The Rural Voice - June 2019

June 2019

Rural Voice

The

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

LOYAL CARETAKER Bob Rourke earns respect for his lifetime contribution to the swine industry

DIVERSIFICATION Capitalizing on opportunity takes courage but some farmers thrive on the risk

CROSSBRED BEEF Breeding dairy cows to beef can improve genetic gains and increase farm profitability

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Contents The

Rural Voice THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE

29

32

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

21 Columns Lisa B. Pot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Departments Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 News & Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Newsletters National Farmers Union . . . . . . . . 4 Perth County Federation . . . . . . 67 Grey County Federation . . . . . . 68 Bruce County Federation . . . . . . 69 Perth County Pork Producers . . .70 Huron County Federation . . . . . . 72

35 JUNE 2019 • Cover Photo Bob Rourke of St. Marys Photo by Lisa B. Pot.

• Deadlines: July Issue –June 12 August Issue – July 17

17 Beef on Dairy Strategy Four farmers share what is involved in breeding dairy to beef.

21 Looking for Vigour and Vitality Aaron Keunen raises Belgian Blue and Angus crossbred beef calves with contract farmers.

24 On-Farm Diversification Follow your passions and research ideas well to find a way to diversify your farm operation.

29 Mighty Methanogens Anaerobic digesters at Greenholm Farms transform manure and organic waste into electricity.

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

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

32 From Swine to Bees After 40 years in hog barns, Bob Rourke is ready to retire

35 Drip Irrigation in Tanzania Don Hillborn travels to Tanzania to do some good.

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.

Changes of address, orders for subscriptions and undeliverable copies (return postage guaranteed) are to be sent to The Rural Voice at the address listed above.

A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.

NH

ORTH URON

PUBLISHING COMPANY INC.

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

Let’s return to the historical equitable tax ratio The Editor, I feel compelled to correct the erroneous statement made by Stephen Thompson in the May issue of The Rural Voice concerning farm property tax rates. As he should know, provincial legislation provided county councils the authority to establish farm property tax rates from zero to 25 per cent of residential rates. Most municipalities assessed farmland at 25 per cent of residential assessment. As a result, in Huron County the percentage that farmland tax revenues contributed to total county tax revenue ranged from 11.75 per cent in 2001 to 14.1 per cent in 2016 with a low of 10.5 per cent in 2012. This ratio averaged approximately 12.4 per cent over those years.

In 2018 the ratio had increased to 18.2 per cent and is projected to increase to 21.6 per cent by 2020, a ratio that has doubled since 2012.

This rate increase is a result of farmland property values increasing at a rate more than that of residential property values. The Huron County Federation of Agriculture has requested that the rate be reduced from 25 per cent to 22.2 per cent so that the farm property tax contribution will hold at approximately 18 per cent. This is not, as Stephen suggested, a request for tax relief, but a recommendation to return to the historical equitable ratio that existed prior to 2016.

Seventeen Ontario municipalities have, to date, reduced their ratio from 25 per cent (Lambton 22.5 per cent, Oxford 23.5 per cent, Elgin 23 per cent) with Perth yet to decide.

2 The Rural Voice

Steve’s noted long association with the HCFA would have positioned him well for participation in this tax ratio issue. To suggest that this proposed tax ratio adjustment would lead to increased land prices is puzzling.

I am bewildered by his comments.

The word absurd comes to mind.◊ – Bev Hill, Varna, ON

A pillow case in shreds!

The Editor, Hi, this is John Ardiel. You interviewed me in regards to the old King Apple tree. I am the apple grower/grapes/wine and cider guy over in Clarksburg.

You cracked me up telling the story of the moving cat in a cardboard box.

I, too, had an experience. I needed to take one of the barn cats to the veterinarian, who also happens to be my cousin. I did not have a cage so she said: “No problem. Just use a pillow case and put the cat in and quickly tie”. She assured me that cats go docile when in a closed environment. Well, I dropped the cat in the pillow case and before I could even think of tying it, the pillow case was hanging in shreds and the cat was gone! Like in a split second. No bites though.◊ – John Ardiel, Clarksburg, ON

Will farmers be replaced by sophisticated robots?

The Editor, Keith Roulston’s column in the May issue of The Rural Voice, “It’s a fair and prosperous land”, seemed to me to overlook a few sociological trends that might be concerning to some folks. To begin with, the “big barn prosperity” is indicative of the fact that the rural population is rapidly dwindling. Perhaps this is just

inevitable human progress. I suspect that the last generation of on-theland, independent farmers may already have been born. Fully robotacized dairy barns are becoming the norm. Self-driving equipment is just around the corner. It is entirely possible that most of the land will be owned by sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, etc. by the mid-point of this century. Most operations will be controlled from a central location.

Staff will include agronomists, veterinarians, mechanics, etc. to deal with problems in the field. That is, assuming that sophisticated robots don’t fill these roles.

A Saudi wealth fund recently purchased a half-million-acre farming enterprise in Australia. This is the same outfit to whom a controlling interest in the Canadian Wheat Board was gifted by our federal government. Huxley’s “Brave New World” is just around the corner.

By the way, I think it is interesting that it was approximately one century ago that the United Farmers of Ontario formed the provincial government. This turned out to be possibly the most progressive administration the Province has known. Today, we remaining farmers may be among the most right wing, reactionary people in the nation.◊ – Ian Campbell dorfarm@hotmail.com Deadline for the July issue of The Rural Voice is June 12, 2019

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

Lavishly affectionate Standing in the corner of his pasture, next to the pony pen, it was hard to know if the gelding was sullen and cantankerous or lonely and forlorn.

I was trying to figure this out from my position in an adirondack chair, on a small deck, in front of a tastefully decorating Air B&B near the Cambria coast. The room, washed in whites and greys, was on a working cattle ranch in the coastal mountains of California and the first view upon waking was of green hills stretching up in all directions.

In our direct line of vision was a pen with two hungry ponies constantly pulling at their feed.

Beside them stood the gelding, a bay with one white sock, hardly moving.

No grass grew under his feet, the dusty patch indicated this place was well trampled. He backed into it like a skilled parallel parker, tucking his bulky rear end perfectly into the corner.

Perhaps he was meditating on the verse, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,” from Psalm 121. Nope. That was me. Perhaps he was a horse of habit, retired to enjoy his remaining days living amongst the cows? This early in the morning, awake before 6 a.m. on Ontario time, there was no one to ask.

Coffee almost finished, I opted to sidle up to the fence and scratch his butt. Horses like being scratched in this spot, oddly enough. I gave him a good ol’ rub but there was little response. Leaning in further, I could reach his neck. Still nothing. I wondered if he might be one of those calm but vicious horses who suddenly swing their head around to

chomp on your unsuspecting hand.

Nope. Nothing. Just a casual weight shift from one hoof to another.

I still couldn’t decide if he was bored or contrary. Neither seemed likely, given the proximity of the horses and the cattle grazing in the field. I felt a little bad for the fella.

I returned to my chair to finish the last, cool swallows of coffee and take in the peacefulness of the scene.

Birds were nesting, calves followed their dams searching for sweet grass on the hills and the wisteria waved in the gentle breeze.

Inter-species affection

These simple moments were making the vacation for me. While I had been in awe of California’s new and exciting attractions – elephant seals (mere metres away) throwing sand on themselves, the extravagance of Hearst Castle, new concepts in mindfulness at an Esalen leadership retreat, stories from women all over the United States at said retreat, hot baths on the cliffs, gardens filled with exotic tropicals and delicious vegetarian dishes – this was being in the moment. All senses engaged. No interruption.

Mindfulness encourages deep breaths to continue awareness and I was sucking in the air and the experience, realizing these moments of peaceful bliss are rare indeed.

As all this was building inside me into a quiet eruption of pure joy, the horse continued to stand. Quiet.

Alone. Alive. But not really living (in

my human estimation). What a contrast!

Then a little calf came by. Why this calf was different than the others I do not know but as the brown-black Angus walked up to the horse, there was a shift in the horse’s demeanor.

He stood up straighter. His ears perked up. He stretched his neck forward just as the calf reached up and without any more preamble, the horse proceeded to lick and nibble the calf all over his head and neck.

The calf seemed to love it, arching his head as if to say “now this spot.”

A few others calves were standing close by with their dams. This one seemed alone yet judging by its full belly, I’m certain this little calf had a mother as well. Nevertheless, it was clearly taken with the horse and the horse was obviously delighted with the calf. The horse was lavish with his affection, dousing the calf like an exuberant mother washes her toddler’s face.

The questions I had! Was this a common occurrence? Did the horse. pick a new calf every season? Did it lick any calf willing to stand for a horse-tongue treatment? Was this calf curious and inviting the horse’s salivic attentions? Or did the horse genuinely like the little calf and lick and “lip” him to say “good morning, I love you”? All these human thoughts likely don’t cross the equine consciousness. It might be just that the calf was salty. Whatever the reason, they were doing their own thing without worrying about being judged.

With no one around to answer my questions I contented myself with the inter-species display of connection.

Isn’t this the best part of a vacation, though? Those unexpected moments or finds that you didn’t have to google on TripAdvisor or buy a ticket for? Just something that touches the heart in a moment of appreciative presence of place.

Connection.

As spring finally arrives to Ontario, these secret scenarios are happening all around us. All we have to do is take a moment to breathe, be still and open our eyes. Better still if we find the courage to be lavish with our affections. It’s so heartwarming.

Maybe even salty!! ◊ June 2019 3

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

Calling on government to protect farm families from animal extremists Any farmer who reads agricultural news is aware of the increased harassment and attacks on livestock farmers by animal extremists, ranging from trespassing on farms and stealing animals to picketers at sale barns beating on trucks and attempting to release livestock. Even more frustratingly, many of these extremists have not faced legal prosecution despite admitting to their crimes.

While the NFU-O fully supports people’s right to peaceful protests on public property, the legal system is failing farmers. In a recent letter to the Attorney General, Premier, Solicitor General, and Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, the NFU-O raised the following serious concerns.

We are worried about the safety of our farmers and their families. Farms are more than businesses; many farm families, including children, live on farms, and farmers feel threatened and unsafe when strangers enter their home property without consent. As well, anyone who works with livestock knows animals can be unpredictable. Extremists who are not used to handling livestock have the potential for a serious incident if a scared or aggressive animal is released and injures either the farmer, the trucker, or the extremist.

Additionally, these extremists are intentionally putting themselves in harm’s way when they step in front of livestock trailers which need a lengthy distance to brake.

Accidentally killing or injuring an extremist would cause serious trauma, not to mention legal issues, for the person driving the livestock trailer. We cannot wait until someone is seriously injured or, worse, killed for the government to address this issue.

Many of these extremists have admitted to the trespassing on private

property and stealing animals, yet charges are being dropped or not pursued. This is a failing of the legal system. While we do not support giving extremists a platform to espouse their views, by not acting, the government is tacitly supporting their actions at the expense of the agriculture community.

There has been much attention paid recently to farmers’ mental health. If this is something the government supports, they need to address the animal extremists and allow farmers to run their lawful businesses and feel safe in their homes.

We are calling on the government to enforce the existing laws and to work with us and our fellow agricultural leaders to address this issue for all Ontarians.

What can you do?

To share your concerns with the government, visit nfuontario.ca where you can find a sample letter that you can download and email or mail to Queen’s Park.

Things to know: • If you wish to prohibit all activities on your property, use a “No trespassing” sign. This does not affect your ability to give permission to individuals to enter or use your land.

• A posted red circle on a white background also indicates “no trespassing.”

• Under subsection 3(1) of the Ontario Trespass to Property Act, Farmland does not have to be posted – trespassing on cultivated fields and fenced land is automatically illegal.

• If a convicted trespasser caused damage the court can award compensation to be paid by the trespasser over and above the fine; the court can also make the trespasser pay the occupier’s court costs (an award of costs).

If you encounter a trespasser on your property, politely ask them to leave. If you find that the situation escalates, remove yourself from the conversation and contact the police.

Coming Events Local 345 Durham Peterborough Victoria – Join us at Second Wedge Brewery (14 Victoria St, Uxbridge) on Thursday, May 30 at 7:00 p.m. for a kickoff to the summer season. Local members' first drink is on us. Family friendly and non-alcoholic options are available. For more information, please contact Elizabeth at willowindfarm@ hotmail.com or 905-852-3878.

Local 330 Renfrew– Next meeting is Monday, June 3, 7:30 p.m. at the Barr Line Community Centre. Everyone is welcome.

Local 333 North – invites Local members to our last meeting before we break for the summer!

We would love to tell you about what we have been doing over the past few months and share/brainstorm some ideas about how to promote the NFU in your northern community! We are meeting over the phone on Thursday June 6, 7:00 p.m. To participate, dial 1-800-808-0861; participant code is 215408#, or email nfuo.north@gmail.com for more information.

Local 362 Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Ottawa, Prescott-Russell – Join your fellow farmers on Thursday, June 13 as we celebrate a piece of agricultural heritage in Eastern Ontario – the Embrun Co-op (926 Notre-Dame Street, Embrun). We'll start off with a tour of this 75-year-old institution followed by our regular meeting. Embrun Co-op offers products and services through its eight divisions and is owned by its members who have chosen to join in order to share in the benefits of co-operation. Tour starts at 7:00 p.m. Park by the main office.

Local 351 Brant, Hamilton, Halton – Join us for a Skill Share day June 29 from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. at Manorun Farm (782 Highway 52, Copetown ON). The format is such that you can drop in at any point during that time. For details, please contact Chris Krucker at 905-648-9608 or manorunfarm@gmail.com.

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

Ruralite

“

•

“With the new generation it’s not about

Work Ethic

expectations and a ‘get it done’ attitude. It’s about

”

working together and asking how we can provide

“Even though I am

training so they can meet those expectations.”

a employee, I

~ Aaron Keunen, on raising veal calves with other young farmers

always treated the barn like it was my own out of respect for my employers.” ~ Bob Rourke, a loyal employee for 40 years

White, black, of mixed race You are beautiful beyond Narrow descriptions ~Lisa B. Pot

For the Lexophiles: • No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery!

• If you don't pay your exorcist , you can get repossessed.

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Found in the Classified Section • Used tombstone. Perfect for someone named Homer HendelBergenHeinzel. One only.

Call: 1-888-888-8888

{ •

JUNE INSPIRATION In early June, the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different. ~John Steinbeck, The Winter of our Discontent

Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

} •

June 2019 5

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6 The Rural Voice

On top of all the other concerns they live with, it must be a nervous time for Canada’s pork farmers worrying that our country’s efforts to prevent African swine fever (ASF) from entering the country might fail.

Fortunately, there’s 5,000 kms. of ocean between Canada and Europe, where the disease has spread from China. Still, the challenges are enormous. In China, some backyard pork producers have shipped sick pigs to try to get what money they could from them. In Taiwan, two per cent of pork confiscated at ports contained ASF-contaminated pork. In the U.S., border agents who searched 50 containers arriving in New Jersey, found a million pounds of pork hidden among noodle bowls and Tide detergent containers.

The federal government has provided money to more than double the number of detector dogs at Canada’s airports to try to sniff out meat products in people’s luggage that might be infected by the disease.

The challenge is that it takes so little of the virus to sneak through and even a single case of the disease in a Canadian swine herd could see other countries close their borders to imports of Canadian pork. Our pork industry is so dependent on exports that industry officials estimate an outbreak of ASF could cost 100,000 jobs and $24 billion. That doesn’t account for the human pain.

Many pork producers can remember watching their beefproducer neighbours suffer through the BSE crisis that began in 2003. It started with a Black Angus cow in Alberta’s Peace River region which had been imported from Britain where the disease had devastated the industry. When the cow died, its head was sent to a lab for testing but it was three and a half months before

officials actually did the tests and confirmed it was infected with BSE. By then, two other sick cattle from the same farm had been processed for protein for animal feed.

More than 30 countries immediately shut their borders to imports of Canadian beef. Many stayed closed for most of a decade. In the end, only a handful of cattle were diagnosed with the disease but it’s been estimated the cost to the Canadian economy was from $6-$10 billion.

The human cost was high, as beef producers found the business model for their farms exploded overnight as beef prices plummeted. Anyone whose operation required a secure cash flow found himself in trouble.

I was only a kid when the other great disease-related economic tsunami hit Canadian farmers. Late in 1951 a cattle beast in a feedlot attached to a Saskatchewan packing plant became ill, but it was misdiagnosed. It wasn’t until February that officials correctly identified the illness as foot and mouth disease. Again, borders were slammed shut to Canadian imports.

The legend is that the infection started when a worker threw the remains of a sandwich containing infected sausage meat, into a feed bunker. By August Canada was confirmed as disease free but still the cost was estimated at $651 million in losses (probably about as much as the BSE crisis in today’s dollars) and $70 million in support payments. I can recall, as kids do, sensing the tension in their air in our family as our already precarious farm finances took a new hit.

Thankfully, because of the biosecurity protocols they already have in place, pork farmers are probably better equipped than any other farm commodity to ward off a new infection. In fact the greatest danger seems to be the possibility of contaminated feed. Still, as with BSE, it only takes one infection to hurt every pork farmer.

