers in water for 15 minutes. Thread the marinated meat on the skewer and cook on the barbeque or under the broiler for 10 minutes, turning after 5 minutes.

Arugula with Parmesan fricos If you enjoy the sharp peppery flavour of arugula, combine it with other fruits and vegetables, drizzle with a punchy lime dressing and top with Parmesan fricos. Frico is an Alpine garnish, literally fried cheese.

Package or four large handfuls of arugula.

Ingredients: ½ cup some of these: cooked or pickled beets, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, spinach, apples, dried cranberries, toasted nuts.

1 tbsp lime juice ½ tsp sugar ½ tsp Chinese five-spice powder Pinch chili pepper (optional) 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese Directions: • Distribute arugula mixture on serving plates.

• In a jar add the lime juice, sugar, spices and oil. Put lid on jar and shake to combine. Drizzle over the arugula mixture.

• To make the fricos, place a nonstick fry pan over medium heat. (I spray mine lightly with cooking oil.)

Spread a scant tablespoon of the Parmesan cheese in a thin layer in a

circle or rectangle. Make a few at a time and do not crowd. Cook for about 30 seconds over medium heat until the fricos are golden brown on the edges. Quickly slide a metal spatula under the frico and flip it over for a second. Then remove the frico and set to harden on a plate.

Alternatively, drape over a rolling pin. This produces an interested curl as the cheese cools and hardens.

Allow two fricos per salad.

Growing microgreens Microgreens are the rage this year.

You can grow them easily in your home, even if you live in an apartment. Unlike sprouts where you eat the roots, stem and first leaf, you eat only the stem and tender leaves of microgreens. They are available in a wide variety: watercress (my personal favourite), chia, basil, kale, radish, dill, cilantro and so on and many are ready to eat in only seven days. They are delicious in salads, in sandwiches or wraps, in soup or for juicing and are high in vitamin A, C and antioxidants. It is important to buy from a source where seeds have been untreated with protective chemicals.

Directions: Soak the seeds for an hour or so with 1 tsp hydrogen peroxide added.

This insures against e-coli contamination.

Rinse and drain in a colander or sieve.

Fill a container half way with soil.

(Plastic strawberry containers work well or use potting trays.)

Pat the soil down so that it is even.

Water well.

Spread the seed liberally on top of the soil. Either leave the seeds uncovered or sprinkle with a light cover of soil.

Spritz with a water bottle.

Cover the container and leave in the dark for 3 or 4 days.

Uncover (they will be pale green) and place in a bright spot, watering each day.

By Day 7, they will be dark green and some (baby kale, for instance) are ready to harvest.

Sterilize a pair of sharp kitchen scissors by setting in boiling water.

Use scissors to cut the microgreens, taking care not to pull up the soil. ◊

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APRIL 2019 35

Rural Living

Fabulous Friday ~ March 29th 20% off “F” flannels, fish, etc.

Spring Sale ~ April 1st to 6th Save the tax week

I grow varieties of Lavender plants that are adapted to our climate.

Please, visit my website www.sweetscentslavender.ca

Gardening Rhea HamiltonSeeger is a skilled cook and gardener who lives near Auburn.

Get veggies in the ground as soon as possible The days are getting longer and despite the cold we still get out and start cleaning up after winter. My only caution is to stay off the wet ground and avoid soil compaction.

Stick to looking after seeds you want to start, and line up what you want in your veggie garden. The most valuable piece of advice for growing seeds is to read the packet. It outlines the start date, depth of soil, temperature, and water requirements.

I am not going to get into a lot of detail about starting seeds indoors.

Pick a good soil mix, keep your eye on them so they don’t dry out and transplant if necessary to larger pots when the first true leaves appear (the first wee leaves are considered not true leaves).

I love seeing people collect seeds from their garden but I wish there was more info on the packets, like a name! I bought some seeds last year at the local plant auction and the auctioneer was not sure what they were. The donor could not remember if they were cosmos or marigolds. I took the gamble and had a beautiful patch of cosmos in the middle of my vegetable garden that bloomed until a hard frost did them in. They were in a perfect place as I could see them each time I came home, a welcome sight. You might be surprised to know I don’t use a lot of seeds but I am coming around after my experience with the cosmos.

I do envy gardeners who start a variety of both vegetable and flower seeds. But not all plants we like to grow are available by seed or are not reliable as seed. I did invest in a wonderful book, The Plant

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Propagator’s Bible by Miranda Smith and published by Rodale Press. It covers propagating every plant in your garden and is a good guide if you purchase seeds or receive seeds that don’t have a lot of info with them. It covers plants that are propagated by dividing, think perennials, and bulbs; cuttings, like my geraniums; layering; and grafting which is great for trees.

Many vegetables, like these carrots, are cold-weather crops and can be planted early into the garden.

So armed with this “bible” I am tackling the seeds I have inherited over the years and tucked into the fridge. I should now be able to determine how to proceed and get them into the garden. It is almost like a treasure hunt or maybe a magic show that could go badly!

When I think of seeds I generally think of vegetables. There is a growing movement to grow our own food, at least in the summer. I have to tell you that there are some truly dedicated gardeners who harvest edibles until Christmas or beyond and start quite early in the spring with cold weather crops. Using containers on the patio makes it easy to harvest and even move the containers into a warmer area in the fall to extend the season a bit longer.

Jim Fitzgerald, Master Gardener from Stratford, made a good point at the Stratford Garden show this spring. He spoke on vegetable gardening and made a very good point about our light levels. The longest day of the year is June 21st, so it only makes sense to take advantage of the longer days up to

Gardening June and get crops into the ground as soon as possible.

With that in mind consider some of these cool and cold weather crops: beets, broad beans, carrots, collards, garlic, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, Asian greens which include mibuna, mizuna, tatsoi and pak choi, peas, radishes, rutabaga, spinach, swiss chard, and the ever-loved family of brassicas which include broccoli, cauliflower, and kale. Once the cool lovers are in the ground you can look to planting seeds that like a little heat to germinate. You can get a head start by planting these seeds indoors or simply waiting until the soil warms up. A thermometer certainly helps here, 20-26 degrees celsius is what you want to look for.

The veggies include beans, cabbage, corn, melons, okra, peppers, pole beans, pumpkin, squash both summer and winter, sweet potato, tomato, watermelon and of course the prolific zucchini.

If vegetables are not in your garden plan, as markets are so popular in the rural areas, you may be simply anxious to get into your garden and start poking around.

Lots to keep you busy here.

Sometimes it is good to take a step back and review spaces and size of plants before the garden takes off. I know I have several hostas that have dead centres, a good indicator that they need to be dug up and cut into smaller pieces, and the soil replenished with compost. I try to replant a couple of pieces back into the same spot and the others I relocate around my garden or donate to the local Horticultural Society plant sale in May. Early spring is always a good time to share perennials that have taken over. I know sharing aggressive plants can be impolite but if the recipient is aware, the plant could fill a need to cover a spot quickly and thoroughly. There are some plants considered vigorous spreaders like gooseneck loosestrife but that is under ideal conditions. In our garden it stays put, happy that it has a spot!

Lots to do in the garden in the springtime. The only caution I have is to take your time, stretch often, and remember to try out the summer furniture.â—Š

Lisa Thompson MPP Huron-Bruce

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Huron-Bruce Matters

April 2019 37

People

By Lisa B. Pot

It’s about teamwork says new hall of fame inductee

Chicken farmer and farm leader, John Maaskant of Huron County, has been selected into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame

W

hen he thinks about achievement, it’s always as part of a team, says John Maaskant of Huron County.

Maaskant is one of five industry leaders selected for induction into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame.

Maaskant was nominated by the Chicken Farmers of Ontario. “I have had the distinct pleasure of working with John for more than two decades to advance and grow Ontario’s chicken industry. He has served in almost every capacity on CFO’s board—in some cases, twice—and his tireless work has undoubtedly improved the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of chicken farmerfamilies,” said Ed Benjamins, Chair of Chicken Farmers of Ontario. “As a farmer, John exemplifies some of the best our industry has to offer.”

Maaskant began farming at the age of 16 when his father was killed in an accident. John and his brother, Hugo, farmed together outside of Holmesville for many years before choosing, amicably, to build their

38 The Rural Voice

own farm businesses.

Maaskant is known for his strategic leadership and consensus building skills say those who have worked with him.

When asked about leadership, Maaskant said leadership grows on you as you get involved with organizations and challenge yourself.

Then, as you listen and encourage and create a team, you find your true strengths.

“When you work as a team, there is a greater cause that you are working together on,” said Maaskant.

“You learn that developing consensus is far more important than winning a vote.”

It was as a team that Maaskant was involved in finding a solution for supply management by using tariffs.

“We did a fact-finding tour in Europe to look for solutions to world trade challenges in the 1990s,” remembers Maaskant. “Tariffication as used by the chicken farmers became a model used in all supply-managed commodities.”

Farming being one great passion, Maaskant says working with the Ontario Farm Animal Council (which later amalgamated into Farm & Food

Care Ontario) was another. He remembers being proud of being part of the team that steered the organization away from a reactive role into a proactive one.

“We used to deal a lot with animal right’s organizations but when we thought about how we could be most effective, we moved our focus to building trust between consumers and food and farming,” remembers Maaskant. “I think that has been very successful for the organization.”

At age 71, and currently taking a break from leadership roles, Maaskant says he wants to encourage future leaders to get involved. The reasons why rolled off his tongue.

“Don’t do it out of duty. There is no longevity in that,” says Maaskant.

“Do it for the challenge. Because it is interesting, it is fun and you meet a lot of people and develop new skills.

You open your mind to what is going on around you and it’s easier to stay current. It is a rewarding experience!”

Maaskant and the four other nominees from across Ontario will be inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame on June 9 at County Heritage Park in Milton. ◊

Jim Denys is a soil health champion

S

trip tillage is the way to go, says Jim Denys, the new Soil Champion named by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association. Farming with his brothers in Middlesex County on a farrow-to-finish operation while growing corn, wheat and soybeans, Denys’ family has long experimented with tillage to build organic matter.

“My Dad started using strip-tillage in the 1980s, then no-tillage wheat in the 1990s followed by no-tillage beans. We tried strip-tillage with corn in the 1990s but went back to conventional until now, when we’ve come back full circle and use strip-tillage,” said Denys. “There are so many equipment choices out there now that you can find one that works for your system.”

Finding their way back to strip-tillage partnered with using cover crops on their fields. “We started small, just straight oats in a field with small plots,” remembers Denys. “When we started with cover crops we were not strip-tilling yet. We were discing in the fall. But when we saw what cover crops were doing for our soil health, we thought it was a shame to ruin it all with a disc. So we decided to give strip-tillage a try again.”

He admits it was a steep learning curve and recognizes it can be overwhelming. Denys advises talking to other farmers in your neighbourhood who do it and don’t be afraid to experiment. Currently, Denys and his brother try continued on page 39

People continued from page 38

because “it’s pretty neat,” admits Denys.

