The Rural Voice - August, 2020

August 2020

Rural Voice

The

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Contents The

Rural Voice THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE

22

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

27

Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Lisa B. Pot rveditorlisa@northhuron.on.ca

32

18 Columns Lisa B. Pot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

AUGUST 2020 • Cover Photo Jill Delaney of Hawthorn Organic Farm Seeds. Photo by LBP.

• Deadlines: Sept. Issue

– Aug. 11

Oct.Issue – Sept. 15

18 Farming for Climate Change They grow the crops and raise the animals with a light footprint to mitigate climate change

22 An Enriched Life for Hens More space and clever designs improve cage life for laying hens

Departments

27 Seed Saving for Genetic Diversity

Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 News & Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . .71

32 Fermented Foods

Newsletters National Farmers Union . . . . . . .65 Perth County Pork . . . . . . . . . . .66 Perth County Federation . . . . . .67 Grey County Federation . . . . . .68 Bruce County Federation . . . . . .69 Huron County Federation . . . . . .70

Plants that flourish in our area produce seeds we need to keep, says thriving seed company Good for the gut and easy to make, fermented foods are natural immunity boosters

Contributing writers: Keith Roulston, Kate Procter, Jeffrey Carter, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, Arnold Mathers, Donna Lacey, Melisa Luymes, Anne Mann, Nancy Fisher, Dorothy Henderson, Bonnie Sitter, Gary Kenny, Jeff Tribe, Amanda Brodhagen, Bob Reid and Geoff Dale 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

44 Fire Affects Farmers A fire at Green’s Meat Market is devasting for owners and farmers

50 Caterpillars Everywhere Now is the time to find and destroy egg sacks to control gypsy moths

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.

NH

ORTH URON

PUBLISHING COMPANY INC.

A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.

Feedback Letters to the Editor may be sent to The Rural Voice, P.O. Box 429, Blyth, On N0M 1H0

Great to see all views presented The Editor, I just want to thank everyone who worked on the July issue of The Rural Voice. I sat and read it in one “go�.

That could have something to do with the extreme heat. At any rate every article was very interesting to me and such a wonderful selection of topics!

The one that sticks out in my mind is the one on Nuclear Waste. It was great to see all “views� presented so that everyone can become more informed about this very important decision.

Keep up the good work, you are

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appreciated. Just not told so often enough! ◊ – Mary Douma, 2019 Brussels and area Citizen of the Year

The DGR requires deeper investigation The Editor, I must be honest in expressing my disappointment in what I feel was an imbalance in presenting views for and against the DGR proposed for high level nuclear waste, in The Rural Voice July 2020 edition. As one of the most serious environmental issues confronting the agricultural sector in midwestern Ontario, such a complex and controversial industrial project will require deeper investigation.

Framing the controversy around three voices from three groups is an introduction to the issue, but not an accurate one. The NWMO is not a community group, but instead is the proponent of the proposed high level DGR, who chose this option rather than other options that the federal government asked it to study almost two decades ago.

For Becky Smith, NWMO Regional Communications Manager, to suggest South Bruce is “an ideal site as a future DGR� is totally unproven. Locally, not even borehole drilling, among other environmental studies, has begun. Nor will the limited outcomes demonstrate the long-term safety of such a major mining project.

As for the other voices identified in the story titled “Nuclear waste: wanting, willing, unwilling,� while the NWMO is “wanting,� the two community-based groups represent the two grassroots voices, “unwilling� and “willing.�

Michelle Stein heads up “Protect Our Waterways: No Nuclear Waste,� as the “unwilling� voice. It has both a Facebook page and also a website not identified in the story - at https://www.protectsouthbrucenodgr.org.

Tony Zettel is the spokesperson for “Willing to Listen.� In The Rural

Feedback Voice he advocates the NWMO as “a good source of information.” That support, evident in trusting and foregrounding NWMO material on its Facebook page, is what separates the perspectives of the two community groups.

Mr. Zettel, for example, vouches for the “international consensus” about a DGR as the safest long-term option for spent nuclear fuel. The NWMO, in fact, has repeated that assertion endlessly. But the truth is that 150 or more independent scientists internationally, called the Nuclear Consulting Group (NCG), take a much more critical view about DGRs, and are more fully honest about why the research on DGRs has lasted through decades. The fact is, major uncertainties continue without resolution.

My final illustration of the imbalance in views is based on many years working both as a journalist as well as a media literacy educator, with a doctorate based on psychology. All media construct reality, sometimes with results not consciously intended by journalists, editors and headline writers.

I refer to the framing of a quote by Tony Zettel on page three of the July edition of The Rural Voice. The quote – placed on a separate page from the story, is directly positioned above an idyllic image of a person sitting on a log at sunset by the lakeshore, accompanied by a dog. His words read: “We have a moral obligation to take this seriously and see if we can be part of the solution.” Through this special treatment, Mr. Zettel could be perceived as having the moral high ground, at an unconscious psychological level for readers.

The single truth underlying the passion and concern of both community groups, indeed, is how to ensure a promising future for the children yet unborn, in an uncertain world. ◊ – Dr. Sandy Greer, PhD Blyth, ON

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You sow in tears before you reap joy.

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machine last week is now fully recovered • A will is a dead giveaway

Stable connections • The internet connection at my farm was really poor so I moved the modem to the barn. Now I have stable wifi.

• Being a farmer isn’t for everyone but hay, it’s in my jeans.

Not a step closer.

I am the guardian And I mean business ~Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

•

Neil’s One-Liners (Wisdom from McGavin Files) • If it is to be, it is up to me: 10 little words that mean a lot • A wise man learns from the mistakes of others because no one lives long enough to make them all themselves.

August 2020 5

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

Hanging out with the bees Why is it that you don’t understand the full wonder of something until you tangibly experience it yourself?

We all did the bee project in school, didn’t we? We made the diagrams, identified the different kinds of bees and listed some cool facts: • Honey bees must gather nectar from two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

• The average bee will make only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

• A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.

• A honey bee can fly for up to 10 kilometres, and as fast as 24 kilometres per hour.

• The bee’s brain is oval in shape and about the size of a sesame seed, yet it has a remarkable capacity to learn and remember things. For example, it is able to make complex calculations on distance travelled and foraging efficiency.

It was all very cool but quickly forgotten in a lifetime largely ignoring insects including bees, yet routinely slathering honey on our morning toast.

Then you make a bucket list. And write down that you want to raise backyard bees to complete the cycle of the horses a manure a garden a flowers and vegetables a pollinators a healthy eating a composting a back to soil cycle on

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Morning starts with nectar-collecting and this honeybee has chosen the flowers of St. John’s Wort to pollinate.

Lisa B. Pot You look around at the rest of your lawn. It’s brown and dead partly from drought and partly because mowing has cut away diversity and life from this expanse of grass that looks real pretty but has become a big chore.

Something clicks. Something transformative. You start thinking that if part of this lawn was allowed to grow or be transformed into a prairie meadow, there would be many MORE flowers for the bees.

Suddenly, you are drawing up plans and researching native plants of Ontario. You are joining bee clubs, following bee pages on instagram and visiting beekeepers to ask questions and learn, learn, learn.

You get to open the hive for an inspection and you notice tiny eggs in the comb cells. The hive is growing! There is honey – actual honey – piling up on the frames. You don’t see the queen and truth is, you’re a little sweaty and nervous because your smoker went out (lack of experience) and you notice all these bees staring at you from between the frames. You decide to replace the frame but it’s sticky and you accidentally jerk the hive. A collective, angry, buzz swells from the depths of the hive. But you don’t get stung and you know it’s your fault. You deserve the reprimand.

Next time, though, you will practice with the smoker to make sure you have backup protection.

Suddenly, what you’ve been reading in Bees for Dummies makes sense. You want to champion these bees! You want to check on them, grow plants for them and find the ideal location for them to thrive.

You have a lot to learn. This is more than a school project. This is real life, supports farming and is really important. You are hashtagging and literally living all the buzz words: #savethebees #PollinatorProtector and #grownativeplants.

You are going to be busy but it’s a process. The bees know what they are doing. It’s just you who doesn’t.

So you watch, learn, read and connect with experts as you try to help the world, one plant and pollinator at a time. ◊

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August 2020 7

Keith Roulston Keith is former publisher of The Rural Voice.

He lives near Blyth, ON.

We’ve paid a cost for trade, travel COVID-19 is just the latest in a long line of plagues to invade our world and change lives forever.

I was thinking of that the other day as I walked up the lane from getting the mail and looked toward the fenceline at the back of the farm.

A row of dead branches showed that emerald ash borer (EAB) had finished its deadly work on the ash trees along the property line.

It hardly seems any time at all since I was doing stories about the first discovery of damage by the EAB. It had been discovered in southern Michigan in May 2002 and by that July had spread into Essex County. I wasn’t even aware how

8 The Rural Voice

many ash trees we had in the landscape when I did my first stories.

Now it’s easy to tell just about wherever you look.

It’s the second major tree species to be devastated by an invader since we moved to our current home. The skeletons of mighty elm trees were still silhouetted across the horizon when we moved here in the 1970s, the victim of Dutch Elm Disease, spread by the elm bark beetle.

Holland had nothing to do with the disease, except that two Dutch researchers did early research on the fungus in the 1920s.

Both diseases are thought to have originated in Asia and reached our shores thanks to world trade and travel, just like COVID-19 and many diseases like the Spanish Flu. It’s thought the EAB arrived in packing materials, perhaps skids, with goods from China. Dutch Elm Disease came in 1931 when a furniture company in Cleveland, Ohio unwittingly bought infected logs from France. Not only did we import the killing fungus but also the European elm bark beetle which was much more efficient in spreading the

fungus than native bark beetles.

Human “improvements” often have unintended consequences.

Development of the Erie Canal in the U.S. and the Welland Canal in Ontario allowed the spread of the sea lamprey eel which has been destroying native lake trout populations for nearly a century.

The recent 2019 State of the Great Lakes report released by the Governments of Canada and the United States stated over 185 nonnative aquatic species have become established in the Great Lakes basin.

Many are undermining the health of native aquatic life in the lakes and damaging the fishing industry.

Of course deadly invaders are nothing new. Indigenous people could argue the worst plague to invade North America was the Spanish, English and French explorers, closely followed by their nations’ settlers. Sometimes these aggressors directly attacked the people already living here, sometimes simply bought their land for pennies or cheated them out of it.

If that wasn’t enough, they brought with them new diseases the native population had no resistance for, including smallpox, bubonic plague, chickenpox, cholera, the common cold, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, measles, scarlet fever, sexually transmitted diseases, typhoid, typhus and tuberculosis.

There were relatively few communicable diseases among the Indigenous peoples of North America (the one disease they traded back was syphilis) and spread thinly across two huge continents, they had social distancing down pat and didn’t share diseases often.

The common thread in all this is travel. And the greatest “advance” of the modern world is – travel. Never in the history of the world have so many people travelled so much, and so quickly. Never have so many resources and goods been shipped between continents.

And so, I suspect, my neighbourhood’s ash trees will not likely be the last victims of an imported plague. Neither will COVID-19 be the last pandemic we’ll face. Apparently we’ll accept that cost to enjoy trade and travel.◊

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

A study of daughter succession on the family farm As we gear up to harvest wheat, I remembered that it is about three years since I received communication from a young Australian woman named Katrina Sasse. She is a 2017 Nuffield Scholar and her topic is “Raising Women to Farm, A study of daughter succession in a changing family farm environment.” I was happy to be a small part of her study, which has just been published.

Katrina stayed with us and rode with me in the combine while we discussed farming – the joys and challenges.

“The Nuffield Canada Scholarship is a prestigious rural leadership program available to anyone midcareer who is involved in agriculture in any capacity of primary production, industry or governance.

This $15,000 scholarship provides individuals with a unique opportunity to: • Access the world’s most extensive network in food and farming, • Achieve personal development through travel and study, • Deliver long-term benefits to Canadian farmers and growers, and to the industry as a whole.”

More information can be found at https://www.nuffield.ca/ Katrina spent two months travelling through various countries including the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. She conducted over 50 interviews with farmers’ daughters, agribusiness consultants, and academics, as well as private and public sector agriculture industry managers.

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Having returned to her family farm herself, Katrina is passionate about learning why there is still a gender bias in agriculture, especially when it comes to farm succession.

“This report is aimed at showing how multi-generational family farm businesses are changing, albeit slowly, and farms are now being passed down to daughters, often for the first time in history. While there is a greater collective consciousness in the agricultural community than ever before that fosters women, progress on gender equality can often feel too slow, as rigid structures in succession are well ingrained.”

Katrina’s report includes case studies on nine different farmers, four of whom are from Ontario – Mary-Ann Dore, Jenn Doelman, Kelsey Banks, and Katelyn Moore.

Other case studies are from the U.S., Germany, Netherlands, and Denmark. She noted that “daughters have the ability to manage all different types of farm operations and strongly believe themselves to be the custodians of their family land.”

One of the main conclusions from her study is that often there is a gender bias that is present from a very young age, and this different treatment affects the outcomes. “The concept of ‘Women in Agriculture’ must not be associated with the concept of being a farmer’s wife, mother, or daughter-in-law. The pigeonholing of women into these categories shuns the daughter farmer scenario and perpetuates gender bias,” she writes. “Both men and women are needed to lead us forward into the future to be sustainable for many generations.”

Katrina makes several recommendations – for parents, daughters, and agricultural leaders.

Being encouraged to learn by making mistakes is crucial for anyone learning a new skill, but boys are often given more learning opportunities than girls. All farm businesses can benefit from recognizing diverse skills and capitalizing on different strengths.

“Siblings can work in a harmonious business partnership where daughters and sons do not have to work sideby-side on daily tasks, but their

Kate Procter strengths complement the other.�

She encourages daughters to be proactive and have open communication directly with family members. All succession plans go smoother when family members feel open to communicate honestly about their wishes with regard to the future of the farm business. Having a female mentor can help young women take on more of a leadership role in the largely male-dominated sector. “Not every farm needs to be managed the same way. Be bold and different.�

All farmers, regardless of gender, benefit from recognizing their own strengths and weaknesses. Hiring help for jobs that are outside of that area of expertise allows people to focus on the areas of the business that they are good at. “Employing people with differing skills and building a good team ensures a strong business.�

Katrina also noted that gender biases are often perpetuated through language used by succession planners and other agribusiness consultants. “Successful stories of women successors need to be shared as widely as possible, online and through other forms of media. More incentives and campaigns to encourage youth, particularly women, to view agriculture and related fields as a viable career is vital.�

Through her international study, Katrina noted that many challenges faced by daughter successors were similar, regardless of the country. “While there are many initiatives to encourage women in agriculture, without access to farm land and farm opportunity through succession, women will never be treated equal to men. Parenting is key and suggests a paradigm shift is necessary. It is not enough for parents to say “our daughters can farm if they want to’ as this study indicates farmers actually need to be doing something to manage this and encourage daughters to farm from as early as childhood.�

Katrina’s full report can be accessed through Nuffield International at https://nuffield international.org/live/Reports. ◊

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August 2020 11

Jeff Carter Jeff is a freelance journalist based in Dresden, Ontario.

There is more

to food than energy and nutrients “Earth has plenty for every man’s needs but not every man’s greed.”

Gandhi My first memory of gardening was of helping my mother put seeds into the ground.

A straight furrow had been created. My job was to place the beans and peas at regular intervals, each representing precious potential.

I remember considering whether to work from hands and knees or simply stoop and shuffle along as young children do.

I remember, too, the wizened potatoes near the end of their storage life. With sprouts removed, they’d serve for supper, perhaps with a few wizened carrots or a can of string beans, along with a nice roast of beef or a spent laying hen, boiled and accompanied with dumplings.

There were rewards to living on an Ontario mixed farm in the 1960s, the food of course, but also an appreciation of what goes into it.

These memories came to me in the wake of a conversation with Ohio State University soil scientist Rattan Lal, the most recent recipient of prestigious World Food Prize.

Lal estimates he was born in 1946 in what is now Pakistan prior the partitioning of India. His family, farmers, moved as refugees to a new location about 100 kilometers northwest of Delhi in 1947 where they worked a small property of less than 10 acres and grazed cattle in the

The recipient of the 2020 World Food Prize walks lightly upon the soil of his garden and the creatures within it. The type of soil supported in an energy-efficient garden supported by compost and other biologically-sourced nutrients needs to become the model for agriculture’s future, Rattan Lal believes.

nearby desert.

Crops could be grown the year round, things like okra, peppers, melons in the summer and daikon radish, turnips and peas in the winter.

There were also wild desert fruits to gather and preserve.

Lal, as the third sibling, was the first of his family to be educated and he made the most of the opportunity.

Homework was completed by the light of a kerosene lamp and he’d run the four miles to his high school where his potential was recognized and rewarded with a scholarship to an agricultural university in India.

This, in turn, led to Lal earning his PhD at Ohio State and gaining worldwide recognition during a career that took him to Australia, Africa and then back to Ohio State where he founded Carbon Management and Sequestration Center in 2000.

Lal continues to farm in a small way, growing such staples as okra 12 The Rural Voice

Jeff Carter

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and bitter melon, enough to keep his family supplied for much of the year and also reinforcing his view that agriculture, if it’s to succeed in feeding the growing population, must change.

Lal’s vision encompasses many practical considerations which, in its essence, demands that as much or more be provided to the soil than what is taken away. Leave the residue. Avoid turning the soil when possible. Maintain a living root system the year round. Shift from chemical to biologically-sourced nutrients like compost and manure.

Attitudes also need change at a societal level, Lal believes.

The soil and her stewards need to be valued beyond nutrition and energy in the food produced to a level that draws us closer to the sacred.

My conversation with Lal brought to mind another memory, 20-odd years from the days I when planted seeds as a child. I was living at the time in Northern Alberta and had earned the trust and friendship of certain members of the Dene Tha’ First Nation.

Unlike the agricultural background Lal and I share, the heritage of the Dene is largely connected to hunting and gathering.

The several flats of white bread and cartons of eggs that showed up at the doorstep of our mobile home one day were most obviously gathered from the back of a delivery truck at the local grocery store.