It’s somewhat ironic (and frightening) that Canadians’ prosperity can threaten the livelihoods of farmers by allowing diseases to hitchhike across oceans with world travellers.◊

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8 The Rural Voice

Running is an inclusive and inspiring sport As spring of 2019 follows what was one of the toughest falls in recent memory, farmers are becoming more and more anxious with each gloomy, rainy day. And it isn’t just Huron County farmers – completed corn and soybean planting is a fraction of what it “normally” is across the province, and even through the big U.S. corn belt.

My dad reported that he read on the weather channel that on the 13th of May, there were nine days in January and February with higher temperatures than we were experiencing that day. We also read a report that as of May 7, not one kernel of corn had been planted in Ontario. It is as if someone turned off the sun on September 25 and forgot how to turn it back on.

A lot of winter wheat is sketchy – and farmers are talking about switching crops and varieties as the wet weather drags on and on. Throw in a couple of trade wars and even more global political uncertainty than normal and the regular stress of spring on the farm ratchets up a few more notches.

Mental health has been getting more attention in the past few years – and people are even putting some focus on farmers’ mental health in particular. The stress associated with the wet spring weather, market uncertainty, and just a general lack of sunlight has made a noticeable difference in even the most optimistic among us.

So this year on Mother’s Day since we weren’t able to plant corn, I did something I haven’t been able to do for a few years. I ran the Dave Mounsey Memorial Run Around the

Square in Goderich. It was good to get out of the farming head space, if only for a short while, and think about something completely different.

The day was overcast and very windy – making 13 degrees Celsius feel very cold and damp. The run itself was beautiful – around the square, along the lake, through the residential areas, and back to the square. For the purposes of running a road race, there was ample evidence that spring was creeping across the land with the fresh green lawns and leaves tentatively opening. I just did the five kilometre run, but for the first time, they had a half marathon option as well as the 10 kilometre and kids’ run around the square.

The Dave Mounsey Memorial fund was set up in October 2009 in memory of Dave Mounsey. “The creation of the Fund was to donate and promote the use of life-saving defibrillators; donated to public access buildings and placed in the name of fallen Law Enforcement, Fire EMS and Military members who were killed in the line of duty. On October 25th 2009, the first defibrillator was donated by the Fund - to the Blyth Theatre in the name of Dave Mounsey himself,” (https://www.davemounsey.com/abo ut.html).

Although I didn’t know him, Dave Mounsey was quite an inspiring guy.

He was a Royal Air Force veteran of 14 years before immigrating to Canada and becoming a corrections officer, then joining the ranks of the OPP as a crisis negotiator. An accident in 2004 inspired him to join the Blyth Fire Department as he learned of the dedication of those who supported his recovery.

Unfortunately, Dave was killed on the way to a vehicle roll over in 2006 on snowy Huron County roads.

His life and work inspired the formation of the Dave Mounsey Memorial Foundation. The vision statement reads: • “To continue the charity and community-based work that defined Dave Mounsey's life of uniformed service, • To build a long-lasting and successful organization of Law Enforcement, Fire, Paramedics,

Kate Procter Military and civilian members, who are dedicated to the purpose and support of Dave’s vision and efforts, • To donate and to promote the use and widespread availability of life-saving defibrillators.”

This was the tenth year of the Run Around the Square and the Foundation donated the 107th defibrillator in memory of Police Constable John Ferguson. PC Ferguson was killed on the job in 1949 and was a member of the Exeter Detachment. As of writing, the DMMF is still searching for a photo of PC Ferguson and has asked for the public’s help finding one.

One of the things I love about running is that it is one of the most inclusive sports I know of. The run on Mother’s Day had people of all ages, abilities, and genders. There were short people, tall people, old people and young people. Everyone is welcome and everyone participates to the best of their ability on that particular day. There are many volunteers who come out and make the event happen, hours of planning ahead of time, and this year a full breakfast was supplied after the race

by Pat and Kevin’s restaurant on the square in Goderich.

As in all areas of life, some people are more competitive than others, and there are cash prizes for the winners as well as medals for winners in their age categories. For some, just finishing is all the victory they need.

For me, I haven’t been training as I used to and I wasn’t out to set any records. I was running with a young friend of mine who had never run in a road race before. We had decided ahead of time that we would stick together and make sure that we both had a good run. We were well matched and crossed the finish line at the same time – just over 33 minutes.

I was pretty happy with that – especially when I saw how we did relative to the rest of the pack. I was thrilled to discover that if I was a 17 year old male, I would’ve finished fourth in my age category! As it was, I finished 12th in my actual age category – which is another victory for me since I celebrated a milestone birthday this year and was happy to finish the run feeling good. And to

realize that the aged 50 and older ladies were running rings around those young pups.

In years like this, when farming is particularly challenging, getting away from hourly checking the weather forecasts and thinking about something inspiring is just what I needed. The spirit of Dave Mounsey was alive and well that day as a small community came together to be active and support a cause that is saving lives across the county. ◊

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

Permaculture: growing food and building up soil Permaculture is a term widely attributed to two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, who began moving the idea ahead in Tasmania in the late 1960s and ’70s.

Holmgren in his book, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, laid out 12 design principles which include interacting with the ecosystems around us, capturing and storing energy, producing no waste, embracing small systems that evolve gradually and valuing diversity, including marginal areas.

It’s a way to save the world really.

People can be engaged in food production that doesn’t require a net contribution of outside energy and build the potential of their resource – the soil – at the same time.

Over the past two decades, I’ve attended various permaculture talks in places like the Guelph Organic Conference.

Often, however, it seems prescriptive models are chosen and attempts made to transfer them to an unsuitable location with varying degrees of success. An example is the “keyline” theory of water management which may have a place in some locales but often appears to be a fruitless exercise in shifting earth.

Then there’s the way permaculture is sometimes presented – as a concept that’s new.

In actuality, permaculture is something that was widely embraced by the farming community well before the term was coined. That continues still, though most of today’s agriculture is hurtling down

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the destructive path of exploitation in which dollars determine direction rather than consideration for future generations.

My family’s farm was one of those places where the equilibrium of the permaculture approach was once embraced, though imperfectly.

Using Egyptian walking onions as part of your permaculture garden system allows you to grow food and build up the soil.

There was an aerial photograph taken around 1950 – around the time my grandparents had acquired their 8N tractor. It shows the edge of a woodlot and a series of small fields devoted to pasture, hay and crops and obvious signs of multiple livestock species which I know included cattle, hogs, poultry and horses.

There was also an orchard and gardening area covering perhaps three or four acres.

I’ve managed to continue the family tradition of gardening, though in a small way. It provides me with a certain fluency in the language of permaculture to chat with people like Ben Caesar at Fiddlehead Nursery in Grey County.

The Grey County farmer includes annuals in his gardening effort but focuses primarily on perennial plants which he correctly recognizes as an under-utilized resource. Making his top 10 list are sorrel, sea kale,

Jeff Carter Chinese artichoke, Caucasian spinach, Hylotelephium telephium or stone crop, Jerusalem artichoke, hostas, udo, day lilies and Japanese parsley.

There’s a couple others Caesar might consider: black raspberries and Egyptian walking onions.

Black raspberries which are indigenous to North America and grow wild along fence rows in Ontario but the fruit is often less than desirable. I chose a commerciallyadapted line from an area nursery. It has performed well for the past 20odd years.

The canes produce fruit for close to two weeks in late spring, early summer. From our 20-by-five-foot patch, which we routinely mulch with leaves and add a bit of compost to, we harvest up to a full colander per day.

I haven’t needed netting. The birds have left them alone except for one particularly dry year.

The biggest headaches are removing the fruiting canes after the harvest is complete and keeping the trellis system maintained.

Egyptian walking onions may have even more potential. I’ve written about them here before but have learned a few more things over the past couple years.

They can be started from one of the little onions that grow at the top of the plants or by transplanting the underground portion which I do now on a regular schedule.

I now have three patches. The oldest has been in the ground for three years; I’ll harvest the top onions this year and the entire underground portion early next spring. A second patch was established last year and should start producing plenty of top onions in a few weeks.

The third patch I just started this spring.

The top onions can be consumed summer and fall but leave the underground section alone until spring or, depending on your location, during the winter. With warmer temperatures, the underground portion becomes extremely hot to the point of being inedible.◊

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

“Give me coffee and keep it coming,” Dave Winston called to Molly Whiteside when he came into Mabel’s Grill the other morning.

“You look like something the cat dragged in,” said George McKenzie when Dave reached the table and took his seat.

“Are you trying to grow a beard?”

Molly asked suspiciously when she arrived to fill Dave’s cup.

“Nah, I pulled an all-nighter trying to catch up with planting,” said Dave. “We’ve had more showers this spring than I’ve taken going in and out of my barn.”

“Thank goodness you’re not growing a beard,” said Molly. “Any guy I’ve ever dated who had a beard turned out not to be good news.”

“What?” wondered Dave. “Were you planning to invite me on a date?”

“Not a chance!” said Molly.

“Good. My wife will be happy,” said Dave. “At least I think so. She gets a little testy when I’m working all night.”

“It wouldn’t be that you get grumpy from lack of sleep so she only seems hard to get along with?” wondered Mabel as she passed by on the way to the kitchen.

“Me? Grumpy?” Dave said defensively. “Hey!” he grumbled to Molly as he looked down, “You poured some of that coffee in my saucer!”

“So? You get a bonus and I won’t charge you any extra,” shrugged Molly.

“Good thing you’re not growing a beard,” said Cliff Murray, the other third of the trio at the table. “I read this article that said men with beards have more bacteria in there that are harmful to humans than dogs have in their fur.”

“Humpf! That explains so much about the bearded guys I’ve dated,” said Molly.

“Ha! I always worried my daughter might pick up something because she’s always nuzzling her

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dog,” said Dave. “Guess she’s better off doing that than kissing some boy with a beard.”

“Definitely!” said Molly.

“I don’t know,” said George. “She may have a smaller selection if she sticks with clean-shaven guys. Seems to me an awful lot of young guys are growing beards these days.”

“They are,” confirmed Cliff. “In fact I heard that so many young men are growing beards that Gillette’s profits are down because guys aren’t buying razors.”

“Phew, that was a close shave,” said Dave with mock seriousness. “I was thinking of buying shares in Gillette.”

“That much money in pigs these days, is there?” asked George.

“Heck, no,” said Dave. “And if there was, my wife would be spending it on the house. I tell you the worst investment I ever made was getting satellite television so she could watch HGTV and become constantly dissatisfied with the house.”

“Hope she doesn’t hear that HGTV is looking for a farm house to renovate,” said Cliff.

“Maybe that’s how you can afford to fix the place up,” suggested Molly.

“I’m afraid not,” said Cliff. “They only want somebody who’s got at least $75,000 to spend.”

“And they’re looking for a farmhouse!” wondered George.

“Guess that lets me off the hook,” said Dave.

“They’ll probably end up with some city family that has a farmhouse for a weekend place,” said Cliff.

“Or maybe a chicken farmer,” grumbled George. “They’re the only farmers with that kind of money.”

“Except they already have nice houses,” said Cliff.

“Yeah, they’d tear down a place like mine and build a big new house,” said Dave.

“Now how come my dad couldn’t have got into chickens 30 years ago?” wondered George.

“And miss out on the freedom of the open market?” laughed Dave.

“Sounds like I should be looking out for a chicken farmer for a date,” said Molly. “Heck, I’d even take one with a beard.”◊

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Viewpoint Gary Kenny is an organic farmer, writer, editor and president of the Grey County Local of the NFU-O

Planet “B” is not an option Recently my wife said something that shocked me. “If I were a young person today, I might not have kids.”

What?! I immediately thought of our own two children, now in their 30s, and the prospect of not having them in our lives. They were a delight to raise (well, mostly) and continue to bring us unbounded joy. Life is unimaginable without them.

What my wife said next placed her jolting words into a context I could appreciate. “What kind of world, what future, are we leaving young people when global collapse caused by a warming climate seems

imminent?” On her mind was the April report by Environment and Climate Change Canada which stated that, on average, Canada is experiencing warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, and Northern Canada three times the rate.

Also in my wife’s thoughts was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) October 2018 jaw-dropping report warning that the planet’s average temperature is rising faster than previously thought and, without urgent action, will almost certainly result in a global cataclysm.

We need only look in our own backyard for evidence of pending climate change-caused catastrophe.

The past decade has seen an astonishing run of recordbreaking storms, forest fires, droughts, heat waves, and floods in Canada and around the world.

Scientists say the situation can only get worse.

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time events and trends by thousands of climate scientists the world over.

To deny the facts is irresponsible at best and – I think many young people might say – almost unforgiveable.

I say young people, because my wife was also reflecting the thoughts of a growing number of youths who, alarmed by such dire prognostications, are having trouble seeing much of a future for themselves let alone their children.

Many feel it might be morally and ethically irresponsible to even have children.

Whirlwind 29-year-old U.S. Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is pressing for a Green New Deal to help fight climate change, broached the topic recently on Instagram. “There’s scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult, and it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question – is it okay to still have children?”

Many youths are angry and feel that adults and the governments they elected are letting them down by failing to take the kind of action needed to avoid climate “Armageddon” in their lifetimes.

They feel their lives are being disregarded, even stolen.

Some psychologists talk about the debilitating emotional effect that global warming is having on young people. Many youths, they say, feel scared and paralyzed and think there’s nothing they can do. They feel like the world as we know it is going to end and that the planet’s living creatures are going to die.

“I once spoke to a young child and asked him why he was protesting [climate change], said Aliénor Rougeot, a second-year student at the University of Toronto, in an interview in a March 13, Canada’s National Observer. “He looked at me and said, ‘I want a future.’ In my head it was a ‘duh’ moment, but why don’t our governments get it?”

To their credit, an increasing number of young people are rising through the anxiety and torpor by organizing protests. “We really can’t dream about the future without first addressing the climate crisis,” said grade 11 student and global warming activist Rebecca Hamilton, in the

Viewpoint same above-mentioned interview.

And that, she said, means making our concerns known, and loudly.

Also in the same interview, 12year-old Roy Batemen said he knows what he’d say if he met Ontario Premier Doug Ford, widely thought to being blind to human-caused climate change. “I would ask him why he’s not taking climate action seriously … if he replies with ‘economy’ as the reason, I’d ask if he was thinking short-term or long-term.

Because I think his answer would be short-term.” “[Ford] just doesn’t get it,” Batemen added. “There are no jobs on a dead planet.”

Batemen and Hamilton were among thousands of Canadian school children who staged a strike outside the Ontario Legislature on March 15 calling for global action on climate change. It was the largest such gathering of young people in Canada’s history. They joined tens of thousands of their peers in more than 100 countries, a coordinated effort inspired and led by the internationally-acclaimed 16-yearold Swedish climate change activist, Greta Thunberg. For her astonishing courage and leadership, Thunberg has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here on our farm, my wife and I are committed to helping mitigate global warming by conserving and enhancing biodiversity, implementing strategies to sequester more carbon, and limiting our CO2 emissions. We can do more. If people everywhere made similar efforts, as they are able, it could make a significant difference.

But more, much more than actions by individuals like us is needed.

Governments like that of Doug Ford’s need to bear down and take global warming seriously, before it’s too late. I’m hopeful, but sorry to say, not optimistic about that happening. If on the climate change front my spirit is buoyed by anything these days, it’s by efforts like those of the school children amassed outside the Ontario Legislature on March 15, who chanted: “We are unstoppable! Another world is possible! There is no planet B.” ◊

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Dairy & Beef

W

hen choosing a beef on dairy strategy, the Angus breed has a great combination of yield and feeding ability while Wagyu-cross calves are nice and small for heifers and Belgian Blue have tremendous performance.

Which to choose?

A panel of dairy, beef and veal experts shared their experiences using a beef on dairy strategy with farmers at the Stratford Dairy XPO in March.

Promoted as an opportunity for dairy farmers to breed the bottom half of their cow herd beef to increase genetic gain and diversify their income, each panel member had some advice to give on the process.

Moderated by Kendra Keels, Industry Development Director with the Veal Association of Ontario, the four panelists were asked to give their thoughts on several questions she presented. The panelists were Craig Connell of Wicketthorne Farms near London; Rita Maciukiewicz of Andita Holsteins Inc., near Belwood who also raises veal calves; Aaron Keunen, a veal farmer near Palmerston (see his story in this issue of The Rural Voice) and Brad Gilchrist, a beef farmer and

Craig Connell Wicketthorne Farms, London

Beef Program Director at Semex Canada.

When you breed cows, what is your primary focus?

Craig Connell: “All our heifers are bred sexed semen to high genomic bulls. They get two chances with a Holstein bull and then we breed them Angus. On the cow side, 50 per cent of the cows are bred to beef. We like to use Belgian Blue bulls on the cows.

Rita Maciukiewicz: “We use a lot of sexed semen on the top half of our dairy herd. The middle cows get regular semen and the bottom third of the herd gets beef semen. We almost

never breed heifers beef because we find the calves are a little too big.”

Aaron Keunen: “When I’m looking for calves, I look for calves with vigour. We want to pick the healthiest calves.”

Brad Gilchrist: “When looking at a beef on dairy strategy, we need to understand what the end user needs and what their wants are. The end user also needs to understand what the dairyman needs and wants.