What’s more confirming is that compared to other farms that are seeing their field’s organic matter levels drop, the soils at the Denys farm are holding steady and in some cases, increasing. “Since introducing strip tillage, we know from soil tests that we are building up our soil,” says Denys.

“The biggest thing is to keep an open mind. We don’t have to do things the same way generations before did. We should try to improve and this is one way we do it,” said Denys.

As farmers come more under the microscope from the urban community, he says rather than being backed into a corner, choosing sustainable farm practices allows farmers to be proactive.

Denys, along with fellow Soil Champion winner, Anne Verhallen, a soil management specialist with OMAFRA, were presented their awards in February at the OSCIA annual conference in Kingston. ◊

all sorts of cover crops including kale, favo beans, standard oats, a little bit of barley and a brassica mix.

“Where I really like cover crops is when we have sow manure to spread,” said Denys.

“With the hog manure we go heavier on grasses because lots of broad leaves and legumes cannot compete with the grasses.”

Parkhill area pig and crop farmer, Jim Denys The family used to (right) accepts the Soil Champion award from Les kill the cover crop off Nichols (left), president of the Ontario Soil and in the fall but now they Crop Improvement Association. let it overwinter. As the leaves green up in after. “That root system is feeding the spring, they suck a lot of moisture the soil and keeping it alive until out of the ground. planting jumpstarts the soil biology.”

“By doing that, we can get on the Denys says it’s something you ground two days earlier,” said Denys. have to see to get your head around.

The cover crop stays green during Farmers sticking with traditional planting and is sprayed a few days methods of tillage need to see it

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People

Sell your story says Terry O’Reilly It’s easier to sell to someone if you can make them smile

By Bob Reid f you don’t have a story to tell you don’t have a business. That was the message brought to those attending the 36th annual Southwestern Ontario Dairy Symposium by guest speaker Terry O’Reilly, host of the CBC Radio program Under the Influence.

The program explores how culture is changed by marketing and promotion through advertising.

Podcasts for the program have been downloaded 25 million times making it the most popular podcast in the country by far.

It’s quite a remarkable feat considering the negative attitude of most consumers to advertising as demonstrated by the number of PVRs purchased to avoid watching television commercials.

“It (the podcast) is a show about advertising,” said O’Reilly in an overly-tired tone of voice for emphasis then adding “On a radio station that doesn’t have any advertising,” his head dropping down on his chest feigning exhaustion.

Yet the show attracts a large audience. Why? “We are hard wired for storytelling,” explained O’Reilly. If a business or an industry wants to attract interest in a product there needs to be a story associated with the product.

“Tell me your story,” challenged O’Reilly to a packed auditorium of 250-plus dairy farmers.

The power of storytelling is something he became aware of quite early in his career when a publisher had approached him about writing a book. It seemed like a dream opportunity, recalled O’Reilly.

On meeting the publisher, he listed all of his qualifications and references and whatever bits of information he thought would secure the opportunity. The publisher was not impressed.

“I realized I had broken my

I

40 The Rural Voice

People are wired for story telling Terry O’Reilly, host of the CBC program Under the Influence, told farmers at the Southwestern Ontario Dairy Symposium. ~Headshot by Sidney O’Reilly.

number one rule that you had to have a story,” said O’Reilly.

On asking for and being granted a second interview he came prepared with three stories – stories evoking emotion with a connection to marketing and research while not about marketing and research. He was immediately commissioned to write a book.

“Eighty per cent of our decisions are made with the heart and 20 per cent with our head,” said O’Reilly.

A story with emotion can pierce your heart in two seconds and remain in your consciousness for ever, he added.

If that story shines a good light on a business, the rewards can be immense.

O’Reilly then told the story of a grandfather who was trying to book a flight from Los Angeles to Denver,-

Colorado to see his three-year-old grandson for the last time. The child had been in a medically-induced coma for some time and the decision had been made to take him off life support. Heading to the airport he was caught up in the snarled traffic the Los Angeles Freeway is famous for. Finally arriving at the busy LAX he then waited in an unusually long line to buy his ticket. Finally arriving at the ticket counter he explained his situation, with the person at the counter processing him through as quickly as possible.

Hurrying as fast as he could go from the ticket counter to his departure gate the grandfather realized he would get there at the same time his flight was scheduled to lift off, yet he pressed on.

On arriving at his departure gate not only was the plane still there the

pilot was standing there at the gate waiting for him. “I am the pilot flying this plane and it wasn’t going anywhere until you got here,� he said.

That concern for one customer proved a huge long-term benefit for Southwest Airlines when the story became known, said O’Reilly.

He suggested a marketing campaign should promote functions rather than features of a product.

European car manufacturer BMW advertised a new type of headlight with an industry-leading brand name, a macho product title boasting cutting-edge technology.

The ad did nothing to increase car sales. Not until it was later stated that the headlights would allow a driver to see 200 feet further in the dark did consumers respond. o much information is downloaded on consumers today that they tend to shut it out after a while – even if it is information that would save a life such as “Change the batteries in your smoke detector when the clocks change.�

During his 40-year career in advertising one of O’Reilly’s most successful campaign ads was done on behalf of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO.) He had never attended the TSO but did so before designing an ad campaign and was surprised at how much he liked it, even though his music interests were in classic rock.

Determining that the sophistication and ceremony associated with symphony music might be the reason for falling attendance he created the following tag line for the campaign: “Be very afraid of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.�

The limited three-week long campaign featured people expressing their unfounded fears that they wouldn’t know when to clap or how to dress etc. because of the unknown.

The campaign with a limited budget was half over before there was any response at all but by addressing what had been a barrier to attendance that obstacle was overcome and attendance increased dramatically among a wider audience, said O’Reilly.

S

Born in Sudbury, O’Reilly shared that his connection to the dairy industry was through his wife who was raised on a dairy farm close to that Northern Ontario city.

During his career in advertising he has created campaigns for Labatt, Molson, Bell and the Hudson’s Bay Company. His earlier radio program on advertising was entitled the Age of Persuasion. In 1990 he founded Pirate Radio and Television with a staff of 50 overseeing eight recording studios in Toronto and New York City.

Following his presentation, O’Reilly was asked by an audience member what he thought of the current Dairy Farmers of Ontario television ad campaign featuring a dairy farmer walking through a barn while talking about his cows. The questioner suggested that the dairy farmer being portrayed looked like “stumbling idiot.�

Not in agreement, “I like it,� said O’Reilly of the campaign adding that the self-deprecating humour used by the actor portraying a dairy farmer can be very effective.

He went on to state his approval of the blue cow logo currently used to promote the dairy industry, suggesting it should appear on all ads related to the industry from signage to business cards to television.

An ad campaign is like a skewer in a shish-kabob that brings all the elements of advertising together, said O’Reilly.

In reference to the previously described dairy farmer he added, “It is always easier to sell to someone if you can put a smile on their face.� ◊

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News

By Lisa B. Pot

Trade, labour and taxes discussed at forum

T

he economy is doing very well in rural Ontario says Huron-Bruce MP Ben Lobb and labour issues shouldn’t detract from that. Lobb was speaking to farmers and agricultural leaders at the Huron County Federation of Agriculture’s (HCFA) Local Politician Forum, held March 9 at the Clinton Legion.

Held annually as a way for the agricultural industry to inform and connect with local politicians. Lobb said he’d been attending the event for 11 years. Both he and Huron-Bruce MPP and provincial Minister of Education Lisa Thompson were praised for their commitment to agriculture.

Finding qualified labour and being able to pay for it was a concern across sectors represented at the forum.

Among the other concerns addressed at the event were trade, a lack of processing plants, new transportation guidelines, taxes on farmland and risk management programs.

Meanwhile, both Lobb and Thompson reminded the group the province is in debt and encouraged farmers to search out and develop new markets for their products.

“There are opportunities out there to market but no possibility for it if we don’t have the processing facilities to get it there,” acknowledged Lobb, referencing the 300 million Christians in India looking to enjoy pork in a country where there isn’t enough supply. “If we can fix our trade and processing issues there is tremendous opportunity for beef and pork products to go elsewhere,” he said.

The whole issue of food infrastructure was addressed and it began with Harvey Hoggart, speaking on behalf of the Huron County Beef Producers.

He said Ontario produces more cattle than there is capacity to process them.

With the United States reducing how many Canadian cattle cross the border, cattle processing has backed up in Ontario. “We need more competition in the market but the only ones who can compete with Cargill Proteins are Tyson Food and JBS Food Company (both American companies) and I can’t see them wanting to come to Ontario,” said Hoggart.

42 The Rural Voice

Trade and labour shortages are issues farmers are facing across sectors, agricultural leaders revealed at this year’s Huron County Federation of Agriculture’s Local Politician Forum held March 1, 2019 at the Clinton Legion. Both MP Ben Lobb (left) and MPP Lisa Thompson (centre) were praised by HCFA President, Ethan Wallace (right) for working hard to listen, learn and act on behalf of the dairy, beef, chicken, egg, grain, pork and sheep farmers within Huron County.

“Labour and processing capacity are in my notes,” said Lobb, responding to the comments. “A lot of Canadians would be shocked to know that over 50 per cent of our beef is not grown in Canada. That is a significant issue and governments of all shapes and sizes want automotive plants in their province, very seldom do you hear that they want a processing plant, but we need to do just that. Just as you said, there is no competition and when there is no competition, you do not get fair prices. We need to look at food infrastructure... it’s a worthwhile discussion to have at this time.”

Thompson agreed. It really struck her that American processing companies won’t come to Ontario because of the price and availability of labour. She encouraged beef leaders to communicate with Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Todd Smith.

“He will be focusing on automotive and agriculture because he knows both sectors provide great jobs,” said Thompson. “We need to create a

climate where businesses think Ontario is a great place to set up. We need to make Ontario a place that is back open for business.”

Other concerns for the beef industry are new amendments released by the Canadian government to the Health of Animals regulations concerning transportation. The new regulations will reduce the period of time that cattle can be moved in transport trucks.

“Minimizing stress and preventing injury of animals during transport is always our goal,” said Hoggart.

“However, when you reduce the transport time, that means you have more unloading times and that is where most injuries to cattle occur,” he added.

Also, it would require more feeding stations, more pen capacity and increased biosecurity.

Lobb agreed with Hoggart. “People and livestock producers are trying to negotiate nicely behind the scenes and I don’t think the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) used all the data to make a determination, which is unfortunate,” said Lobb. “There is

News nothing we can do about it at this time, but it would be good to have a review and talk to livestock groups to see what the impacts are.”

After Hoggart spoke, each commodity had a chance to report on their industry. Here are the highlights: Egg Farmers “Our story is a positive one,” said egg farmers Brent Grainger and Stephen Beeler.

With consumption continuing to rise six per cent year after year in Canada, egg farmers are building new barns and enjoying success. However, they want this to continue by reducing imports of eggs from the United States.

Thompson advised egg farmers to make these concerns known to Smith as he meets with U.S. senators to discuss trade issues.

Beeler educated the crowd about the future of layer barns, saying all new barns are required to be built with enrichment systems, allowing the chickens to “express their natural behaviour. It is very important to consumers that the bird can be herself and do what she pleases.”