At the time I thought, “Way too much white bread.�

It’s only now, having spoken with Rattan Lal, that I know better.

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

“We miss your rare smile these days,” Dave Winston told Molly Whiteside who was wearing a mask as she brought the guys their breakfasts on the outdoor patio at Mabel’s Grill one recent, steamy, hot day.

“You aren’t missing much!”

Molly’s mutter was muffled through the mask. “It’s so darned hot out here in these masks that I’m not smiling much.”

“Yeah, well, I did say it was a rare smile,” Dave smirked. “It was something we didn’t see every day even in the good times.”

“Hey, it has its advantages,” Molly glared at him. “When a customer gives me a hard time I can mouth what I really want to call them and nobody can read my lips to see what I’m actually saying.”

14 THE RURAL VOICE

“Her mouth might be hidden but her eyes still say plenty,” laughed George Mackenzie.

“Watch it, George,” warned Cliff Murray. “I think I can see her mask moving. She might be calling you names.”

“So, are there other advantages to wearing a mask?” Dave asked.

“Not much! I suppose I’m saving big time on buying lipstick,” said Molly. “And teeth whitener. But we’ve had so much sun lately that my boyfriend tells me the rest of my face is tanning from being out here, but I’ve got a white square over my nose and mouth. I’m not sure if I need to use more sunblock on the rest of my face or artificial tanning cream on my mask mark.”

“Hey, you and I must have been on the same wave-length lots of days,” said George. “There were so many dry days for a while, there, I was doing a rain dance.”

“Don’t let Mabel catch you,” said Molly. “Every time it rains she loses all the outdoor business.”

“But now at least you can serve indoors,” Cliff said.

“Every other table,” said Molly.

“Hard to make money at half capacity. How’d you like it if somebody told you could only grow crop on every other acre?”

“Might cut my losses,” grumbled George.

“I suppose for Mabel, it really is about making hay while the sun shines,” said Cliff. “There won’t be much business out here come November.”

“Molly won’t be hot behind her mask, though,” said Dave.

“I definitely won’t be smiling, either, if we still have to pay the bills with this pandemic going on,” said Molly as she headed back inside to get George’s doughnut.

“Too bad we don’t have a leader like the Americans or the Brazilians,” called Dave. “They’re just going to make it magically go away!”

“With any luck, the American voters are just going to make Donald Trump magically go away,” said Cliff.

“These guys remind me of – oh what was that famous king back in history who thought he could give an order and the tide wouldn’t come in?” wondered Dave.

“King Canute,” said Cliff.

“Well, Trump won’t wear a mask and so far he’s gotten away without getting the disease,” said George.

“But how many of his followers got sick because they refused to compromise their freedom by wearing a mask?” wondered Dave.

“Give me liberty or give me COVID19 because there’s only a two per cent chance it will mean death.”

“Must be interesting in Quebec these days,” said Cliff. “Last year they passed a law saying Muslim women can’t wear a veil across their face when they’re riding the bus.

Now they’ve passed a law that says everybody has to wear a mask when they’re riding the bus. I wonder if the veil might qualify as a mask?”

Molly returned with George’s doughnut for him to take with him, and the bills.

“Sorry, I’m short on the tip today,” George apologized to her as he fished out money to pay.

Molly just stared at him.

“Careful, George, I think I can see her lips moving behind that mask,” chuckled Dave.◊

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August 2020 15

Mel Luymes Mel Luymes works in agriculture and conservation and blogs at headlands.ca

Wrestling with #BlackLivesMatter At first, I struggled whether to write this column; I told myself a white person shouldn’t be qualified to speak about racism. It is uncomfortable for me to write this. It might be uncomfortable for you too, but I hope that you will keep reading.

You’ve seen it on the news. An unarmed black man named George Floyd was killed by a white police officer during an arrest on May 25 in Minneapolis. His death sparked global movement protesting racism and police violence, likely the largest the world has seen.

What people are saying, millions

of people across the world and from all walks of life, is that they experience racism.

“Black lives matter,” they cry.

“All lives matter,” we respond.

I don’t know about you but, growing up in rural Ontario, I don’t think I had much opportunity to be racist. The only black family I knew were the Winslows from Family Matters. When I was 20, I spent three months volunteering in South Africa and that’s when I became a racist.

And by that, I mean that I stopped listening. I closed my eyes to what was going on.

Don’t get me wrong, I smiled at everyone equally. I was staying in a remote village without electricity or clean water, but I much preferred the luxurious homes of white families, within their gated communities.

Only later did I take the time to learn about Apartheid and the forced relocation of millions into their “tribes” on remote areas of marginal land. In 1970, these areas were declared autonomous states and so, overnight, black South Africans lost their citizenship. They needed work

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visas and crossed a border to get to their jobs in town.

Black South Africans lost their civil rights after black Americans had hard-won theirs.

It was a long road to dismantling the systems of Apartheid in 1994.

Equal rights eventually freed black South Africans to move and live however they wished within their country. On paper. We know that it lives on. Like a concrete foundation that remains solid long after the forms have been removed, generational poverty does not need legislation to keep it in place.

Every day in South Africa was uncomfortable. I wondered how and when black South Africans would demand their country and resources back from white settlers. I was extrafriendly so that people would see I wasn’t racist–that I wasn’t a white South African. Because it didn’t matter how a white person felt about race, if they were living in a racist country, they were by definition racists.

I got on a flight home knowing I wouldn’t have to confront that kind of in-your-face racism anymore.

Thank goodness. And I haven’t. But not because it isn’t there. White settlers in my area forcibly removed both the First Nations and the early black settlers that lived here. How am I any different than the white South Africans?

If we compare the world to South Africa, then Ontario agriculture is an all-white gated community. We let people in with work visas to do the hardest jobs and then they go back home. I have met dozens of keen and qualified new Canadians with dark skin and strange names who can’t find meaningful work in Ontario agriculture. (Ugh, yes, I wrote the ugly truth. Please keep reading.)

White fragility is a term coined by Robin DiAngelo to describe how defensive white people get on the issue of race. But she wasn’t calling out white supremacists, she was calling out the politically correct liberals. The people like me, who would feel really good about themselves for eating at an Ethiopian restaurant or for marching in a Black Lives Matter protest. The people like me who are uncomfortable

Mel Luymes acknowledging that, due to the legacy of white settler colonialism, being born Caucasian has given me much of the privilege I have enjoyed all my life. The people like me who worry what equality would look like, so find it more convenient to ignore inequality altogether.

If you’re angry or uncomfortable reading this, that’s okay. I am too.

This is white fragility; this is precisely what DiAngelo was talking about.

And if you really don’t see it, please look again. Someone once told me that power is invisible to those who have it, and that really stuck with me, reminding me to take a deeper look. I can’t deny another person’s experience just because it is different from mine. And if tens of millions or people are saying they experience racism, how can we deny that? How can we tell them they should just try harder?

Saying that black lives matter is not saying that cops lives, or all lives, don’t matter. Of course, all lives matter. “Mattering” is not a finite or scarce resource. Justice, education, respect, understanding, etc are not things that can be hoarded. Just the opposite. By denying them to others, no matter what colour they are, we become less as a society. This is why millions from all walks of life, including the police, are marching.

Our lives won’t matter until black lives matter.

I thought I shouldn’t discuss racism because it doesn’t “affect” me. But it does. It affects me in a positive way. This IS my problem because my ancestors were a part of institutionalized racism and I continue to benefit from it. I don’t want to enjoy my privilege if it comes at the expense of another, but I have no idea what to do. For now, I will open my eyes, listen, learn and commit to being uncomfortable.

In 1995, South Africa set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which recorded and bore witness to individuals’ experiences during Apartheid. In many cases, it made reparations for victims and granted amnesty to perpetrators.

I bet it was deeply uncomfortable.

But talking about it was the first

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Environment

Mitigating climate change Farming has always been an altruistic vocation to raise food and care for animals but now, farmers want to contribute to the world by improving the climate • By Gary Kenny •

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Brenda Hsueh (top) of Black Sheep Farm near Chesley chose farming over working in banking in Toronto to mitigate climate change, a choice echoed by Brent Preston and Gillian Files (above) of The New Farm near Creemore.

18 The Rural Voice

armers farm for various reasons: an altruistic desire to grow high-quality, nutritious food for the eating public; a preferred lifestyle; a sacred vocation; a love of nature and the outdoors; or, maybe because they enjoy solving problems – farming certainly has its share.

Grey County mixed farmer Brenda Hsueh identifies with all these motivations. And, perhaps surprisingly, with one more: a determination to mitigate climate change.

Becoming a farmer “was [my] first response to climate change,” says Hsueh, who worked in the banking sector in Toronto before purchasing her 40acre farm in 2008.

Hsueh, who with partner Skyler and daughter Emma stewards Black Sheep Farm near Chesley, is not alone among farmers. As the climate inexorably warms, more and more farmers are intentionally working not only to adapt to the vexing vicissitudes of climate, but to intentionally diminish, or mitigate, its many deleterious impacts. They’re increasingly including mitigation strategies in their annual and long-term farming plans.

It’s a responsibility all farmers have for the good of agriculture, Hsueh believes. And for the good of the planet. Because, Hsueh adds, agriculture has been and continues to be a significant cause of global warming.

Some, maybe many, farmers may quarrel with that statement: that agriculture, their stock in trade, is a major cause of a crisis that threatens the planet as we know it.

But it’s hard to dispute the facts. While figures may vary among organizations that measure agriculture’s overall contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and global warming, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that agriculture – including crop and livestock production, forestry and fisheries – generates up to 20 per cent, or one-fifth, of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Canada’s agricultural industry alone represents about 12 percent of the country’s GHG emissions,

says the National Farmers Union (NFU). The actual contribution is somewhat higher since that figure only accounts for the production of crops and livestock, not the burning of fossil fuels or use of petroleumbased fertilizers and agrochemicals on farmland. Neither does it take into account the emissions generated from the conversion of forests and wetlands to arable land.

But there’s good news. Unlike the oil and gas industry, agriculture, if practiced ‘climate-smartly’ can also be a significant hedge against the ravages of a rapidly warming climate. According to the FAO and NFU, agriculture has enormous climate change mitigation potential, including significant capacity to capture carbon, the most ubiquitous of GHGs. The FAO has challenged farmers around the world to make agriculture a part of the solution to the global climate crisis.

In recent years farmers, scientists, and policymakers have become increasingly interested in agriculture’s potential to sequester (store) carbon (CO2) in the soil. Soil carbon sequestration is a process in which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in what’s known as the soil carbon pool.

The process is primarily mediated by plants through photosynthesis, with carbon stored in the form of soil organic matter (SOM). Soil can sequester atmospheric carbon in significant amounts with potential to offset emission by cars, power plants and other burning of fossil fuels.

Some believe it has potential to make farms carbon neutral. tilizing innovation and technology, most farmers seem to be learning how to adapt their farming plans and practices to a warming climate. But as Hsueh says, there’s only so many adaptation measures farmers can take. For the benefit of farming and the planet, “we also have to fight back,” she adds.

The climate’s increasing vagaries and their impact on her annual farming aspirations have motivated Hsueh to do so. She grows vegetables and raises sheep and chickens organically. She finds she has to plan not just for the kinds of

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modest weather fluctuations that generations of farmers have coped with, but for increasing weather system shocks that can disrupt, even destroy, an entire year’s crop.

According to Ontario’s Climate Risk Institute (OCR), extreme rainfall events – floods and droughts in particular – are expected to occur more often and with more ferocity.

Combined warmer summer temperatures and increased evaporation may also escalate the likelihood of more severe and

prolonged dry periods with less water from run-off and low soil moisture.

The average annual temperature in Ontario has increased by 1.4°C over the last 60 years, OCR says. Models suggest that by 2050, the average annual temperature could increase by an additional 2.5°C to 3.7°C (from baseline average 1961-1990) unless strong, global action is taken.

Arresting data like these also concern Simcoe County farmer Brent Preston. For Preston farming, and climate change adaptation and

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mitigation, have almost become synonymous.

“We’re constantly having to rethink our seasonal growing strategies,” says Preston, who with his partner Gillian farms 100 acres near Creemore. Preston’s The New Farm primarily produces organic salad greens for the wholesale restaurant market.

“Each year we say, ‘We’ve got our systems, we’ve got our crops, we’ve got our marketing figured out – this year we can coast’,” Preston says.

But it rarely works out that way anymore, he adds. Seasonal weather patterns have become so much more volatile, and their planning is therefore “always changing, always evolving,” he says. n recent years, regenerative agriculture (RA) has grown in popularity as, among other attributes, a kind of omnibus strategy to mitigate climate change. Hsueh and Preston both extol the virtues of RA and are committed to its principles including for purposes of soil carbon sequestration.

RA comprises an array of ecologically-oriented techniques to maximize soil biology and health, and in the process, sequester carbon.

Among the practices RA promotes are minimum till, cover crops and perennials to feed the soil and keep it covered, and livestock grazing that mimics the balanced, sustainable, and soil health-enhancing way that wild animals interact with nature.

Reduced tillage in the form of less equipment operation has immediate and obvious benefits to soil health and carbon sequestration. “Push in millions of gallons of fossil fuels [for equipment operation] and they will come out as millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide,” the NFU says.

“For our farm, we see really clearly that regenerative farming is the future for us and for everybody,” Preston said. “So we’re really focusing on soil health, on protecting our soil, increasing the abundance and diversity of our soil life. [This is] our real main focus going forward because it’ll make our farm more climate resilient,” he added.

Preston has been working systematically over the past few years to reduce his tillage. He’s now

I

using tarps to kill stubble and control weeds instead of ploughing, disking, cultivating, and roto-tilling.

The importance of collaboration and partnership between farmers and farm organizations to facilitate carbon sequestration and general onfarm climate resilience, can’t be emphasized enough, Preston says. He participated in a two-year farmer-led research tarping project hosted by the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO) which he says was successful. “We are pretty confident that we can get at least 80 percent reduction in tillage” using semipermeable tarps that allows the free passage of air and water and suppresses weeds, he says.

Hsueh also subscribes to the principle of minimum soil disturbance. “No till keeps carbon in the ground by not breaking it up and exposing organic matter to oxidation,” she says. It also preserves fungal life in soil which has its own unique carbon sequestration attributes, she adds.

Hsueh’s intensive managed grazing strategy involves moving her sheep on a daily basis using portable electric net fencing. With rotational grazing, she says, “the pasture plants are kept in as much of a vegetative [state] as possible. This makes them increase their root mass, and keeps them photosynthesizing to the max, sucking CO2 from the air,” she adds.

Carbon sequestration through intensive rotational grazing also appeals to Preston. He has begun experimenting with cattle, having formed a partnership with an area beef farmer whose cattle graze Preston’s pastures. “I’ve seen examples of [farmers] really boosting their SOM through intensive rotational grazing and we’re going to see how that works on our farm as part of an integrated vegetable growing operation,” he says.

Preston and Hsueh are also likeminded on the importance of biodiversity in sinking carbon and for climate-resilient farming generally.

Hsueh has undertaken “permaculture plantings” – enhancing treelines with native trees and berry-bearing shrubs to attract and provide habitat for pollinating insects, animals, and

birds. She believes on-farm biodiversity of this nature mitigates climate change by “adding more CO2 sponges to the farm for the long term.”

The compellingly clear science supporting the link between biodiversity and climate-resilient, overall healthier, and profitable farms is still evolving, Preston acknowledges. But he believes a connection exists. “Our farm was fairly sterile when we bought it,” he says. But because we planted trees, hedgerows, and native wildflowers, our farm has become more robust and healthier, he adds. Our

experience “reinforces the idea that biodiversity is good” for farming, he says.

Hsueh and Preston are examples of smaller-scale Ontario farmers who are committed to addressing agriculture’s unenviable role as a major contributor to the climate crisis. Larger-scale farms, both organic and conventional, don’t always as easily lend themselves to the kinds of carbon-sinking practices they espouse. Scaling up is possible, they believe, but in some instances may require farmers to rethink the agricultural model to which they subscribe. ◊

Clockwise: Brenda Hsueh tends a diversity of vegetable crops in her market garden at Black Sheep Farm near Chesley; Hsueh holds one of the lambs from her 40-acre combined grazing and market garden operation; a view down the rows of salad greens destined for Georgian Bay-area restaurants at Brent Preston's The New Farm near Creemore.

August 2020 21

Poultry

Enriched cages: more natural space • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

Enriched cages are mandatory for new layer barns. The roomier cages offer hens perches, private nesting areas and scratchpads

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The new Tecno Enriched Cages were still being assembled in mid-July by a crew of neighbours, friends and highschool students at the broiler-turned-layer barn at Devon (above) and Sonya Dykstra’s farm outside of Londesborough.

he enriched cage route is the way to go, believes Devon Dykstra who is switching from broilers to layers and installing the spacious cages in the remodelled barn.

“It’s a nice balance of both worlds. The chickens have room and more natural habitat but the farmers can control the amount of feed and what goes on with the birds,” says Dykstra.

Enriched cages are now mandated as the caging system for new layer barns. Compared to conventional housing systems, the enriched cages support nesting, perching and foraging behaviours. They have extra space and waterers which creates a healthier living space.

According to the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pullets and Laying Hens, Egg Farmers of Canada are committing to a minimum of 85 per cent of hens to be transitioned from existing conventional cage systems to alternative housing systems that meet the new code. It is expected that 50 per cent of birds will be transitioned within eight years.

“Conventional cages are enclosures with wire mesh and sloping floors that typically house four to eight hens,” states the code. “These cages provide a controlled environment that protects hens from a range of health and injury problems. However, hens are restricted from engaging in many natural behaviours due to limited space 22 The Rural Voice

and amenities and as a result, conventional cages have begun to be phased out in Canada.”

With new builds, or remodeling as on the Dykstra farm outside of Londesborough, farmers can start with the roomier enrichment cages.

“The whole idea of enrichment cages is that the birds will have a more natural habitat,” explains Dykstra. “Birds like to lay eggs in private so now there is a curtain and nesting area for them to lay.”