Fertility and calving ease need to be high on that list.”

Brad showed a chart which

• By Lisa B. Pot •

Farmers on both sides of the fence need to listen to each other

Beef on Dairy Strategy

Rita Maciukiewicz Andita Holsteins Inc. Belwood

Aaron Keunen Mapleview Agri Ltd. Palmerston

Brad Gilchrist Semex Alliance Lucknow

June 2019 17

revealed Wagyu are the best beef cross for calving ease. “Globally and domestically, Wagyu has seen a large increase in dairy herds and the biggest advantage is niche markets.

They have a low birthweight and can marble really high but rank extremely low on performance. In contrast Charolais, Limousin and Belgian Blue have extremely high yield grade. Angus is a good choice because they do a lot of things really well.”

When choosing bulls, what are you looking for?

Craig Connell: “We use Angus bulls on heifers and we don’t see any difference between them and Holstein bulls (birthing). But we know that Cargill wants to limit Holstein steers because there is a lot of beef cross hitting the market now and what they propose is that beef types at the rail will be priced, say, $2.55 per pound while Holstein crosses will be ten cents back and straight Holsteins 20 cents back at $2.35. As for us, we like the Belgian Blue, always have. Though we prefer British Blue to full Belgian Blue because they are a little easier calving and they shape up well at the end of the day.”

Rita Maciukiewicz: “We’ve been breeding beef for about three years and when we asked our semen representative what he had, he had Limousin and Belgian Blue. We like the Limousin because they are polled so that’s a bonus.”

Aaron Keunen: “We’ve been buying beef cross calves for a long time for veal and fattened cattle. We find a lot of small butcher shops like to have a high yield animal so they can put less animals through for the same amount of meat. On the fattened animals side, we like the Belgian Blue crosses though the carcass yield isn’t always an advantage ... sometimes we have to slow them down to get a bit of marble. What I don’t like to see is big frames because they are hard to feed on our program. We like to sell at 15 months and have them weighing 1,500 pounds. If there is too much frame, the ribeye gets undesirable and we get into 20 and 30 cent cuts due to the marketability 18 The Rural Voice

Angus is an ideal cross for use in a beef on dairy strategy but those raising crossbred calves also like Limousin or Belgian Blue crosses to raise calves for the veal or beef market.

of the meat.

What do farmers need to consider before implementing a beef on dairy program?

Rita Maciukiewicz: “We just shipped two animals. One was a Holstein (710 pounds) and one was a crossbred Limousin (715 pounds).

We sold the Holstein for $695 and the crossbred for $836 so there is money to be made. It does pencil out to use beef semen.”

Aaron Keunen: “As crossbreeding becomes more predominant in dairy herds, we are starting to get two industries and businesses competing. Now you are competing with fat cattle on the veal side so you have to keep the price in line with what buyers can pay.”

Brad Gilchrist: “So far we’ve talked about premiums but the bigger advantage is the genetic gain for dairy herds. Breed the females from the top half of your herd. It’s a ‘retain the best and forget the rest’ mentality.

Both sides need to hear each other. When Aaron says he needs calves that feed out well, dairy farmers need to hear that. Dairy farmers need the least amount of calving problems so they can breed their cows again.

We look at dairy and beef as very

different but in reality the two industries are very similar. So understand why you do what you do and why you need to do it.”

Craig Connell: “In the United Kingdom, we always bred a lot of cows to beef. Our neighbours bred everything to beef! Over here, the market has been good for Holstein heifers for a long time. That has changed dramatically over 18 months. Because of the price of veal, we buy 60-70 calves per week out of the veal market. We take them home, dehorn and castrate them and they go right into the beef feedlot.

If I were to make a suggestion, I’d say castrate and dehorn the calves right away. If the veal market is good, sell. If not, keep the calves and fatten them up.

When it comes to castrating, take your time and make sure you have both nuts in there. We see it happen often that there is one left and those calves sell at a discount.”

How about heifers?

Craig Connell: “We buy males and females. No problem. We like females just as good as males.”

Brad Gilchrist: “The supply of crossbreeds is really high right now because lots of dairymen in California are switching to beef on dairy. In the beef industry, there is a

big difference between the price of steers and heifers. Heifers come into heat and that affects their ability to convert feed to yield. We are going to see sexed male semen coming down the pipe. Possibly down the road we will see a premium for the sex of the calf.”

Aaron Keunen: “I’m fine to feed heifers. They do as well as steers as long as they are grouped together.

Heifers naturally have a little more fat. You can ship a heifer a little lighter and get good marbling but a steer you need to leave on feed a little longer to get good marbling.”

Rita Maciukiewicz: “If we have a set of twins, we raise them in the veal program. If a heifer goes into the beef end, she will be held back into a younger group. She might get a little too much protein and she might be in the barn a little longer but we can put her to market at a lighter weight and still get something for her.”

What is the optimal age and weight and do you use a scale?

Rita Maciukiewicz: “Yes we have a scale and we typically weigh every Monday. We aim for 720 kilograms but there is always a little bit of shrink on the way to market.”

Aaron Keunen: “On fattened crossbred cattle, we finish between 1,450 to 1,500 pounds because I think feed conversion goes down after that.”

Brad Gilchrist: “If I have facilities, time and a buyer that is willing to take them at 4-500 pounds, that is a great option as well. The target finished weight depends on the frame score of the animals. Ideally, we have a lower frame score on Holsteins. If we have moderately framed animals we can ship them at a lower weight.”

Craig Connell: “We scale them all. Holsteins heifers go out at 1,350 pounds. The holstein steers used to go out at 1,550 to 1,600 pounds but they can sometimes dress out at 900 pounds. So we now ship them out between 1,535 to 1,540 pounds. On Belgian Blue cross steers, we run them to 1,600 to 1,650 pounds and then have a condition that we aren’t deducted on the carcass weight unless it exceeds 1,100 pounds.

Is there any beef breed that is good on Jerseys?

Craig Connell: “Belgian Blue will make a beef animal out of anything. We actually bred that cross and they made really good beef animals. They came out a mousy colour and make good cattle.”

Brad Gilchrist: “That is the question that comes up the most. You can breed Angus but they don’t have enough growth and yield at the end. I will say that the solution used most in the United States is Charolais. I

would say be careful which Charolais bulls you use. You want a bull with calving ease traits. The biggest issue is that if you pick the wrong bull, you end up with calving difficulties.”

Conclusion by Kendra Keels: “Currently our markets are over supplied and prices reflect that. It is a cyclical business. For dairy farmers, introducing beef breeds is a way to increase profitability. Just remember to treat all your calves the same and ask yourself how each calf leaving the farm will reflect on the farm.” ◊

June 2019 19

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Veal

Beef cross calves are ideal for veal • By Lisa B. Pot •

T

Healthy vigour is what Aaron Keunen looks for when purchasing beef cross calves for his veal and fattened cattle feeding operations on farms scattered around Perth County.

Relationships are just as necessary for success in a veal operation as raising the right beef/dairy cross of calf

here is a shift happening in the balance between beef farmers, dairy farmers and veal farmers.

As dairy farmers focus on genetics and look to beef-on-dairy as a way to generate income from the bottom half of the herd, veal producers are seeing potential to form partnerships with dairy farmers for a consistent supply of calves.

One such veal and crossbred beef grower is Aaron Keunen of Perth County who has contracts with 21 younger farmers to raise calves for either the veal or beef market. Now he’s looking to close the loop by partnering with dairy farmers to source a consistent supply of crossbred calves.

“The biggest hurdle is finding a true market value of a calf on a private deal,” says Keunen who raises veal and crossbred beef with his father, Brian Keunen.

On this day, Aaron is visiting a Mennonite farmer near Kenilworth who feeds calves for the Keunens. A row of corn sprinkled with hay lies in front of several pens of calves. One pen is filled with large Holsteins almost ready to ship. The next pen features Holstein/Belgian Blue crosses, another Holstein/Simmental crosses and a third Holstein/Angus crosses. The Mennonite farmer is responsible for feeding and housing the animals while Aaron sources, sells and provides feed for the growing calves. The young Mennonite farmer is using this partnership with Aaron to profit from buildings on-site towards his dream of starting a dairy farm. Construction is underway!

For young farmers who don’t have the cash flow or are risk-adverse, partnering with a buyer/seller can work to their advantage.

The Keunens sell 40 to 50 veal calves weekly and around 1,000 June 2019 21

finished crossbred cattle (both heifers and steers) annually.

For Aaron, learning his responsibilities and specific gifts has been a process since he graduated from college five years ago. He learned much from his parents, the owners of Mapleview Agri Services. The company markets milk replacer so raising veal was a natural fit for the family.

When Aaron joined, the family expanded the veal business into beef crossbreds so they could take advantage of two markets. If veal prices are good, the newborn calves they purchase are sold in the veal market. If veal prices are flat, the calves can be raised to a 1,500 pound weight for the beef market.

Aaron credits his dad for having a good head for business, his mom as being a perfect overseer of details and himself as focusing on relationships. All three are keen for growth.

“Relationships are changing and that has been a big part of our success,” says Aaron. “With the new generation, it’s not just about expectations and a ‘get it done’

Holstein calves crossed with Belgian Blue bulls require extra care to get off to a good start but they have tremendous daily gains. Aaron Keunen likes using this beef crossbred in his veal and fattened cattle business.

attitude. It’s about working together and asking how we can provide the training so that they can meet those expectations.”

Education and having a good w o r k i n g relationship motivates people, believes Aaron.

It starts with educating farmers on how to care for young calves.

Aaron likes to purchase calves at least one week old to reduce the stress calves face moving to a new facility.

He looks for vigorous calves with a nice, s q u a r e conformation, bright eyes and full of coloHolstein/Belgian Blue-crossed calves are strum. fattened on corn with a sprinkliing of hay.

The goal is to

22 The Rural Voice

have the calves fattened and shipped within 15 months. Instead of first building a frame and then filling it, the Keunens focus on fattening quickly.

Aaron prefers Holstein/Belgian Blue and Holstein/Angus crosses, though he does buy other crosses as well.

The Belgian Blue crosses are a higher-yielding animal, yielding 63 to 64 per cent compared to an Angus cross which typically yields 60 to 61 per cent.

“That three per cent difference might be a yield of 30 pounds and at $2.50 per pounds, that makes a $75 difference in profitability per head,” calculates Aaron.

However, the Belgian Blue crosses are “finicky” as calves and require extra attention. Their pens need to be very dry and calves require extra electrolytes and nutrition to “get them going”. Plus, they are more expensive to purchase, extending to the far end of the $200 to $450 range Aaron buys calves for.

In contrast, the Angus-cross calves though lighter, are hardier.

They don’t require as much attention and tend to have more market options when finished which can add dollars

to the bottom line.

However, in contrast to that, the Belgian Blue crosses have their own appeal as a leaner beef animal.

Though sometimes that can backfire if the market demands more marbled beef. “You really have to watch the market,� laughs Aaron. “There are so many variables.�

Aaron credits the Veal Farmers of Ontario organization for doing a great job in assisting veal producers with market avenues and finding markets for crossbred calves.

Aaron says there is a little bit of friction between purebred beef farmers and farmers raising crossbred calves. They are, after all, angling after similar markets. The grade and quality of crossbred meat is questioned. Aaron says on an average load, the finished cattle average 80 per cent AAA grade with a “fractionally different yield over conventional beef.�

He admits, however, he is dependent on genetics to be able to compete with pure beef calves. This is where he believes dairy farmers, veal/crossbred beef producers and semen companies can work together. “If we can amalgamate all three, then we can look at carcass quality and average daily gains,� says Aaron.

He is currently “in conversation� with a few dairy farmers to form direct partnerships so that he doesn’t have to depend on sales barns to access his supply of calves.

Such a partnership requires a lot of communication to understand what each party needs. Aaron needs a calf to have strong beef genetics, plus a good start the first week of its life. He also needs consistent volume. Meanwhile, a producer would need assurance of a fair price given the major fluctuations in crossbred calf price. “We could offer a premium if we knew the genetics of the calf,� suggested Aaron.

Looking to the future, Aaron is excited about opportunities for growth and developing relationships within the industry. He plans to grow the business but doesn’t have a goal in mind, expecting it will happen organically. ◊

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June 2019 23

Dairy Diversification

Bigger or better, cheaper or faster

Christian Kaiser Vita Lait/Chagnon Dairy, Quebec

W

Craig Connell Wicketthorne Farms, London

hen it comes to farmers who know how to successfully diversify, average is an unacceptable word.

“Just being average is not for us.

We have to be bigger or better, make it cheaper or make it value-added,” says Christian Kaiser of Quebec.

“It’s in our family genes to look for the next thing to do.”

Kaiser was one of four farmers sharing their thoughts on diversification to dairy farmers at the Canadian Dairy XPO in Stratford in March.

Kaiser’s family expanded into milk processing, Craig Connel into a beef feedlot, Dave Green into anaerobic digesters (see his full story elsewhere in The Rural Voice) and Gerard Schipper into solar panels.

Following your passions, thoroughly researching possibilities and finding a unique opportunity are all key elements of diversification success say the four men.

24 The Rural Voice

Gerard Schipper Skipwell Farms, Aylmer

Dave Green Greenholm Farms Limited, Embro

Farm diversity can increase profits, create sustainability and allows family members to pursue interests outside of milking cows • By Lisa B. Pot • Christian Kaiser Vita Lait/Chagnon Dairy, Quebec A Kemptville college graduate, Kaiser joined his father and grandfather full time in 2001. They farm 2,000 acres (alfalfa, corn, beans and wheat) and are transitioning part of it to organic. They milk 240 milking cows and raise 400 young stock. Married to Marie-Pier, the couple has four children.

Christian and his brother Nathan created the Vita Lait brand of nonGMO milk. In 2017, along with CULT Yogurt, they purchased Chagnon Dairy, the leading independent creamery and milk

brand in Quebec.

“We had started this non-GMO milk and when an opportunity came up to buy the plant, we took it,” said Kaiser. “We want to create a specialty product and are switching part of our herd to Guernsey to do that.”

When choosing to diversify, Kaiser said the family knew they loved cows. They did not want to stray far from what they loved and what they do. “With a processing plant, we figured we could take out the middle man and create specialty products for the consumer. We go from milk cows, to milk transport to processing ... all within the family.”

Two years in, Kaiser said the

family is just starting to see financial gains. The purchases happened so quickly, with another partner, that finding the money to pay producers when cash flow came in every 60 days was a challenge. Also, making workforce adjustments was stressful.

“We took over a company that had 30 employees and wanted to change some of those employees. But you get resistance from people who have been there a long time.”

Being an entrepreneur and diversifying takes a lot of energy so make sure you choose something you are passionate about, advised Kaiser.

“And do a LOT of research.”

In the future, he hopes the next generation may get involved in the retail side of things to finish the loop.

“But we need to do research to see if it makes sense and if there is someone who wants to do it.”

Craig Connell Wicketthorne Farms, London Wicketthorne Farms was established by Craig Connell and family after immigrating from Scotland in 1981. A third generation member of the Connell clan is now the herd manager of the dairy farm.

In total, the Connells farm 1,800 acres, milk 340 cows on 750 kilograms of quota, have a 2,500 head feedlot and manage 10 full-time plus two or three part-time employees.

“Livestock is what we knew and as we were gathering more land and then selling off the corn or beans, that did not seem to make a lot of sense,” says Connell. “So we decided to start a feedlot and feed all the crops we produce.”

The decision increased the farm’s cash flow which is always a plus, joked Connell. “It became a major part of the business to the point where beef is now 60 per cent of income and the dairy is 40 per cent.”

When establishing the beef operation, cash flow was a struggle as barns were filling and a regular market flow was created. “The big challenge was finding the market,” remembers Connell. “We initially thought after we’d built the barns that maybe we had overdone it.”

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June 2019 25

challenges is to have a relationship with a packer.

Now through the worst of the bumps, Connell says when thinking of diversifying, it’s critical to choose something you have an interest in.

“It’s hard work if you go against your interests,” he said.

Gerard Schipper Skipwell Farms, Aylmer Born in Brazil to Dutch immigrant parents, the whole family moved to Aylmer in 1974. Gerard and his brother took over the family farm in 1992.

Seven years later, with his wife Grace and four children, the Schipper family started Skipwell Farms Inc., milking 400 Holstein cows in a double-12 parallel parlour. Son Henri along with his wife, Katie, and their three children are now partnered into the business which also manages 1,850 acres.

The family decided to diversify into a grain company and solar panels in recent years.

“I am the kind of person who cannot sit still for very long,” says

Schipper, wiggling in his chair. “As we consulted with people while building a new barn, we realized it was an opportunity to hook up to the grid. So we designed it that 90 per cent of the roof faced south.” He got the idea when buzz in Brazil about the opportunity reached his ears. “I thought if they already know about it then we should jump on the bandwagon.”

At that time, during the era of microFIT contracts, Schipper said the phone started ringing off the hook with companies wanting to put solar panels on their barn.

It was a way to make money without creating labour, something Schipper needed to investigate after a doctor diagnosed a blood clot and suggested getting kicked by a cow would not be in his best interest.

When son, Henri, demonstrated skill in business and grain marketing, Skipwell Farms diversified in ways to suit each person’s interests.