Lobb used the opportunity to joke if

he was ever reincarnated, he’d like to come back as a chicken and do what he wants. On a more serious note, he said he is aligned with chicken and dairy farmers that the United States/Mexico/Canada trade deal is not a good deal. “It’s like the trades the Ottawa Senators make – they give up a lot and don’t get much in return.”

Pork Producers Labour is a huge issue in the pork industry, said pork representatives Geert Geene and Bill Dowson.

Long-term solutions are needed while the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is critical to getting workers when local workers don’t want to work in pig barns.

Lobb agreed, revealing that Sofina Foods in Burlington has never laid anyone off in the history of the company. They need more shifts and more capacity and can’t find the workers to meet that demand. The labour shortage is real and companies hang onto the workers they have.

Geene and Dowson also wanted to alert the crowd of how fearful the industry is of African Swine Fever ever getting into Canada. The disease has

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News until each municipality updates its official plan.

When that happens, the municipality will let each farmer know if there was a change to their property.

Howick Reeve Doug Harding said when they passed their official plan it was “not easy” and that every landowner received a letter.

Glen McNeil Ralph DeWeerd “My concern is that Huron County Huron County people did not open their Dairy Producers Chicken Producers letters and were unaware... please open them. We have to be aware of changes from natural heritage and the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). We have to keep communicating,” he said.

Harding added that every landowner that approached Howick Shawn Edward Joan Vincent council about land changes had the changes Howick Fire Chief HCFA Public reviewed.

Relations Committee Farm Finance Committee decimated the sow herd in China and “A major concern of [the Farm will have unheard-of ramifications if it Finance Committee] is the increasing gets into the United States or Canada. property tax burden on farmland,” said “Prices will plummet and we will Adam Garniss. He said in five years, have nowhere to bring pigs. Even if we bare Huron County farmland has more stopped breeding today, it takes 10 than doubled in assessment value. This months to stop the flow of pigs,” said directly affects tax rates.

Geene.

The committee’s other concern is the To prevent African Swine Fever “long tail” DON levels in the 2018 from getting into the country, pork corn crop will have on farmers. Stating producers are asking for specially farmers are thankful for existing trained detective dogs to be used at government support on the issue, airports. These dogs can sniff out meat, Garniss wanted to make sure which is how the viral disease would Thompson and Lobb were aware likely enter the country. However, each farmers need better systems of one of these dogs costs about $10,000 prediction, prevention and testing so so cost is an issue, recognized Geene. that “DON doesn’t catch us so illProperty and Land Use equipped in the future.”

Committee Dairy Farmers Fear over how the Huron Natural Last year reminded dairy farmers that Heritage Plan could impact land use on supply management is a privilege and farms was the main concern for this not a right, said dairy farmer Glen committee.

McNeil, representing the Huron “There is a lot of confusion that we County Dairy Producers. The leaky hope to get cleared up at the county border and decreased support for level,” said Rob Vanden Hengel. supply management and its impact on Central Huron Mayor and Huron Ontario dairy farmers need to be County Warden Jim Ginn said the plan examined, he said. will use new aerial photos to create “We need to educate people to the new maps of Huron County farms. benefits and advantages of supply However, changes will not “kick in” management,” said McNeil. “[Prime

44 The Rural Voice

Minister Justin] Trudeau indicated he understood and respected us and assured us we would be supported in trade negotiations. This was the standard statement until the 11th hour when it was agreed that dairy farmers would give up 3.9 per cent access to American milk.”

The U.S. dairy industry pressured U.S. President Donald Trump into believing more access would save their industry. It will not, said McNeil.

“They over-produce and dairy farmers there are going broke and exiting the business at an unprecedented rate,” said McNeil.

Regulating milk supply to demand is what the supply management system does in Ontario and it needs to be protected.

The leaky border needs to be better regulated as well, added McNeil.

Increased border control would help.

“The border is a significant issue and has been for many years” agreed Lobb.

“It used to be pizza kits... U.S. processors are always trying to find ways around the rules to get entry into our markets.”

Lobb then said that drugs and illegal guns are also getting across the border.

“I think it is time the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) really takes a look at what comes across our border and keeping illicit items out.

There needs to be more money invested in CBSA,” he said.

On a positive note, McNeil said dairy farmers in Huron have really enjoyed handing out over 7,500 chocolate milk cartons at county Santa Claus parades as well as supporting county food banks.

Chicken Farmers The chicken industry is strong and vibrant and continues to grow with 1,300 family farms in the province and 178 in Huron County said chicken farmer Ralph DeWeerd. Huron and Bruce Counties produce $170 million worth of chicken and represent 16.7 per cent of Ontario’s chicken production.

The industry supports 22,000 jobs and contributes over $3.7 million to the Ontario economy.

“We echo our concerns over supply management and we share the same trade concerns with dairy,” said DeWeerd.

HCFA Public Relations Committee The committee puts a strong emphasis on supporting educational programs such as The Huron Perth Ag.

News and Water Festival, Farm & Food Care and Huron County Farm Safety.

In 2018, they put a special focus on clarifying the roles, responsibilities, differences and similarities between between HCFA and Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said Public Relations Chair, Joan Vincent.

Fire Chiefs New to the table at the forum was Shawn Edward, Howick fire chief.

Representing the Rural/Suburban Advisory Committee, Edward wanted to encourage farmers to invest in

WINGHAM

barn fire protection.

Installing fire extinguishers and following a maintenence schedule that includes checking wiring, clearing dust and cobwebs and looking for signs of corrosion can go a long way to fire prevention, said Edwards.

From 2013 to 2017, there were over 750 barn fires in the province with 39 reported injuries to humans and almost $180 million in losses.

He encouraged both Lobb and Thompson to look at the National Farm Building Code, which regulates the

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Ontario Building Code. The national code has not been updated since 1995, said Edwards.

“Modern farm operations have become increasingly large-scale with huge building and mechanization and large livestock numbers. We are concerned the codes do not reflect this,” said Edwards.

Thompson congratulated the federation on inviting Edwards to speak on such an important topic, while Lobb promised to start “a dialogue on a potential review of the national code.”◊

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Markets Scott Krakar is a Grain Merchandiser with LAC Inc., Hyde Park, 519-473-9333

Progress of U.S./China trade talks affects markets As we come out of the doldrums of winter the most newsworthy item affecting the grain market prices continues to be the potential for a U.S. / China trade deal and the ongoing negotiation progress.

The problem everyone seems to be having is the doubt as to whether progress is being made. With any given news item, market participants can be optimistic and pessimistic, as mixed signals and statements make headlines difficult

to interpret or anticipate.

We have seen headlines ranging from: “a China deal will add additional billions of dollars of agricultural product purchases” to the U.S. chief trade negotiator saying, “President Trump might be overstating the potential for a deal.”

Such varied statements make the outlook uncertain with this overhanging political risk. Positive deals coupled with production problems could send prices sharply higher, while a lack of trade and trend line production could sink prices to multi-year lows. Not only is weather uncertainty a major risk to producers, political risk has been growing and will likely continue to add risk to the farmer.

The U.S. isn’t the only country that has trade issues with China, as Canada too has its own growing trade problems with Beijing. Recently China cancelled a major Canadian company’s registration to ship Canola to the country. It is not reported or clear as to why this halt in registration was put in place.

Speculation of course, is that it is in

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retribution to the Canadian arrest of a Chinese telecom executive from Huawei Technologies, who faces U.S. criminal charges. The Chinese government has openly rebuked Canada for this arrest and the Canadian government has responded that it is not the government of Canada’s policy to obstruct matters of law with political interference.

China has cried foul in this regard, as the SNC Lavalin scandal has simultaneously surfaced, in which political interference has been accused in the Canadian government, rising up to the Prime Minister and his office. China points to this as a double standard and they have openly threatened Canada with retribution. This could potentially rise to a major blow to both Canadian GDP and especially the farm economy, predominately in western Canada. Canada exports $2.5 billion (CAD) of Canola to China per year.

Grain and oilseeds are among the category which represents about 17 per cent of all Canadian exports to China. This trade issue hits close to home also, as Ontario soybeans shipped heavily into China last harvest. China buying large volumes of Ontario-grown beans last year was a great benefit financially to Ontario growers. Hopefully this issue does not escalate further.

In regards to these issues discussed, a China deal is an important component to future grain price directions. This is, of course, due to the large inventories of U.S. grain and the need for markets to clear the surplus. Oilseeds face the largest pressure as China is the key buyer of the exportable world surplus. Soybeans are China’s second biggest import. Oil is their largest import and aircraft is their third largest purchase in terms of dollar value. China, as mentioned earlier, bought large volumes of Ontario beans last harvest. The U.S. sells China over $12 billion (USD) of soybeans per year. Soybeans are the U.S.’s second largest export to China, following behind aircraft. As the U.S. stockpile of beans grows – export markets and trade deals are key to the price outlook.

In Ontario there continues to be a

Markets lot of worry as to the condition of the Ontario wheat crop in the field.

Many growers are questioning the survivability of their wheat stands due to poor conditions this winter.

Not only has the wheat been hit by freeze/thaw cycles, but standing water and an abundance of ice in the field could cause survivability issues.

This is especially concerning as the wheat went in the ground late in the year after the delayed soy harvest, into wet and cold soil conditions.

Every year there is always concern about the survivability of the wheat crop. Not only in the past few years did we find that the wheat survived the winter well, but we achieved record yields in some areas. While this is always the conversation, this year, there seems to be more grower concern. From this extraordinary apprehension one has to wonder about the final harvested acres of Ontario wheat this season.

Wheat prices continue to show weakness, making new contract lows in February. There has been so much anticipation of U.S. export sales in the marketplace and this demand just hasn’t materialized the way many analysts expected. Wheat prices continue to sink despite U.S. wheat acreage once again making century low plantings. The reason for this is the Black Sea growing region, including Russia, and their increasing dominance in world wheat production. At the end of February Russia had exported just shy of 29 million tonnes of wheat, up over six per cent year over year.

Looking further down the road, the demand for Ontario-grown hard red wheats continues to grow.

Ontario wheat millers are keen to increase acreage of locally grown hard red wheats in the province.

Both spring and winter classes are in demand. With the negative outlook for soybeans, increasing hard wheat demand is potentially a good alternative to some soybean acres.◊

Deadline for the May issue of The Rural Voice is April 10, 2019

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If you search for Belle Isle on Google maps you'll see it’s a roughly 1,000 acre parkland island in the middle of the Detroit River near the bottom end of Lake St. Clair. While located in the U.S., it is only a few 100 metres across the water from downtown Windsor. In 2016, an outbreak of a tree disease called oak wilt was discovered on the island, although indications are it had already been present there for a number of years. This has resulted in some recent profile for the disease in southern Ontario as government agencies at all levels gear up to deal with yet another threat to our forests (both urban and rural). While oak wilt has not yet to my knowledge been found in Canada, the proximity to our border and its history of ongoing spread in the U.S. leads to a reasonable expectation that it will be here soon, if it isn’t here already. I personally first heard about the disease more than a year ago at the Forest Health Conference in the fall of 2017 in a presentation by Richard Wilson, Provincial Pathologist of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

Oak wilt disease is not new to the U.S. In fact, according to information on the University of Michigan website, it was first identified in Wisconsin in 1944 and has likely been present since the early 1900s; now having been found in 24 U.S. states. Its origin is not known. Originally it was assumed to be a native disease, but consensus in the scientific community now points more towards a probable introduction to North America in

Woodlots the early 20th century.