Dr. Tina Widowski, a world-renowned expert in farm animal behaviour and welfare who is also the Research Chair in Poultry Welfare at the University of Guelph, likens enrichment cages to airplane seats.

“If conventional housing is economy class, then enriched housing is business class – more amenities, more space, more comfort,” states Widowski.

Larger cages mean the chickens have more walking room, more room to stretch, to sit and to spread their wings. The addition of a scratch pad are important. “Hens in the wild scratch at the ground as they hunt for food; they are compelled to scratch and scratch pads allow them to do just that.”

Some farmers are choosing free range or hybrid housing systems that allow for even more natural behaviours but Dykstra says those system are a lot more work for the farmer.

“The hens don’t always lay in their nesting box in those systems so you are always looking for eggs.

They also require a lot more management,” he says.

Dykstra still works in construction and helps his dad with cash cropping, plus he’s a family man married to Sonya (a teacher) with four young children. He wants to be able to work in the layer barn in the morning and have time for his other responsibilities the rest of the day.

The work hours for layers versus broilers is part of the reason Dykstra decided to remodel the broiler barn into a layer barn. The broiler industry is seeing many changes as well.

Among them is the move to modular loading systems, something the existing barn did not support. Plus Dykstra’s parents’ layer barns were at capacity and there was a need for a new facility to expand. With all these issues, it made sense to switch to layers. ykstra investigated several enrichment cage options before choosing Tecno cages, an enrichment cage system designed in Italy and sold by Clark Ag Systems, a poultry system supplier based in Caledonia, Ontario.

“I looked at cage quality, ease of use and advancements and I really liked the Tecno cage,” says Dykstra.

“Plus, when I talked with Tecno and Clark Ag, I felt they were very supportive of the farmer by being quick to help and tweak the installation to make it better.”

The Tecno cages have a unique design with perches being placed horizontally instead of vertically in the cages. He thinks this works well for the birds to manouevre and reach the drinkers and feeders. Also, the incage lighting makes it brighter in the centre of the cage where the scratching pads are located but darker over the nesting area, creating privacy for the hens to lay eggs.

Clark Ag Systems has an installer who helps supervise the process and will also supply crews for the actual work of building the cages. However, Dykstra decided to hire casual workers and students from the neighbourhood.

“For me, it was important to have familiarity with the people and be

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August 2020 23

able to give high school students a summer job,” explains Dykstra.

Some days he had nine workers and other days a handful, but it has worked out “very well” despite some hiccups in the process, including COVID-19. Every industry was affected by the coronavirus pandemic and it created some timing issues for the installation. However, the barn will be ready by October when the first birds arrive. The barn has capacity for 15,000 layer hens.

At the time of this article, the barn was really taking shape. The feed trolley system (versus chain feeders) was installed along with the perches, scratch pads and curtains creating the private area for chickens to lay eggs.

Each cage will house 76 birds (38 birds on each side) giving each hen 116 square inches of space.

The packing room still has to be completed with a used Diamond 100 case packer that is a little large for the operation but was “priced right” from a local farmer he trusts.

The packing room is spacious, built high for ease of loading the five-and-half-foot high stacks of pallets into the loading truck. The room will also be handy when the kids help Devon and Sonya in the barn, giving them space to play and run around.

“You never complain about too much room,” says Dykstra.

He’s very much looking forward to raising birds in the Six levels of enrichment cages with a capacity to house 15,000 birds were almost completed in mid-July (top).

The Dykstra family (bottom, right) Dallas, Sonya, Vienna, Easton, Sierra and dad Devon) hired local students like Sarah Waanders of Clinton (middle photo) to help put the cages together. The cages are called enrichment cages because they allow for the hen’s natural behaviours such as perching, laying in privacy (behind the red curtains) and scratching on the installed scratch pads (middle, left).

24 The Rural Voice

new enrichment cages, saying the industry as a whole feeds birds all they need to stay healthy to produce a “good, quality egg.”

In terms of the hens, he says the birds coming out of enrichment cages look “just as good” going out as they came in. In conventional cage system, the birds are sometimes rough-looking from their closer quarters. He believe the hens will be “comfortable and calmer” in the new system. ◊

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Plants

Selecting seed for climate change Kim Delaney loves the daily work of growing plants but the seed selection process takes years of work to protect genetic diversity and develop resilient plants

I

t wasn’t just toilet paper. Seed sales also spiked during the height of the COVID-19 scare and kept on bolting until seed companies like Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds near Palmerston had to close down to process a tenfold increase in orders.

“It was unbelievable. We had home gardeners ordering hundreds of dollars worth of seed. Our phone was ringing night and day,” says Kim Delaney, owner of Hawthorn seeds. The ordering desk took calls from women crying with fear, wanting to pay extra so they could get their order before others. They sold out of zucchini. There was a run on broccoli and cauliflower seeds. Then celery.

Celery?

“I know,” nods Aaron Lyons, field manager at Hawthorn seeds. Celery is a difficult vegetable to grow for a novice gardener. So are broccoli and cauliflower but people were thinking of what they liked to eat and ordering the seeds to grow it. “People were putting pepper in Easter weekend,” says Aaron, shaking his head. Peppers are heat-loving plants that can’t take any frost and Easter weekend was too early.

Some of these gardeners will struggle with a steep learning curve but Kim and Aaron applaud their ambition and efforts. The learning is good and even the plants that don’t thrive contribute to the learning.

Aaron is a proponent of food literacy and believes this will be a time of cultural change with our elders, who have gardening wisdom, being consulted and urged to share their knowledge. “They will be our heroes!” he says.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed everything but facing change is what seed growing is all about.

Seed cultivation embraces diversity, selection and ultimately, creates seeds that will germinate into resilient plants able to grow and thrive in a changing climate.

Breeding for genetic diversity, creating landrace plant patches and growing for taste and diseaseresistance are all part of the larger picture at Hawthorn seeds. It requires of lot of thinking and planning while weeding between the rows and Kim loves the combination.

She has grown Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds into a lucrative, international business selling a full slate of organic vegetable, herb and perennial seeds that are adaptable to the vagaries of our weather and can thrive in our increasingly hotter, drier, short-season climate.

Resilience is key. Unlike the large seed companies Standing in a row of parsnip going to seed is Aaron Lyons, field which import seeds from all over the world, Delaney grows, develops and selects seeds for the Ontario manager at Hawthorn Organic Farm Seeds which develops climate that are meant to thrive in our specific seeds that are resilient to climate change and are designed to thrive and taste delicious across Canada’s diverse growing conditions.

• By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot • August 2020 27

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conditions. To meet demand, she also has contract growers.

She was named one of the top seed savers in the world by SeedChange, formerly known as USC Canada.

The business started slowly when Kim bought the farm in 1996. She moved from Chatham-Kent to Perth County full-time in 2000 after constructing a straw bale house (the first of its kind in Ontario). The inaugural Hawthorne Organic Farm Seeds catalogue was available in 2008. Aaron joined the team eight years ago. He was touring with his band when Kim took him to a seed growers conference where he realized seed growing is the perfect merge of science, art, culture, philosophy and history. “Seeds are so much more than a commodity. I was hooked!”

The pair, along with a handful of part-time employees harvest, clean, measure, package and mail seeds during the winter months. Right now, it’s the growing season which is actually their “quiet time” spent weeding. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squash grow in the field gardens along with beans, peas, onions and leeks. Popular herbs such as basil, dill and cilantro grow near zinnias, sunflowers and cosmos.

Grown to thrive in Zone 5 or lower, selection is a key part of the business.

Take carrots, a biennial crop, for instance. Kim and Aaron will grow carrots the first year, dig them out, and literally taste them. “You know how some carrots can taste like turpentine and others are sweet and delicious? Well, we save the sweet and delicious ones and collect seeds from them because they give the best carrots.” Over years of careful, tested selection, Hawthorn seeds develop into specialty varieties.

“We select for eating quality versus commercial quality,” explains Aaron. “Large seed companies might choose carrots that grow strong tops versus taste because they have to think about mechanical harvesting.”

By growing carrots with diverse traits, they also are also expanding the genetic pool of carrot seeds. This is becoming critically important as international companies such as Monsanto, DuPont and Sygenta own

Creating resilient and tasty vegetables involves years of careful seed choice from the best plants. Owner Kim Delaney and field manager Aaron Lyons are experimenting crossing maximus pumpkins (top) to develop an extra-large edible pumpkin.

Delaney (middle) examines the flowering peas growing at Hawthorn Organic Farm Seeds while below, Kim and Aaron take a break from weeding in one of the growing plots. July and August are actually their quietest months which they spend weeding and watering the growing plants. Delaney grows three acres of vegetable, herb and flower gardens and ships resilient, organic seeds across Canada.

August 2020 29

over half of the worldwide proprietary seed market. The food system needs to be decentralized to protect genetic diversity and encourage food sovereignty, they believe. Small seed companies such as Hawthorn, and individual growers such as you and I, need to play a role by crossbreeding and collecting our own seeds.

Kim gets quite passionate about this and is a popular speaker at gardening groups, advocating the collection and sharing of seeds from the garden. Some plants that are wind or insect pollinated may throw a surprise or two but that’s half the fun.

Understanding how each plant pollinates is part of the seed-grower’s acumen. Broccoli, for instance, is an

insect pollinated crop. If you grow a row of green broccoli beside purple broccoli, the seeds from each will produce some funky plants! Broccoli varieties need to be separated by a mile while corn, a wind-pollinated crop, needs even more distance.

Distance is also part of the reason Hawthorn Seeds needs contract growers for some seed production.

However, there are times when Kim and Aaron encourage crosspollination such as with the experimental pumpkins they are growing in the corner of the field.

With the goal of creating a large, edible pumpkin they have planted Dill’s Atlantic pumpkins (the kind that win for largest pumpkin) with another tasty maximus variety. They

also cross watermelon varieties to develop a sweet, early-ripening variety that can grow to maturity in our short season.

There is a concept called landrace gardening which is a traditional method of growing food where next year’s seeds are chosen from this year’s “survival of the fittest.” Landrace varieties evolve and thrive in that region. Landrace varieties are genetically variable so that as conditions change from year to year the population can adapt to the changes. It may mean a lack of uniformity in fruit shape or size, but these plants seem to have exceptional vigour.

“We planted a 200-foot row of lofthouse landrace moschata (a

All the work owner Kim Delaney (above) and field manager Aaron Lyons (above, right) put into the planting strategy and raising the plants comes down to trays of seed pods in the seed barn at Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds near Palmerston. The seeds will be sorted, cleaned and stored in a collection of pails and jars in the cool and dry seed room for storage until the winter months when extra help is hired to package, label and ship seeds across Canada. The seed shelves are a little bare right now as COVID-19 resulted in a tenfold increase in seed sales. Many varieties sold right out.

30 The Rural Voice

butternut squash) and they fairly LEAPT out of the ground,â&#x20AC;? says Kim. In her thinking, adaptation is more important than top yield. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With commercial seeds you often have the chance to have top yields ... or nothing.â&#x20AC;?  â&#x20AC;&#x153;We choose adaptation over yield which is another way of saying food security over yield,â&#x20AC;? explains Aaron. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We want our seeds to be able to feed people no matter what comes with climate change.â&#x20AC;?

Hawthorn Seeds is part of a breeding club with three other organic seed companies and also works with Cornell University to develop new seed varieties.

Currently, Kim does not patent any varieties. She provides openpollinated seeds. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not making a case against hybrid seeds or Plant Variability Protection (PVP) patents to protect developers who researched these plants, but we focus on seeds grown in the public domain.â&#x20AC;? Accordingly, she actively donates seeds to seed libraries and childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gardens to promote â&#x20AC;&#x153;seed savvyâ&#x20AC;? smarts.

One of the places she donates seeds to is the Wingham Community Garden. Phil Beard helps organize the garden and says he often turns to her for direction at the garden. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kim provides me with advice and seeds for varieties of vegetables to grow at the Wingham Community Garden. Everything we grow goes to the North Huron Food Share. I am learning a lot from Kim about growing resilient, nutritious and productive vegetables! However without irrigation, it would be a pretty poor crop. Rainfall is getting more sporadic over the summers now.â&#x20AC;?

Beard says we need to identify vegetables and specific varities of each that are adapted to the region they are growing in and that will be able to withstand hotter, drier summers and more variable rainfall. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My understanding is that Kim is breeding and growing vegetable varieties as much for resiliency to a rapidly changing climate as she is for production and looks.â&#x20AC;?

Both Kim and Aaron believe education for both adults and

children is vital to the cycle of life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve just seen how fine the strands of our food system are,â&#x20AC;? says Aaron, referencing the stockpiling and fear-buying in the spring. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Things that were broken before are massively broken now...we became too complacent.â&#x20AC;?

Gardening grows food, creates security and creates self-reliance.

Working in the soil is free therapy, homegrown food is fresh and healthy, and there is satisfaction in completing a cycle when you plant,

harvest and then collect seed for next yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s garden. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So go ask your grandparents how to grow vegetables and learn how to can. They are the people who know. Gardening can pull two generations together and erase the chasm between ages,â&#x20AC;? says Aaron.

At the very least, one should read the seed packets. They provide direct instructions on how to plant the seeds and â&#x20AC;&#x153;good luckâ&#x20AC;? say Kim and Aaron.

These might be crazy times but gardening is a good time. â&#x2014;&#x160;

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Food

Fermentation: A smile on the inside • By Hetty Stuart •

Fermented foods such as kimchi and kefir are natural ways to protect the immune system and aid digestion Erika Schilthuis, with son Micah, creates kraut and kimchi in her market store outside of Goderich. Kimchi is a fermented Korean dish that improves the gut’s microbiome and is made primarily from cabbage, sauce, spices, radish, onion, garlic and chili peppers.

T

he process of fermenting food turned into a personal interest this past winter, when I was dealing with a bout of pneumonia – the second time within two years. The anti-antibiotics program had finished, leaving my gut microbiome out of balance so I began researching how to replenish the good bacteria that had been depleted from my gut. In addition to taking an herbal supplement, I found that fermented food was one way to protect my immune system, aid in digestion and ultimately heal the gut.

Who knew that so much of the foods we consume are actually fermented? Cheese, beer, wine, yogurt, beet kvass, miso, kefir, kombucha and kraut are a few common ones.

Kimchi, with its spicy Korean taste, was new to me. I was pleased to find a local source outside Goderich that produces and sells kimchi.

Erika Schilthuis is the energetic producer of both kimchi and kraut in her store, the Maitland Market & Supply on Porter’s Hill Line. She works here alongside her husband Dennis, their four children, and her in-laws, Bill and Stephanie Schilthuis. Maitland Market had purchased the rights and recipes for kimchi making from a company called Truly Local. Erika makes it with a bit of a twist, calling it “the Huron County version”. As any great cook 32 The Rural Voice

will do, Erika has added her own touch to the recipes.

“Kimchi,” Erika enthuses, “is a fermented Korean dish, made primarily of salted napa cabbage, sauce, spices, radish, onion, garlic and chilli peppers. It is a simple process to make: the vegetables are chopped and mixed with salt, and allowed to ferment for three days before refrigeration. It is chuck full of Vitamin A, B, C, and iron; and most importantly, it improves the balance of the gut microbiome.”

Maitland Market doubles the health benefits when they do a double ferment to kimchi and sauerkraut. “The whey that we strain off the natural yogurt is added to the vegetables when making kimchi,” Erika shared. “We have pared down the heat from this original spicy Korean recipe, and made it to suit our Canadian customers. So not only does the kimchi ferment for the typical three days at room temperature, but the bonus of adding the whey, gives the finished product a lacto-ferment, which doubles the health benefits.”

The taste is pleasantly effervescent, with a welcome crunch. “This crunch happens because kimchi is 100 per cent a living product. It has never been cooked,” explains Erika. “My in-laws had visited Korea once, and every household has a little stone crock on the counter or in the

corner, bubbling away with kimchi.

They eat it with every meal, even if only a tablespoon or two. They know that kimchi can improve levels of good bacteria in the gut. The intestinal health is improved, as well as the immune system. There are great benefits to eating kimchi or kraut because it is alive.”

Kimchi is an easy crowd-pleaser.

It can be added to scrambled eggs, tucked into a tortilla, stirred into stew, spread on sausages or burgers or added to rice or beans. Even the liquid in the bottom of the jar is great to stir into salad dressings or to use as a dip. Erika stated, “Our sales of kimchi peak greatly in the fall when people are beginning to boost their immunity for the upcoming cold and flu season.” Whether we are fighting pneumonia, colds or the flu, having a strong immunity is our best defence. r. Martha Rogers, a retired Health Faculty Professor from York University, heartily agreed that a gut full of friendly bacteria is “a smile on the inside.” Martha has also earned the Master Food Preserver degree from Cornell University and has been a public educator through Agriculture Grey Bruce.

The seminars that had been scheduled for her to teach on food fermenting (cancelled due to Covid19) had been filled to capacity, with additional classes being added.

Martha was pleasantly surprised.

“There is a strong interest in healthier, non-mass-produced food and to be self-reliant. Young people want to be self-sufficient and connect to the earth again. They are looking at the health benefits from all sources, fermentation in particular, to boost the immune system.”

“Fermentation is an ancient practice and has been around for thousands of years,” Martha said.

The fact that it is becoming a popular trend again is heartening. She uses Wild Fermentation, written by Sandor Katz, as her scientific guide for correct procedures.

Making kefir is one method of fermentation that Martha finds simple and can be made in small batches. “Milk kefir is a cultured dairy product that has a tart, refreshing taste,” she said. “It is a

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probiotic drink, prepared with kefir grains and fresh milk. Simply place a tablespoon of kefir grains with a litre of milk and allow it to sit on the counter for up to 24 hours. Once strained, you can drink it just as it is or use it in smoothies.â&#x20AC;?

These grains are live cultures consisting of a mixture of bacteria and yeast existing in a symbiotic

relationship. An excellent website to learn about kefir is: http://www.canadiankefir.com/.