“My father would be shocked that I spend more time driving combines and harvesters than milking cows but that has been the progression of our

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26 The Rural Voice

farm,” said Schipper.

Hiring “a great bunch of people” keeps the dairy farm operational.

“We treat them well and have created great opportunities for staff,” added Schipper. He said they also made a wise move hiring a senior with excellent relational skills to serve a human relations role. “He squashes any drama before it gets out of hand,” said Schipper.

His advice for the farmer looking to diversify is to spend a lot of time researching and testing. He was advised that solar panels on a dairy barn was a foolish decision. So he had the whole farm tested for stray voltage and then, satisfied with his research, went ahead with the project.

Dave Green Greenholm Farms Ltd., Embro As the sixth generation to farm land that has been in the family since 1843, Dave Green had a legacy to uphold when he came home after college in 2004 to join parents Gordon and Laura Green.

A new dairy barn for 200 milking cows was built and cow numbers slowly increased to 250 cows.

Cash crop and a small beef operation were already in place when Dave and his wife Shannon started three years’ worth of paperwork to build a 250-kilowatt anaerobic digester to power the farm in 2013. A second digester was added in 2018.

“We considered it risk management,” said Green, describing the decision to diversify. “Dairy has been a strong industry for years but when you can spread income over different avenues, it gives you strength as a whole.”

Plus, the family has an interest in technologies.

When the microFIT funding became available, Green decided to put years of research into action.

Now, digester income equals the amount of the milk cheque coming in and “adds a different kind of excitement.” Green says the digesters don’t take nearly as much time as the dairy. “Not saying it doesn’t give me problems, it does, but it is an exciting avenue.”

When establishing new technology like biogas generation, the

acceptance or uptake can take time.

“Getting support from suppliers was a big challenge,” remembers Green.

Ordering parts from Europe can take weeks. “It’s been a nightmare for the engine side of it but has gotten a little better over the last half year,” said Green.

Dairy farming is an asset-rich, cash-poor business but the advantage of that is banks have assets to grab hold of. “There is your opportunity.”

So is seeing that sideshoots emerge from diversification. The anaerobic digesters on the farm are fed waste organics. To transport the materials, the Greens started a small trucking company. Moreover, the Greens and other farmers/companies with biodigesters formed a company called Cornerstone Renewables to source material as a collective and “back each other up.”

Be mindful, however, that nonfarm income can mess up a farmer’s ability to transfer farms to the next generation. Green advised setting up a second company for the diversified businesses to uncomplicate taxation issues. ◊

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June 2019 27

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Be sure to come to the biggest “little” fair in Ontario August 30th, 31st and September 1st

28 The Rural Voice

Renewable Energy

Energetic methanogens make money Gord and Dave Green’s two anaerobic digestors transform manure and organic waste into electricity, fertilizer and bedding

W

hen he was on the panel for on-farm diversification at the Stratford Dairy XPo (see Dairy Diversification story), Dave Green of Greenholm Farms near Embro alluded to the profitability of two biodigesters on the Embro dairy farm he runs with his father Gord.

So when I got to the farm to see the digesters in action, I asked for some numbers. How much money do they actually make? Is the paperwork stress and sourcing issues worth it?

Definitely, said Dave.

When running at peak capacity, on a diet of manure and other organic waste, the anaerobic biodigesters create methane which is transformed into 12,000 kilowatts of electricity per day. Installed under a Feed-In Tariff (FIT) government contract in 2012 and 2018, the two digesters pay out at 18.5 cents per kilowatt for a sum of $2,200 per day.

“If we had taken the same money and invested it in cows and quota, it would not touch the income we make from the digesters,” says Dave, who admits technology is something he is

particularly interested in which is why he dived into the paperwork required to earn a FIT contract to make the digesters profitable.

Unfortunately the program stopped accepting applications in 2016 and hasn’t been replaced with a program as lucrative to encourage more farmers to install biodigesters.

Nevertheless, Dave is in the process of researching a third biodigester to use as a power source for the dairy operation since power generated by the first two is fed back into the grid.

• By Lisa B. Pot •

Gord Green (left) and partner/son Dave Green (right) are both keen on technology and sustainability so they combined the two by installing two anaerobic digesters on their Embro dairy farm to transform cow manure and trucked-in organic waste into energy, fertilizer and bedding material in a circular system that can be very dirty when repairs are needed but is both value-added and very profitable.

June 2019 29

Plus, he loves the circular concept of making the most of the farm’s resources. Not only does the farm manure and organic waste create energy, it also creates a rich fertilizer for spreading on crop yields.

“It’s value added ... you get more out of what you produce,” says Dave.

So while farmers wait for future funding to encourage and promote the greater use of renewable energy sources, learning from the process at Greenholm Farms can prepare them if/when that funding appears. ord and Dave Green milk 250 Holstein cattle at the sixth generation dairy farm and it’s a busy place. Off-shore workers are cleaning in the dairy barn while Dave hauls tankers of liquid manure and Gord walks in with his barn clothes, clearly busy as well. Trucks roll in, bringing in a variety of materials including soluble corn distillers (discarded because of high levels of DOM), off-spec milk, grease trap waste, surplus whey, apple waste (cores, peels and pulp) and potatoes to feed the biodigesters.

It’s a bit of a muddy mess with this wet spring weather and there is finishing work to be done after the second digester was installed in 2018.

Before installing both digesters, the Greens researched how much the the hydro component would cost.

Digesters sized 200 kw and above need to hook into a three-phase circuit and they aren’t available everywhere. The closest one to the Green farm was on the next concession which, luckily, the farm could reach through its own fields. They installed the lines themselves.

That saved a LOT of money as connecting the digesters to a threephase circuit can cost up to $200,000 per kilometre.

“There’s always lots of interest in biodigesters but a lot of people get stopped because they don’t have access to a three-phase circuit,” said Dave.

G

30 The Rural Voice

Engines (right) generate a lot of heat in the two anerobic biodigestors (bottom) at Greenholm Farms owned by Gord Green and son Dave Green (middle) who was spreading liquid manure the day of this interview.

Once the Greens built the first digester, they began feeding in their own manure and declared their “doors open for business” to anyone needing to dispose of organic waste.

“No one showed up,” remembers Dave.

Relationships had to be forged and now the Greens are part of a new venture called Cornerstone Renewables, a hands-on group, that is owned by two beef farmers, six dairy farmers, a greenhouse operator, an Ag entrepreneur and a research site at the University of Guelph.

Their website states: “In addition to the manure from the more than 10,000 cattle we manage on our farms, Cornerstone currently processes approximately 200,000 tonnes per year of organic waste. At the present capacity to process 220,000 tonnes per year, which makes us capable of producing 173 Megawatts of electricity, 200 Megawatts of heat every day, and 100,000 tonnes of feed per year from the fertilizer we produce. At capacity our combined efforts will reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere by 400,000 tonnes per year, which is equal to 78,500 cars per year.”

Intense!

Through the group, accessing organic waste is no longer a problem.

In fact, the farmers charge a tipping fee of $20 per tonne of which a percentage goes back to Cornerstone Renewables to fund the company.

Gord says the digesters “love rotten material” and greasy products like the grease trap waste.

Ultimately, the bacteria that transforms the manure and organic waste into methane need to have heat and action (stirring).

“Stir it and heat it and you get gas.

It’s the same principle as a cow’s rumen,” explains Dave.

Balancing it can sometimes be tricky. Digesters can get sick which happens when the bacteria are overfed. They will quit performing and go dormant. In really bad situations, they can die.

“We’ve never killed our digester,” says Dave.

“But we’ve been too close for comfort,” interjects Gord.

Overfeeding the digester affects the pH levels. The methanogens in

the digester prefer a pH range of 7.5 to 8.5. Outside of that, they get sick.

The digester methanogens are fed throughout the day, little bits at a time. The manure pumps are set to run 12 to 20 times a day.

Input of organic waste is now managed by Cornerstone Renewables, which has hired a buyer to source materials. When the Greens were independent of the group, they sourced materials from other smaller businesses. The company, however, has the capability to accept larger amounts so now they can accept waste from companies like Maple Lodge Farms. nother thing to watch with anaerobic biodigesters are the engines that run them. They are constantly running and generate a lot of heat. “The engines can blow up sometimes and then you can be down for a while. It hasnt happened here and good thing because we don’t have a $700,000 engine sitting around to plunk in.”

Each digester cost about $2 million to install at Greenholm farms.

Installing the biodigesters was not without financial risk, certainly.

Break-downs do happen and Dave says you kind of feel like you are oncall, like with robot milkers.

Infrastructure issues with Hydro One can be frustrating. The grid trips regularly and has some instability concerns. Every time the power flicks off, Dave has to restart the biodigester engines.

Also, it’s not a white-shirt business. “If you have digesters, get ready to be dirty,” says Dave. “This is a whole new level of getting covered in manure.”

However, when everything works right, the farm manure rolls in to feed the digester and income flows out to pay back those loans. Plus, the digestate left over “grows crops like nobody’s business,” says Dave.

Gord says the digestate is more like hog manure, providing an accessible form of nitrogen that corn really thrives on.

Also, the Greens use the dry portion of the separated solubles to bed the freestalls and pack pens in the dairy barns.

“I was sure scared at the start,

A

fearing mastitis but our somatic cell counts have not changed at all,” says Dave. He believes because they use mats, layer the digestate on top, then scrape it off during stall cleaning, that helps. “I think if we had deep packs, the bacteria could grow.”

Both Dave and Gord hope the government will see the continued benefits of renewable energy on the farm and offer new funding so more farmers can consider installing anaerobic biodigesters on their farms.◊

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Pickin’ By The Pond Country Music Festival at the Cargill Park

July 5th-7th Friday July 5th noon to 10 pm

Saturday, July 6th noon to 11 pm Walk-in prices $30 a day/ after 5 pm..... $15

Sunday Gospel 11 am..... Free

All the details and performer list at

www.visitcargill.ca June 2019 31

People

Trusted employee retires after 40 years Bob Rourke has spent 40 years working in pig barns and is looking forward to working outside raising bees

I

n a world that glorifies entrepreneurship and glamourizes success, the characteristic of “loyalty” is sometimes undervalued and underappreciated.

Not so for Bob Rourke, a farm labourer who has worked on swine farms in Huron and Perth counties for over 40 years and at the age of 64, is looking forward to retiring from long days and hard work.

On a rare Monday off, I met with Bob where all good farmers meet – at the kitchen table. He had two pages of comments he wanted to add as I asked him about his life, work and experiences working with pigs.

A shy man, being interviewed probably isn’t Bob’s favourite way to pass the time. However, he feels honoured that Stephen and Leslie Forman of Venture View Swine near Seaforth contacted The Rural Voice to share their appreciation of Bob’s amazing work ethics.

The fact that Bob has spent his entire working career in the swine industry is “truly remarkable from our standpoint,” said Leslie Forman.

Particularly in a time when many farms have to hire off-shore workers to perform tasks Bob did quite willingly.

“Even though I am an employee, I always treated the barn like it was my own out of respect for my employers,” says Bob. Bob grew up on a farm, a mixed operation, with his younger brother and sister. He attended Centralia College for a year, graduated in 1976 and started work at Van Oenen Farms near Dungannon, a large farm at the time with 250-sows farrow to finish. He worked there for two years before moving to a Steckle farm then settled in at Selves Farms Ltd which grew from 440 to 2,200 sows farrow to finish before it went bankrupt. He

32 The Rural Voice

Bob Rourke has been a trusted employee in pig barns for over 40 years and always loved working with pigs but he is retiring in September to take care of a new kind of species.

experienced some disappointment at this job when a younger employee became barn manager over him.

However, he credits the family for teaching him how to master swine artificial insemination (AI) and learn how to manage a sow barn.

His current employers hired Bob next. Venture View is a 700-sow farrow-to-finish operation. Bob primarily does AI work, a job he finds rewarding, though it can be tricky if you accidentally insert the rod tip into the bladder. Something that doesn’t happen often!

At some point during his career, Bob had dreams of owning his own farm. He had hopes to take over the family farm but Bob’s dad struggled through the high interest rates in the 1980s and decided to sell the farm.

Later, Bob and his wife Michelle

debated whether to start their own pig farm. “She talked me out of it,” he says with a laugh. The certainty of a regular pay cheque was appealing compared to the risks of a fluctuating industry.

Bob says he has always enjoyed pigs. “They have a lot of personality,” he says.

He admits sows can be aggressive but he’s never had broken bones or stitches from working in pig barns.

“One time I was standing between a sow and where she wanted to go.

She just picked me up with her head and shoved me over. I came right off my feet but I did land on two feet,” he remembers.

Another memory was having to

• By Lisa B. Pot •

People clean up after a barn fire destroyed a sow barn while he was at Selves.

“We lost 300 sows,” he says.

However, the new barn that replaced it was easier to work in.

In the span between 1976 and 2019, Bob has seen a lot of changes in the hog industry. Use of boars gave way to AI; feeding by wheelbarrow changed to drop feeders and then automatic feeding; numbers went up drastically from just over 100 sows to just under 1,000; litter size has increased to over 14 piglets born live and straw pens have given way to slatted floors. Disease issues may be worse than before but average daily gain and feed conversion percentages have made dramatic gains. ob will be working over the summer, finishing his career as a swine herdsperson in September. Despite working fulltime his entire adult life, Bob isn’t worried about what he’ll do with his free time. He is keen to expand his beekeeping hobby. He has been keeping four to six hives for many years now, and has his own extractor.

He looks forward to selling honey and making a bit of money here and there working as a handyman or mowing lawns. Plus, he hopes to travel a bit more with his wife, though he’ll have to wait a bit as she still works full-time at Better Ways for Seniors in St. Marys.

When he looks back at his career, Bob says he feels very thankful that he always had good employers. Also, he has so much appreciation for his children and their patience on days like Christmas, when they would wait to open gifts until he came home from the farm. He remembers taking his little ones to the barn with him and one son has also made a career as a herd manager, working for Bodmin Swine Genetics.

“Farming has been good for the whole family,” says Bob. “Our three kids grew up working in the barn.

They all have wonderful work ethics and are appreciative of the hard work involved in farming.”

Clearly, Bob is a thankful man and it was a pleasure to write a story honouring his loyalty and gentle spirit. ◊

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June 2019 33

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34 The Rural Voice

Giving Back

Cooperative approach works in Tanzania • By Geoff Dale •

Don Hilborn helps introduce drip irrigation systems to Tanzanian greenhouses

W

ith a lifetime spent exploring and expanding upon the possibilities in both the agricultural and agribusiness sectors, Don Hilborn was eager for another challenge and this one lay waiting for him beyond the Canadian borders in faraway Tanzania.

In January the Oxford County resident set off for the eastern African country within the African Great Lakes region, where he would volunteer with the UNITERRA/WUSC (World University Science of Canada) Program for three months.

An international volunteer cooperation program, UNITERRA, managed by WUSC and the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI), assists Canadians enthusiastic about making a direct and positive impact on people’s lives in developing countries.

Since 2004 more than 3,000 Canadians have been sent to 14 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia in continuous efforts to reduce poverty and create

Don Hilborn’s (above, middle) goal in Tanzania was to work with an agribusiness partner to introduce the broad use of drip irrigation systems for better and more consistent crops from small-scale horticultural operations.

opportunities for women and youth around the world.

“The idea for me actually started two years ago,” he said. “Through Farm Radio Canada I took a twoweek tour of Tanzania. Following that very informative visit, the process began online as I looked through the WUSC website, learning what resources and personal skills were required.

“I was raised and worked on our family dairy farm, was employed by OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) for 37 years and since 1985 my wife

Sue and I have owned and operated Red Barn Berries. I felt confident my skills and experience meshed with their needs.”

Some rudimentary yet startling facts with respect to the plight of developing countries provided him an even more compelling argument to participate in the unique volunteer project: • Today 73.4 million youth between the ages of 15 - 24 are unemployed.

• In developing countries, young women face particularly bleak economic futures.

• In these countries, women are June 2019 35

more likely to be engaged in unpaid care work, toil in informal economies and in vulnerable employment.

Using his engineering, extension and farming skills to volunteer with Soloine Agricultural University, Hilborn’s goal was to work with an agribusiness partner to introduce the broad use of drip irrigation systems for better and more consistent crops from small-scale horticultural operations.

“I knew from the onset there were many differences,” he said. “For example, tilling on acres of land is done by hand. Equipment is hard to maintain. Corn, with the exception of one field, is manually planted. For every acre of corn grown in Oxford County, you need to grow more than nine acres in Tanzania to get the same yield.

“My reception was gratifying.

People were eager to learn and familiarize themselves with new ideas. I met, talked with and worked with many who became, not just my working colleagues, but my friends. I travelled to Morogoro (one of his home stations) and to the country’s largest city Dar es Salaam. A great deal of focus is on Tanzania’s youth, as they provide the hope for a bright future.” ith so much to see, consume and comment on, from day one he began regular as clockwork Facebook posts under the title Don Hilborn Tanzania Adventure. The subject matter is timely, thought-provoking, wideranging and pertinent to both the author and reader. Some projects and observations: • SUGECO (Soloine University Graduates Entrepreneurs Cooperative) has 1,000 acres of undeveloped land available for youth to start family operations.