Oak wilt is cause by a fungus, originally known as Ceratocystis fagacearum and now (since late 2018) known as Bretziella fagacearum. It grows in the vascular tissues of oak trees, resulting in clogging of these tissues which blocks the flow of moisture and nutrients, eventually causing wilting, browning and thinning of the foliage and eventual death of the tree.

Browning of foliage usually starts at the tips of the leaves and works its way back towards the base.

The disease can be spread in several ways. Trees growing adjacent to one another often form root grafts, which are an ideal conduit for spread from tree to tree. Sap beetles are a primary means of spread in the northern part of the range. The fungus produces sticky, sweetsmelling, sporulating mats on infested, dead or dying red oak trees.

Nitidulid beetles (aka sap beetles) are attracted to these mats and can then carry spores to infect healthy trees that have fresh wounds with sap present that also attracts the beetles.

In the southern part of the range, oak bark beetles are thought to be another vector. Also, the disease range can expand by movement of infected nursery stock or firewood and logs cut from infested trees.

Oak wilt affects all species of oak but the red oak group is more susceptible and usually die once infected. The red oak group includes species that have pointed leaf lobes, e.g. northern red, pin and black oak.

White oak species are somewhat less susceptible, usually taking several years to die or sometimes recovering.

The white oak group are generally those with rounded leaf lobes and include white, bur and swamp white oak.

There is really no control; however, high value trees may be treated by injection with a soluble fungicide, similar to the treatment used in elm trees to ward off Dutch elm disease. The treatment is costly and must be repeated every couple of years.

The best option for control is to prevent spread of the disease wherever possible. An obvious, but

challenging option is to restrict the movement of infested nursery stock, firewood and logs. Other options are to avoid any activities such as pruning that may cause wounding of oak trees during the time of year when there is likelihood of spread, i.e. from April to October, or even more particularly in the mid summer period (May to July). Of course thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing that can be done to prevent wind storm damage in that period that results in sappy wounds

attractive to the spore carrying nitidulid beetles. One approach that may reduce potential for spread is immediate coverage of wounds with wound dressings. Another option is removal and destruction of infested trees to reduce the amount of available infectious material.

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Agrilaw John D. Goudy is a partner in Scott Petrie LLP Law Firm, and also farms north of London.

Not all Drainage Act appeals are decided on a without-costs basis Ontario’s Drainage Act provides mechanisms to municipalities and landowners to implement drainage solutions on a collective basis. On petition by landowners, a municipality may be compelled to construct a municipal drain; a municipality may develop a municipal drain on its own initiative; an existing municipal drain may be reconstructed, improved, or maintained. Costs associated with the municipal drain, including engineering

costs, are generally shared by the owners of the lands that outlet to the drain, with each owner responsible for an amount proportional to his or her respective share of the total drainage area.

Disputes related to municipal drains are often the subject of appeals by affected landowners to the Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal. Landowners may challenge the necessity for the drainage work being proposed by a municipality and its drainage engineer, the scope or extent of the drainage work, the cost of the drainage work, or the portion of the cost of the drainage work being charged to the landowner.

In the normal course, the parties to a drainage appeal before the Tribunal bear their own costs of litigation, such as legal fees and disbursements; cost awards against a party are exceptional.

However, no party should assume that an adverse cost award might not be made in the right circumstances.

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this party’s expenses incurred for preparation and attending the proceeding. This may include such things as preparation and hearing time for counsel, consultant and witness fees, and travel expenses. It does not include business or personal financial losses. If the party’s conduct caused such losses, however, this conduct may be included in considering a cost order.

A cost order may be made if a party requests it, if one party has, in the Tribunal’s opinion, acted inappropriately, as in Rule 28.04.

Such orders and the amount awarded are to discourage conduct that wastes a great deal of the Tribunal’s and parties’ time as well as other resources.

Note that for matters under the Drainage Act, costs are awarded only as provided in that Act. An order for costs is very rare.

Recovery of costs is not standard as in court proceedings. It is only where the Tribunal finds that a party wrongly brought the appeal or participated unacceptably in preparation or hearing events, that an award of cost will be made. Only a party may make a request for costs.

Participants, witnesses or others without official party standing can request or receive costs only in the most unusual circumstances. [emphasis added] According to the Rules, a party to a drainage appeal may ask for an award of costs where another party has “acted clearly unreasonably, frivolously, vexatiously or in bad faith considering all of the circumstances.”

Conduct that might warrant an award of costs can include failing to attend the hearing, changing a position without notice, failing to prepare adequately for hearing events, failing to present evidence, acting disrespectfully or maligning the character of another party, or knowingly presenting false or misleading evidence.

In a drainage appeal decision released in January of this year, the Tribunal ordered an appellant landowner to pay the respondent municipality nearly $6,000 in costs.

The landowner had brought an appeal challenging the quality of construction of drainage works, which is a proper

Agrilaw issue for appeal under the Drainage Act. However, the Tribunal found that the landowner provided no reliable evidence of any quality of construction issue and, in fact, that the landowner’s true complaint was about the design of the drainage works. The design of the works was not something that could be appealed to the Tribunal by that point in time, and the Tribunal dismissed the appeal.

The respondent municipality had communicated to the landowner early in the appeal process that the appeal did not actually raise quality of construction issues, and warned the landowner that the municipality might seek costs if the appeal continued.

This communication apparently resulted in a settlement between the landowner and the municipality, but the landowner almost immediately rescinded the settlement. In its costs decision, the Tribunal concluded that the landowner understood the deficiencies in its appeal, but continued nevertheless, “using the appeal process and potential associated costs as a negotiating tactic to get the Township to fund some or all of its private drainage works of approximately $25,000.”

The Tribunal ordered the appellant landowner to pay the municipality its legal costs and engineering costs related to the appeal incurred after the failed settlement, and authorized the municipality to enter the cost award immediately on the tax roll of any land owned by the appellant assessed under the particular municipal drain at issue.

The Tribunal found that the landowner had failed to produce any evidence in support of its quality of construction appeal and, more importantly, that the landowner had unreasonably reneged on its settlement with the municipality. But for this conduct, the municipality would not have incurred the costs awarded by the Tribunal. ◊ ______________________________ John D. Goudy’s law practice includes real property and environmental litigation, expropriation law, energy regulation, and regulatory offences. Agrilaw provides information of interest to the farming community, not legal advice.

Readers should consult a legal professional about their particular circumstances.

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www.beloretrailers.ca 324025 Mount Elgin Rd. Mount Elgin, Ontario N0J 1N0 Jamie Belore

B U S I N E S S

phone: 519-485-5358 toll free: 1-877-247-7227 fax: 1-519-485-6129 jbelore@gmail.com

APRIL 2019 53

John Berlett 519-291-3956 Cell: 519-291-8726

B U S I N E S S C E N T R E

5711 Line 87, RR #3 Listowel, ON N4W 3G8 Email: jberlett@megawire.ca

Looking to Buy or Sell Your Farm or Home?

Give me a Call!

Jeff Berlett 519-291-3722 Cell: 519-291-7609

INNIS NEW & USED TRACTOR PARTS LTD. Agricultural & Combines

STEVEN NIXON

New & Used Parts Used Tractors & Machinery

Broker WILFRED MCINTEE & CO. LIMITED

Serving the area since 1999

Bus: 519-357-2222 Cell: 519-531-0252 Email: nixon@execulink.com Web: www.stevennixon.com 249 Josephine St., WINGHAM, ON N0G 2W0

1-877-274-6583 Phone: 519-291-4924 Fax: 519-291-1520 Fire No. 6142, Line 84, R.R. #2, Listowel, ON N4W 3G7 Wanted: Early and late model farm tractors, combines, crawlers and construction equipment, fuel injection pumps, starters and alternator repairs

PACKERS: WE BUILD RUBBER TIRE PACKER SPECIALISTS 195 Wallace Avenue North, Listowel, Ontario N4W 1K8

Order Now Also large fold-up steel drum packers, lawn & estate rollers, custom manufactured

Bus: 519-529-1167 Bus.: 519-291-2299 Fax: 519-291-1015

www.peakrealestate.com

Cathy Hendriks Sales, Rep. RR #2, Arthur, Ont. (519) 848-2799

519-357-5128

MANUFACTURING STEEL ROOFING SIDING & TRIMS

519-363-3757 2051 Bruce Rd. 19, R.R. 1 Chesley, ON N0G 1L0

Also Supplying Other Building Accessories 54 The Rural Voice

Bruce Road 1 3 bedrooms., open concept kitchen & living room/stone fireplace leading to wraparound deck.

Call Cathy Hendriks 519.357.5128

SALES & SERVICE INSTALLATION & PARTS

Rissler KEITH SIEMON FARM SYSTEMS LTD. 81987 Perth Rd. 180, R.R. 4, Walton 519-345-2734 (anytime)

www.keithsiemonfarmsystems.com email: keithsiemon@tcc.on.ca For Free Planning and Estimates

TF: 1-877-509-2847 Ph: 519-799-5000 Web: ruralroutespestcontrol.com Email: rrpc@wightman.ca

Farm Drainage

• GPS • Plastic • 2013 Bron Plow • Surveys • Maps Glen 519-291-0709 cell Dennis 519-276-9292 cell

Agricultural Residential Commercial

Visit us at the Dairy Xpo

• Unmarked Vehicles • Fully Insured • MOE Licensed Technicians

Newton, Ont. 519-595-4545

STEVE TRUPP

LTD.

Genie Z45 Genie S45 Skyjack 27' All Terrain Telehandler 6000 lbs 36'

Tim Shantz

• • • •

Listowel

519-502-3553

We Buy All Types of Scrap Cars & Trucks Scrap Metal and Machinery USED AUTO PARTS • Government Inspected Scale • Competitive Prices • Bins Available 3961 Road 111, RR4 Stratford

519-271-4008 perthautodismantlers@bellnet.ca

Wa n t e d to buy

C E N T R E

OLD BARNS FOR SALVAGE CALL STEVE

519-523-4523 Galvanized Roofing For Sale

STEFFEN WELL DRILLING ROTH DRAINAGE LTD

37452 Glen’s Hill Road, RR 2, Auburn, Ont. N0M 1E0

519-531-0355

Tel. 519-529-7212

TEESWATER, ON

Quality Workmanship Since 1948

mike@steffenwelldrilling.ca

* Farm Drainage * Excavator & Backhoe Service * Municipal Drainage * No Obligation Quotes

Fax. 519-529-3277 Snowblowers, Quick-attach Buckets, Sweepers, Woodsplitters, Land Rollers, Stone Windrowers, etc.