Martha said that kefir also aids in digestive problems and improves health. Disease begins in the gut, but health also begins in the gut. nother drink that is fermented and sparkles with an effervescent flavour is

A

kombucha tea. Susan Gentilcore, an inspiring teacher and writer of her blog allthingspreserved.ca, is an urban entrepreneurial homesteader whose aim is to become a better steward to the earth.

In February, over 30 fermentation enthusiasts joined Susan over the course of a morning for a hands-on workshop on kombucha basics and

Dr. Martha Rogers (above left) uses her Master Food Preserver degree to teach food fermenting classes including how to make kefir, a cultured dairy product that uses grains and fresh milk with live cultures.

Kombucha tea is also a popular fermented drink which blogger, Susan Gentilcore (above, right) teaches people how to make with DIYâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;starter kits.

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The seminar began with a presentation and DIY starter kits that allowed us to produce this kombucha at home.

With her typical humour, Susan, showcasing a bottle filled with the SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), called the blob floating in its liquid “the old man in a creepy raincoat”. By the end of the class, we were all aware how this “mushroom” can transform ordinary sugary tea into a refreshingly fizzy, slightly sour fermented beverage, filled with probiotics, anti-oxidants for free radicals, glucosamine and vitamin B. “To brew a batch of kombucha,” said Susan, “there are only four ingredients needed: a SCOBY, starter, tea and sugar. The SCOBY is added to cooled and sweetened brewed tea, along with some starter, into a glass bottle, with a tightly woven cotton cloth secured with an elastic. This bottle remains on the countertop undisturbed for up to 14 days, testing it periodically. When it tastes delicious – not too tangy and not too sweet, the batch is finished.”

There is a second ferment period where different flavours can be added through the addition of summer-fresh fruit or spices. “This step is not necessary but allows it to become your signature drink,” Susan shared.

With each batch being brewed, the original SCOBY will grow and need to be separated. At this point, the new SCOBY can be used in another batch of kombucha-making. Or, as Susan shared, “Compost the SCOBY, feed it to chickens or store it in a “hotel” – a jar with extra SCOBYs and starter tea, covered with cloth, to later share with friends.” t’s been half a year since my pneumonia and I have been enjoying the benefits of fermented foods for months. In that time frame, the COVID-19 pandemic has become a reality in our country and given us all cause to be aware of keeping healthy both physically and mentally. The smile on my outside has a lot to do with my smiling in the inside as well. ◊

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August 2020 35

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Recipes by Anne Mann

Fresh and flavourful fare for summer

S

ummer offerings from the garden or the farmers market are exploding, inspiring us to try new ways to use these seasonal blessings. Summer would not seem complete to me without at least one pie made from fresh Ontario peaches at the peak of their flavour!

Transform the selection of vegetables on your counter or in the crisper into a roasted vegetable pasta and you have dinner, with or without a side of chicken or shrimp. If cucumbers are piling up take time to make a quick salad or a bowl of tzatziki to dip them in along with whatever other vegetables are begging to be eaten.

Kat’s Cucumber Salad I know I am always looking for more ideas for using cucumber and zucchini when we cannot give them away or keep up with the supply.

Kat’s Cucumber Salad is one of my August delights. Shave up a couple of cucumbers and mix with a quick sour cream dressing and enjoy along with some burgers or pulled pork or just about anything.

Ingredients: 2 - 3 small cucumbers, peeled and sliced as thinly as possible, about 2 cups 2 Tbsp thinly sliced red onion (optional) salt as needed Dressing: 1/3 cup sour cream 1 Tbsp mayonnaise or whipped salad dressing 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar 1/4 tsp salt 3/4 tsp white sugar 1 - 2 Tbsp chives, chopped or green onion Tbsp fresh dill weed (optional) Freshly ground black pepper Directions: Peel and slice cucumber and onion as thinly as you can or to your taste.

You may do them by hand or use a slicer or even a potato peeler, each giving a slightly different result.

Sprinkle liberally with salt and let sit for at least 20 minutes.

Strain off liquid and discard.

Squeeze excess water out before dressing.

For dressing mix sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, sugar and chives. Pour over drained cucumbers and onion.

Top with pepper and adjust

seasoning to taste. Serves 4.

Tzatziki Blend another cucumber into this dip to serve with fresh vegetables – maybe some more cucumbers and zucchini! It is tangy, light and refreshing on a hot summer day. Use

Kat’s Cucumber Salad (top) is so versatile and easy, it can be made regularly for summer meals. Peach pie (centre) does not travel well but always tastes amazing. Pasta Primavera (bottom) takes a lot of chopping and tossing but creates a wonderful combination of flavours.

August 2020 37

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Recipes it the same day you make or let the flavours blend for the next day.

Ingredients: 1 English cucumber, about 10 oz, peeled and coarsely grated 1 tsp salt, divided in half 2 - 3 garlic cloves, finely grated or minced (you can use less if you prefer) 1 Tbsp lemon juice 1 - 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt 1/4 tsp ground white pepper Serve with crudities, crackers, Pita Bread Directions: Cucumbers may be peeled or unpeeled. Sprinkle grated cucumbers with 1/2 tsp salt. Let sit for 5 minutes then transfer to a fine mesh strainer over a deep bowl to drain.

Meanwhile mix garlic with remaining 1/2 tsp salt, lemon juice, olive oil and yogurt in a bowl large enough for everything.

Squeeze out excess liquid, add the drained cucumber and pepper. Stir until thoroughly combined.

Cover tightly and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, stir the tzatziki sauce to refresh and transfer to serving bowl, drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil, if you like.

Pasta Primavera Primavera refers to early spring in Italian but has come to mean fresh vegetables when used in reference to food so this pasta uses fresh vegetables from whatever season they come from. This version features zucchini and summer squash and was adapted from Suzi Karadsheh’s blog themediterranean dish.com.

Simply chop and toss fresh peppers, onions, summer squash and tomatoes with some olive oil and herbs and let it roast in the oven or on the grill and you have a simple summer pasta sauce. Add fresh herbs and cherry tomatoes at the end to brighten up the appearance and the flavour however you like. This recipe is just a guideline that you can adjust to suit what is available and your own taste. Serve it on its own or with a side of BBQ shrimp or chicken or if you like just grill the vegetables and serve with rice.

Roast together: 2 small to medium zucchini, thinly sliced 2 small yellow summer squash of your choice, cubed or sliced 2 sweet coloured peppers, sliced 1 cob of corn if you have it 1 small eggplant, cubed with skin on (optional) 2 tomatoes, chopped (optional) 2 – 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 red onion or other of choice, cut into chunks 1 Tbsp dried oregano or basil a few sprigs of fresh thyme Olive oil to generously coat vegetables Salt and freshly ground pepper For Pasta: 12 oz. pasta of choice 1 - 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved rind from one lemon, finely grated 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese chopped fresh basil, thyme, oregano or other fresh greens (optional) additional salt and pepper, olive oil and pasta water as needed Directions: Toss zucchini, squash, peppers, eggplant, corn on the cob and tomatoes if using, with onion, garlic, oregano, thyme and olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper on a large roasting pan or two. Roast at high temperature 425°F for 20 - 30 minutes until tender and beginning to brown. It is important to have the vegetables close to a single layer for best results.

I tried roasting these on the BBQ so the oven did not need to go on and was pleased with the results. I lined a baking sheet for the grill with foil and sealed it for the first 5 – 10 minutes to help cook the vegetables a little quicker, then opened it to let them roast and brown a little.

Meanwhile boil and cook pasta in salted water according to package directions and drain, reserving about a cup of the cooking water.

Toss drained pasta, roasted vegetables, fresh tomatoes, lemon zest and cheese. Add extra olive oil, water, seasonings and fresh herbs as needed to suit your taste. Serves 4 Grilled Shrimp I keep a package of frozen uncooked shrimp in the freezer that can be added to a number of dishes

for a quick dinner. Grill these up and serve with the pasta primavera or steamed rice and roasted vegetables.

Ingredients: 1 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined Marinade: 2 Tbsp lime juice rind from 1 lime finely grated 1 tsp grated fresh ginger 1 - 2 cloves garlic, finely grated 1 Tbsp olive oil 1 Tbsp honey 1 Tbsp soy sauce 1 - 2 Tbsp fresh chives, chopped salt & freshly ground pepper Directions: Mix marinade ingredients together and stir in shrimp. Let sit about 20 minutes.

Place on a BBQ pan or thread onto skewers and grill for several minutes on each side depending on size until flesh is opaque. Do not baste with marinade because cooking time is so short.

Serve immediately. Serves 2-3.

Fresh Peach Pie This simple, yet heavenly pie recipe comes from Marilyn MacIntyre and I would not let a summer go by without finding an excuse to end an August day with a piece of this pie. It does not travel well nor always set up just right but it always tastes amazing. It is truly one of summer’s special gifts.

Ingredients: 9 inch baked pie shell (buy one if you do not make pastry!)

1 cup white sugar 3 Tbsp corn starch 8 medium ripe peaches 1 Tbsp lemon juice Directions: Mix sugar and corn starch together in a saucepan.

Peel, chop and mash four of the peaches into the pan with sugar mixture.

Add lemon juice and cook on medium low heat stirring often, until mixture thickens, bubbles and turns clear, about a minute after it boils.

Meanwhile peel and slice remaining four peaches into cooled pie shell.

Pour hot peach sauce over fresh peaches in shell.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream. ◊ August 2020 39

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

Scanning the sky for clouds How is your summer going? I suspect there are a lot of new gardeners who are keeping busy with their vegetable patches and pots, and learning all there is to know about weeding, mulches and watering.

I have come to accept that I spend a lot of time scanning the horizon for clouds and measuring every bit of rainfall by the amount collected in our horse trough behind the garage. It catches rain from the back portion of the roof and it takes very little to make a splash. I will admit that what I think should have been a good rain sometimes only amounts to a couple of inches accumulated in the trough and closer inspection under trees and leaves proves it.

Planting in anticipation of dry conditions helps your garden stay healthy and attractive. With all our trees and gravelly soil I always look for plants that do well in dry shade.

There are others that have a lot of moisture and can grow amazing plants without a thought about water needs.

Knowing a bit about how water works in our plants goes a long way in assessing problems or stopping problems from happening.

Plants give off moisture during the day. And this hot weather has plants ‘sweating’ or transpiring at a faster rate. As water is lost through the leaves, sugars and dissolved minerals are left behind, leaving the remaining water concentrated. Water is pulled from the rest of the plant and then the roots to neutralize the cell and the water moves out again through transpiration.

The plants are amazing at accessing water. Young roots are better at this than older, woody roots.

It is written that during hot spells, when the plant gives off more water, the root hairs can actually pull in enough water to dry out the soil around them. Water will then move through the soil toward the plant with aid of mycelium fungus found in healthy humus-rich soil. The mycorrhizae, or symbiotic relationship between plant and soil fungus is amazing. I will share with you that when I learned of this wonderful relationship, I was loath to scuffle or dig unnecessarily among my perennials for fear of disturbing this important relationship. But with the addition of compost or well rotted manure the link is renewed.

Plants’ leaves give off water through tiny holes known as stomata.

The plant can control the opening and closing of these holes. These close on a regular nightly basis, but when a plant is stressed during the prolonged hot weather, it may also close them during the day to prevent water loss. This means the flow of carbon dioxide is also cut off and the feeding cycle slows. If the hot weather continues, the plant will wilt and eventually burn brown and die.

Here is something else to think about: a plant’s water evaporation doubles with every 10 degrees Celsius. Like us, well, like me, a plant will thrive at 20 but be working too hard at 30!

Heavy humid weather makes it difficult for a plant to add to this by giving off more water which creates a great environment for bacterial and fungal diseases. Good circulation of air decreases the humidity around the plants.

We know that dry heat increases water loss by evaporating the water vapor around the plant. Keeping plants close together but not touching allows them to give off vapor and act to cool the surrounding air and decrease transpiration.

We have all seen plants with builtin adaptations. Plants from dry windy conditions produce little hairs that act as an insulating layer trapping water vapor between the leaf surface and the hairs, keeping the plant cool.

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good examples of adaptation to windy, drying conditions.

I love the wide number of sedums for their ability to withstand dry conditions. Their leaves have developed waxy coatings to help them retain their moisture.

In the vegetable garden, we need to understand that these plants need additional water. Potatoes are grown for their capacity to store sugars in tubers and require a certain amount of water to produce these. Your vegetable garden needs a consistent water source. It should not be allowed to dry out. Leafy vegetables will get bitter and stringy. Fruits may get fibrous and tough, and may be imperfectly formed. Tomatoes and peppers can get blossom end rot.

One of the signals that there is something wrong is a plant wilting. If you have been watering consistently then that may not be the problem. If the leaves are mushy or slimy it may be the soil is too heavy for the water and it is waterlogged. The roots are rotting! Don’t despair, cut off all the diseased parts, work the soil well to aerate it and add organic matter to improve the pathways for air and water. Wait to see if the plant will survive, the odds are good.

Here are some helpful hints for watering: Water in the early morning when plants are turgid (firm) and best able to take in more water. The dew softens the soil making it easier for water to penetrate deeply. Midday watering is just a waste, as most of the moisture is lost to evaporation.

Watering later in the evening leaves moisture on the leaves and invites assorted diseases to take hold.

Water less often but water deeply.

My dad used to check on me when I was watering. I think he was worried I would do a half done job just to get it done. He would stick his finger into the soil and pull it back. If it was dry I would be doing the job over again. I never forgot that and when watering my test is the same. The water has to penetrate to a good depth to be of any value.

It is the simple tricks we learn that guide us through this life of quiet gardening pleasure. ◊

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Advice • Lisa B. Pot •

Racing water needs to be slowed Berms and terraces can be very effective to control water erosion when combined with cover crops and other practices

B

erms and terraces are just one part of a fix to control erosion but they do work well when partnered with other erosion control practices says Craig Merkley of the Upper Thames Conservation Authority.

He and Ken Martin of Veldale Farm like to partner together to share ideas on how to make valuable soil stay put. They were part of a team speaking at the London Farm Show way back in pre-COVID days and their information remains relevant as the spring cropping season has wrapped up and the heavy rains of summer are about to begin.

Merkley spoke about a farm near Zorra which has just been purchased by a landowner who wanted to correct some deep erosion channels Aerial views of drainage in his field caused by patterns such as the one racing water collecting in above of a Veldale farms uphill from his. “He Farms property near started with hay bales and Woodstock, help map tried to stop the erosion but water flow coming from from a management point, neighbouring farms. Both bales do not work very Craig Merkley of the well,” stated Merkley.

Upper Thames ConserThe landowner called in vation Area and Ken Merkley and the team to Martin of Veldale Farms decide on how to correct the erosion issues. “When have experience with we go to the farm, we draw berms and cropping Craig Merkley up a plan a, b, c and d,” practices that control Upper Thames Conservation explained Merkley. water erosion and spoke Authority Sometimes the ideal plan on the subject at the Ken Martin costs too much. Or cannot fields on your London Farm Show.

Veldale Farms be constructed in time or has to be farm.

They created in stages. In this case, the conserve moisture on steep slopes construction site. It was windrowed design included berms and terraces to and can be designed as narrow-based, in areas where the terraces were to be slow down the water runs and get the broad-based or as channels. They built. The existing topsoil was water soaked back into the ground. work by slowing and reducing the pushed back and the subsoil from the “You want to get up as high in the energy of runoff. Some terraces construction site laid so that it met landscape as you can,” advised collect drainage water and direct the the existing subsoil. A bulldozer Merkley. “We came up with a plan to flow of water underground rather shaped the berms and then topsoil install 800 feet of terraces and than overland as runoff. was laid back over top. berms.” Terraces, in terms of erosion In this case, the landowner was The result was a reduction in control, are ideal if you have sloping able to access free topsoil from a erosion, though Merkley admits 42 The Rural Voice

Advice sometimes work needs to be done upland, on other farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; properties, in order to decrease the speed of runoff from other farms. However, this project was effective and in combination with other erosion techniques such as cover crops as part of a whole management plan, the landowner could begin the process of rebuilding the fieldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soil base and protecting it against future damage.

Ken Martin of Veldale Farms in Oxford County said the approach among the clay, sand and loamy fields at Veldale is to switch to strip till planting methods and plant cover crops. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We made the switch about five years ago because we had rolling topography and we saw a lot of erosion,â&#x20AC;? said Martin. The system up until then had involved plowing and cultivating which was resulting in waterways filling with silt and a lot of crusting issues. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We would work the soil flat, it would rain hard, crust over and the crop would not come up,â&#x20AC;? remembers Martin. Thinking to reduce erosion, eliminate crusting and be more efficient with nutrients applied to the fields, the farm purchased an ETS Soil Warrior. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a 12-row strip-till machine that uses a coulter system with the ability to switch from spring to fall coulters.

On wheat ground, they make a fall pass in September with the goal of not letting the cover crop get too big because roots can hinder making a nice berm. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I like to strip-till multiple species with some that live over the winter, such as cereal rye,â&#x20AC;? said Martin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It might look scary in the spring but you can still see the berms and there is still soil exposed to sunlight. You just have to make sure the mix isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too thick that it shades the ground.â&#x20AC;? The living cover crop is killed and then the field planted with a crop such as azuki beans. Soybeans are planted no-till.

An attendee to the farm show asked him about the risk of the striptilled rows becoming passageways for water to flow down and steal nutrients. Martin said he thought it probably depends on how each machine creates the berms. If containment disks made a cut, that can lead to the creation of a runway

for water. Finding the right set up is key. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This winter, I saw a strip-tiller throw seeds on tops of the berms as he tilled. If those seeds take hold and roots are there, that might scavenge nutrients,â&#x20AC;? said Martin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an idea worth looking into.â&#x20AC;?

Veldale Farms is also experimenting with air seeding cereal rye. They planted a field like this on October 10 and it was very successful though results have been mixed in other fields. The process is still being perfected. Martin said he really likes the time and cost savings of using an airplane to seed the fields. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not that expensive eitherâ&#x20AC;Ścosts about $20 an acre and you cannot run the drill for that.â&#x20AC;?

However, there does need to be an airstrip fairly close by.