• The work of nutritionist Jolenta with the orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) is innovative.

• Only 0.2 per cent of the 2.4million livestock farms in Tanzania have biogas plants so SUGECO aims to become a training centre for this technology.

• Around Morogoro, primary cultivation is by hoe or disk plow and there is very little herbicide used.

• Hilborn worked with John, a

W

36 The Rural Voice

SUGECO innovator on his fish/lettuce system called Aquaponics.

• A hot dehydration greenhouse is the opposite to Canadian systems.

“About 70 per cent of Tanzania’s population lives in rural areas but youth are migrating to the cities,” Hilborn said. “The government wants to encourage them to work in

agriculture so there is a general large scale push on that through all sectors.

“As a result, there is a move to make agricultural sectors more viable so it in turn becomes more attractive to young people. Focusing on positive aspects of a changing industry like improved technology and the growth in greenhouses, the goal is to showcase the work not just

The Tanzanian people were eager to learn and familiarize themselves with new ideas, says Don Hillborn, who spent three months in the African country with World University Science of Canada organization.

as a means of sustenance but as a thriving sector that produces high quality crops with innovative, interesting and financially appealing careers for the youth.”

In addition to passing along his knowledge on a daily basis to a receptive group, he pointed to a variety of positives during his threemonth stay, including the development of strong personal relationships and numerous opportunities to see the benefits of the cooperative approach in commodities like goats, chickens, horticulture, bananas, bread and sweet potatoes.

“I also had the opportunity to give a short course on solar food dehydrators to Peace Corps volunteers, which is a new topic for me,” he said. “Abdulla, a SUGECO engineer, fixed up the small drier.

The air is heated under the plastic panel then goes through the fruit in the box area for drying.

“One of my most recent ideas while there was for the development of a master plan to include drainage, water storage and water irrigation, which may be linked to the drainage system. Soil tilth can be maintained or improved through manure and fertilizer management, use of cover crops and good farming practices, like no residue burning.” raising the united efforts of the government and local councils to attract young people to industry, he said success on that front would mean another bonus for agriculture alongside the country’s inexpensive land and good climate.

“Tanzania is a very good place to work,” he said. “The dynamics are there; people are hard-working and appreciative and the government offers career incentives to get involved in agriculture. Volunteering there for me was both rewarding and a real eye-opener. I learned a great deal.

“If I returned, because of family commitments, it would likely be for a shorter time. However, with new contacts I’ve made, there has been quite a lot of e-mailing since I returned. There have been some nibbles so interest in participating in this fascinating project is out there and that is a very positive sign.” ◊

P

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Spring Awakening by Bonnie Sitter

Spring has taken its time but now that it’s here, the wild creatures and flowers (below) are emerging while calves (above) enjoy fresh greens. Hopefully, the late-planted crops will soon awaken as well. Above, Toni Ellis and Danny Bellin search for wildflowers on the MacNaughton Trail while Richard Eisert of Huron County (right) cradles a lamb at his Huron County farm.

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Visit our website www.holsteinagroexpo.com June 2019 39

Recipes by Nancy Fisher

Fresh garden herbs add superb flavour

I

think everyone has their favourite moments spotting the first signs of spring. One of mine is when I poke around in the brown debris of my herb garden and find the tiny green shoots of my chive plants, coming back to life for another year.

Herbs were among the first garden plants I learned to recognize as a child. I loved the responsibility of being sent to snip some chives or pluck some mint leaves to add to a dish in the kitchen. So started my lifelong love affair with herbs. Many of my favourite herbs are perennial since my frugal nature enjoys the fact that these hardy little plants keep popping back up year after year to provide me with so much flavour and so many options for enhancing my recipes.

I’m lucky enough to live on a property that has a garden large enough to grow bigger quantities of herbs so I can use as many fresh ingredients as I want through the summer and still have lots to dry as well.

So even as I find the tiny tip of the chives in my April garden – too small to harvest yet – I can pull together a tasty ranch dressing that I serve as a dip or dressing. You can vary the amounts of herbs to your own taste but do so cautiously and in small increments. I admit I never put in dill as I’m not a fan, but ranch fans might insist. This does not include the classic buttermilk because I don’t often have that on hand, I don’t think it needs it really. Easily made vegan.

Homemade Ranch Style Dip Ingredients: 1 cup mayonnaise (you can also use a vegan mayo as I find there is little taste difference) 6 tablespoons of milk or milk substitute 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar (white will work too) 1 heaping tablespoon of dried parsley 1 generous teaspoon of dried chives 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon of dehydrated chopped 40 The Rural Voice

Rosemary Olive No-Knead bread uses fresh rosemary from the garden during the summer. Since rosemary does not survive Ontario’s winters, cut the plant and hang it upside down to dry for dried herbs during the winter. onion (you could also use onion powder) ½ teaspoon of dried dill (optional) Salt and pepper to taste Directions: This is as simple as combining all the ingredients and blending until smooth. You can thin it out with more milk as needed. I like to use a spare jam jar so you can mix and store all in the same container. Cover tightly and store in the fridge, using it within a week or two. This recipe can easily be cut in half when you just want enough for one veggie tray

or so you don’t end up eventually throwing out half a bottle as I used to do when I purchased it from the store.

Another advantage of having a larger garden is that I can grow some of the more invasive herbs with abandon. These days I find chamomile everywhere and I can indulge my fondness for all of the mint family. As a child I picked mint leaves for my Mom to toss into a pot of boiled new potatoes or fresh peas.

Now I can’t live without the joys of fresh mint tea. Last summer it was a

Recipes revelation to me as I found a recipe in Real Simple magazine for a carrot mint slaw. Recipe adapted to suit my taste.

Super Fresh Carrot and Mint Slaw Ingredients: 1 cup of shredded carrot ¼ cup fresh mint leaves chopped or torn 1 tablespoon of lemon or lime juice (I think lime is a bit nicer here, but not always on hand) 2 teaspoons sugar Salt and pepper to taste Toss this together as you grill up some burgers. It makes a great topping on a turkey burger, or add it to a wrap. really wish I could grow fresh rosemary all year long, but our climate in Ontario does not allow for that. I make sure to plant plenty to use fresh through the summer and in fall I snip them off close to the ground and hang to dry.

Is there any better scent that running your fingers through a rosemary bush? I use it in so many ways but a particular family favourite is rosemary olive bread. I frequently make this in my bread maker, however it’s hard to share a recipe for that as bread makers vary widely in sizes. My friend Bev shared her quick no knead bread recipe with me and that works great!

This loaf will pull together in an afternoon and I love baking it in cast iron skillet. A couple of quick rises and you have a hearty rustic loaf for dinner.

Turn a simple spaghetti into an Italian feast!

I

use dried approx. 1 tablespoon crushed dried rosemary ½ - ¾ cup chopped olives- you can use any kind but I prefer pitted sliced black olives. When using canned I drain most but not all the liquid.

Directions: Combine yeast and warm water in large bowl allow yeast to dissolve.

Add 1 cup of the flour and ½ tablespoon salt and mix.

Add the rest of the flour 1 cup at a time. As you add flour add the chopped olives and rosemary. Mix until all the flour is absorbed and the dough comes together in a slightly sticky ball.

Cover loosely, allow to rise for 1 hour. It should grow nicely. While it rises oil a large cast iron skillet 10 or 12 inch diameter. Mine has high sides but this is not necessary.

After the hour, uncover but do not punch down the dough. Oil skillet with olive oil.

Cover your hands and top of dough with flour. Gather it all up and shape into disk and place into the prepared skillet Cover with towel and let rise another 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 F When ready to bake gently brush more olive oil over the surface and if you want to get fancy put a couple of slashes in the top with a sharp knife.

Sprinkle with some coarse salt and more rosemary. If using a whole sprig dip it in some olive oil first to prevent it from burning.

Bake 35-40 minutes until deep brown.

Cool at least 1/2 hour before slicing or it might go gummy – if you can! ◊

Super Fresh Carrot and Mint Slaw (below) is easy to toss up to add to burgers over the summer. This second picture of Rosemary Olive No-Knead Bread (bottom, right) shows how the olives add interesting design and texture to the loaf. The Homemade Ranch Style Dip (right) can be made in proportion to what you need for dipping crudite to avoid having to throw out unused portions..

Rosemary Olive No-Knead Bread Ingredients: 1 package regular yeast (2 ¼ tsp) 2 cups warm water 1/2 tablespoon salt 4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour you may need more or less depending on how it mixes up for you Olive Oil for the pan and the top Fresh Rosemary - chopped I use at least ¼ cup, you can also June 2019 41

Rural Living A Country Guide for the Rural Homestead

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JUNE 2019 43

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

On a mission to rejuvenate failing heucheras As I write this, the temperature outside on this dull May day is only 5 degrees! Since I am stuck inside to finish some jobs, I sniff that it is a good thing the weather is cool as it slows the advancement of spring, keeping both trees and perennials from bursting forth too soon.

I am always looking for jobs along the edge of the garden to occupy me while the rest of the garden emerges. It is too easy to crush newly-emerging lily and hosta tips. I have some lovely Heuchera, or Coral Bells, that have seen happier times. Have you ever noticed when you are on a garden tour how your

Heuchera plants with long, woody growth and no signs of growth were sent to the burn pile.

44 The Rural Voice

eye will seek out plants like you have and then you automatically compare.

I was in one garden and saw a magnificent mound of dark-leafed Heuchera and it made me drool. Why can’t mine look like that?

So the challenge this year is to take a hard look at my woody stemmed plants and rejuvenate them.

Coral Bells have not been around all that long and initially were grown for their delicate stems of wee flowers that gently wave high above their foliage. Some were bright hot pink, pale pink or white. But like hostas, the Coral Bells of today host a wonderful exciting spread of leaf colours and markings. They have such rich colours from dark burgundy or purple tinges to vibrant green and citrus yellow. Some with distinct veining and others with ruffles. And the names are simply delicious: Purple Palace, Berry Smoothie, Obsidian, Caramel, Lime Marmalade and Blackberry Crisp.

The flowers have become a sweet add-on.

Heuchera’s are native to North America, and are very adaptable plants. They make wonderful edging plants in the perennial garden and are

Cut away offshoots with a piece of the parent plant’s central root attached.

welcome additions to patio pots; great foliage for ever-blooming annuals. They will tolerate dry soils when established, and prefer slightly acidic soil. They are a perfect plant for those shady spots. They don’t like to be waterlogged and flourish in a well-drained spot. Seems easy enough.

If planting new plants dig the hole twice the size you need and sprinkle in a handful of blood and/or bone meal in the root zone. Some gardeners recommend fishmeal but I find raccoons like fish meal and will dig everything up looking for a tasty trout. Be sure to place your plant with the crown even with the soil surface or a bit higher. Moisture trapped around the crown will cause rot to set in over the fall and winter months.

Heuchera’s are not heavy feeders and need little fertilizer to do well.

As with new plants, a simple handful of blood/bone meal in the spring and mulch around the base will do the trick. Consider a top dressing of compost as mulch, does wonders.

Heucheras will push themselves up out of the ground during the winter. Spring mulch will help

Plant the offshoots in a welldrained location with well-rotted compost and a new plant will grow.

Gardening prevent this. Avoid covering the crown.

Here is my spring challenge: I am going to rejuvenate my failing clumps of Heuchera. I have watched videos and I think those gardeners have a warmer climate as they have far more foliage on the plant in the spring than I do. So the first task is to gently remove any dead or damaged leaves from the foliage so you can see the plant better.

There are two ways of approaching this division. The first is to nip out rootless buds and pot them up. Set them where you can water when needed and monitor their progress. It reminds me of propagating African violets or geraniums. In six weeks you should be able to plant them out in the garden The second approach is to cut away offshoots with a piece of the parent plant’s central root attached.

As with all such surgical procedures, let the soil dry out a little first. Then cut the root in half. This way you can easily see the thick, white central root that is closest to the base of the foliage.

After I assessed the plants I had, I realized that the recommendation to divide and propagate every three to four years was quite accurate. From the looks of my poor plants they should have been tended to several years ago.

Not to fear. Plants with long woody stems, and no signs of growth were sent to the burn pile. I noticed an unnatural groove in the root where something, likely an insect, has been burrowing.

I tried both steps; popping off some sprouts and potting them up and also taking some sprouts with roots from the parent and planting them with a generous amount of compost. As with all plants, this is a happy waiting game.

I have included some photos.

Looking forward to seeing some results.

Waiting to do this in early June is a good idea. Remember the top dressing of compost or well-rotted manure. Always a welcome treat for our plants .◊

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June 2019 45

People

Honoured for contributions to agriculture Three exceptional farmers are inducted into the Stratford Perth Museum Agriculture Hall of Fame

Lorne Fell

Ken Scheerer

Paul Verkley

hree men were honoured as the new inductees into the Stratford Perth Museum Agriculture Wall of Fame on April 19. It’s the sixth year for the Agriculture Wall of Fame which recognizes contributions to agriculture in Perth County.

The three farmers honoured were: Lorne Fell Lorne grew up on the family farm in Hibbert Township where he attended one-room school and then Mitchell District High School. He left school early to manage the family farm.

Fell’s passion for agriculture began in 1947 when he joined the Mitchell Boys and Girls Grain Club.

Each member received two bushels of registered seed. Lorne’s crop received second place at the Mitchell Fall Fair which qualified him to show at the Royal Agriculture Fair (RAF) in Toronto where he also won a second.

This was the beginning of a very successful seed growing business

known as Rosebank Seed Farm.

In 1962, Fell married Helen who became an active member of the business.

Rosebank became a prominent name in the seed business and a regular exhibitor at the RAF. In 1982, Fell won the world championship for soybeans. Twentytwo more world championships were to follow including some for oats and for white beans.

Lorne Fell died in 2018.

Ken Scheerer Born in 1932, Scheerer was raised on the family farm in North Easthope. He graduated from Brocksden school at 14 and started farming. Scheerer married Marlene in 1954 and together they raised five children and built a successful dairy farm. They faced hardship in 1968 when the dairy barn burned down.

Farming was Scheerer’s chosen career but he also enjoyed teaching Sunday School and was a dedicated church volunteer. He served as treasurer for the church, was a 4-H

leader and a school trustee. He also sat on the Stratford Agriculture Society board and served as president, then managed the society for five years.

His involvement with the Perth Milk Committee included dairy education coordinator and the launch of the Coliseum program for all Grade 5 Perth County students. That program still exists today.

Scheerer was also a member of the Stratford Rotary Club, seeing the importance of being a bridge between rural and urban members.

Scheerer died in 2004.

Paul Verkley Verkley operated a 200-head dairy farm in partnership with three brothers in the Elma ward of North Perth.

He was active in agriculture organizations both at the county and provincial level and developed an ability to provide meaningful contributions in a number of diverse areas ranging from organizational restructuring to environmental farm

T

46 The Rural Voice

People planning to agriculture biotechnology.

His environmental leadership was impactful. He served on the board and then chair of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture Environment Committee, the Ontario Farm Environment Coalition and the Nutrient Management Working Group.

Verkley helped develop the Our Farm Environmental Agenda, one of the first documents outlining the

value Ontario farmers have on the environment. That led to the Ontario Environmental Farm Plan program, a program that served farmers across North America.

He was able to juggle three milkings a day with the extraordinary demands of an OFA Provincial Director and OFA’s representative on a number of external committees charged with investigating environmental issues faced by Ontario farmers during the

Walkerton water inquiry.

The Wall of Fame is open to current or former residents of Perth County who have made outstanding contributions to agriculture in Perth County. Nominations are solicited from the public and a committee determines the nominees.

For more information on the. museum and how to nominate future inductees, contact John Kastner, General Manager, Stratford Perth Museum 519-393-5312. â—Š

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June 2019 47

Nutrient Management • By Lisa B. Pot •

Soil health requires many strategies

M

anure spreading is a messy business but the regulations that dictate nutrient management are even more so, suggests an environmental specialist.

“I have worked for government for 25 years but I have never been involved in a regulation as messy as the Nutrient Management Act,” said Jacqui Empson-Laporte, an environmental specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAFRA) Laporte was speaking at a meeting of the Huron County Water Protection Steering Committee in Holmesville on March 22. In a packed three hours, speakers informed attendees about nutrient management regulations, the best ways to apply manure (plus very bad ways), the coolest equipment for spreading manure and how industrial composting makes soil “gold” out of dead animals.

Highly informative, the meeting’s focus was on nutrient management and related strategies to protect water quality.

As an early morning speaker, Laporte said she was there to wade through the “spaghetti” that is nutrient management to help everyone follow the evolution of the concept, what is applied to land and why regulations can hardly keep up.

What is nutrient management? It’s the process of applying different materials to the land for the purpose of growing crops. “That phrase is really important because it is the fundamental description of nutrient management,” said Laporte. Included in the concept is keeping nutrients on the land where they belong and protecting the natural environment when they are applied. Plus, ensuring a sustainable future for the agriculture operations and rural development.

“We want to make sure livestock industries thrive but manage nutrients in an appropriate way,” said Laporte.