Website: smythwelding.com Email: info@smythwelding.com

B U S I N E S S

• Agricultural & domestic water wells • Well Cleanouts • Pump Testing • Camera Inspection • Irrigation Wells • Dewatering Services

Gads Hill 519-656-2618

Blyth 519-895-6367

1-800-494-2618

APRIL 2019 55

CLASSIFIED

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AUCTION -------------------------------------------------Elmira Produce Auction – Hay and Straw Sales every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Consignors and buyers welcome. Call Noah Gingrich, 519669-3884. 7400 Reid Woods Drive, Elmira.

-------------------------------------------------CONSTRUCTION -------------------------------------------------WE POUR: liquid manure tanks, bunker silos, foundations and pads.

All are 100% engineered. Serving Ontario since 1968. De Jong & Sons Ltd. 519-348-0523.

-------------------------------------------------DAIRY -------------------------------------------------Screened bedding sand, delivered.

Call 519-625-8242 or 519-274-1490.

-------------------------------------------------FARM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Parts for Massey 33 seed drill, fertilizer/seed cups, $30 each. 519364-2099.

-------------------------------------------------FIREWOOD --------------------------------------------------

FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Contractor Repairs Restores remodels and jacks up farm buildings, homes and cottages. Also roofing, siding, doors, windows, peers, foundation repairs, eavestroughing, beams, posts, fencing, decks, docks, horse stalls installed, replaced, repaired, storage and farm buildings built. Barns and silos demolished and removed. Brian McCurdy 519-9861781.

-------------------------------------------------Martin’s Nursery & Bee Supplies Etc. Large selection of flowering trees, shade trees, fruit trees and hydrangeas and other shrubs. We have the plants you need to make a living “privacy hedge” or snow fence, Blue spruce, pine, cedars, etc. Also…

Complete line of Bee Supplies for the commercial or hobby beekeepers.

We sell Bees (Nucs) in spring and early summer. Come see our selection Monday to Saturday at Emanuel E.M. Martin, 42661 Orangehill Rd., Wroxeter, ON N0G 2X0, one concession north of Wroxeter on Belmore Line.

-------------------------------------------------Rebuilt water pumping windmills Beatty, Aermotor, etc., parts, repairs and sales. 519-357-3621.

-------------------------------------------------For prices on forage peas, forage pea mixtures, barley, oats, spring wheat and mixed grain. Contact Courtney Grain & Seed (2015) Ltd., 225 Hwy. 21, RR 1, Ripley. Phone 519-395-2972. Ask for Carmon or Mitch.

-------------------------------------------------Alfalfa hay mixtures, pasture mixtures, top dressing for pastures, and a selection of organic grass seeds. All mixed to your personal needs. Also red clover for plowdown.

Available at Courtney Grain & Seed (2015) Ltd., 225 Hwy. 21, RR 1, Ripley. Phone 519-395-2972. Ask for Carmon or Mitch.

--------------------------------------------------

FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Soybean seed for sale – Absolute RR, Expo R2X, Excursion R2X varieties.

Treatments and inoculants available.

Call Mitch at Courtney Grain & Seed (2015) Ltd. 519-440-6712.

-------------------------------------------------HAY & STRAW -------------------------------------------------Hay alfalfa grass, first cutting, 100 bales of second cutting, good protein and feed value. Also 200 bales of wheat straw, clean and dry.

Delivery available. 519-373-3127.

-------------------------------------------------IRON & STEEL -------------------------------------------------DISCOUNT STEEL: New second grade steel sales; 1" - 8" square tubing; 7/8"-14" round tubing; Rectangle tubing, discount plate; New and Used I-Beams; Bar grating, rebar, angles; Custom cutting, welding, punching. Listowel. Phone Aden 519595-7775.

-------------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK BEDDING -------------------------------------------------MIRACLE FIBER Livestock Bedding. Also, coarse wood mulch for horse and cattle walkways, wet areas around water troughs and bush lanes. Also available is dairy pack starter bedding. 1-877-773-8004.

Sittler Grinding. Rick Sittler.

-------------------------------------------------Bedding pack compost starter for dairy and veal barns. 1-877-7738004. Sittler Grinding. Rick Sittler.

-------------------------------------------------DUST EXTRACTED straw available in coarse or fine cut. Also available in pellets, bags or bulk. Call for details.

Chopped straw and sawdust mix; bags only. Edgar Martin, 519-2916783.

-------------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Spring Hatchery: day-old heritage Beltsville Small White and Ridley Bronze turkeys, White Chantecler chickens and heritage duck breeds for small farm family flocks.

Pick-up at farm. See website: www.cirrushillfarm.ca --------------------------------------------------

Bodywood • Slabwood Quantity Discounts 519-441-2085 519-656-2057

Serving Southwestern Ontario for over 10 years!

-------------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Certified organic open-pollinated seeds. Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds, RR 3, 5961 5th Line, Palmerston, ON N0G 2P0. 519-3433375. www.hawthornfarm.ca -------------------------------------------------Rosco grain bins for sale – 19' and 14' diameter. Parts available. Used grain bins wanted for parts or reuse.

Closed Sundays, 519-338-3920.

-------------------------------------------------Cedar rails for sale. Contact Jonathan Kuepfer at 519-749-5772.

-------------------------------------------------HAY & STRAW & IND. WRAPPED baleage, nice, clean, rotary combined, good for TMR. 3x3x7' bales and silage bales individually wrapped.

Huron East. 519-292-0138.

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56 The Rural Voice

Discount Steel Great for barn posts, stabling or other build-your-own projects

Custom Welding & Machine Shop Custom Stabling Mfg. Open Tues. & Thurs. ~ other days by chance John A.M. Martin 1467 Grey Ox Ave., Lucknow

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------LIMOUSIN – Double and homo polled, thick, well muscled, quiet breeding bulls available. Select now.

Delivery included. Posthaven Limousin, John Post 519-766-7178. www.posthavenlimousin.com -------------------------------------------------Gelbvieh Bulls – reds and blacks, 14 months old. Ready to work and fully guaranteed. Mike Klages 519363-6307.

-------------------------------------------------Red Angus, Simmental and Red Angus-Simmental yearling bulls, B.I.O. tested. For results Google – Ontario Bull Evaluation, Silver Springs Farms.

James and Joan McKinlay 519-5996236. jmckinlay@bmts.com -------------------------------------------------Double cut red clover seed.

James McKinlay 519-599-6236.

--------------------------------------------------

SERVICES -------------------------------------------------Cronin Poured Concrete Ltd. Since 1976. Liquid manure tanks to 200'.

Heights of 8'-14' (1-pour). All jobs engineer specifications/inspections guaranteed. Best firm quote in Ontario. Mark Cronin, 519-348-9062.

Cell 519-274-5000. www.cronin pouredconcrete.ca --------------------------------------------------

SERVICES -------------------------------------------------INLINE FENCING – Custom farm fencing. Page wire and horse fencing 519-934-1555.

-------------------------------------------------Firearms and hunting training.

PAL & HUNTER ED. Ongoing courses available.

Certified instructors. Call Greg 519-887-9622 or 519-291-0507.

-------------------------------------------------Custom Clover Seeding with GPS $2.50/acre or $3.00 for pasture. Seed available at $1.75/lb. D.C. Call Kurt Beuerman 519-525-0538 or 519-5239234 (home).

-------------------------------------------------STANDING TIMBER -------------------------------------------------STANDING TIMBER - hardwood and softwoods. Quality workmanship guaranteed. B. Kropf Forestry Service Ltd., Bruce Kropf, RR 1, Shakespeare, ON, N0B 2P0. 519748-7422.

-------------------------------------------------TRAVEL -------------------------------------------------AGRICULTURAL & UNIQUE TOURS – Ukraine/Poland – Alberta/Sask. Farm Tour – Calgary Stampede/Canadian Rockies – Rocky Mountaineer Rail – NWT/Yukon/Alaska – Iceland/Greenland – Australia/New Zealand 2020 – Peru/Brazil/Argentina/Chile 2020 – Plus more… Call or visit the website Portion of Tours may be Tax Deductible.

For these and other great departures, contact Select Holidays at 1-800-6614326 or visit www.selectholidays.com -------------------------------------------------TREES & SHRUBS -------------------------------------------------DO YOU LIKE TREES? What about the Native Maple Tree? Learn more and watch Maples in Beautiful Fall Splendour! Visit: mlfvideo.com/rv -------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------------COUNTRY MUSIC JAMBOREE Sunday, April 7, 2019, Chesley Community Centre, Chesley, 1:00 to 7:00 p.m. Admission: $5.00. Supper: $12. Music by Dave Chittick and players. For info: 519-387-4665.

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21st Annual Open House & Private Treaty Sale Limousin bulls and open and bred females

DONALD A ANDREW ACCOUNTING Accounting & Income Tax Services for FARMS, BUSINESSES & INDIVIDUALS 296 Ross St., Lucknow

Ph. 519-528-3019 All farm buildings & houses, seamless eavestroughing, liquid rubber coatings, waterproofing, metal, concrete, wood, foam and bin flooring sealing.

519-859-0097 or 519-871-0300 info@townsleybarnpainting.com

Saturday, April 6, 2019 At the farm 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

GLAVIN BARN & COMMERCIAL PAINTING

137606 Grey Rd. 12 Meaford 519-372-7459 www.smartlimousin.com

FARMERS repaint your faded coloured steel

Smart Limousin

-------------------------------------------------RESTORATION -------------------------------------------------The Olde Tyme Radio Centre – antique radios, clocks, gramophones, telephone and vintage auto clock radio. Speedometer, tachometer rebuild-restore. Belgrave 519-3574304, www.oldtymeradio.ca -------------------------------------------------RETAIL & GIFTS -------------------------------------------------Stitches with a Twist – 404 Queen St., Blyth, 519-523-9449. Yarns, knit and crochet instruction. Chainmaille supplies. Alterations and repairs, including leather.

-------------------------------------------------SERVICES -------------------------------------------------TRINAL CUSTOM FARMING – If you are looking for someone to do your disc-bining, big square baling or forage harvesting please call Ken Horst, cell: 519-292-1393 or Kervin 519-357-5557, RR 2, Teeswater.

--------------------------------------------------

FREE QUOTES ~ FULLY INSURED

RR 1 Crediton, Ont. N0M 1M0 (near Exeter)

Call: Jim Glavin 1-800-465-4725 519-228-6247 • Tree Seedlings • Nursery Stock • Shade Trees • Native Species Order for Spring 2019 Now

888-226-6344

www.hrichardsonfarms.com SEAMLESS EAVESTROUGHING

 Roofs & Walls  Elevator Legs  Air Blasting  Pressure Washing  Fully Insured  Free Estimates

London 1-888-253-3756 Specializing in on Farm Pest Management Serving Southwestern ON, Golden Horseshoe, GTA Email: sgschris@ciaaccess.com

519-692-4232 www.sgspestmanagement.ca

APRIL 2019 57

CLASSIFIED UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------------Spring Lecture Series at Grey Roots Museum and Archives. Tuesdays at 2:30 in the theatre. March 19: Vikings.