Next plan is to build a berm on a

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farm where excessive water runoff floods in from a neighbouring property. The field was tiled so that will help, and construction of a berm will help stop the water coming in from the north side that, left unimpeded, runs the length of the farm. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We lost a lot of soil and it is a major problem,â&#x20AC;? said Martin.

Thankfully, the tonnes of soil that have eroded over the years are being regenerated with the strip-till and no till. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You have to put your mind to it and do it,â&#x20AC;? advised Martin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We made a commitment to this system and we always look for ways to improve it. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve added row cleaners to the unit and increased downforce to the planters. We arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t there yet but we always add (to the system) to make it better,â&#x20AC;? he concluded. â&#x2014;&#x160;

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August 2020 43

News • By Denny Scott •

Green’s Meat Market fire hurts farming community “They are good people and Huron County needs that abbatoir,” say beef farmers impacted by the abbatoir fire

L

ate in June a blaze claimed Green’s Meat Market and Abattoir in Wingham and while it had an immediate impact on the owners and the employees of the northern Huron County staple, it’s also resulted in a significant impact for local beef producers.

The fire happened late into the night on June 24 when a passerby noticed smoke coming from the abbatoir located on the north end of Wingham. By the next day, the fire had caused significant damage, resulting in a total loss for the meat market and abbatoir. No dollar amount on damage has been set and the fire is not being treated as suspicious. However, the impact of the fire extends to the wider farming community.

Huron County Beef Producers President Kevin McArter said the closure is definitely going to impact local producers.

“Green’s is crucial to the market here,” he said, adding that he would send three to six animals a week to Green’s since the COVID-19 pandemic hit from the regular Brussels Livestock sales. “We’re all hoping they rebuild.”

He said the immediate future would be tough for local producers, saying other abattoirs in places like Exeter and Dashwood are “booked way out”, looking at months before slaughters or even half a year before meat can be processed.

McArter said the major problem caused by the fire is diminished capacity, which can be tied back to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) rules around abattoirs, which resulted in numerous closures of small abattoirs.

He said that Green’s market was one of the last places that survived the stringent rules implemented by the CFIA, and Huron County losing

44 The Rural Voice

With farmers already struggling to find places to butcher their animals, the loss of Green’s Meat Market in Wingham is a blow not only to the Green family, but to the broader farming community. Other abbatoirs in southwestern Ontario are already booked up to half a year in advance and the loss of Green’s is being called “devastating”.

News the market’s capacity is devastating.

“It’s one of the few places that would do an emergency slaughter for an injured animal,” he said, referring to an animal being slaughtered after an injury, but not before being checked by a veterinarian.

He said the CFIA continues to make it difficult for beef farmers and livestock producers to work, even though they are interested in the same thing: causing as little harm as possible to the animals.

“There’s a lot of good meat going to waste that won’t be harvested,” he said.

Finally, McArter said local buyers and producers need to “get behind Green’s” if and when the abattoir re-opens because Huron County producers need them.

Ian Caldwell, a local beef producer echoed that statement. He said the fire was a wake-up call for the area.

“We need to support Green’s,” he said. “We need to 120 per cent get behind them.”

He said the new rules and regulations have decimated what used to be a staple in rural communities: the local abattoir.

“When I was a kid, every town had a kill abattoir,” he said, listing most of the communities in northern Huron and southern Bruce counties.

He said both his grandparents have used Green’s market since he was young and he’s continued that practice. With the fire, however, he’s searching for interim alternatives.

“I scrambled after the fire,” he said. “I called everywhere and the best I could find was slots for November for kills and processing in February, which was no good.”

He says he has families waiting for meat, but it won’t break him. It does, however, hurt the local market he has tried to build.

“We’ve built up a clientele based on hormone-free meat at a good cost,” he said. “Customers are asking where they should go and I just don’t know where to send them.”

He said the situation “sucks” both financially and in terms of having an abattoir close by, as Green’s employs “good butchers who know what they’re doing” he said.

Caldwell also works with local radio personality Buzz Reynolds for an annual food drive, and he’s reached out to Reynolds to say he doesn’t know how he will be able to help with how long it would take to

get meat processed.

In the end, he said the fire will hurt everyone in Huron County.

“They were good people, and Huron County needs that abattoir,” Caldwell said. ◊

702 MAIN ST., SAUBLE BEACH (519) 422-ATVS (2887) sales.atvdepot@bellnet.ca

August 2020 45

Pork • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

Open windows and keep people apart COVID-19 didn’t stop the Ontario Pork Congress from offering an excellent virtual show while speakers offered valuable advice on staying safe

T

he Ontario Pork Congress wasn’t going to let COVID-19 slow it down! The annual event, which has been held for over 40 years in Stratford, went live with exhibitor showcases, speakers via Zoom and podcasts to promote pork, pig farming and all its supportive businesses.

The congress addressed the issue of COVID-19 via speakers such as Dr. Cesar Caballero who confirmed there are no documented cases of COVID-19 affecting pigs.

However, workers in pig barns can be a threat to each other via droplets spreading the virus, close contact and contaminated surfaces.

Preventative measures begin with communication, stated Caballero.

Owners, managers and workers need to understand and apply farm protocols to keep everyone safe.

Staff density needs to be addressed and options such as staggering arrival times and breaks can be considered.

Like most experts, Caballero advocates washing, washing, washing and using disinfectant and gloves to manage the risks.

Farmers would do well to establish dirty and clean areas where labourers can disinfect personal items and coveralls. he Ontario Pork Industry Council had three speakers address issues keeping employees safe on the job. Jennifer Wright of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC), Stefa Larrass of the Ontario Fruits and Vegetables Growers Association and Scott Ross of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture pooled their wisdom to offer a slide show about navigating the Temporary Foreign Workers Program

T

46 The Rural Voice

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council has a new option on its website to teach farmers how to keep employees safe during COVID-19 and navigate rules surrounding paid leave. This slide was part of a presentation at the virtual Ontario Pork Congress held in June.

during COVID-19.

First, a disclaimer. They stated the information shared in the webinar does not replace legislation and should not be considered legal advice. Also, because COVD-19 is an evolving situation, they wanted to state the information was based on the current environment as of June 2020.

With that out of the way, the key points presented to keep employees safe on the job were: • where possible, keep workers two metres apart • in circumstances where two metres cannot be maintained, the employer must protect the workers from the hazard • robust screening, hand hygiene, cough/sneeze etiquettes and frequent cleaning of high touch surfaces are

even more important • the last line of defence is personal protective equipment (PPE) In the realm of physical distancing, the trio said there should be no group coffee or lunch breaks.

The creation of “barn teams” would keep numbers small and there should be no interaction with other “barn teams”. The number of people accessing equipment should be limited and workers should be encouraged to travel to and from work on their own.

Repeating the need to disinfect, the trio said to check with Health Canada’s requirements about which cleaners kill the COVID-19 virus.

There is a Drug Identification Number (DIN) on the label that can be checked against the Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2

News (COVID 19) list.

In the barn and work spaces, improving fresh air intake by opening doors, windows or fans is a good idea. Increased airflow can reduce contaminant build up.

Workers who get ill with COVID19 are allowed to take emergency leave. For more details on keeping employees safe and understanding employer requirements regarding leave by the Government of Ontario can be found at https://www.ontario.ca/page /covid19-support-businesses#section4 Another good resource for more information is the CAHRC website.

They have added a Foreign Workers tab to their HR Toolkit. dding to the subject but focussing on biosecurity for pigs themselves, was Dr. Francisco de Grau of Merck Animal Health Canada.

Looking back at the PEDv outbreak that affected farmers a few years back, de Grau said six weeks of production losses represents 10 per cent less piglets per year.

Distance between farms isn’t always possible but he showed a chart listing diseases, distance and time which revealed enzootic pneumonia can reach a neighbouring farm 150 metres away in four months. Swine dysentery can reach a neighbouring farm 300 metres away in four years while atrophic rhinitis can reach a neighbouring farm 300 metres away in three years.

The risks of being infected by a nearby farms are 8.4 times greater if you live within a mile, 6.3 times greater if you live within two miles.

If you live three miles away, there is no statistical increase in risk of your pigs contracting PEDv. Some pathogens survive longer than others. Parvovirus lasts 14 weeks on the floor compared to rotavirus which can last three months in the dust. There are many factors that affect this including cleaning and temperature.

Humans themselves are often risk factors when they forget to separate the clean area from the dirty area, or forget to wash their hands.

Showering on entry is hugely

effective, says de Grau but it is the rule most commonly broken.

He went on to discuss concepts in biosecurity with vaccinations, semen quality, equipment and supplies, vehicle cleanliness, rodents and birds.

The focus must always be on preventing the entry of persistent pathogens at all costs, stated de Grau.

Keeping pigs safe from disease while monitoring workers to prevent any outbreak of COVID-19 means

pig farmers are under a lot of stress right now.

The Ontario Pork Congress had speakers address this issue and The Rural Voice has offered mental health stories in the last few issues. ull details from all three of these topics are valuable and worth reading in full via slide show presentations which can be found on the Ontario Pork Congress June 2020 Online Event by signing into “My Show Planner”. ◊

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August 2020 47

Markets

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

Hot weather reduces wheat yields Ontario wheat harvest began amid the heatwave experienced at the beginning of July. The heat combined with the lack of moisture sped up the drying process in mature fields, allowing for some very dry wheat to be delivered to the elevator.

Yield prospects for the wheat crop were great this year, with most fields being planted into good conditions last fall, allowing good establishment and thick wheat stands. The generally mild winter did not cause winter survivability issues, and other than some areas where spring heaving occurred or where later spring frost affected some fields, the wheat crop was in great shape. But the season didn’t continue to be perfect to finish the crop to meet everyone’s huge expectations. The heat came on and with it, the rain stopped. This extreme weather pushed the wheat crop to maturity and affected yield to look more like average. Wheat just doesn’t perform well in hot weather and high temperatures shorten the grain fill period, affecting yields.

At the time of writing this article, wheat harvest had just begun through the south end of the province; through Essex County, moving into Kent and also into the Niagara region. Typically, in a dry year we regularly have heavy test weights in wheat. Early indications are that this is not uniformly the case with all fields this year, as some samples are grading a low #2 for test weight with a few downgrading to #3 due to lightweight kernels. Rumblings have been that the worst test weights and yields are on the lightest sand grounds.

This makes sense as it is likely that these plants did not meet

48 The Rural Voice

Markets physiological maturity, but rather died before maturing due to the drought coupled with the heat. On fields with lighter test weight (which is at risk of losing weight if it is exposed to too much rain) it will be important to get the wheat off the field as soon as reasonably possible in order to prevent it slipping to a lower grade as quality degrades in the field. Once wheat is ready to be harvested no good can come to it by leaving it in the field.

Other than test weight issues in some samples as discussed, there are no other quality issues with the wheat crop. Falling numbers are good so far, and the vomitoxin in the crop is pretty much zero due to the dry flowering period and the lack of fusarium growth while the crop was exposed.

The Soft Red Winter (SRW) crop has been disappointing in many areas south of us in the U.S. Reports are that some of the poorest yielding fields were those that were planted early in the fall on prevent plant acres, and that were damaged from the April frosts that happened night over night for about a week. These same frosts occurred here in Ontario (however most of our wheat wasn’t as vulnerable with the staging of the lifecycle). The U.S. will be a large consumer of Ontario wheat this year, most especially the Ohio marketplace which has significant usage of SRW. The Hard Red Winter (HRW) crop in the U.S. was harvested at rapid pace. The protein in this wheat was predominantly very good over a large portion of the harvest. About 70 per cent of the crop was in the 1111.4 per cent protein range. This high protein level will be good for Hard Wheat millers who often must supplement low protein HRW with expensive Hard Red Spring in their grist, to raise protein levels in the finished flour to make an acceptable and functional flour. This will save the miller money as they will not need to purchase large amounts of Hard Red Spring wheat, which is typically a premium price to HRW. For comparison only 33 per cent of last year’s HRW crop was 11-11.4 per cent.

Not only is test weight usually

attributable to a dry year but also protein percentage. This was definitely the result through the Kansas and Oklahoma bread basket this season.

While the dry growing season has been beneficial to the American HRW wheat growing areas, it has caused concern with the corn and soy crops. Both of these crops were planted into generally great soil conditions, but as they started to grow and the heat came on, they became vulnerable. The soils dried, and the crop began to wither, both here and in large swaths of the U.S. As the field conditions dried the crop prices responded in typical weather-market fashion and rallied to reflect the weather risk of potentially lower yields. That was until the rain

fell over large areas of the corn belt and the crops received some relief.

Immediately, with the moisture problem being alleviated, the market fell as the moisture risk was removed (at least temporarily).

Corn is entering a critical stage where it needs decent moisture to ensure adequate pollination. Without good pollination, perfect weather for the rest of the season won’t compensate for the loss of kernel pollination. Therefore through July the market traded on every forecast: expectations of rain bring prices under pressure and the removal of rain in the forecasts bring a bid to market prices. The U.S. seems to have received adequate rains to establish a decent corn crop this year, “rain makes grain.” ◊

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Woodlots Donna Lacey is a forester with the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority

Caterpillars, caterpillars everywhere This year our region did not see huge numbers of eastern tent caterpillars building the iconic tents and feeding on our tree leaves. We also didn’t see an invasion of army worms, also known as forest tent caterpillars.

Forest tent caterpillars do not build a tent as their name implies.

Forest tent caterpillars build a pad on nest material on the tree. Whether it is a tent or a pad, the tent caterpillars all require this nest to survive cool nights, really hot days, and rain. The caterpillars will all return home in weather that is not favourable or at night to huddle together for survival.

This is the time that it is super easy to lower their numbers, by removing their tent or pad, or by squishing them. That’s right, I said squishing them. I do not feel any remorse when eliminating these tree killers. While torching the nests at night can effectively eliminate the nest and the caterpillars, it can also damage the bark of the tree, doing more harm than what the caterpillars may have done while chewing on the leaves.

What we have been seeing way too many of are gypsy moth caterpillars.

While many people may read the title and quickly dismiss this column as too little too late, it is actually quite timely. Yes, the caterpillar numbers have pretty much vanished and it would appear that all your worries are over. No more gross caterpillars crawling, dropping, and pooping all over. What we need to be worried about is where did all of the caterpillars go?

The Gypsy Moth life cycle is a 50 The Rural Voice

pretty simple one. In the early spring, little caterpillars hatch and feed on leaves through to early summer. As the weather warms and the leaves have thickened up, so have the caterpillars. By the end of their feeding, around early July, the fattened caterpillars can be over six centimetres or two inches long.

These huge caterpillars will then pupate or cocoon for about two weeks, while their transformation into a moth takes place. Gypsy moths will feed on oak, maple, birch, poplar, beech, pine, and spruce.

These moths are a major part of our problem as they are the egg layers. The female moth is a flightless moth that can lay up to 1,000 eggs. The female is a very white moth with a black ‘v’ on its winged back. The male moth is brown with the same ‘v’ on its winged back and it flies from tree to tree in search of females. The moth stage typically lasts less than two weeks and during that time, a lot of eggs will be laid.

These future caterpillars will overwinter as eggs and they create an opportunity for non-chemical control of this invasive pest.

Once these eggs are laid, which

has started in parts of our area, we have from now until the end of winter to remove these egg masses.

Egg mass removal is super simple and, in my opinion, not even gross.

The egg masses appear on the tree as beige, tan or buff coloured oval splotches. Basically hundreds of eggs are stuck to the tree in a mass of really fine hairs. All we have to do is take something that will not damage the tree bark and scrape the eggs off.

It is wise to try to catch as many eggs as is possible in a container to ensure that they will not hatch. Once you are done collecting the eggs, fill the container with enough soapy water to cover the eggs and leave it soaking for a few days. After a few days have passed you can just pour out the water and destroyed eggs anywhere outside.

For any eggs that were out of reach and result in the hatching of the caterpillars, we have two other nonchemical control options. The gypsy moth caterpillar is very easy to identify with five pairs of blue dots and six pairs of red dots on their hairy back. Caterpillars can be handpicked or knocked out of your tree with water. If this option is chosen, the caterpillars will still need

The gypsy moth horde is almost done eating all our trees and are laying eggs in a mass of really fine, tan or buff-coloured oval patches. Now is the time to help control the infestation by scraping the egg nests off of trees and killing them in containers of soapy water.

Woodlots to be destroyed. Another choice would be to place either burlap bands or sticky bands around the tree trunk.

If using the burlap bands, the caterpillars need to be removed from the band and destroyed daily. The sticky bands will obviously catch any crawling insect, beneficial or not.

Obviously either band is only effective when the caterpillars are moving up and down the tree.

It is very important to remember that healthy trees can typically withstand one or two repeated defoliations, maybe even three.

At times when infestations are high we need to use a pesticide to save our forests. A pesticide option is also available for home owners. The bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki, or Btk, is available at most hardware stores and is quite easy to use. This pesticide must be used within two weeks of the caterpillars hatching to be effective. As Btk is a naturally occurring bacteria, it is considered safe to spray by air.

These aerial applications are crucial as most caterpillars feed in our forest canopy which is far out of reach. Btk breaks down in sunlight, is not toxic to humans, mammals, birds, fish, plants, honeybees, or other animals (not even snakes). Btk is toxic to any caterpillar that is at the same stage as the gypsy moth caterpillars. Many years ago a fungus was released which kills gypsy moth caterpillars quite effectively without harming other caterpillars.

This fall, forestry staff will be out at various sites counting egg masses to guide in the prediction of gypsy moth populations for next year.

These predictions aid in the planning of possible control methods.

Our next caterpillar pest that will be visible to most is the fall webworm. The fall webworm is true to its name and appears in late summer or fall and it weaves a tent out of webbing. Caterpillars that feed in the fall are not a major concern for tree health as the tree has almost finished using its leaves.

For now we can all celebrate that it won’t be raining caterpillar poop when we walk through the forest, at least until next spring. ◊

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

Farm fields and reasonable expectations of privacy Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right to be secure from unreasonable search and seizure by government authorities, including the police. The protection applies to people, which includes corporations (as legal persons), not to places. However, the location in which a search takes place can be important in determining whether the government action was lawful or not. A search has been

defined by the Courts as any state activity that interferes with a “reasonable expectation of privacy”.