It’s a simple statement. So why is

48 The Rural Voice

With opics ranging from government regulations, to new equipment, to rules about manure spreading that could come our way courtesy of Europe, plus practical ideas on how to protect soils, speakers at the Huron County Water Protection Steering Committee covered a lot of ground when it comes to strategies for nutrient management in Huron County (and all Ontario) farms. ~Photo by Bonnie Sitter

the process so complex? Because it isn’t just dairy, hog, beef and chicken farmers involved in spreading their animal manure on land. Now there are biosolids from sewage treatment plants, manure and bedding from livestock trucks, waste materials from anaerobic digesters, green bins from urban centres, milkhouse wastewater, greenhouse nutrient feedwater, fruit and vegetable waste and composted dead animals.

The future could bring even more opportunities for, if it has a nutrient value, why not use it to grow crops?

However, the government is still trying to play catch up on the standards for current materials that are being sampled to make sure they are appropriate for land use application.

Compost is equally complicated.

“We use the same word to talk about two different materials and two different stages of composition,” said Laporte. Some compost piles are required to be sampled and turned and others are acceptable as long as “there are no big chunks left.”

Regulation 106/09 deals with “regulated compost” while 105/09 governs “composting material.”

You’d think commercial fertilizers would be simple but that changed once industrial products and biosolids were added to the definition.

Some farm materials have no legislation at all. “If I had my choice the next one I would like to tackle is silo leachate,” said Laporte. “We have huge silos with a lot of leachate

Nutrient Management and no standards with where to put it and how we handle what leaks out.”

Nutrient management plans help farmers meet the balance between nutrients, crops and water protection.

Also, Huron and other counties have agronomic experts to help with decision making. However, it’s still so very complicated.

“It’s a tangled nightmare of regulatory processes, different standards, different ministries regulating these things and different levels of government,” sighed Laporte. “At the end we have farmers trying to pull out strings and figure out what is the best option for their farms.”

Add concerns by the Source Water protection committee and lakeshore advocates and it all becomes a tangled nightmare.

“It’s tough,” admitted Laporte. “I do it for a living and I brought two colleagues along to answer your questions. And, to be honest, I don’t know what the answer is because a one-size solution doesn’t work either.”

Jim Ginn, the Mayor of Central Huron, a member of the Water Protection Steering Committee and a farmer agreed.

“In the early 1990s there was revolution in farming including new systems on how to raise pigs. It was quite an advancement for production but took a little while for technology to catch up with the liquid waste,” he said. “It continued to change ... how do we get those valuable nutrients on the land to grow crops and keep it out our water ... it’s a challenge.”

Challenge Accepted!

Someone who came with ideas and best practices to meet that challenge was Christine Brown, a field crops sustainability specialist with OMAFRA. Brown presented the radical idea of building a manure pipeline for manure to be transported from livestock farmers to crop farmers.

“We need neighbourhood nutrient planning,” she suggested. “In this county there are a lot of pig farms.

They don’t need all that manure but how do we set a price on it. The logistics are hard but maybe with a

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Nutrient Management consultant to do all the planning, it could work.”

Brown discussed strip tillage, bio strips, applying manure to corn at the four to five-leaf stage and other ways to maximize the nutrients of organic materials. Her goal is to encourage farmers to use the 4Rs: Right Source (the right nutrients in the right blend), Right Rate (uniform application, using calibrated equipment, soil analysis), Right Timing (solid manure August to September and liquid manure just before or after planting) and Right Placement (spreading or injection).

The 4Rs become even more critical as livestock farms decrease, which means farmers growing less forages.

Soils are suffering because the glue that holds it together (termed aggregates) is deteriorating with less organic matter. Soils are losing their spongy characteristics to hold water so both drought and flooding conditions are becoming more common.

“From 2002 to 2018 the soil organic matter on all Ontario farms has been on a steep incline,” said Brown.

She is particularly horrified by SNIRT (snow and dirt). When sampled, it has been found that the nutrient content of the dirt on snow is very high. “The soil that leaves the field is the BEST PART of the soil,” she emphasized.

“The reason I tell you this is to prove why cover crops and organic amendments are so important.”

Having shown several slides showing eroded soils, Brown then presented the case to urge farmers to use the 4Rs in all the ways possible.

Whether it be investing in new manure application equipment, planting cover crops, using strip-till or no-till, never spreading manure on snow or any other way that improves soil quality ... she urges farmers to practise it.

Plus, she’s available to discuss ways each individual farmer could maximize the 4Rs on their farm.

Composters Following Brown’s talk, three business owners shared their ideas of using composters as a method to reduce waste products.

John Kloeze of Actium Designs, Kurt Whitfield of Lucknow Products and Dale Schefter of Schefter Poultry Processing all shared how they use composters to dispose of dead animals. (Schefter’s story was featured in the May issue of The Rural Voice.)

Kloeze shared a video showing chicken farmers using the drum to compost their dead birds. The smallest model is a batch composter than can turn 350 pounds of poultry mortalities into compost. Farmers fill the drums with birds and shavings, crank it manually every day and when it’s done “it comes out like peat moss” said one chicken farmer.

Larger drums feature a direct drive motor to turn the drum.

Whitfield said Lucknow Products works with Engineered Compost Systems (ECS) out of Seattle to market composters that process food wastes, biosolids, manures and industrial waste.

These larger composters require inductive motors to run them but can handle larger amounts of material.

The benefits of composting is less material going to landfills. Also, composting reduces methane production, odours, runoff and a farmer’s carbon footprint. Plus, it produces organic matter to feed the soil and increase the soil’s moisture retention.

The Future Speaking to nutrient management regulations that could be coming to Canada was Sonke Claussen of Claussen Farms Ltd. near Brucefield.

Being a provider of custom work services to Southwestern Ontario since 1997, Sonke and his brother Hauke offer all the services needed to establish, grow, harvest and store a crop.

Having close contacts to Germany, Sonke Claussen spoke to all the requirements farmers there must meet before spreading manure.

The paperwork is intense!

“Farmers there must provide a nutrient calculation for each field before they plant it,” said Claussen.

“They have to do a nutrient balance for each farm focusing on nitrogen and phosphorous and the balance has to be zero. Any change to the balance

Nutrient Management has to be documented.”

The German government also requires manure storage calculations to prove each farm has enough storage, requires documented manure agreements and prohibits any manure application on snow or frost. The only exception is if a farmer has cover crops and the ground is frozen during the day ... then there is a little bit of flexibility.

Application of manure on bare or seeded ground has to be incorporated within four hours. Broadcasting with a boom is prohibited. Compost can be applied once every three years.

There are also stiff fines for farmers who do not comply.

Claussen indicated farmers can face fines of up to 10,000 Euros for not complying with record-keeping and over 150,000 Euros for applying manure on snow. “They are really hard on this as they want to protect water sources,” said Claussen.

As part of his business, Claussen also researches new equipment and new technologies. At a recent farm show in Europe, Claussen said 40 per cent of the equipment is related to manure management.

“We see they are adding tracks to all kinds of equipment. We saw tracks on tractors, combines, harvesters ... all to increase the footprint and decrease soil compaction,” said Claussen. Tire inflation systems are also part of the future.

Technology farmers will see coming are: • Near Infra-Red (NIR) measurement systems to measure products going through the pipes and detect what the nutrient levels are. This allows more precise application and mapping.

• Drag-hosing by making one pass to lay down hose in rows, then another pass to collect the hose prevents crop trampling.

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

Wheat crop cannot survive anything It’s been a tough start for the growing season, as wet and cold weather has prevented most plantings throughout Ontario and much of the surrounding region.

The spring has been very similar to that of last fall, where wet weather impeded soy harvest and timely wheat plantings. Not only was much of the wheat crop planted after the ideal planting date, but it went into cold and wet saturated soils that did not foster crop establishment. From there the wheat crop experienced continued rains, heavy ice cover, standing water and many freeze/thaw cycles.

Into early spring the wheat crop continued to face poor growing conditions resulting in limited plant growth, again due to fields experiencing constant water saturation and prolonged cold.

Late winter, there were many conversations questioning the survivability of the wheat, with a bias towards the wheat crop coming through sufficiently, as we have witnessed over and over again over many years. The consensus was, “if the wheat crop makes it through this year it can survive anything”. Well, we now have the answer. The wheat crop cannot survive anything.

Vast acres of the Ontario wheat crop are not salvageable and will be destroyed. Many stands are just too thin to keep. Of course some regions are affected more than others – areas with heavy clay and generally poorer drained fields are most affected, however it seems there isn’t anywhere in the province that is not affected meaningfully. Estimates 52 The Rural Voice

continue to grow on wheat acreage abandonment. Some estimates are for huge acreage losses totaling 50 per cent or greater. Even further from acreage losses, questions are surfacing about potential yields on wheat fields that are maintained. As of mid-May there was still little nitrogen applied to wheat, with upcoming forecasts for rain limiting the application window. What effect will we see on yields from this poor and slow start to the growing season?

I don’t think anyone is expecting a bumper wheat crop in the province.

Corn plantings are off to a horrible start, both at home and in the U.S. As of this writing, little corn has been planted in Ontario. While it’s not too late for corn to be planted yet, time is marching on and concern is increasing. As we push off planting we push off pollination deeper into the summer. The later the corn pollinates in the summer the greater the likelihood is that we will see poorer pollination due to heat stress.

With later pollination we may also see greater opportunity for fusarium risk and potentially another year of VOM issues in corn. This risk may be small at this time but it’s something else to consider in a year that gives us every reason to worry about everything.

So what will Ontario’s seeded corn acreage be? I don’t think anyone is expecting overly large corn acreage in the province. In similar fashion, the U.S. planted corn acreage estimates are falling.

Recently the analytical firm, Informa, forecasted U.S. corn plantings to fall over two million acres from the March USDA estimate. Other analytic firms report acres falling 3-4 million acres due to the extremely slow planting progress.

In mid-May, U.S. corn planting was estimated at 30 per cent complete, versus the five-year average pace of 66 per cent for the same date. The state of Illinois is reported to be the most notably delayed, with 11 per cent planted versus the five-year average of 82 per cent. Likewise Indiana is also greatly delayed with six per cent of their intended acres planted versus the five-year average of 57 per cent.

Weather models for much of the U.S. Corn Belt don’t look supportive to planting conditions, furthering the possibility of preventative plant insurance options in some states.

U.S. soy planting isn’t doing any better and is well behind the regular planting pace also. As of mid-May U.S. soy planting was at nine per cent, compared to the average fiveyear pace of 29 per cent. The futures market is starting to take notice of the delayed planting. After recently making new lows (due to record short fund positions from burdensome stocks estimates) the markets have aggressively rallied as both acreage and yield estimates are debated.

Trade issues continue to overhang the market and resolutions seem elusive. The market reaction to this lack of progress has been very negative to both stock markets and many physical commodities. As it has been well reported, soybeans to China have been the largest single U.S. agricultural export in recent times. Soybeans continue to face a lack of demand and increasing stocks. Even while trade deals are negotiated there are still questions as to what Chinese demand could be for beans, even if a trade deal is ratified.

Chinese authorities have indicated that their swine herd is down over 22 per cent compared to last year and many analysts question the accuracy of this number, thinking that it may be a conservative estimate.

Regardless of the actual number, Chinese soy demand will be affected.

The U.S. President recently tweeted in response to the lack of Chinese purchases the following: “Hopefully China will do us the honour of continuing to buy our great farm product.” He also said that if China does not buy U.S. agricultural products that the U.S. (gov’t) “will be making up the difference.” This is little solace for growers here at home. ◊ Advertising in The Rural Voice – A Wise Choice!

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Woodlots Steve Bowers is a forester, forest owner and member of the Ontario Woodlot Assoc.

End of tree planting program cuts deep It could likely be best described as tragically ironic timing when on March 20, 2019 Forests Ontario released a report entitled The Economic Value of Tree Planting in Southern Ontario, prepared by Green Analytics, a Guelph-based consulting firm. The report looked closely at the impacts of the provincially funded 50 Million Tree Program (50MTP) that was administered by Forests Ontario on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNR). As many of you are likely aware, the 50MTP was cancelled in

mid-April, less than a month after release of the report. (In the interest of full disclosure, until a few weeks ago I did work on a consulting basis for Forests Ontario supporting the 50MTP.) The report attempted to estimate the economic value of both direct and indirect effects of trees planted under the 50MTP. According to the report the 50MTP provided roughly $1.80 per tree planted. Actual expenditures to plant the trees was roughly $2.80 per tree, so an additional $1.00 of direct spending per tree was generated by landowners, other funders or planting partners. The report also looked at the multiplier effect of this direct spending. Of course in order to plant 2.3 million trees per year, the infrastructure to support the program also had to be developed. Seed had to be collected and stored (in spite of recent closure of the Ontario Tree Seed Plant).

Nurseries had to invest in equipment and supplies and staffing for the three or four years it takes to produce each crop of seedlings. Tree planting partners invested in tree planting

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machines and site preparation equipment, as well as staff training to build the expertise required to deliver a quality program. As well, Forests Ontario employed staff in order to meet MNR specified reporting and due diligence requirements for the program. The report estimates the 50MTP resulted in creation of approximately 104 full time jobs.

When considering a multiplier effect of partner expenditures in support of the program, the report estimates a total impact on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of roughly $5.50 per tree planted, or approximately a 305 per cent return on the $1.80 per tree initially invested.

Tree planting also provides many other benefits, often referred to as Ecosystem Services (ES) which are much, much harder to quantify economically. For example, forests on our landscape may contribute to aesthetic appeal of the area where we live, but how do you assess the value of our increased enjoyment of the area or possible increase in property values that may result from tree planting?

There are many other benefits of tree planting that may provide ES value. Trees can contribute to water quality by enhancing groundwater recharge as well as filtering and slowing runoff, thus potentially helping with issues such as the current degradation being seen in Lake Erie. Strategic tree planting may be one of many factors that could help in reducing flooding – an issue that has been in the news constantly in the past several weeks.

Windbreaks may be planted in locations that reduce soil loss and increase crop yields or reduce energy requirements for barns or homes.

Reforested areas may provide wildlife habitat and enhanced recreational opportunities such as hiking, hunting or other outdoor activities. Trees may enhance air quality and tie up carbon to mitigate climate change. Research shows the human health benefits of green space.

Green Analytics did attempt to put a value on these Ecosystem Services and came up with an estimate of $19.85 for each $1.80 invested to plant one tree.

Woodlots Of course eventually these trees may produce forest crops that will also contribute to the economy.

I don’t pretend to be an economist, or to fully understand the survey methodology. But regardless of what the bottom line is there are many economic and ecological benefits to trees planted under the 50MTP. So, was it a mistake for our current provincial government to cancel the 50 Million Tree Program?

Well, there have certainly been many folks expressing concern about cancellation of the 50MTP. No question, there will be some job losses and loss of potential ecosystem benefits. The program is also not something that can be stopped and then started again at a moment’s notice. While Forests Ontario will continue to support tree planting to the best of their ability with whatever funding they can find from corporate or other partners, it very likely will be at a much reduced level.

It is a relatively small amount of money in the greater scheme of things, i.e. when compared to the provincial budget. On the other hand, I do understand the fiscal quandary our government finds themselves in.

We obviously can’t continue spending more money than we bring in. I don’t envy those in the position of balancing the need of funding for items such as tree planting versus health care or education. I understand some cuts need to be made. I’m more willing to accept them, if delivered in a professional way with good rationale.

However, I am concerned with a few of quotes I’ve seen recently in

the media, attributed to MNR Minister John Yakabuski and his communications staff person Ms. Justine Lewkowicz. They seem somewhat misleading and inaccurate to me and illustrate a less than full understanding of the topic.

For example, one quote I saw had them rationalizing the 50MTP cancellation by saying the province was already planting 68 million trees per year at no cost to the taxpayers.

They should have known the trees they are referring to are being planted on Crown (public) land by logging companies as part of their obligations to reforest areas where they have harvested Crown timber (i.e. the taxpayers have paid timber in exchange for these trees). While this planting is very important, it is a totally different situation than the planting done under the 50MTP, which was mostly done in rural areas on private land. So, it’s another loss for rural Ontario. ’ve also seen quotes suggesting the funding was frivolous, duplicated other available programs and questioning if public funds should support activities on private lands. I think the study described above shows the spending was not frivolous. There are no other major programs that fill this niche – that’s why it started initially. As to whether or not public funds should support activities on private land, there is a long history in rural, agricultural Ontario of such funding for private land activities. The many benefits of tree planting as described above extend beyond property boundaries and benefit the community and province as a whole.

The benefits are also mainly realized

by future generations, not just the landowner who plants the trees. It does therefore seem reasonable for the public to share in some of those costs.