March 26: Internet Genealogy Research. April 2: Rocks & Rock Formations. April 9: Monarch Butterflies. Details at greyroots.com --------------------------------------------------Quilt Show 2019, Meaford United Church, corner of Boucher and Sykes Street, Meaford, ON, Friday, April 12, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Saturday, April 13, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Demonstrations and Viewers Choice.

Admission $5. Lunch $8. Afternoon refreshments $2.

--------------------------------------------------Northern Terminus Journal Vol. 16 Release, April 6. The Emancipation Festival presents the Grey County Black History Event at Grey Roots Museum and Archives, featuring the launch of Volume 16 of Northern Terminus: The African-Canadian History Journal. Visit greyroots.com for details.

--------------------------------------------------22nd Annual RV/Campout Jamboree May 23-26, 2019 at the Blyth Arena Complex and Campgrounds.

Brochure and registration form available by contacting The Barn Dance Historical Society, Box 68, Wingham, ON N0G 2W0 or www.thebarndance.ca 519-530-8000 or email: barndance2013@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------WANTED -------------------------------------------------WANTED: We have qualified buyers looking for the following: 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in Goderich; 100 acres+ farm in Clinton area; farm with river/lake frontage buildings and workable acres; hobby farm on the river in the Auburn area. Call Dave Boonstoppel at Realty Executives, for a confidential meeting, 519-440-2444.

-------------------------------------------------Hay/Straw - small square bales of hay; timothy and alfalfa. Round bales of hay; timothy alfalfa or timothy grass mix. High class large square bales of hay. Call Riley Gorman 519-321-1012.

-------------------------------------------------Wanted to Rent or sharecrop good cash crop land. Short or long term.

Paying top dollar. Contact Alma Lane Farms Ltd., Jason 519-525-0509.

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58 The Rural Voice

CLASSIFIED WANTED -------------------------------------------------Belt-driven Bear Cat hammermill, International corn binder, International #9 ensilage cutter. 905-983-9331.

-------------------------------------------------Scrap Cars Wanted – 20, 30, 40 yd. scrap metal bins available. We sell quality used auto parts. Wanted to buy – scrap cars, trucks, farm machinery, heavy equipment.

Kenilworth Auto Recyclers. 519-3231113.

-------------------------------------------------FARMLAND TO RENT OR SHARE CROP – Hay/corn/soybean/wheat rotation. 100% no-till. Annual soil testing. Monthly, quarterly, semiannual, annual rent payment options.

Please call/email Joe 519-525-0359, joewhitely05@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------WANTED – Mutual Land Use Partnership. We offer cash rent, share crop or custom farming options.

Best soil management practised. claussen@tcc.on.ca 519-525-8329 or 519-525-7733.

-------------------------------------------------Actively seeking farmland to rent for corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, edible beans. Contact Narva Farms Limited: 519-366-2636 or 519-881-9384 or email: sandyfitzsimmons@hotmail.com -------------------------------------------------I am interested in purchasing breeding pet rabbit stock for the spring, that are various colours and breeds. I am also interested in hobby chickens and possibly other fowl.

Please call Gisele Ireland 519-3926461.

-------------------------------------------------Farmland – Long or short term.

Cash rent, share crop. Contact Paul at Hill & Hill Farms, 519-2333218 or 519-525-3137 or email: paul.hillhill@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------------WANTED: FARM LAND TO RENT – We are a family-owned farm looking to rent your land. Competitive rates.

We pay spring/fall and ALWAYS on time. We will treat your land like it’s our own. References available upon request. Please call 519-357-4597, leave a message.

--------------------------------------------------

Calendar

APRIL 3-4 – National Poultry Show, Western Fair district, Agriplex Building, London. For details visit: www.poultryindustrycouncil.ca/ education-extension-events/londonpoultry-show/ 3-4 – Canadian Dairy XPO, Stratford Rotary Complex, Stratford. For details visit: dairyxpo.ca 9-10 – Huron Perth Agriculture and Water Festival, Seaforth Community Centre, Seaforth. Visit: hpawf.huronstewardship.ca for details/registration.

18 – Perth County Federation of Agriculture Directors meeting.

Contact the Federation office for time and location.

22 – Huron County Federation of Agriculture Board meeting, 8:00 p.m, Vanastra office.

23 – Bruce County Federation of Agriculture Directors meeting, 8:00 p.m., Bruce County Building, Walkerton.◊

To add your free non-profit, farm-related events to the calendar listings call or write: The Rural Voice, PO Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0.

519-523-4311

St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 Grey County Federation 446 10th519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 grey@ofa.on.ca Website: greyfederation.ca of Agriculture * The Rural Voice is providedEmail: to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA

Grey County hosts 73rd annual public speaking contest Any opinion expressed is that of individual County Directors or Representatives and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Grey County Federation of Agriculture or Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

Grey County Federation of Agriculture was pleased to host its 73rd annual public speaking contest.

This year’s competition saw a record number of contestants with 28 registrants in the South and 23 in the North Region. With the extensive range of topics, the students kept the judges on their toes choosing the finalists.

On March 5, the finalists competed. The Agricultural Awards were won by: Grace Routenburg (Junior division) speaking about Miniature Horses and Sydney Martin (Intermediate division) with her topic of Agriculture and Mental Health.

They are pictured receiving their awards from Ruth Hill. Ruth presented to them the Don Hill Memorial Award in honour of her husband, a long-time director for the Federation of Agriculture.

The GCFA wants to thank all the students for their efforts, the teachers for their support of this program and the parents for bringing their children to this event.◊

Ruth Hill, centre, presents Agricultural Awards to Grace Routenburg, left, (Junior division) and Sydney Martin (Intermediate division). Ruth also presented to them the Don Hill Memorial Award in honour of her husband, Don.

Winners of the 73rd annual public speaking contest, hosted by Grey County Federation of Agriculture on March 5 were: Junior category, first, Grace Routenburg; second, Nicki Ranieri (Autism); third, Evie Kingston (History of Hanover). The other competitors in the junior division included Daphne Mannerow (Agriculture), Aliviah McCall (Lacrosse) and Brooke Knight (Camping).

In the Intermediate division: first, Sydney Martin; second, Nate Caughill (The 5 traits of Success) and third, Dalynne Steen (4-H). The other competitors included Gavin Kielly (Lies), Maisie Cottrill (Raspberry Pie), Summer McKay (Showing Cattle) and Kylie Swindlehurst (Rice).

Grey County Federation of Agriculture

DIRECTORS’ MEETINGS 2019 • June 20 – 8:00 p.m.

• August 15 – 8:00 p.m.

• September 19 – 8:00 p.m.

• November 14 – 8:00 p.m.

All meetings are held at Grey Ag Services, Markdale

GCFA holds annual curling bonspiel Grey County Federation of Agriculture held its annual bonspiel on February 16 in Markdale at the Curling Club.

Each draw curled two games, ate a delicious dinner, shared a few stories and took home a meat prize from Bentinck Packers.

We thank everyone for coming and we thank the sponsors.

Proceeds from the event have been donated to 4-H Grey County and the Building Careers and Futures in Agriculture Bursary. A good time was had by all and we hope to see you back next year. ◊ – Allen Hughes and Bob Aitcheson, (co-ordinators)

Winners of the 9:00 a.m. draw were: from left, lead Kevin Thompson, Stan Piotrowsk, vice Mike Hutchings and skip Don Grummett.

Winners of the 11:00 a.m. draw are: lead Clayton Wathke, second, Robert Thompson, vice Alex Wathke, skip Marvin Wathke.

APRIL 2019 59

Perth County Federation of Agriculture Email: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Website: www.perthcountyfarmers.ca Agnes Denham, Secretary: 519-229-8866 or 1-866-829-8866 Robert Martin, President: robertmartin@xplornet.ca or 519-291-4853

OFA advocates for red tape reduction

By Keith Currie, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) is a strong advocate for eliminating unnecessary red tape and regulatory burden for Ontario’s agricultural community. As the provincial government looks to reduce red tape under its open-forbusiness bylaws, including the proposed Bill 66 Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018, OFA will always advocate to ensure the concerns of Ontario agriculture are heard and considered.

Bill 66 is a far-reaching piece of legislation that includes proposed changes to several existing laws across several provincial ministries that impact the agri-food sector. It proposes amendments to the Planning Act, Agricultural Employees Protection Act, Toxics Reduction Act, and the Farm Registration and Farm Organizations Funding Act. OFA is encouraged by the government’s decision to remove Schedule 10 – a proposed amendment

PCFA holds Annual Meeting The Perth County Federation of Agriculture held its Annual Meeting in February at Jobsite Brewery in Stratford. Everyone enjoyed pizza and beverages before the meeting and a tour of the brewery followed the meeting.

Four directors were up for election for a three-year term: Joanne Foster, Joanne Innes, Eric McLagan and Kirk Rankin were eligible for reelection and were acclaimed as PCFA Directors for 2019-2021.◊

to the provincial Planning Act that would have given municipalities the ability to pass bylaw changes that could use primary farmland for any type of development.

As every farmer knows, farmland is a finite resource. We can’t make more and must do everything we can to protect it for food production.

There are tremendous opportunities for prosperity across Ontario that don’t need to be at the expense of the province’s farmland resource.

OFA has outlined our official position on all proposed changes to legislation under Bill 66 that would impact Ontario farmers, and have sent a formal submission to Todd Smith, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

We support changes to the Agricultural Employees Protection Act, 2002 that would extend the act to workers in the ornamental horticulture sector.

We support the proposed changes to the Toxics Reduction Act, 2009 that would make it easier to report violations on toxic substances. OFA also supports the intent to make it easier for people to report violations.

We do encourage the government to ensure that compliance systems under this act be conducted with scientifically sound investigations to avoid false reporting.

OFA generally supports proposed amendments to the Farm Registration and Farm Organizations Funding Act, 1993. But we caution the government that eliminating Section 2(2) could increase red tape and burden on farm businesses – running counter to the intent of Bill 66. These changes could also result in multiple registrations filed for the same farm business – a

PCFA celebrates 75 years!

2019 is Perth County Federation of Agriculture’s 75th Anniversary.

Watch this page for some interesting “Did You Know” facts from the past 75 years.

Mark your calendar for Saturday, November 16, 2019 as we will be celebrating this landmark occasion at this year’s Perth County Harvest Gala.

wasteful and unnecessary consequence of the proposed amendments.

We will be following this extensive piece of legislation and continuing to advocate for decisions that benefit and don’t hinder the ability of Ontario farmers to operate sustainable and productive operations.

To read OFA’s full submission to the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, please visit ofa.on.ca/resources and click on “Submissions and Correspondence”.◊

PCFA DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, April 18 Contact office for time and location

PCFA 75 years 1944-2019 Did you know?

True or False?

1. The first part-time OFA Fieldman in Perth was also a Church Minister? (TRUE, Rev. Bert Daynard of Staffa).

2. PCFA Supported the importation of Sugar Cane as it was a cheaper product? (FALSE, PCFA supported the Ontario Sugar Beet Industry and encouraged the restriction of the importation of refined cane sugar).