An unlawful search is one that unreasonably interferes with a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy.

A search of a person’s body raises obvious privacy concerns (“personal privacy”) and attracts the highest level of protection under Section 8. Searches of geographic locations connected to a person may also raise privacy concerns (“territorial privacy” or “spatial privacy”), but not all locations will attract the same level of protection.

Individuals have a high (and most often reasonable) expectation of privacy in places like the home, meaning that the standard of reasonableness required of a search there will be high. The expectation of privacy in a publicly-accessible commercial space will be comparatively much lower, meaning that the standard of reasonableness required of a search of that location will be comparatively lower than for a search of a private home.

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privacy on open farmland? Can a police search of a private field violate a person’s Section 8 Charter right by unreasonably interfering with an expectation of privacy? The Court of Appeal for Ontario recently heard the challenge of convictions related to production and possession of marijuana by a vegetable farmer, the Appellant, who argued that a police search of the farmland he rented infringed Section 8 of the Charter. The Trial Judge agreed that Section 8 had been infringed, but ruled that the infringement did not warrant exclusion of evidence subsequently obtained on the farm. That evidence led to the convictions.

The Appellant leased approximately 12 acres out of a 330-acre property based on a verbal agreement.

A neighbour made a complaint to the police about marijuana being grown on the property and then accompanied a drug investigator to the site: “Both men briefly and unintentionally trespassed on the leased lands, although no marijuana was seen.” At a later time, an off-duty police officer was hunting on the property with the landowner’s permission and saw some marijuana plants. He passed that information onto drug enforcement.

Another officer then attended at the property and saw 14 rows of marijuana plants. As with the visit of the original drug investigator, this officer too unknowingly trespassed onto the leased lands in making his observation.

Eventually the police obtained search warrants, carried out a search of the property, and discovered a large number of marijuana plants in the field, a processing operation in a barn, and other related evidence of drug offences. At trial, the Appellant applied under Section 8 of the Charter to exclude the evidence obtained under warrant because, in part, the warrants were based on information obtained through a trespass onto the leased land.

The Trial Judge agreed that the police entries onto the leased land prior to the issuance of the warrants did breach the Appellant’s Charter right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, but concluded the breach was in the “middle range of gravity” and not sufficiently serious to require the exclusion of the evidence later gathered. This finding was the focus of

Agrilaw the appeal, and the Court of Appeal agreed with the Trial Judge and upheld the convictions.

The Court of Appeal also noted that the Trial Judge’s assessment of the Appellant’s privacy interest in the rented field as not measuring “high on the privacy scale” was well-supported by the factual record. The Appellant had a privacy interest that was more than “trifling” – he had made real and extensive use of the property over a number of years to farm vegetables, and the leased land was hidden from public view due to its precise location – but the fact that the leased area was accessible to persons visiting the overall farm property (the non-leased portion) and the fact that there were no signs or barriers erected to alert a visitor to the Appellant’s assertion of a privacy interest did not lend themselves to a high level of privacy protection from a police search. Under different circumstances, it would appear, a person’s privacy interest in farmland might warrant a higher level of protection.

It is important to note that not all government searches involve the police and criminal investigations.

Regulatory inspections carried out by government agencies such as the Canada Revenue Agency or the Ontario Ministry of the Environment are also “searches” that must be conducted reasonably and in compliance with Section 8 of the Charter. While the bar for reasonableness of a regulatory inspection may be set lower than that for a criminal investigation, the inspection may still unreasonably interfere with a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy, including on farm properties. Whether an inspection has breached the Section 8 Charter right of an individual or a corporation will depend on the circumstances of each particular case. ◊ _____________________________ 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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People

Kuhl vies for place on mentorship program Already growing her own herd, Grace Kuhl hopes to expand her network via the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Program

By Amanda Brodhagen

A

Grey County resident, Grace Kuhl is among the 24 semifinalists in the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders (CYL) Program. The CYL Program is a national youth mentorship initiative of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association which annually selects leaders, ages 18 to 35, from the beef industry for a ninemonth industry mentorship program.

The CYL program provides industryspecific training and mentorship to help the Canadian beef industry retain and attract young people in the sector. Over 50 written applications were submitted this year from across Canada and Kuhl was one of three from Ontario who will be vying for one of 16 spots in the program. The rest of the semi-finalists are from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and PEI. Kuhl is a proud fifth generation farmer from Keady, Ont. She’s a recent graduate from the University of Guelph, Ridgetown College Campus with an Associate Diploma in Agriculture. During her studies, she focused on livestock production.

In addition, in 2018, she graduated from the World Wide College of Auctioneering in Mason City, Iowa.

“My passion for beef production began at a young age being constantly exposed to my family’s livestock market operation. Along with the livestock market we also run 120 commercial Red Simmental influenced cows, and a backgrounding operation,” said Kuhl.

“Through participation in 4-H I have had the opportunity to grow my own purebred Simmental herd.”

Kuhl currently holds several leadership positions in the beef industry, including Vice-President of the Ontario Young Canadian Simmental Association and as a Director for the Grey County Beef Farmers Association.

She said that hearing about the 54 The Rural Voice

she said.

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the program with 120 graduates from across the country including a handful of Ontario graduates. The semifinalists were selected by a panel of judges through written applications with the final round of competition to be held virtually August 10. Mentees are given a yearly budget of $2,000 to fund participation during the mentorship and to attend industry events.

Candidates build upon their knowledge base and are given the tools to succeed as capable individuals to represent and lead the beef industry into the future.

The competition is usually held annually at the Canadian Beef Grace Kuhl is the vice-president of the Industry Conference, which will Ontario Young Canadian Simmental now be moved online due to Association and has made the semi-finalist pandemic.

Conference round of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Young organizers hope to hold the inLeaders Program~Photo by Laura person conference in British Fullerton Columbia next summer.

“I am extremely honoured successful experiences from other to be chosen as a semi-finalist in the Ontario CYL graduates gave her the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders program motivation to apply. and am excited to enter the finals,” “As I continue to grow my career she said. “I hope CYL will give me in the beef industry I jump at any the tools to help the Ontario beef opportunity to expand my network Industry continue to strengthen and and meet fellow producers whether it be attending breed events, the BFOgrow as a viable industry for run programs or applying to CYL,” generations to come.” ◊

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People

Jacques Van Zyl wins $1,000 prize With experience in South Africa and a love for large animal work, Dr. Van Zyl will be based out of Metzger Veterinary Services in Chesley recognizes new veterinarians entering food animal practices serving producers in Grey and Bruce Counties and encourages their future contributions, and commitment to our rural communities.

On June 20 at the Ontario Veterinarian College Class of 2020 virtual Veterinary Oath Ceremony, Dr. Jacques Van Zyl was named the recipient of the GBFW award along with two other awards.

Born in South Africa, Jacques’ family moved to the small farming town of Canora, Saskatchewan, where they backgrounded cattle and had a small chicken flock. He spent his childhood fishing and helping on the farm. On weekends, he enjoyed going to rodeos where “mutton busting” (grab the wool and go) was a crowd favourite!

The Van Zyl family moved to Dr. Jacques Van Zyl was awarded the Ontario when Jacques was in grade $1,000 Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week prize four. He was always very intrigued upon graduation from Ontario Veterinary with the idea of being a veterinarian College in June to encourage his and working in a rural setting. His commitment to rural communities. He initial interest was wildlife, and he currently works in large animal veterinary worked for a year in conservation. He care with Metzger Veterinary Services in also spent time working on a family Chesley. member’s farm in South Africa, where they farmed rare game. After etzger Veterinary Services spending time with a veterinarian in has hired Dr. Jacques Van South Africa, and darting animals Zyl, winner of the $1,000 from helicopters, he decided to Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week Prize. pursue a career in veterinary Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week medicine.

(GBFW) has been a mainstay for the Jacques says that being a large agricultural industry in Grey and animal veterinarian suits his Bruce Counties since 1966. To give personality. He likes the physical back to the community, the GBFW aspect of having to wrestle a steer Committee established an annual when necessary. Jacques added that $1000 Grey Bruce Farmer’s Week being out on the road in the Prize in conjunction with the countryside is a hard office to beat.

University of Guelph and Ontario He also finds it rewarding to help Veterinary College (OVC). The prize producers, as veterinarians are

M

directly influencing the farmers’ livelihoods.

Jacques admits he thought about moving back to South Africa and working there. However, his wife is from Grey County and they love this area too much to move away. He is currently working for both a large animal clinic (Metzger Veterinary Services) and a small animal clinic.

Jacques is really look forward to interacting with the producers that he knows from his childhood. Being able to help them now, as a veterinarian, will be very rewarding, he believes. He also looks forward to meeting new farmers and starting his career in the area. ◊

Schmidt’s Farm Drainage 1990 Ltd. Harriston

Specializing in Farm Drainage, Backhoeing & Excavating, GPS includes: mapping grade control & surveying Where Schmidt’s go, the Water Flows!

GPS Grade Control 519-338-3484 • Cell 519-323-6335 August 2020 57

EQUIPMENT SPECIALS

Manufacturer of Precast Concrete Products Complete Infrastructure Supply • septic and holding tanks • sewer • watermain • concrete structures • hydrants and valves • hydro vaults • plow blades

www.porters.ca 255 LEYLAND TRACTOR runs good, diesel, new back tires, 3PH slow, power steering.

Price

$

3,900

Lucknow (head office) 519-528-3537 Owen Sound 519-372-1636 Stratford 519-271-5554

Lucknow location also offers • septic pumping • ready mix • aggregate and decorative stone Division of J.A. Porter Holdings (Lucknow) Ltd.

WOODS 5 FT. FINISHING MOWER 3PH, used this season, 540 PTO, works good.

750

$

Price

JOHN DEERE TWO ROW NARROW SILAGE HEAD Used last fall, slip clutch, works good.

Price

1,650

$

MF 39 Disc, 10 ft., 3PH, good blades & bearings, adjustable...........$1100.

MF 74 Plow, three furrow, 3PH, clean boards, good shape................$750.

2 Nuffield Leyland Tractor Weights, 75 lb. suitcase .................pair $150.

Steel Thrower Wagon, heavy gear, good floor, 20 ft., side doors...$2,600.

New Holland 268 Small Square Baler, working order, 540 PTO...$1,650.

Vicon 3PH, finger wheelSOLD rake, 3 wheel, gentle on hay........................$750.

IH Long Bar Hay Rake, ground drive, good shape, 4 bar..................$850.

Wrecking JD, NI, NH haybines 461, 479, 488, JD 1209 .....................Call John Deere 213 Combine Straight Head, 13 ft., works good...........$2,600.

John Deere 443 Four Row Corn Head, working order, plus cart.......$4,900.

Round Bale Spears for Loaders, Reist, Frey, various makes ................Call Crimper for Macdon Swather, steel rolls, left hand drive...............$1,650.

John Deere 37 Sickle Mower, 7 ft., hyd. lift, Pitman-type, used this season......$975.

SOLD Wrecking MF, John Deere 30, 40 Throwers, ejector-style.....................Call MF 212 Thrower, good shape, fits 124, 224, 228, hyd. tension ......$2,600.

New Holland 717 Two Row Corn Head, used last season, narrow row.....$750.

Westfield Pony Harrow, 16 ft., gauge wheels, wings, used this season.........$1,250.

Massey Harris 30 AntiqueSOLD Tractor, 4 cyl. gas, new parts..............$1,650.

New Holland 717 Harvester, super, with direct cut hay head, 6 ft. ..........$2,200.

New Holland 770, 718 Hay Head, open end, 6 ft., JD head available.........$750.

Roll Bar for John Deere 20, 30 Series, bolts to axle ..................................$475.

IH 354 Tractor, gas, 3PH, 35HP, used around farm, good shape.............$4,700.

MF 35 Deluxe Tractor, gas, runs good, has steering box issues..............$2,800.

AC B Antique Tractor, gas, new manifold, has rattle up front, runs.........$1,200.

Case 970 Diesel Tractor, power shift, runs good, 6400 hrs. cab, bad blow by....$3,900.

and it isn’t just corn.

You may not realize it, but your home is sitting on a free and renewable supply of energy. A WaterFurnace geothermal comfort system taps into the stored solar energy in your own backyard to provide savings of up to 70% on heating, cooling and hot water. That’s money in the bank and a smart investment in your family’s comfort. Contact your local WaterFurnace dealer today to learn how to tap into your buried treasure.

DAN SEIFRIED EQUIPMENT

8th Line East, Harriston Established 1986

519-338-2688 58 The Rural Voice

1136 Bruce Road 86, LUCKNOW

www.cliffsplumbing.com Phone: 519-528-3913 • Toll Free: 800-449-2543 • Fax: 519-528-3125 cliff@cliffsplumbing.com

The

Rural Voice

Business Centre To place your ad call: 519-523-4311 or email: rvads@northhuron.on.ca

Leadership in energy and environmental design

Call for skid pricing

Devon Henry 84772 McDonald Line • Box 616 • Brussels

devonjhenry@hotmail.com 519-505-2473

Baler twine, net wrap, bale wrap, black & white silage covers

Call Elvin at Weber’s Farm Supply, Mt. Forest 519-323-1043

B U Brough & Whicher Limited S • Engineered Roof Trusses • “I” Joint Floor Systems I White Cedar Decking, Posts & V-Match WIARTON, ONTARIO N www.broughandwhicher Tel: 519-534-0340 or 877-866-3434 Fax 519-534-4637 E Email: sales@broughandwhicher.com S S Member of the O.W.T.F.A.

LD

SO

STEVEN NIXON

Serving the area since 1999

Broker WILFRED MCINTEE & CO. LIMITED

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

LOT 32 CON 4 CULROSS TOWNSHIP $859,000 MLS# 30819912 101 acre farm with 60 acres of workable land randomly tiled in 2016 where needed, tile maps available, good crop rotation, 2nd year for 60 acres of hay ground, the remainder is pasture & hardwood bush last logged in 1996. Great farm to add to your current farming operation.

• Farm Lanes • Campgrounds • Driveways • Horse Riding Arenas Brent Pryce

519-525-6295

• Bulk Bags • Tote Bags • Super Sacks

Full service to all boats and marine engines

ARGYLE Marine & Small Engines Inc.

33973 Church Camp Rd., Goderich 519-524-5361 Email: argylemarine@cabletv.on.ca

If we don’t have it in stock, we’ll custom make it for you! info@bagsupplies.ca Tel: 1-519-271-2040

www.bagsupplies.ca Fax: 1-519-271-2027 August 2020 59

C E N T R E

KRAEMER CONCRETE LTD. Two Locations to Serve You! 5595 Road 130 Brunner N0K 1C0

220 Industrial Park Dr., Brussels N0G 1H0

519-595-2343

519-887-8763

Fax: 595-4903

Fax: 887-8764

C E N T R E

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

Toll Free at 1-888-RING-KCL

B U S I N E S S

Farm Drainage

Newton, Ont. 519-595-4545

MANUFACTURING STEEL ROOFING SIDING & TRIMS

STEFFEN WELL DRILLING 519-531-0355 TEESWATER, ON

mike@steffenwelldrilling.ca

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

519-363-3757

2051 Bruce Rd. 19, R.R. 1 Chesley, ON N0G 1L0

Also Supplying Other Building Accessories

Horse & Livestock Car, Utility & Recreational any design, hitches trade-ins welcome super after sales service

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

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

Est. 1991

O L D BA R N S FOR SALVAGE CALL STEVE

519-523-4523

Galvanized Roofing For Sale

Maitland Welding & Machining

• In-shop & on-site millwrighting • Custom fabrication • Steel & industrial supply sales 60 The Rural Voice

Wa n t e d to buy

63 North St. Wingham

Ph.:519-357-2727 Fax: 519-357-4769 www.maitlandwelding.com rstute@maitlandwelding.com

B U S I N E S S

35 Ellen Street Brucefield, ON N0M 1J0

tarbaby2@outlook.com

Road Routing & Sealing Built Up Roofing Tar & Chip / Laneways

45’ Crane Truck with

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

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

Post Hole Augering Silo Top Water Proofing

RR #2, Arthur, Ont. (519) 848-2799

Advertising in The Rural Voice – A Wise Choice! –

INSTALLATION & PARTS

Rissler KEITH SIEMON FARM SYSTEMS LTD.

RUBBER TIRE PACKER SPECIALISTS

Order Now

SALES & SERVICE

C E N T R E

PACKERS: WE BUILD

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

Tel. 519-529-7212

Snowblowers, Quick-attach Buckets, Sweepers, Woodsplitters, Crimper Rollers, Land Rollers, Stone Windrowers, etc.

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

Call Today! 519-523-4311 Deadline for the September issue is August 11, 2020

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

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.

-------------------------------------------------BALING -------------------------------------------------Custom big square baling, Rotocut, $1.10 per foot, no knives; $1.20 per foot with knives. 519-377-2303.

-------------------------------------------------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.

-------------------------------------------------Advertising in The Rural Voice – A Wise Choice!

Call Today! 519-523-4311

CUSTOM WORK -------------------------------------------------Janmaat Custom Bale Wrapping.

In-line wrapping any size round bale and any size square bale up to 6 1/2' long. Call Cody at 519-955-3384.

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

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

-------------------------------------------------FARM EQUIPMENT -------------------------------------------------EZTRAIL 500 bu, 14" hyd. drive corner auger, no undercarriage, good condition, $4,500 o.b.o. 519-5310294.

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

FARM EQUIPMENT -------------------------------------------------CASE IH 5140, 7,000 hours, excellent condition. Brussels, 519531-0294.

-------------------------------------------------JIFFEY DUMP, new floatation tires, good condition, $5,900. Brussels, 519-531-0294.

-------------------------------------------------FARM FRESH -------------------------------------------------Hillsview Farms – organically homegrown produce since 1996.

From Lucknow 519-529-3653.