So to the Minister and his helper, I realize the province may not be able to afford the 50MTP and a number of other programs right now. I am, however, disappointed in your comments that, in my opinion, highlight a lack of full grasp of the situation. ◊

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June 2019 55

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

WINGHAM

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

MORRIS SACHS SILO CONSTRUCTION New stave silos now available SILO ACCESSORIES SILOS DISMANTLED, REBUILT AND REPAIRS

519-363-3900 Cell # (519) 372-5375 R.R. #2 Elmwood, Ont. N0G 1S0

BUSHELL’S AUTO SALES

TRUCKS

519-357-6731

VANS

2013 Dodge Ram crew cab, 4x4, 188,000 km..........$15,900 2018 Dodge Grand Caravan Crew Plus 2013 Chev Silverado ext. cab, 4x4, 210,000 km.... $15,200 28,000 km...............................................................................$28,995 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan Crew 70,000 km... $17,995 2011 Chev Silverado crew cab, 2500 HD, 4x4, $ 253,000 km................................................................. $16,500 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan 14,000 km................ 16,900 $ 2010 Chev Silverado reg. cab, 4x4, 239,000 km.... $11,200 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan SE 192,000 km.......... 7,495 $ 5,995 2009 Ford Ranger ext. cab, 4x4, 65,000 km............ $12,400 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan 220,000 km................. $ 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan 70,000 km................

11,700 2008 Ford F150 crew cab, 4x4, 249,000 km............ $10,800 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan SE 169,000 km.......... $6,995 2007 Chev Silverado crew cab, 4x4, 267,000 km...... $8,995 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan 249,000 km................. $4,495 2007 Chev Avalanche LTZ 4x4, 232,000 km....... $12,995 2005 Chev Silverado crew cab, 4x4, 265,000 km...... $9,995 2005 Chev Silverado ext. cab, 2x2, 195,000 km....... $7,695 2017 Ford Escape SE AWD, 21,000 km.................. $24,995 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 2WD 287,000 km................ $3,995 2015 Ford Edge Titanium AWD, 70,000 km............. $28,300 2015 GMC Terrain SLE 75,000 km............................. $18,500 $ 2016 Buick LaCrosse 40,000 km.................................. $26,900 2014 Kia Sorento AWD, 123,000 km............................ 16,995 $ 2015 Hyundai Elantra 80,000 km.....................................$9,795 2013 Ford Edge Limited AWD, 82,000 km............ 19,500 $ 2015 Ford Fusion Titanium 60,000 km...................... $22,995 2012 Chev Traverse AWD, 265 km................................. 7,995 $ 2014 Ford Fiesta 71,000 km.............................................. $9,995 22011 Honda CR-V EX-L AWD, 75,000 km............... 14,995 $ 2010 Honda Civic 183,000 km........................................... $6,995 2009 Hyundai Tuscan 228,000 km................................. 3,995

SUVS

CARS

2006 Mini Cooper 188,000 km.................................... $4,795 1974 Fiat Convertible 118,000 km...................................$8,995 1971 Chev Impala 77,000 miles........................................ $2,995

We have a good selection of used tires 12" to 20"

Is your car in the Body Shop?

We have rentals available for most major insurance companies.

Give us a call today!

Financing and Extended Warranty Available On All Units Plus 13% Tax ~ UCDA - Buy With Confidence

www.bushellsauto.ca 56 The Rural Voice

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

It’s time to part ways – breaking up co-ownership of property In Ontario, the Partition Act allows a co-owner of property to apply to the Court to break up the coownership. If two or more parties own a piece of land, and one wants out, that co-owner is generally entitled either to an order dividing the property itself or, more often, an order requiring the sale of the jointly held property and the division of the proceeds.

The Court has a discretion to refuse to grant partition or sale in circumstances of “malice, oppression, and vexatious intent”, but the bar for exercising this discretion is high. Also, the Court may in certain cases award one owner a greater share of the property or proceeds of sale than the other coowner or owners, in spite of the presumption that tenants in common with unspecified ownership interests are entitled to equal shares of the property or proceeds. A common argument in favour of unequal division is that one co-owner contributed more to the property than another and should be compensated for it (based on the law of unjust enrichment).

In one recent case, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice addressed the question of whether a property should be divided in pieces or sold.

Two former brothers-in-law were disputing how their co-ownership of a 100-acre farm parcel (consisting of 64 acres of agricultural land, and 36 acres of woodlot) should be ended.

Brother-in-law O made the application to the Court for an order

to sell the property and divide up the sale proceeds. Brother-in-law M, who lived part of the year in a small house on the woodlot portion, asked the Court instead to divide up the land itself. M proposed that he receive the 36-acre woodlot along with a continuing interest in the 64acre balance. The 64-acre section would then be sold with O receiving the largest portion of the proceeds of sale to compensate for M getting the woodlot.

As is the case in most partition applications, the Court ordered that the entire property be sold and the proceeds of sale divided between the two co-owners because the land could not be reasonably partitioned.

Firstly, the Court found that the local municipality would impose restrictions on the land if it was severed that would affect the value of the land, something that would prejudice of O. Secondly, M’s proposal would result in what would effective be a forced sale by O to M of the woodlot portion of the property, something that the Court does not have jurisdiction to grant.

Thirdly, M’s proposal would compel the two co-owners to continue, at least for a time, in an “ongoing, untenable relationship”; avoiding that situation is a primary purpose of the Partition Act. The Court rejected M’s proposal, and also ordered that O’s costs of the application be payable out of M’s share of the proceeds from the sale of the property.

In another recent case, the Superior Court dealt with a request for an unequal split of proceeds of sale. A mother, the Applicant, and her daughter, the Respondent, disputed the division of the proceeds from the sale of a property they had owned together. The mother had purchased the property in the early1980s with her then common law spouse, the father of the Respondent.

The father died in 2009 and left his share of the property to his daughter.

The property was sold in 2015, and mother and daughter agreed to split on an equal basis a portion of the proceeds of the sale (representing the 2009 appraised value of the property). The remaining proceeds were held in trust to be disputed.

The mother brought an application

seeking an order dividing the remaining proceeds equally between her and her daughter.

Relying on unjust enrichment, the daughter claimed an unequal share of the remaining funds – three-quarters of the remainder for her, and onequarter of the remainder for her mother. The daughter had acted as Estate Trustee of her father’s estate, and took the position that the increase in the value of the property between 2009 and 2015 was attributable to “her money, time and effort”. She had entered into an agreement with a farmer to clear the property and install tile drainage, which rendered 35 acres workable.

As such, she argued, the mother was unjustly enriched at the expense of the daughter, without legal justification.

The judge hearing the case disagreed. While she found that the increase in value benefitted the mother, it also benefitted the daughter. And the judge was unable to put a monetary value on the efforts contributed by the daughter. With respect to the agreement reached with the farmer who cleared and tiled the land, the judge questioned “whether the time required to achieve the agreement took 30 minutes, 30 days, or 300 days of negotiations.”

The land clearing and tiling may have contributed to the increase in value of the property, but the daughter’s only contribution to this was negotiating, creating and signing two agreements. The judge ordered that the remaining balance of the proceeds of sale be divided equally between mother and daughter.◊ ______________________________ 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.

Deadline for the July issue of The Rural Voice is June 12 JUNE 2019 57

Financial Management Maggie Van Camp is the National Agricultural Practice Development Leader for BDO

Managing change in agriculture For Canadian agriculture, 2019 is all about managing change. Primary producers are embracing all the capabilities of technology to move towards efficiency. Like never before, they’re capturing and using data to manage for higher production, more sustainability and developing financial and marketing strategies.

More young entrepreneurs are coming back to farms, so planning for business transition has become vitally important. While all these internal shifts are happening, the marketplace is being tossed around with changing global weather, consumer demands and politicallyloaded trade deals.

In our look at what themes will be prevalent in the agriculture industry this year, we want to highlight that embracing these advancements is critical to the success of current and future farming operations.

Rapidly changing technology For the last decade, agriculture has been going through a technological metamorphosis that’s impacting all parts of the industry.

The advantages of technology in agriculture is giving producers more power than ever to be more efficient and successful. “Today Canadian farmers are using global information available at their fingertips, 24-7,” says Maggie Van Camp, National Agricultural Practice Development Leader. “They’re adopting robotics, artificial intelligence, genomics and more. Soon this will be one of the first industries to apply autonomous, driverless equipment.”

Moreover, mobile apps are being used to track equipment status; drones are tracking where crops need to most effectively apply farm inputs; and auto steer tractors are easing the effort used by farmers and their 58 The Rural Voice

teams.

Like never before, farmers are leveraging data for more environmental and financial sustainability. Food can now be traced from the farm to table.

Strategically managing inputs and yields with historical production data balanced with financial information is a way to manage risk, control costs and maximize assets.

Changing demographics While the average age of farmers in Canada is 55 years old, we’re seeing more young farmers than ever before. According to the 2016 Census of Agriculture, the number of farmers continued to shrink.

However, the proportion of operators under 35 years of age increased for the first time since 1991. Yet only 1 in 12 operations reported having a formal succession plan laying out how the operation will be transferred to the next generation of farmers.

It has been estimated that $50 billion in assets is to be transferred to the next generation over the next eight to 10 years; creating what some call a tsunami of change. “Planning for a smooth inter-generational transition is one of the key concerns of our farm clients, not just from a financial perspective, but from a family perspective,” notes Brent Van Parys, Partner in Business Transition Services.

We’re also seeing a change in the agricultural workforce. More farmers are hiring non-family employees. Our government incentive and human resources advisory practices are seeing these trends in the help they’re providing the agriculture sector. For instance, farmers are taking advantage of foreign worker programs to help grow their farms effectively.

Changing marketplace When commodity prices are in flux and margins become tight, it becomes imperative for farmers to use reliable numbers to make marketing and other business decisions. It starts with knowing their own numbers and maximizing production, no matter the size of the operation. “I have seen successful farms of 1,000 acres, and unsuccessful farms of 10,000 acres,” says Mark Verwey, Partner and

National Agriculture Leader. “The key difference isn’t the land or the equipment or the weather, but the management.”

Better farm management equals a much greater ability to adapt to the changing and uncertain marketplace, whether those changes come from trade agreements, the weather, world production, tax changes or consumers’ diets. “We see the effect of market change and uncertainty not only with our clients but in our BDO partnership group as many on our Ag-focused teams operate farms as well,” says Verwey.

Managing your financials during times of change is critical.

When dealing with your farm’s business activities, it’s important to use data to establish sound tactics and know the numbers so they can be leveraged advantageously. Whether expanding to take advantage of new markets, or weathering a tough year, constantly monitoring your financial information—including benchmarking and trend analysis— ensures farmers can make informed decisions. ◊

WE WANT YOUR GRAIN! • Corn • Soybeans • Feed Grains • Feed Ingredients • Food Quality Soybeans CASH & FORWARD CONTRACTS Call us today for Quotes Dave Gordon Richard Smibert Scott Krakar Matt McKillop Alex Kissler

1615 NORTH ROUTLEDGE PARK UNIT 43 LONDON, ONTARIO, N6H 5L6 519-473-9333 Toll-Free 1-800-265-1885

The Rural Voice

Business Centre To place your ad call...519-523-4311

BAG Supplies Canada Ltd. Bulk Bags/Tote Bags/Super Sacks

Brough & Whicher Limited • Engineered Roof Trusses • “I” Joint Floor Systems White Cedar Decking, Posts & V-Match

WIARTON, ONTARIO www.broughandwhicher

Tel: 519-534-0340 or 877-866-3434 Fax 519-534-4637 Email: sales@broughandwhicher.com Member of the O.W.T.F.A.

If we don’t have it in stock, we’ll custom make it for you!

info@bagsupplies.ca Tel: 1-519-271-2040

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

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

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

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

www.bagsupplies.ca Fax: 1-519-271-2027

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

Tel. 519-529-7212 Fax. 519-529-3277

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

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

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

JUNE 2019 59

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

INNIS NEW & USED TRACTOR PARTS LTD. Agricultural & Combines New & Used Parts Used Tractors & Machinery

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

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

Looking to Buy or Sell A Farm or Home? Give me a Call! #15

ing

w

Ne

STEVEN NIXON

Serving the area since 1999

Broker WILFRED MCINTEE & CO. LIMITED

t Lis

746 JOSEPHINE ST., WINGHAM $1,650,000.00 MLS# 30729665

101 acre farm with new 1,898 sq ft. house custom built in 2017, great Bus: 519-357-2222 room with vaulted ceiling, master bedroom with 5 pc ensuite and walkCell: 519-531-0252 in closet, finished basement with family & game rooms and wet bar, Email: nixon@execulink.com approx. 80 acres of mostly level workable land with the remainder Web: www.stevennixon.com hardwood & mixed bush, systematically drained, great farm to add to 249 Josephine St., WINGHAM, ON N0G 2W0 your current farming operation. Call Steve Nixon 519.357.2222

Elma Steel & Equipment Ltd. “Your Great Steel Place” Since 1970 Extensive Inventory & Competitive Prices

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

HR Sheet * Plate * Angles Flat Bar *Beams * Pipe * Channel Round, Square & Rectangular Tube Expanded Metal Bar Grating Round and Square Bar Check Plate Mechanical Tube Roof Decking Reinforcing Bar & Mesh Horse, Hog & Goat Mesh Cold Rolled Round & Flat Aluminum & Stainless Bars Tool Steel

Services: Welding, Cutting, Rebar Bending Blower Pipe, Bucket Edge & Adjustable Posts Available

Cambridge 1-855-650-3562 OR 519-621-4888

Listowel 1-800-669-2931 OR 519-291-1388

Owen Sound 1-800-567-7412 OR 519-371-8111

60 The Rural Voice

PACKERS: WE BUILD RUBBER TIRE PACKER SPECIALISTS

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

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

STEVE TRUPP

Wa n t e d to buy

OLD BARNS FOR SALVAGE CALL STEVE

519-523-4523 Galvanized Roofing For Sale

LTD.

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

519-271-4008 perthautodismantlers@bellnet.ca

MANUFACTURING STEEL ROOFING SIDING & TRIMS

Farm Drainage

• GPS • Plastic • 2013 Bron Plow • Surveys • Maps

519-363-3757

Glen 519-291-0709 cell Dennis 519-276-9292 cell

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

Also Supplying Other Building Accessories

Newton, Ont. 519-595-4545

• Farm Lanes • Campgrounds • Driveways • Horse Riding Arenas

! "

!

Brent Pryce

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

uron

48.9

519-525-6295

nty

Cou

H RES

AC

195 Wallace Avenue North, Listowel, Ontario N4W 1K8 Bus: 519-529-1167 Bus.: 519-291-2299 Fax: 519-291-1015

www.peakrealestate.com

Cathy Hendriks Sales, Rep.

519-357-5128

Looking for some extra land base? Or that country jewel that has it all? Well kept brick bungalow, large barn with loose housing for beef, drive shed & hay storage building.... for details or to arrange a viewing. EXCLUSIVE Call Cathy Hendriks 519.357.5128

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

ROTH DRAINAGE LTD Quality Workmanship Since 1948

Agricultural Residential Commercial • Unmarked Vehicles • Fully Insured • MOE Licensed Technicians

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

Gads Hill 519-656-2618

Blyth 519-895-6367

1-800-494-2618

JUNE 2019 61

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

Whitechurch Welding

B U S I N E S S

- custom tubing gates - 1"x1" sq. tube and diamond gates in stock - powder coating or galvanizing option - Buy Direct and Save!

Luke Martin 60 Grey Ox Ave., Teeswater, ON N0G 2S0

SALES & SERVICE

C E N T R E

EGGER FARMS

INSTALLATION & PARTS

CUSTOM BALING

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

• 3x3 Bales Automatic Acid Applications, Roto Cutter.

Individual Bale Wrapping 6' bales

For Free Planning and Estimates

Call Fritz: 519-292-0138

www.keithsiemonfarmsystems.com email: keithsiemon@tcc.on.ca

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.

-------------------------------------------------CAMPSITES -------------------------------------------------CHESLEY LAKE CAMP. Find an ideal mix of accommodations, dining, activities and golf for your whole family at Chesley Lake Camp, 78 Camp Rd., RR #3, Allenford, ON. 519-934-2071. chesleylakecamp.ca Email: clc@gbtel.ca -------------------------------------------------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.

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

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 FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------New Holland 38 crop chopper, weathered but in working condition, $750. 519-775-2670.

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

FARM SERVICES --------------------------------------------------

62 The Rural Voice

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

Serving Southwestern Ontario for over 10 years!

BALER TWINE & COVERS FOR SALE

Call for skid pricing

Net wrap, bale wrap, black & white silage covers Also selling “The Juice” hay preservatives for Nuhn Forage Call Elvin at Weber’s Farm Supply, Mt. Forest 519-323-1043 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Rosco grain bins for sale – 19' and 14' diameter. Parts available. Used grain bins wanted for parts or reuse.

Closed Sundays, 519-338-3920.

-------------------------------------------------Deadline for the July issue of The Rural Voice is June 12, 2019

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------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.

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

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

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

-------------------------------------------------Hay and straw and individually wrapped baleage, nice, clean, rotary combined, good for TMR, 3x3x7' bales and silage bales individually wrapped. Huron East.

519-292-0138.

-------------------------------------------------Horse equipment – EZ Trail sprayer, 100 gal., both produce and field booms, 4 HP Honda engine, Hypro high pressure and high flow pump, very good condition, $2,500. Pioneer Homesteader with row cultivator attachment, like new, $1,250. Athens 2 horse treadmill in good condition, $2,500. 519-775-2670.

-------------------------------------------------Affordable granary roof vents for replacements or for the builders.

Various sizes available, 200 in stock.

Simon BM Martin, 90735 Toll Gate Line, RR 1, Clifford, ON N0G 1M0.