3. PCFA was one of the few County Federations who never formed a “Women’s Committee” (FALSE, in October, 1950 a Women’s Committee was formed in Perth).

4. PCFA disapproved of the implementation of Daylight Savings Time? (TRUE).

5. In 1945, the PCFA AGM Speaker stated that the Ontario Farm Population was 30 per cent.

(TRUE, and since it was this low the PCFA needed to educate the non-farm population).

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Perth County by the PCFA.

60 The Rural Voice

Craig Hulshof, President craig.hulshof@gmail.com / 519-301-8483

Perth, Huron, Grey and Bruce County Pork Producers

NEWSLETTER

* The Rural Voice is provided to Perth County Pork Producers by the PCPPA perthcountyporkproducers@gmail.com

Please report your pig movements!

Any opinions expressed herein may not necessarily reflect the views of the Perth County Pork Producers’ Association.

If you are not reporting the movement of your pigs, what are you waiting for? It has been mandatory to report the movement of pigs, dead or alive, onto or off of your farm since July of 2014. If you fail to accurately report the movement of your pigs within a week of the movement, you could be fined up to $1,300 for a first offence. To keep everyone honest, and make our traceability system credible, your pig suppliers and pig buyers are required to report these corresponding movements separately.

This makes it very easy for the CFIA to find farms who are not reporting their movements. Traceability is one of the pillars of the Canadian Pork Excellence program that is to be implemented across the country over the next three years. If you do not have a record of your pig movements, your farm will not be certified under this program, and federally inspected packing plants will not buy your pigs.

However, these sticks are not the best reason to spend 15 minutes per week reporting your movements. The threat of African Swine Fever, a foreign animal disease that would shut down our export markets if found in Canada, is the latest and grimmest reason to start reporting your pig movements.

To emphasize the impact that a foreign animal disease (FAD) can have in the absence of a robust traceability system, let’s look at what happened to the Canadian Beef Industry starting in May of 2003 when a case of Mad Cow Disease was reported. Immediately 40 countries closed their borders to our beef and cattle. In November of 2004 BMO reported that cattle producers had lost $5 billion since the crisis began. From the beginning of the Crisis until the middle of 2005, the government gave the industry over

$2.5 billion in compensation. The border to the U.S. partially opened and closed two times, finally opening again in July of 2005, over two years after the crisis had begun.

Reporting your movements is all about being able to trace the origin of an animal from the packing plant, or the assembly yard where a problem is identified, all the way back to where the pig was born. The faster the source of a FAD case can be identified and eliminated, the sooner our export markets can re-open and business can return to normal.

Reporting your pig movements to the Pig Trace database allows this traceback process to take minutes instead of days. But the benefit of this system is only as good as the percentage of pig movements that are reported. We need our trading partners to be able to trust our traceability system so that if there is a FAD outbreak in Western Canada, we have records to show that this will not affect Eastern Canada allowing pork to be exported from unaffected regions. If we look at the pattern of PED outbreaks across Canada, we can see that this is the case, but the documentation of the Pig Trace database is critical to prove this to our trading partners.

This zoning of quarantine is still being negotiated with the World Organization for Animal Health and our trading partners. Right now, you are in the same boat as every other pork producer in Canada. The Canadian Pork Excellence program (CPE) is enforcing a high standard for pork production that mitigates or eliminates most risks, including FAD. This program ensures your customers and fellow producers that you are taking all the steps necessary to produce safe, secure, nutritious pork.

Don’t let your neighbour, who isn’t following CPE protocols climb into the boat, by using your premise ID so his child can send his pig to the fair.

We need to ensure that backyard production stays out of our federally

inspected plants. Don’t let a trailer of pigs leave your farm without knowing the premise ID of the destination. Don’t accept a trailer of pigs without knowing the premise ID of where they came from. We are all being held to the same standard in case of an FAD outbreak, we need to hold each other to a higher standard.

Ensuring Canada has a robust traceability system is up to you. All of the infrastructure to report your pig movements is in place, waiting for you to use it. If you already know your user name and password, you can go to https://pigtrace. traceability.ca/login Unfortunately the pigtrace.ca homepage has not been working since August, so if you need help getting set up to report your movements, call Ontario Pork at 1-877-668-7675. ◊ Sources: https://globalnews.ca/news/1830438/ timeline-canadas-2003-mad-cowdisease-crisis/ https://lois-laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/ regulations/SOR-2000-187/page1.html https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/ regulations/C.R.C.,_c._296/page22.html#h-113 – Submitted by Craig Hulshof, President, Perth County Pork Producers Association

PERTH COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS PORK PRODUCTS • Smoked Pork Chop • Fresh Pork Chops • Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage • Smoked Cheddar Sausage • Bacon Burgers • Teriyaki Pork Steaks AVAILABLE FROM: Dave and Ruth Kloostra (Monkton).. 519-347-2619 Ted and Donna Keller (Mitchell)........ 519-348-9836 Jerry and Sandra DeGroot (Kinkora) 519-393-5237 Leis Feed (Milverton).......................... 519-595-2048 Have the Perth County Pork Producers BBQ at your next event or celebration! Phone Jerry DeGroot 519-393-5237 for more information.

APRIL 2019 61

446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551

Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca website: brucefederation.ca

NEWSLETTER High prices cure high prices Any opinion expressed is that of individual County Directors or Representatives and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture or Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

High prices cure high prices. That is a saying I heard many times growing up, and looking back there is a reason it was so often repeated.

Whether it was high livestock prices or crop prices, high prices never seemed to last long, and the equal but “opposite low prices will cure low prices” also holds true, but not as fast as the high prices.

Bruce Federation of Agriculture is often asked about the current business risk management programs and the recent rapid rise in farm property taxes. Members request we do more to “fix” both of these issues.

I often wonder if these are issues we need to fix, or should we let them take care of themselves.

Looking from an urban taxpayer’s perspective, agriculture looks successful. There are lots of new farm buildings, barns and grain storage, lots of new (and very expensive) equipment, and land and rental prices are at all time highs.

Agriculture has become the largest industry in Ontario with the recent contractions in the auto industry, but are farmers doing a good job of managing their industry. While it is harder for farmers to convince input suppliers to reduce prices, we do have a much more direct connection to the price of land (either owning or renting). In any other industry, once the prospect of government support is exhausted, business managers put Crop

Yield

Price

Gross $

Corn

180

4.56

Soy

53

Wheat

85

pressure on suppliers to “be more competitive” and have lower costs. If the business is big enough (Walmart, Loblaws) they sometimes just tell suppliers they will be receiving less, and to be happy they still have a customer.

Land costs are likely the largest single cost for most farmers, and the biggest hurdle to many younger and new farmers. Using Agricorp and OMAF data, 2018 corn yields in Ontario were about 180 bushels per acre, soy about 53, and soft red winter wheat about 85.

Using HDC’s February 28 prices, an acre of average land can have a gross revenue between $488 and $820 depending on the crop. If you assume that the cost of fertilizer, seed and equipment are half of the gross revenue it leaves $244 to $410 on average to pay for land. Low interest rates over the past decade have been a big factor in the rise in land prices but in an environment where interest rates have started to rise this may change. Assuming the average acre in Ontario can contribute a maximum of $410 to land costs at three per cent interest average land should be priced under $15,000 and at five per cent interest it needs to be under $10,000 and this does not include property tax or principal payments. For those who survived 23 per cent interest and have farms valued at $20,000/acre it takes $4,600 an acre for that interest rate.

With governments looking to cut expenses to help balance their budgets, should governments limit support to farmers who are purchasing or renting ground at prices that provide no reasonable expectation of profit? Should farm

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA

support payments be capped at lower levels (ie. $25,000 per farmer).

Should property tax reassessments only be done when farms are sold?

Asking these questions is going to generate strong opinions, but as the largest industry in Ontario they are questions we should be answering before someone else answers them for us.◊ – Submitted by John Gillespie Director BCFA

SMV Signs Live in Grey and Bruce Counties?

Bring your old, rusty, faded, bent signs to the GCFA/BCFA booth at Chesley Agri-Fair and we will give you a new one!

(The first 15 each day from each county)

Show your OFA card.

One new sign per membership

DIRECTORS’ MEETINGS Bruce County Federation of Agriculture April 23 – 8:00 p.m.

May 27 – 8:00 p.m.

June 24 – 8:00 p.m.

August 26 – 8:00 p.m.

Land Cost

Interest Rate

820.8

$ per acre

3%

5% 7.50% 10%

23%

September 23 – 8:00 p.m.

11.15

590.95

5000

150

250

375

500

1150

November 11 – 8:00 p.m.

5.75

488.75

10000

300

500

750 1000

2300

15000

450

750

1125 1500

3450

20000

600

1000

1500 2000

4600

62 The Rural Voice

All meetings are held at the County of Bruce Building, Walkerton

Index A & V Kucyk Ltd............................ 11 A. G. Hayter Contracting................14 Advantage Royal Group.................. 7 Amanda’s Embroidery.................. 53 Bag Supplies..................................53 BDO.............................................. 32 Behrns Metal..................................53 Belore Trailers.............................. 53 Berlett Farms................................ 54 Bernie McGlynn/SB Flooring........ 49 Bervie Supply................................ 39 Bester Wood Products.................. 48 Bio-Ag............................................ 46 Bluewater Pipe................................ 9 Blyth Brewing (Cowbell)................ 19 Brocksden School Museum.......... 15 Brough & Whicher Limited............ 53 Bushell’s Auto Sales...................... 45 Canadian Co-op Wool Growers...... 6 Cliff’s Plumbing.............................. 23 Cow Planet.................................... 27 Cross Country Eavestrough............ 3 D.C. Craig Excavating.................. 47 De Dell Seeds.................................. 9 Diamond Roof.................................. 6 Easy Lift Doors.............................. 12 Faromor........................................ 21 Fawcett Tractor.............................. 53 Financial Management.................... 2 Forest Garden Nursery.................. 27 General Airspray............................ 43 Gerber’s Workwear........................ 54 Germania Mutual Insurance.......... 50 Greenville Liquid Plant Food..........22 Grey Bruce Construction.............. 46 GRK Products................................ 28 Grober Nutrition.................... Cover 4 H & B Farms Inc............................ 22 Hanover Customs Brokerage........ 11 Hardi Dealers................................ 24 Hill & Hill Farms....Inside Front Cover Huron Commodities...................... 51 Huron County Health Unit.............. 19 Innis New & Used Tractor Parts.... 54 JA Porter Holdings........................ 50 JH Keeso & Sons.......................... 48 JJM Concrete Grooving................ 17 Jones Harold Enterprises.............. 54 Keith Siemon Farm Systems........ 54 Kuepfer Farm Drainage................ 55 Kuepfer Firewood.......................... 55 LAC................................................15 Lands & Forests Consulting.......... 48 Layton Steve..................................55 Legge Fitness........................Cover 3 Lisa Thompson MPP.................... 37 Maple Leaves Forever.......... Cover 4 Mapleview Agri.............................. 15 Marquardt Farm Drainage............ 13 Marvin Smith Forestry....................25 MastersChoice Seedcorn.............. 24 McIntee Realtor - S. Nixon............ 54 Metzger Agri.................................. 10 Metzger Meat Products..................19 Michael’s Stabling............................ 8 Midwestern Agri Fair...................... 41 Morris Sachs Silo Construction........7 Newman Dust Control....................63 Nuhn Forage.................................. 51