Current convenient locations: Clinton – beside Tim Hortons Fridays 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; Goderich – Austin’s Appliance parking lot, Wednesdays and Saturdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

New online store and home delivery; localline.ca/hillsview-farms --------------------------------------------------

601 Con. 6, Chesley, ON

519-363-0009 Harvesters, Balers, Discbines

Deadline for the September issue of

New & Used Parts, After Market & OEM

The Rural Voice is August 11, 2020

August 2020 61

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

FARM FRESH -------------------------------------------------Steckle’s Produce and Flowers.

Fresh homegrown fruits and vegetables, local honey, maple syrup, preserves and Feiges gourmet dressings. Planters and hanging baskets, fall mums, frozen chicken and Black Angus beef. See our website for availability guide. www.steckles.ca Open Monday Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. 5857 Hwy. 89 Harriston. 519-338-5381.

-------------------------------------------------Arranhill Garlic Farm, Table Garlic, Scapes and Shallots plus Garlic Seed for fall planting. 110-12 Conc. East, Allenford. 519-270-0022. Email: acowan@gbtel.ca -------------------------------------------------FARM SERVICES --------------------------------------------------

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

FOR SALE --------------------------------------------------

Bodywood • Slabwood Quantity Discounts

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

EGGER FARMS CUSTOM BALING

• 3x3 Bales Automatic Acid Applications, Roto Cutter.

Individual Bale Wrapping 6' bales

Call Fritz: 519-292-0138 -------------------------------------------------FENCING -------------------------------------------------FENCIN’ AROUND Installation, Post Pounding and Fencing Supplies. h_laxton@hotmail.com 519-441-2191.

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

HIGHLAND FENCE & SUPPLY INC. Joseph Kirwin

519-475-4868 • 1-800-923-4488 info@highlandfence.ca • www.highlandfence.ca 804075 Rd. 80, Embro, ON N0J 1J0

-------------------------------------------------FIREWOOD -------------------------------------------------Debarked Hardwood Slabs – 16" cut $30 face cord, $10 cord deliveries or pickup in Auburn. huronfirewood.com Call 519-5243493.

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

62 The Rural Voice

CLASSIFIED Discount Steel

519-441-2085 519-656-2057

Serving Southwestern Ontario for over 10 years!

-------------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------For prices on forage peas, forage pea mixtures and cover crop mixtures. Contact Courtney Grain & Seed (2015) Ltd., 225 Hwy. 21, RR 1, Ripley. Phone 519-395-2972. Ask for Carmon or Mitch.

-------------------------------------------------Rosco grain bins for sale – 19' and 14' diameter. Parts available. Used grain bins wanted for parts or reuse.

Closed Sundays, 519-338-3920.

-------------------------------------------------21 1/2 ft. 5th wheel camper, 1996 model, air, awning, microwave, good condition, asking $6,000. 519-5271866.

-------------------------------------------------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.

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

Elwood Kuepfer 519-363-9493 Grey Rd 25 #581053, Chesley ON N0G 1L0

Landscaping & Wood Clearing has trees available for planting in all sizes.

Cedar, White Pine, Silver Maple, Norway Spruce, White Birch & Hackberry.

Call 519-363-9493 and leave a message.

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

-------------------------------------------------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.

-------------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Red Angus, Simmental Heifers bred to a Red Angus bull. For results Google – Ontario Bull Evaluation, Silver Springs Farms. James and Joan McKinlay 519-599-6236. jmckinlay@bmts.com -------------------------------------------------Hypharm Genetics rabbits breeding stock now available in Ontario. Order your PS19 does and PS40 bucks. CuniON@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------------LIMOUSIN – quality fall born young breeding bulls for sale. Delivery included. Posthaven Limousin, John Post 519-766-7178. www.posthavenlimousin.com -------------------------------------------------Limousin bulls, open and bred females available. Smart Limousin, Meaford 519-372-7459. smartlimo@ bmts.com www.smartlimousin.com --------------------------------------------------

CLASSIFIED MULCH SALES -------------------------------------------------Morrissey Mulch & Storage, RR 1, Exeter, 70180 Airport Line, 519-872-8925 Bob; 519-872-0010 Rob. Sawmill wood only; no demolition material used. Delivery available.

-------------------------------------------------RESTORATION -------------------------------------------------The Olde Tyme Radio Centre – antique radios, clocks, gramophones, telephones; sold/restored. (vintage autoclock radio, speedometer, tachometer repaired). Belgrave 519357-4304, www.oldtymeradio.ca -------------------------------------------------RETAIL & GIFTS -------------------------------------------------Stitches with a Twist – 404 Queen St., Blyth, 519-523-9449. Yarns, needles, notions, patterns, books and lots more yarn.

------------------------------------------------SERVICES --------------------------------------------------

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

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

PAL & HUNTER ED. Ongoing courses available.

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

-------------------------------------------------TOWNSLEY BARN PAINTING – All farm buildings and houses, seamless eavestroughing, liquid rubber coatings, waterproofing, metal, concrete, wood, foam and bin flooring sealing. Serving Ontario since 1955.

Call 519-859-0097 or 519-871-0300 townsleypainting@hotmail.com -------------------------------------------------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 -------------------------------------------------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.

-------------------------------------------------Barnhem Farm Services. Solid manure spreading; variable rate precision application (optional).

Serving Bruce, Grey, North Huron and North Wellington. Contact for info: Herman Vinckx at 519-881-7663 or Dylan Vinckx at 519-881-8957.

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

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

Ph. 519-528-3019

GLAVIN BARN & COMMERCIAL PAINTING FARMERS repaint your faded coloured steel WHAT LIQUID RUBBER SEALANT DOES Stays flexible in all weather Expands and contracts Won’t become brittle Won’t crack or develop holes Sticks to almost any surface Won’t release from concrete Protects metal from rusting 3 year warranty

DURABLE AND FLEXIBLE SEALANT Liquid rubber sealant is unlike any other sealant.

Our rubber sealant stays flexible in all weather allowing it to expand and contract while bin foundation ring moves.

It eliminates crop spoilage, seals any air and water leaks, keeps concrete floors dryer which reduces cracking and chipping of foundation. Our sealant also prevents bottom ring from rusting unlike tar sealants, spray foam sealants, and white or grey elastic sealants which cause damage to bin by releasing from metal allowing water to lay between bin ring and sealant.

Stop wasting your money and damaging your bins with other sealants. Liquid rubber sealant is the only proven sealant to actually work and last!

519.859.0097 519.871.0300 townsleybarnpainting.com

FREE QUOTES ~ FULLY INSURED

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

Call: Jim Glavin 1-800-465-4725 519-228-6247 Eugene Glavin 519-228-6801

Elwood Kuepfer 519-363-9493 Grey Rd 25 #581053, Chesley ON N0G 1L0

Landscaping & Wood Clearing Lawn Seeding & Sodding Bush Lots Tree Pruning & Planting Cedar Logging and maintenance, etc.

Yard Trees Natural & Coloured Mulch Stump Grinding

SEAMLESS EAVESTROUGHING

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

London 519-268-8500 Specializing in on Farm Pest Management Serving Southwestern ON, Golden Horseshoe, GTA Email: info@sgsltd.ca

519-692-4232 www.sgspestmanagement.ca

-------------------------------------------------STANDING TIMBER -------------------------------------------------STANDING TIMBER - hardwood and softwoods. Quality workmanship guaranteed. B. Kropf Forestry Service Ltd., Bruce Kropf, RR 1, Shakespeare, ON, N0B 2P0. 519-748-7422.

-------------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------------The Hanover, Bentinck & Brant Agricultural Society has cancelled the 2020 Hanover Fair (August 7, 8, 9) due to COVID-19 and our concern for the well-being of fair participants and volunteers.

We are pleased to provide our communities a chance to engage in our “2020 Virtual Fair”.

Check it out at Hanoverfair.ca and join in the fun!

We will have virtual competitions including a Virtual Dressage Show, contests, and Ag awareness videos.

We look forward to renewing our traditions with a full slate of competitions, displays, entertainment, and free family fun at our 2021 Fair!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and visit our website (hanoverfair.ca) for future announcements

August 2020 63

CLASSIFIED WANTED -------------------------------------------------4x5 or 4x4 round bales of hay picked up. Call Riley Gorman 519321-1012.

-------------------------------------------------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 – 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 -------------------------------------------------Young farmer looking for land rent, sharecrop, or custom work opportunities. Good environmental stewardship and professionalism.

Short and long term. 519-200-7845 or hundt.chris@outlook.com --------------------------------------------------

702 MAIN ST., SAUBLE BEACH (519) 422-ATVS (2887) sales.atvdepot@bellnet.ca

Motorcycles Your Adventure Awaits

Vern’s

Country Auto & Leisure

• Safety Vehicle Inspections • Classic Cars Specialist • All models cars and light trucks • Motorcycles & ATVs • Lawn & Garden Equipment • Snowmobiles • Watercraft & Marine • Trailers • Parts & Repairs for Chinese ATVs & Motorcycles 40486 B-Line Road, Wingham

519-357-1997 Fax: 519-357-9978 vernsauto@eastlink.ca

vernscountryauto.com

64 The Rural Voice

Motorcycle Safety $84.99

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

Introducing the Farm Unit membership If you farm as a co-operative, collective, or partnership where the majority of the farm’s labour or management is provided by individuals involved in actively operating the farm, you may join as Farm Unit members.

Up to four individuals comprising a farming unit are recognized under a Farm Unit membership. Meet Roots to Harvest whose farmers are the newest Farm Unit members.

At Roots to Harvest we use food as a tool to connect people to one another and build belonging and dignity through meaningful programs, initiatives, and advocacy. Through seed-to-plate production, we make food more accessible in an urban area, and our mandate is to provide meaningful and impactful employment, education, and mentorship opportunities within the local food system for young people who face barriers to success. We nurture people and our communities by growing sustainable, local food.

As a charitable organization, we cultivate almost three acres of land at two urban farms in Thunder Bay. They are beautiful and welcoming spaces, easily accessible by foot, bike, bus, or car. From our humble beginnings in 2007, we now employ 14 full-time staff. We keep our operations afloat through a variety of grants, direct sales, service, fundraising, and donations.

Local farmers, many of whom are NFU members, have imparted their knowledge and skills as part of our educational programming, either on their own farms or at our urban gardens.

At our farms we harvest annual fruit and vegetables, maintain a number of fruit trees, harvest wild forage-ables (fiddle-heads, mushrooms), tend to a small apiary (10 hives), a modest rabbitry, and maintain a seed production garden. We also care for a three-season greenhouse in partnership with Nishnawbe Aski Nation. We sell our food at mobile markets and local restaurants at market prices, provide a CSA for our monthly donors, and donate hundreds of pounds of produce

annually to local schools, shelters, and food services organizations. We can, freeze, and dry our surplus for later use in a variety of different food literacy programming.

Our educational initiatives are central to our operations. Last year the Seasonal Horticultural Outdoor Worker (S.H.O.W.) program, which debuted in 2016, hired 10 disadvantaged youth to instill broad-based employment skills and agricultural training. In conjunction with the Lakehead District School Board, our long-standing Youth Garden Program employs 12 high school students for six weeks over the summer. Roots to Harvest resides on the territory of the Fort William First Nation, signatory to the RobinsonSuperior Treaty. In partnership with numerous Indigenous-led organizations, Roots to Harvest acknowledges and highlights the land-based and traditional food of our area and works with the knowledge-keepers to learn and share the food culture and history of our region.

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Canada, Roots to Harvest quickly pivoted in order to ensure access to affordable, healthy, and sustainable food was maintained for vulnerable people. After the closure of the food banks in Thunder Bay in April, we shifted our focus to provide emergency food access and have distributed food hampers to families with children and seniors experiencing poverty.

Roots to Harvest feels a kinship with the work and activism of the NFU locally and throughout Canada. Having long collaborated with NFU members,

in July 2020, four members of our farm staff joined the NFU as part of the new farm unit membership.

Our farm staff wanted to become part of a collective movement and voice that seeks to attain a just and sustainable food system for all. As a hardworking, grassroots organization, Roots to Harvest recognizes the work the NFU has done to mobilize and amplify the voices of grassroot food systems, and we’re excited to be a part of this important work.

“It’s with excitement that I welcome staff of Roots to Harvest into the NFU,” says Stuart Oke, NFU Youth President. “I’m proud to have contributed in a small way to the development of their S.H.O.W. program as a one-time staff member.

Roots to Harvest staff knowledge and unique perspective on food sovereignty will undoubtedly bring value to the National Farmers Union.”

Roots to Harvest demonstrates that a vibrant and multi-functional urban agriculture space is possible, and that growing food is a relational framework that not only builds vibrant communities but can also be beautiful, bountiful, and inspirational.

A subscription to The Rural Voice is one of the benefits of being an NFU-O member August 2020 65

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

Perth, Huron, Grey and Bruce County Pork Producers

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

NEWSLETTER

Pork donation provides protein for more than 200,000 meals More than 200,000 servings of fresh ground pork will help feed Ontario families in need this year thanks to a grassroots fundraising initiative supported by hog farmers and their industry partners.

Recently, the Pork Industry Gratitude Project announced that a combined total of $85,000 had been raised since April to support the Friends of the Foodbank program, which provides fresh ground pork to the Feed Ontario network of foodbanks. An additional $15,000 will be made available to county pork associations that will allow them to increase community-based food donations.

The Pork Industry Gratitude Project is a grassroots initiative launched by hog farmers in Perth County. They were looking to make a positive impact in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis.

Even as farmers themselves struggled with on-farm challenges and supply-chain disruptions caused by the pandemic, organizers of the gratitude project saw three ways they could help make things better for others: 1) Increasing support for the Feed Ontario, through the Ontario Pork Friends of the Foodbank Program 2) Providing additional funds for community-based food giving by local pork associations 3) Hosting Farmer-to-Frontline Worker Appreciation Box Lunches for employees at Ontario’s two largest processing plants With support from county-level pork associations, farming families, Ontario Pork and businesses connected to agriculture, the group overshot its initial fundraising goal of $100,000 by more than a third. Gold level sponsors include South West Ontario Veterinary Services and Purina (Cargill). Silver level sponsors include Farmer’s Farmacy, Grand Valley Fortifiers, Synergy Swine Inc., Schlegel Home Farms and Floradale Feed Mill.

66 The Rural Voice

“We’re incredibly grateful to see how the entire industry came together to have a positive impact during some challenging times that affected all of us,” said John Nyenhuis, a Perth County farmer and one of the organizers of the Pork Industry Gratitude Project. “No matter what challenges they were facing on other fronts, these farmers, farm groups and businesses stepped up to help others. That’s the spirit that makes me proud to be a pork producer.”

Ontario’s pork sector has a long history of involvement with Feed Ontario, but this is the largest singleyear donation in recent memory.

Since 2013, Ontario Pork’s Friends of the Food Bank program has donated 107,096 pounds (239,605 kg) of fresh ground pork to Feed Ontario. That’s the equivalent of 726,062 adult servings, or 1,452,143 child-sized servings.

“Food banks everywhere faced increased demand and decreased support this year as the COVID-19 pandemic brought job losses and economic uncertainty,” said Carolyn Stewart-Stockwell, executive director of Feed Ontario. “Having a reliable supply of healthy, fresh protein makes a huge difference in the lives of individuals and families facing food insecurity. We’re very appreciative of the efforts of the pork industry to make that happen.”

Pork donations will take place

over several months, based on food bank and processing capacity.

The first donation took place in early July, with 3,700 pounds of fresh ground pork delivered to Feed Ontario through the Ontario Pork Friends of the Food Bank program.

About the Pork Industry Gratitude Project The Pork Industry Gratitude Project is a grassroots fundraising and positivity movement initiated by producers in Perth County. The project is designed to enhance a spirit of cross-industry collaboration and promote food-focused giving. In addition to showing appreciation to plant workers in Ontario, the initiative will also help increase fresh ground pork donations to food banks across Ontario. Visit, ontariopork.on.ca/Communications /Giving-Back for more information.

About Ontario Pork Ontario Pork represents the 1,180 farmers who market 5.5 million hogs in the province. The organization is engaged in many areas, including research, government representation, environmental issues, consumer education and food quality assurance.

Ontario’s pork industry generates $2.6 billion in economic output and 13,186 in full-time equivalent jobs. For more information, visit Ontario Pork’s website at www.ontariopork.on.ca. ◊ – Submitted by Ontario Pork

PERTH COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS PORK PRODUCTS • Smoked Pork Chops • 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.

Perth County Federation of Agriculture Email: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Website: www.perthcountyfarmers.ca Sue Shafer, Office Administrator 1-833-229-6834 Tim Halliday, President: 519-291-3374

Mental health in agriculture is a priority during COVID-19 Perth County: This spring saw seeds go in the ground with good weather and good growth. First-cut hay is off and the yield seems good.

The weather has been hot and dry.

Second-cut hay was stressed making for decreased yields. The wheat has been harvested with good crop and we should have a good supply of straw this year from the wheat. The threat of COVID-19 virus has changed our machinery sales to online selling which has made good used machinery prices very high.

Everyone is still dealing with the COVID-19 virus and farmers are no exception. Mental health issues have been a concern, especially this year with the added uncertainty of commodity prices and markets.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture has a Mental Health Matters Campaign. Local Federations and everyone across the organization is encouraged to share the video clips on social media to amplify their message. The following is a direct quote from OFA. “Before the effects of COVID-19 had been experienced in Ontario, OFA had made plans for a media campaign highlighting mental health in agriculture; and then this project became a Crisis Communications Team priority.

Perth County Federation of Agriculture

While this limited the options for creating video footage, we were able to work with Bell Media to overlay real farm voices telling their stories, to encourage farmers to seek help in times of distress, and to reach out to others who may be struggling. The messaging is relevant to farmers (and others) but not specific to the pandemic so that it can be used as a future resource.”

The campaign includes two mental health matters videos, each with their own voice, two pre-roll videos (shorter segments that play in advance of YouTube programming), and several radio ads which feature two additional voices. The full-length videos and pre-roll videos are

available on the OFA website at https://ofa.on.ca/mental-healthmatters.

Looking ahead I feel we need to make our voices heard and have more processing capacity in Ontario and Canada and less dependence on foreign food suppliers. ◊ – Submitted by Robert Martin Past President of PCFA If you or someone you know needs help, you can begin by calling:

1­888­829­7484 Huron Perth Addiction and Mental Health Alliance

PCFA Continuing Education Scholarship For students entering second, third or fourth year of post­secondary education.

For more information call 1­833­229­6834 or visit perthcountyfarmers.ca/education­awards­application

PCFA - OFA Regional Meeting ~ Virtual Format ~

Thursday, August 27 – 7:30 p.m.

Meeting Highlights: • Updates on current OFA Issues and ongoing efforts

DIRECTORS’ MEETING

• Election of OFA Policy Advisory Council members and OFA Convention Delegates/Alternates (Nov. 23)

Thursday, August 20 To be eligible to run for one of these three positions and to vote you need to be a member of OFA The deadline to submit intention to run is Thursday, August 20, 2020

8:00 p.m.

Currently all PCFA Board Meetings are being held in video call format.

Please call Sue at 1-833-229-6834 if you wish to participate

Please pre-register by email or phone to our Member Services Representative, Margaret Vincent, no later than Tuesday, August 25 margaret.vincent@ofa.on.ca or 1-800-511-1135 extension 1 (include name and OFA number) You will receive meeting set-up and login details by email ahead of the meeting

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

August 2020 67

Grey County Federation of Agriculture

446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 Email: grey@ofa.on.ca Website: greyfederation.ca

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA

GCFA supports frontline workers Editorial articles submitted and published on this page are the views of the author(s) and are not meant to represent the position of the Grey County of Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

During these unusual times, GCFA is proud to support our frontline workers. Their dedication and service is invaluable.

To show our support, GCFA donated 1,000 gift packages for frontline workers that were delivered recently to local hospitals and longterm care facilities. ◊ Grey County Federation of Agriculture

2020 MEETINGS

August 13 – Directors’ Meeting September 10 – Directors’ Meeting October - GCFA AGM November 12 – Directors’ Meeting November - OFA Convention/OYFF December - Christmas Social DUE TO COVID-19 GCFA Board Meetings have become conference/video call format.

Please contact the office if you are interested in taking part.

* The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Grey County by the GCFA.

68 The Rural Voice

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

446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551 * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA

Members in Bruce County by the BCFA NEWSLETTER Rural Infrastructure – a century-long legacy with a worrisome future

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.

Harvest season always brings a host of little worries for all of us.

Those worries form a common experience that we accepted when we took on our roles in agriculture.

Weather and breakdowns are probably the two common concerns we all have, but there is another concern many of us share that usually goes unmentioned; getting to and from the field on century-old infrastructure. A few of my harvest excursions take me down a road that is exactly one combine wide and over a bridge that is just slightly wider than the machine. A close examination of the route reveals there is a greater concern than just a few awkward trips would imply.

The inscription indicates the bridge was built in 1937. The date of construction implies the project may have been part of a stimulus plan to try and end the Depression. When it was complete, my grandfather was a much younger man than I am now.

There were no tractors in the township. My amateur forensic analysis of the guardrails indicates the bridge has been involved in four collisions over its long service, or has had roughly one accident per generation. Since it was built, conservatively, there have been at least one million trips across it. The municipality’s Structure Inspection Report indicates that the bridge requires immediate replacement, and perhaps that is what makes me most concerned.

The capital intensive question of renewing rural infrastructure has a simple answer for the geographically agnostic. Just close some bridges and roads. Unfortunately, rural geography

is different in many ways compared to urban geography. In rural Ontario, the next bridge isn’t a few blocks away, it’s several kilometres away.

Closing bridges will mean longer bus rides, slower emergency response, more farm equipment making dangerous trips on busy highways and farms and families that are suddenly more remote from their communities than before without moving an inch. Choosing which part of rural infrastructure you can sacrifice is akin to choosing which vital organ you can do without. Once one piece goes, others will inevitably follow.

Renewing rural infrastructure like bridges and roads for another century of service will be hard. There are several levels of government and multiple Ministries involved. Projects and plans will need to span more than a decade and more than a few election cycles. It will require a sustained and co-ordinated effort. But we are from rural Ontario. We can do hard things.

Ontario needs rural Ontario and

rural Ontario has earned the 21stcentury infrastructure we require to do our job efficiently. The Bruce County Federation of Agriculture will be reaching out over the next few months to make it happen. Please join us and we will make a legacy for rural Ontario for the next century. ◊ – Submitted by John Rodgers President, BCFA Bruce County Federation of Agriculture

2020 MEETINGS August 24 – Directors’ Meeting September 28 – Directors’ Meeting November 9 – Directors’ Meeting

DUE TO COVID-19 BCFA Board Meetings have become conference/video call format.

Please contact the office if you are interested in taking part.

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

August 2020 69

HURON

42 First Avenue, Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0 519-482-9642 or 1-800-511-1135

County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER

HCFA response to the Huron County decision to not adjust the 2020 farm tax ratio Huron County Federation of Agriculture (HCFA) is writing this response to Huron County Council’s decision to not adjust the farm tax ratio for the 2020 tax year. In doing so, council has elected to shift more property tax burden onto Huron County farmers for the ninth consecutive year.

As disappointed as we are in this decision, we are more concerned with the staff report presented to council on April 15, 2020. A central component of the staff report was focused on the Farm Tax Rebate Program, which ended 22 years ago. The staff report suggests that residents in Huron County are subsidizing farmers in 2020, due to the farm tax rebate program ending in 1998. When staff were asked during the council meeting to elaborate on the farm tax rebate program, they could not. Then admitting that this was information obtained from staff of another county.

Huron County has more high-valued farmland than any other county in Ontario. Staff in Huron County should be expected to have more knowledge about farm taxes. At the very least, if staff is going to make statements that residents are subsidizing farmers, they should be able to clearly defend that statement when asked for further details.

In 2002, Huron County collected 12.6 per cent of its tax levy from the farm class and 73.4 per cent of its tax levy from the residential class. In 2020, Huron County will collect approximately 21.7 per cent of its tax levy from the farm class and 68.7 per cent of its tax levy from the residential class. The tax burden on farmers in Huron increases each year and as a result the tax burden on residents decreases each year. We ask how anyone can look at those numbers and make the claim that residents are subsidizing farmers?

When discussing the distribution of

the Huron County tax levy the staff report also states that although the tax shift onto farmland is evident from 2012 onward that other property classes have “also seen significant increase in taxes”. We find this statement to be misleading. Huron County’s tax levy has increased by 49 per cent since 2012. During that same time period: • Farm taxes have increased by 148 per cent, three times the rate of the total tax levy.

• Residential taxes have increased by 36 per cent • Commercial taxes have increased by 35 per cent • Industrial taxes have decreased by two per cent • Multi-residential taxes have increased by 34 per cent All of the major property classes in Huron County have had their taxes increase at lower rate than the total tax levy since 2012 with the exception of the farm class which has seen its taxes increase at three times the rate of the general tax levy in Huron County.

Comparing a 36 per cent increase in residential taxes to a 148 per cent increase in taxes does not recognize the magnitude or the importance of the issue that HCFA has brought forward.

As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, MPAC has announced that it will be freezing its assessment values for 2021 at 2020 valuation levels. That means that each property class will pay roughly the same proportion of the county tax levy in 2021 as it did in 2020. That is, unless Huron County adjusts its tax ratio policy. HCFA asks that Huron County take that opportunity to adjust the farm tax ratio in 2021 and provide farmers in Huron County with much needed tax relief.◊ – Rob Vanden Hengel, Property and Land Use Chair; Ethan Wallace, President, Huron County Federation of Agriculture

Website: www.hcfa.on.ca Email: ofahuron@tcc.on.ca

Upcoming Events August 3 – Civic Holiday.

August 21-23 Zurich Bean Festival has gone virtual for this year. For further details visit beanfest.ca Huron County Federation of Agriculture

BOARD MEETING

August 24 at 8:00 p.m.

Due to COVID-19 the board meeting will be a video/conference call format. Please contact the office if you are interested in joining the meeting

Send in your nomination The Huron County Federation of Agriculture is collecting nominations for the yearly Huron County Agriculture Award for 2020. The award winner will be announced at the HCFA Annual Meeting.

Please include in the nomination: The name, address and phone number of the nominee as well as a description explaining your nomination of this person’s (or persons’) contribution to agriculture.

Nominations can be emailed to ofahuron@tcc.on.ca or they can be mailed to the HCFA Office.

Deadline is September 21, 2020.

Save the dates!

The Huron County Federation of Agriculture Annual Meeting will be Friday, October 23, 2020 contact the office for further details. ********** The OFA Regional Meeting will be held Virtually on September 2 at 8:00 p.m. This meeting will include updates on current OFA issues and ongoing efforts, in addition to elections for OFA Policy Advisory Council members, Delegates and Alternates to the 2020 Ontario Federation of Agriculture Convention (November 23).

To be eligible to run for positions and vote at the meeting you will need to be a member of the OFA. The deadline for a member to submit their intention to run for one of these three positions is Wednesday, August 26, 2020.

Please contact our MSR Margaret Vincent to register no later than Monday, August 31, and to receive the meeting details.

Margaret’s contact information is Margaret.vincent@ofa.on.ca or 5194829642 extension 1.

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

70 The Rural Voice

Index A.G. Hayter Contracting Ltd ................25 Agronomy Advantage............................45 Argyle Marine & Small Engines ............59 Bag Supplies Canada Ltd ....................59 Baseline Agri ........................................25 Bax Audio Video Inc ..............................14 BBQ Promotion ................................11,13 BDO ......................................................19 Belore Trailers ......................................60 Ben Keupfer Concrete ..........................17 Bernie McGlynn/SB Flooring ................51 Bervie Supply ..........................................9 Bester Wood Products ..........................51 Bio-Ag....................................................54 Bluewater Pipe Inc ................................49 Blyth Brewing (Cowbell) ........................56 BP Dust Control ....................................59 Brough & Whicher ................................59 Buddsteel Architectural Products ............8 Canadian Co-op Wool Growers ............55 Chalmers Fuels ......................................2 Cliff’s Plumbing & Heating ....................58 Clinton Skating Club..............................43 County of Huron............................Cover 5 Cover Crops ........................................3,7 Cranbrook Customs Ltd ........................17 Cross Country Eavestrough ..................56 Dean M. Dobson ..................................61 DJ Henry Homes & Renos ....................59 Donkers Agri..........................................47 Easy Lift Doors ........................................6 Egger Farms..........................................62 Five Star Seeds Limited ........................19 Food Day Canada ..................................4 free-light ................................................41 Gerber’s Workwear ..............................60 Gerrit’s Ag Service ................................43 Grey-Bruce Construction ......................56 GRK Products ........................................9 Grober Nutrition ............................Cover 4 Hanover Bentink/Brant Ag Society ........63 Hanover Honda ....................................53 Hardi......................................................49 Harold Jones Enterprises ......................61 Hill & Hill Farms ..........Inside Front Cover Honey ..........................................26,28,36 Hunter Steel..................................Cover 7 Huron Hauling & Excavating ................53 JA Porter Holdings Ltd ..........................58 Keith Siemon Farm Systems ................61 Kenpal Farm Products Inc ....................31 KMM Farm Drainage ............................56 Kraemer Concrete ................................60 Keupfer Farm Drainage ........................60 LAC ......................................................38 Lakeside Shelving & Racking................40 Lands & Forests Consulting ..................51 Layton, Steve ........................................60 Live Landscape ....................................40 L-Wood Landscaping ......................62,63 Maitland Welding ..................................60 Mapleview Agri ......................................15 Marquardt Farm Drainage ....................16 Martin Farm Wagons ............................48 Marvin L Smith ......................................40 McIntee Real Estate - S Nixon ..............59 Michael’s Stabling ............................41,52 Morris Sachs Silo Construction ............55 Motorcycles ..........................................64 Nature’s Wave Inc ................................25 Nuhn Forage ........................................20

OFA ......................................................71 On-Track Door Systems ..............Cover 3 Preserve & Store ..............................33,35 Ridgeway Metals ..................................60 Royal LePage - Steacy Den Haan ........34 Rural Living ..........................................38 Rural Voice Books ........................Cover 6 Sauble Beach Motorsports ..........10,45,64 Schmidt’s Farm Drainage......................57 Schweiss Doors ....................................56 Seifried Farm Equipment ......................58 Sew & Save Centre ..............................38 Sharp’s Creek Forge ..............................9 Signature Crane ....................................48 Smyth Welding ......................................61 Somerville Seedlings ............................51

Steffen Well Drilling ..............................60 Stratford Agri Analysis ..........................12 SWO Diesel ..................................Cover 4 The Brew Shop......................................13 The Crushing Aghent ..............................2 Town of Saugeen Shores......................72 Townsley Barn Painting ........................63 Triple P Consulting ................................55 Trouw Nutrition ......................Back Cover Waddell Engineering ............................23 WD Hopper & Sons Ltd ........................55 Weber’s Farm Supply............................59 West Wawanosh Mutual Insurance ......23 White Carnation ....................................41 Williams Drainage ................................55 Working Iron ..........................................55

ATTENTION: ALL FARM PROPERTY OWNERS

TIME IS RUNNING OUT! Have you completed your 2020 Farm Business Registration?

A requirement to get the farmland property tax rate is a valid Farm Business Registration (FBR) number.

Contact Agricorp at 1-866-327-3678 for more information.

To be eligible for the farmland tax rate, you must contact Agricorp and link all your farm properties to your FBR number(s). If you have any questions on the Farmland Property Class Tax Rate Program, contact Agricorp at 1-888-247-4999 or your OFA representative below.

Brought to you by the Huron, Perth, Grey and Bruce County Federations of Agriculture Margaret Vincent Joanne Hughes

(Huron & Perth) 1-800-511-1135 ext 1 (Grey & Bruce) 1-800-275-9551 ext. 2

margaret.vincent@ofa.on.ca joanne.hughes@ofa.on.ca

August 2020 71

Farmview Send in your farm and rural life photos by August 11 for our September Issue!

Wheat Harvest

• The wheat harvest gets underway on Goshen Line

Surrounded • Connor Steeper checks on his family’s wheat field in Corbett on Canada Day. • First time momma cat delivered nine kittens on her first go at the farm of Shelley Kroes outside of Clinton

Nine!

Lunch • It’s a frog eat frog world for little frogs on Little Lakes Road near Goderich. ~Photo by Deborah Johnston of Huron County

Saugeen Shores Strong The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are being felt everywhere. As farmers adapt and change to meet these unprecedented times, the Town of Saugeen Shores would like to thank those working diligently to ensure communities are fed.

Your industry is strong, resilient and innovative—and we support our agriculture businesses as a vital part of our local economy.

Because together, we are Saugeen Shores Strong.

72 The Rural Voice

For more information about doing business in Saugeen Shores, visit SaugeenShores.ca/INVEST

We Know Rural!

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The Rural Reading Room Specializing in Rural Living & Local Authors

PRESERVING MADE EASY: Small Batches & Simple Techniques The perfect book for today’s busy cooks who want to enjoy the homemade goodness of fruits and vegetables all year round. Simple instructions plus recipes for jams, pickles and more. $9.99

BUILD YOUR SPACE Are you looking for ways to create wheelchair accessible accommodations? Author, Julie Sawchuk guides you through the process of planning an accessible space, from a single bathroom to a whole home. $20.00

101 Things For Kids To Do Outside Let them go outside and play! 101 Things For Kids To Do Outside is ideal for parents, teachers, and all those working with youth.

This book is ideal for the children who like gaming, TV and movies. Even kids who believe "there's nothing to do outside" can learn and be encouraged to experience the joy of outdoor play. Perfect for rainy days, sunshiny days, even snowy days. $19.95

FROM IRELAND TO THE QUEEN’S BUSH Author Arnold Mathers’ Irish roots run deep in these stories which weave a pattern about the romantic pioneers that were his ancestors. His great-grandfathers came from Ireland and settled in Huron County.

His mother’s family farm was called Queen’s Bush Valley Farm. $24.95

SOMETHING I’VE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU Nobel prize winner Alice Munro shares the mysteries, dangers, joys and bewilderment in the lives of ordinary girls and women in this collection of thirteen rich stories. $20.00

WEATHER! Help kids learn about the weather with this book that peaks their curiosity with 22 experiments to help them create their own rain, tornados, lightning and rainbows and build cool gadgets to measure rain, snow and other weather indicators. $19.95

NEVER SELL YOUR HEN ON A RAINY DAY Some of those old weather sayings really do make sense. This book explains why. $8.95

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

Check out huroncitizen.ca under Marketplace for more books Total

Qty.

PRESERVING MADE EASY 101 THINGS FOR KIDS TO DO OUTSIDE SOMETHING I’VE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU NEVER SELL YOUR HEN ON A RAINY DAY BUILD YOUR SPACE FROM IRELAND TO THE QUEEN’S BUSH WEATHER! WALKING HOME

$9.99 $19.95 $20.00 $8.95 $20.00 $24.95 $19.95 $19.95

Total for Books Shipping & Handling $9.00 Add 5% GST on subtotal Order Total

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.

Introduce a friend to your favourite magazine

Rural Voice June 2020

The

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Cropping continues but farmers miss the ritual of spring auction sales as restrictions remain in place

The Rural Voice 405 Queen St., P.O. Box 429 Blyth, ON N0M 1H0

BE DIFFERENT Professional catalyst says in business being different is more important than being better

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BUILDING RESILIENCE Resilience is about being tough but bendable to maintain mental health

Supplying the agricultural industry needs since 1977!

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* NEW * Now Stocking • Hog & Cattle Panels • Various livestock penning sizes available Services offered: • Saw cutting • Punching • Rebar cutting and bending • Custom welded columns and beams • Priming • Galvanizing OPEN: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

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Hensall Co-op Londesboro 519-523-9606 800-265-9000 Zurich 519-236-7155 800-565-7155

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519-846-5354 800-265-5354 The Hitching Post (2019) Ltd. St. Marys 519-284-2360