Nutra-Glo...................................... 41 Ontario Forage Processor.... Cover 5 Peak Realty - Cathy Hendriks........54 Perth Auto Dismantlers.................. 55 RBC.............................................. 13 Realty Executives - Dave Boonstoppel.. 19 Ridgeway Metals.......................... 54 Robert’s Farm Equipment.............. 47 Roth Drainage................................55 Rural Living.................................... 35 Rural Routes Pest Control............ 55 Rural Voice Books................ Cover 6 Saugeen Valley Conservation...... 49 Schmidt’s Farm Drainage.............. 43 Schweiss Doors............................ 14 Seifried Farm Equipment.............. 32 Sew & Save.................................. 36

Shop Hop...................................... 35 Slumskie Bros. Contracting.......... 10 Smyth Welding.............................. 55 Somerville Seedlings.................... 49 Steffen Well Drilling...................... 55 Stihl Dealers.......................... Cover 7 Superior Tire Sales........................ 17 Trees.......................................... 7,11 Triple P Consulting........................ 23 Trouw Nutrition...................... Cover 8 TS Rentals.................................... 55 Usborne & Hibbert........................ 25 W D Hopper & Sons...................... 24 WeCover........................................ 37 West Wawanosh Mutual Ins.......... 25 Williams Drainage.......................... 13 Zehr’s Sales & Manufacturing........52

APRIL 2019 63

HURON

42 First Avenue, Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0 519-482-9642 or 1-800-511-1135 Website: www.hcfa.on.ca Email: ofahuron@tcc.on.ca

County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER

Updates to Ontario’s Distracted Driving Laws There are recent updates to Ontario’s Distracted Driving Laws.

The laws apply to any motor vehicle being driven, including tractors, and farm equipment when on roadways.

What counts as distracted driving: Ontario’s distracted driving laws apply to the use of hand-held communication/entertainment devices and certain display screens.

While you are driving, including when you are stopped in traffic or at a red light, it is illegal to: • use a phone or other hand-held wireless communication device to text or dial – you can only touch a device to call 911 in an emergency • use a hand-held electronic entertainment device, such as a tablet or portable gaming console • view display screens unrelated to driving, such as watching a video • program a GPS device, except by voice commands You are allowed to use hands-free wireless communications devices with an earpiece, lapel button or Bluetooth.

You can view GPS display screens as long as they are built into your vehicle’s dashboard or securely mounted on the dashboard.

Other actions such as eating, drinking, grooming, smoking, reading and reaching for objects are not part of Ontario’s distracted driving law.

However, you can still be charged with careless or dangerous driving.

Distracted driving statistics: In Ontario, deaths from collisions caused by distracted driving have doubled since 2000.

Ontario data on collisions from 2013 show: • one person is injured in a distracted-driving collision every half hour • a driver using a phone is four times more likely to crash than a driver focusing on the road Penalties for distracted driving: If convicted, the penalty you face depends on the kind of licence you hold and how long you’ve been driving.

Drivers with A to G licence:s If you have an A, B, C, D, E, F, G and/or M licence, you’ll face bigger penalties when convicted of distracted driving: • First conviction: ➩ a fine of $615, if settled out of court (includes a victim surcharge and the court fee) ➩ a fine of up to $1,000 if a summons is received or if you fight the ticket in court and lose ➩ three demerit points ➩ 3-day suspension • Second conviction ➩ a fine of $615, if settled out of court (includes a victim surcharge and the court fee) ➩ a fine of up to $2,000 if a summons is received or if you fight the ticket in court and lose ➩ six demerit points ➩ 7-day suspension • Third and any further conviction(s) ➩ a fine of $615, if settled out of court (includes a victim surcharge and the court fee) ➩ a fine of up to $3,000 if a summons is received or if you fight the ticket in court and lose ➩ six demerit points ➩ 30-day suspension Careless driving: You could face more charges – for careless driving – if you endanger other people because of any kind of distraction. This includes distraction caused by both hand-held (e.g., phone) or hands-free (e.g., Bluetooth) devices.

If convicted of careless driving, you may receive: • six demerit points • fines up to $2,000 and/or • a jail term of six months • a licence suspension of up to two years You could even be charged with dangerous driving – a criminal offence that carries heavier penalties, including jail terms of up to 10 years for causing bodily harm or up to 14 years for causing death. ◊ Information provided from Ontario.ca

* The Rural Voice is provided to all OFA Members in Huron County by the HCFA

Upcoming Events April 3-4 – National Poultry Show.

For details visit: www.poultryindustry council.ca/education-extensionevents/london-poultry-show/ April 3-4 – Canadian Dairy Xpo, Stratford. Visit http://dairyxpo.ca/ for more information.

April 8 – Grow Your Farm Profits workshop in Clinton. Day 2 - April 15. To register contact 519-9553139 or email: lsinclair@ ontariosoilcrop.org April 9-10 – Huron Perth Agriculture and Water Festival, Seaforth.

April 10 – Farm and Food Care Annual General Meeting and Conference. For details/register visit: www.farmfoodcareon.org Huron County Federation of Agriculture

BOARD MEETING Monday, April 22

8:00 p.m.

Vanastra Office

HCFA OFFICE HOURS: The office is open on Mondays and alternate Fridays 9:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

We are also open other days by chance

Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/huronfedofag and Facebook at Huron County Federation of Agriculture

The Rural Voice is provided to all OFA members in Huron County by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture

64 The Rural Voice

RAL READING ROO RUBOOKS M ON RURAL THEMES

OUT OF THE WOODS: CHRONICLES AND CHARACTERS OF HURON COUNTY David's collection of stories appeals to the casual reader and history buff alike. Each short entry is filled with human interest and details that open a window to the county's past and its characters.

Arranged in chronological order - from the time of the region's Indigenous people through to early settlement and finally to Canada's coming of age during the Great War - it is a book you can enjoy one story at a time or cover to cover. $25.00 TOP 10 FOR KIDS NATURE A weird and wonderful book about the weird and wonderful natural world. Top 10 for Kids Nature is packed to the max with checklists, fun facts and pictures.

Humorous, relatable and informative, the book engages readers while they learn about earth and the rocks, water and plants that it is made of and the animals, insects and birds and more that live on it. Top 10 for Kids Nature is a must-have book containing exactly what kids want: lists, facts and pictures to share with friends. Colourful, weird and masses of fun, this fantastic read will keep kids entertained to the max. $9.95

Great Easter Reads

MIGHTY MACHINES TRAINS More mighty machines in full color for the kids who love them. New trains are superfast, super long and super mighty.

Here are Mighty Machines that jump off the page. Large type describes the machines, their parts and their uses.

With their lively designs and topics that are always a favorite with kids, these books offer popular subject matter and excellent value. $5.95

THE HOME BREWER’S ANSWER BOOK Dreamed of creating your own beer? Ashton Lewis, head brewer with Springfield Brewing Company in Missouri and columnist with Brew Your Own magazine provides answers to every question. $18.50

WALKING HOME The former CP Rail line from Guelph to Goderich is about to become the 127 km. Guelph to Goderich Rail Trail. In 2014 Lynda L. Wilson and her husband Doug walked the future trail and this book tells of the adventure and the people they met. $19.95 Total

Qty.

OUT OF THE WOODS MIGHTY MACHINES TRAINS AT KNIT’S END BACKROADS OF ONTARIO TOP 10 FOR KIDS NATURE THE HOME BREWER’S ANSWER BOOK WALKING HOME AGRI-SKILLS ABROAD SHIPPING & HANDLING RATES $6.00 for the first book 60¢ for each additional item to a maximum of $20.00

AT KNIT’S END: Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much Humorous and philosophical readings about knitting and crafters. Quotes from famous personalities often trigger the meditations by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, “The Yarn Harlot”. $16.95

$25.00 $5.95 $16.95 $29.95 $9.95 $18.50 $19.95 $10.00 Total for Books Shipping & Handling Add 5% GST on subtotal Order Total

BACKROADS OF ONTARIO Ron Brown has updated and expanded this guide to hundreds of interesting places to visit throughout Ontario. Mapped out routes for daytrips let you get to know rural Ontario with interesting stories about spots along the way. $29.95

AGRI-SKILLS ABROAD: Farmers Helping Farmers In the 1970s a committee was set up at the annual meeting of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture to raise money to help farmers in developing countries. This slim volume tells of the groups’ work since. $10.00 Proceeds to help the cause.

Send cheque or money order for full amount to: Books: North Huron Publishing P.O. Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0 or call and pay by credit card 519-523-4311 MAIL BOOKS TO: Name:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Address:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______________________ Code _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Phone:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Prices subject to change with increases in wholesale prices, postage, taxes, etc.

Please refer to current issue for correct figures. Incorrect payment will delay delivery.

FORMOSA

MITCHELL

NEUSTADT

Schmidt’s Power Equipment

Lloyd Kuntz Sales & Service

Wighty’s Repairs Inc.

The Windmill Sales & Service

519-357-3877 schmidtspower@gmail.com

519-367-2913 lloydkuntz@wightman.ca

BLUEVALE

Highway 8 West

www.wightyrepairs.com 519-348-0404

519-799-5342 rafilsinger@wightman.ca

CHESLEY /HANOVER

LUCKNOW/MT. FOREST

DUNDALK

390 1st Ave. S. / 450 10th St.

Robert’s Farm Equipment

Highland Supply

Bruce Service Sales /APC

1634 Cty. Rd. 86/435 Sligo Rd. W. 519-529-7995/519-323-2755

519-923-2240 / 1-800-265-9154 www.highlandsupply.ca

519-363-3811 / 519-364-6345

MILVERTON

SEAFORTH

Albrecht’s Chain Saw Service

Delta Power Equipment

R.R. 1, Milverton (Line #67 Lane 4158) 519-595-2579

42787 Hydro Line Rd. 519-527-0120 www.deltapower.ca

Making cows more

ÂŽ

Improving your return with the Newton Dairy Program www.trouwnutrition.ca

Contact your local Shur-Gain dealer for more information.

Belmore Feed Mill Belmore 519-392-6522 Dauphin Feed & Supply Dungannon 519-529-7951 1-800-665-5675 Walton 519-887-6023 The Hitching Post (2019) Ltd. St. Marys 519-284-2360

Hensall District Co-operative Londesboro 519-523-9606 1-800-265-9000

Nieuwland Feed & Supply Ltd. Listowel 519-291-5795 1-800-265-3229

Zurich 519-236-7155 1-800-565-7155

Drayton 519-638-3008 1-800-263-9818

Ripley 519-395-5955 1-855-895-5955

Elora 519-846-5354 1-800-265-5354

Mitchell 519-348-8752 1-800-669-3502

Yantzi Feed & Seed Ltd. Brunner 519-595-8251

Parkhill 519-294-6252

Tavistock 519-655-2033