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

GARDEN TOURS -------------------------------------------------Visit the largest Botanical Gardens, Garden Centre and Home/Garden Décor Shop in Southwestern Ontario.

Explore 30 acres of manicured gardens within natural rock outcroppings, wetlands, meadow and forest. Shop for rare and unusual plants, unique garden pieces and quality home décor. www.folmergardens.com -------------------------------------------------Froggie’s Song – A cottage style garden with many unusual perennials.

Also daylilies and roses. Pathways take the visitor through the garden. A shade garden and a rock garden.

9:00 - 8:30 Thursday. By appointment or by chance. $3. Barbara Weatherall, 154552 Grey Road 32, RR 4, Flesherton. 519-986-3516. sable@ morganharvey.com -------------------------------------------------Visit Earthbound Gardens and greenhouses. Tour 5 acres.

Perennials, daylilies, native plants, small fruits, flowering shrubs. Free Sunday live concerts. Open 9:00 5:00. 7 days until Thanksgiving. www.earthboundgardens.com -------------------------------------------------Riverwood Gardens offers extensive display gardens along with a retail garden centre to elevate your garden from ordinary to inspiring; located in the heart of West Grey.

Be inspired!

519-369-1659 @beinspiredinwestgrey -------------------------------------------------Visit Keppel Croft’s four acres of gardens, nature trail, and Keppel Henge. Bring your picnic. Open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., 504156 Grey Rd 1, Big Bay, Grey County. Art in the Garden, Saturday, July 13 (rain date July 14). www.keppelcroft.com -------------------------------------------------HELP WANTED -------------------------------------------------Help wanted on a smaller sow farrow-to-finish operation near Zurich.

Duties include all aspects of pig production. Experience necessary.

Eye for detail required. Wages negotiable. Please apply to 519-6192779 or peeters@hay.net --------------------------------------------------

HELP WANTED --------------------------------------------------

S & C Clark TRANSPORT INC. PART-TIME MECHANIC FULL/PART-TIME AZ DRIVERS Owner & Operators

Runs between Canada & U.S. - Competitive Wages - Paid Picks & Drops - Benefits - Wait Time - 2 year experience preferred - Home most weekends 111 PINE STREET, WINGHAM • 519-357-3346

-------------------------------------------------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 519-595-7775.

-------------------------------------------------LAND FOR RENT --------------------------------------------------

Hullett Marsh Farmland for Rent Friends of Hullett are accepting bids for 850 acres of agricultural land from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2024.

Details of the agricultural lands and information can be obtained by contacting Friends of Hullett. Only bids of at least $148,750 per year will be considered.

All applications must be received by Sunday, June 30 at 12:00 noon.

Call: 519-482-7011 Email: fohoffice@tcc.on.ca

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

Sittler Grinding. Rick Sittler.

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

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

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

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JUNE 2019 63

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

Delivery included. Posthaven Limousin, John Post 519-766-7178. www.posthavenlimousin.com -------------------------------------------------Red Angus, Simmental and Red Angus-Simmental yearling bulls, B.I.O. tested. For results Google – Ontario Bull Evaluation, Silver Springs Farms. James and Joan McKinlay 519-599-6236. jmckinlay@bmts.com -------------------------------------------------Limousin Bulls – yearlings and 2 year olds, polled, some homozygous polled, thick, well muscled, semen tested. Smart Limousin, Meaford 519-372-7459. www.smartlimousin.ca -------------------------------------------------SIMMENTAL BULLS – 3 yearlings off BIO test, 1 black, 2 full Fleckvieh.

Located in Alma 519-832-0701. Rolf Huber.

-------------------------------------------------Fleckvieh/Simmental 2 year old proven bull. Easy calving, exceptional length and performance. 2019 calves available for viewing. Also yearling polled bulls. Excellent for heifers.

Both dark red and goggles. Phone 519-369-4076.

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

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

Deadline for the July issue of The Rural Voice is June 12, 2019 64 The Rural Voice

CLASSIFIED SERVICES --------------------------------------------------

GRANT GNAY Chartered Professional Accountant Accounting & Tax Services 133 South St., Goderich

519-524-5113 All farm buildings & houses, seamless eavestroughing, liquid rubber coatings, waterproofing, metal, concrete, wood, foam and bin flooring sealing.

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

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

Ph. 519-528-3019

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 Specializing in on Farm Pest Management Serving Southwestern ON, Golden Horseshoe, GTA Email: sgschris@ciaaccess.com

519-692-4232 www.sgspestmanagement.ca

GLAVIN BARN & COMMERCIAL PAINTING FARMERS repaint your faded coloured steel FREE QUOTES ~ FULLY INSURED

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

Call: Jim Glavin 1-800-465-4725 519-228-6247 SEAMLESS EAVESTROUGHING

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

London 1-888-253-3756

CLASSIFIED SERVICES --------------------------------------------------

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

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

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

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

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

PAL & HUNTER ED. Ongoing courses available.

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

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

-------------------------------------------------TRAVEL -------------------------------------------------AGRICULTURAL & UNIQUE TOURS – NWT/Yukon/Alaska – Australia/New Zealand 2020 – Peru/Brazil/Argentina/Chile 2020 – Costa Rica 2020 – Panama Land Tour 2020 – Kenya/Tanzania 2020 – India 2020 – Egypt/Jordan 2020 – Portugal/Spain 2020 – Morocco 2020 Portion of Tours may be Tax Deductible.

Contact Select Holidays at 1-800-6614326 or visit www.selectholidays.com --------------------------------------------------

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------------Progressive Agriculture Safety Day - Tuesday, July 16 at the New Sports Complex, Tiverton. Sponsored by the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture. Day runs from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Snacks and lunch provided. Some topics: Large Equipment Safety, Water and Sun Safety, Chemical Look a Like Awareness, CPR, Hearing, Bacteria and more. To preregister or to volunteer, contact Dianne Atkinson at brucesafetyday@yahoo.com or dwants1two@yahoo.ca -------------------------------------------------20th Anniversary Dungannon Super Pull, Saturday, June 15, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. More information contact Steve 519-524-0019. Kick the weekend off on Friday, June 14, 2019 with the Stoneboat Pullers at 6:00 p.m., followed by an outdoor dance from 9:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. featuring Stewart Irvine and Whistler Creek Band, age of majority. For information or tickets contact Jodie 519-524-9878.

-------------------------------------------------Lucknow Agricultural Society Fall Fair Crops Competition – Attention Growers: please register your crops with Allan Scott at 519-524-0044, ascott@lucknowco-op.com -------------------------------------------------West Coast Antique Show/Sale – Twenty vendors+. Outdoors, rain or shine, Sunday, June 16, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 72040 London Road, RR 1, Hensall, N0M 1X0. No pets.

Admission is by donation. Call Pete Bisback for more information 519860-3509.

-------------------------------------------------Saints & Sinners at Grey Roots: Beer, Wine, Cider, History on June 23 from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m., Moreston Heritage Village comes to life with the colourful history of Grey County during prohibition. Enjoy local beer, wine and cider as well as delicious food, live music and entertainment.

Event is 19+. For more information, call 519-376-3690 or visit greyroots.com --------------------------------------------------

UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------------Under the Canopy: Animals of the Rainforest Exhibit opens June 8 at Grey Roots Museum and Archives.

Step Under the Canopy and discover the fascinating world of the rainforest!

Meet a red-footed tortoise, visit with a marmoset and marvel at a panther chameleon. Get up close with real live creatures during daily shows and programs! Visit greyroots.com for details.

-------------------------------------------------50th Annual Southampton Craft Show Thursday, July 4, 10:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m., The Plex, Port Elgin.

Free shuttle service from Port Elgin to show. Details at www.southamptoncraftshow.com Like us on Facebook at Southampton Craft Show – PRANCE. Over 140 vendors ~ ATM on site – 50/50draw – all day pie and ice cream parlour ~ Food court 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Gate admission $4. Children under 10 free.

Free parking, wheelchair accessible – drop off at main door. Proceeds to PRANCE Therapeutic Equestrian Centre.

-------------------------------------------------Save a Life – Kiss a Cow – Saturday, June 22, 11:00 a.m. 3:00 p.m. at Giddy Up N’ Go Ponies, Auburn, ON. Activities include: face painting, wheelbarrow races, pony rides, hay wagon rides, train rides, bouncy castle, bake sale, toonie auction, bouncy horses. Lunch available for purchase. Admission by donation, cash only fundraiser.

Proceeds to support brain tumour research through Evan’s Legacy and Breast Cancer. Please note: no wheelchair accessible bathroom.

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

UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------------Falls Reserve Conservation Area – campground/day-use area. Visit us to get away from it all! Settle into one of our beautiful campsites. Seasonal campsites available. Enjoy a hike or picnic outing with the family.

Day use membership passes available. Camping reservations available online! 1-877-FALLSCA (519-325-5722) www.mvca.on.ca -------------------------------------------------FORE! The Memories Golf Tournament, Stratford Country Club, Monday, June 24, 11:30 a.m. Help support programs and services for people living with dementia in our local community. Call today to register! Alzheimer Society of Perth County, 519-271-1910.

-------------------------------------------------Falls Reserve Conservation Area – Annual Family Fishing Derby, Saturday, June 29, 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Come and catch the big one at our stocked pond. Event part of Ontario Family Fishing Weekend.

Registration at event. Park admission required. Youth age category prizes will be awarded. 1-877-FALLSCA (325-5722). www.mvca.on.ca -------------------------------------------------Blyth Repository of History Used Book Sale to be held at Blyth Memorial Hall, Friday, May 31, 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, June 1, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.; Sunday, June 2, 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

For more information call Deb 519523-4792. All proceeds from the sale go to support the Blyth Repository of History - “the future of the past”.

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GUN & MILITARIA SHOW

South Bruce Tourism’s 20th Annual Father’s Day Vintage Tractor Tour Sunday, June 16

Milverton Tractor Pull Saturday, July 6th ~ 1 pm Milverton Agri Centre Admission $5 www.milvertonag.ca 519-584-4721

DURHAM ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION

Saturday, June 15

CLASSIFIED

from 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

“A Daytrip Back in Agricultural History”

8:00 AM - 1 PM CANADIAN GUN LAWS APPLY **All Firearm Laws Must Be Obeyed** **Trigger Locks Are Required**

Buy, Sell or Trade

On-farm displays of tractors, road construction equipment, automobiles and so much more.

Tables of Antique and Modern Firearms, Knives, Hunting, Militaria, Gun Parts

Throughout South Bruce - near Mildmay and Teeswater, Ontario

For vendor info or tables call Jim Stewart 226-747-3495

Tour map and site listings at southbrucetourism.org Contact 519-367-2050

JUNE 2019 65

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

Please call/email Joe 519-525-0359, joewhitely05@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------Hay/Straw - small square bales of hay; timothy and alfalfa. Round bales of hay; timothy alfalfa or timothy grass mix. High class large square bales of hay. Call Riley Gorman 519-321-1012.

-------------------------------------------------Actively seeking farmland to rent for corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, edible beans. Contact Narva Farms Limited: 519-366-2636 or 519-881-9384 or email: sandyfitzsimmons@hotmail.com -------------------------------------------------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 -------------------------------------------------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.

-------------------------------------------------The Rural Voice welcomes letters and will publish as many as space permits.

Write: The Rural Voice Box 429, BLYTH, ON N0M 1H0

DAIRY FARM WANTED We are a family with four young children and we are looking for an on-going dairy farm in Bruce, Grey or Huron county. +/- 40 kg. milk quota.

Please keep this ad.

Email dairyfarmsearch@gmail.com

66 The Rural Voice

CANADIAN CO-OPERATIVE WOOL GROWERS LIMITED Serving Ont. Sheep Producers Since 1918

Now Available

WOOL ADVANCE PAYMENTS WOOL MARKET CONDITIONS ARE IMPROVING, CALL US FOR A COMPETITIVE PRICE AND TO MAKE ARRANGEMENTS FOR WOOL TO BE PICKED UP AT YOUR FARM. For more information contact:

WINGHAM WOOL DEPOT John Farrell R.R. 2, Wingham, Ontario Phone/Fax

519-357-1058

farfieldfarm@gmail.com

Perth County Federation of Agriculture Email: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Website: www.perthcountyfarmers.ca Agnes Denham, Secretary: 519-229-8866 or 1-866-829-8866 Tim Halliday, President: thalliday33@gmail.com or 519-291-3374

Farmers encouraged to send letter to attorney general There has been an increase in the frequency of activism against farming and livestock transporters in recent months. Sadly, a recent farm invasion case was dropped by the prosecutors before going to trial. This will embolden such further acts and may increase the level of aggression. This is unacceptable and must be addressed immediately.

To press the seriousness of this issue we are urging all Ontario farmers to join our letter campaign to draw attention to the urgent need for action to counter the aggressive animal activism we see developing.

This is a serious farm problem affecting all Ontario farmers. It is important for the provincial government to hear a loud farm voice through action. We would like all Ontario farmers to engage by sending the letter below (or their own version of it) to the Attorney General and others.

Hon. Caroline Mulroney Ministry of the Attorney General 11th Floor 720 Bay Street Toronto, ON M7A 2S9 Dear Ms. Mulroney: As an Ontario farmer, I am very concerned about the well-being of my family and business because of an increase in the harassment of farmers and livestock transporters by activists. Certain groups are disrupting our livelihoods and invading

PCFA celebrates 75 years!

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

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

Mark your calendar for

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

our farms and yet the legal system is offering little protection.

Peaceful protest on public property has escalated to trespassing, break-ins, animal theft, and invasion of farms by large groups of protesters. Activists are even stepping in front of moving transport trucks and physically harassing livestock truckers.

Police seem reluctant to lay charges.

The Crown has withdrawn charges before trial. Farmers and their employees are frightened and frustrated. Attacks on livestock farms and processing plants that go unchallenged open the door to more onfarm attacks and disruption at food suppliers.

As a farmer, I struggle to understand how activists can enter buildings illegally, even remove animals, without fear of prosecution. I am worried that this disregard for the law will escalate to the point of serious harm to farmers.

My farm business is also the home of my family. I need to know the legal system will protect us from the risk of invasion.

I am writing to you today on behalf of farmers, our families and agricultural workers across Ontario to ask for stronger action against activists. I’m asking you to work together with

fellow MPPs and agricultural leaders to find a better way forward to ensure stronger enforcement of existing laws – or new legislation – to ensure the safety of Ontario’s farm families and employees.

Sincerely, cc: Hon. Doug Ford, Premier’s Office Room 281 Legislative Building, Queen’s Park Toronto, ON M7A 1A1 Hon. Sylvia Jones, Solicitor General George Drew Building 18th Floor 25 Grosvenor Street Toronto, ON M7A 1Y6 Hon. Ernie Hardeman Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs 11th Floor 77 Grenville Street Toronto, ON M5S 1B3

PCFA DIRECTORS MEETING Thursday, June 20 Contact office for time and location

PCFA INVITES APPLICATIONS FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIPS • • • • •

Up to 2 (two) – $1,000 scholarships Youth continuing their education in Agriculture or/and Agricultural-related field Entering their second, third or fourth year of college or university Home address when not attending school must be in Perth County Must be able to show a connection to an OFA farm member.

To request an application please contact PCFA at perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Call 519-229-8866 or download form from website: perthcountyfarmers.ca/PCFAScholarship.pdf DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 Presentations will be made at the Perth Harvest Gala on Saturday, November 16, 2019

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

JUNE 2019 67

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

Lyme Disease – A Grey/Bruce County issue as well Any opinion expressed is that of individual County Directors or Representatives and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Grey County Federation of Agriculture or Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

The following article was in the Orangeville Banner recently, written

by Alexandra Heck. As it is also pertinent to Grey County we are reprinting with their permission.

May was Lyme disease month but it is an affliction for the summer so people needed to be aware at all times.

– Respectfully submitted by Paul Wettlaufer, GCFA director Colleen Costigan is an East Garafraxa resident who has battled with Lyme disease for over a decade.

After years of living without a diagnosis, she travelled to the USA for treatment – Alexandra Heck/Torstar.

Colleen Costigan didn’t know what was wrong, but she felt like she was going to die. Her limbs were tingling, numb, in pain. Feeling exhausted and foggy, the mother of four struggled with daily tasks. “I had every test done that you could imagine,” she said. “I thought I was going to die.”

For three and a half years, Costigan suffered from about 33 different symptoms, including flu, neurological, spasms, headaches and more. After a slew of testing and referrals to different doctors, there was a clue.

What if it was Lyme disease, one specialist suggested, noting that he wasn’t totally familiar with the disease.

According to Wellington-DufferinGuelph Public Health (WDGPH), there were six confirmed cases of human Lyme disease in the area. The public health department undertakes passive surveillance of blacklegged ticks in the region, which are the primary carriers of Lyme disease viruses. Of the 193 ticks submitted by residents in 2018, 52 were found in the actual Wellington-DufferinGuelph footprint.

Of those 52 ticks, one tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, the 68 The Rural Voice

agent responsible for Lyme. While the numbers are a decrease from the 2017 numbers, residents such as Kim Evans say to be wary of ticks.

The Amaranth horseback riding instructor remembers being bitten by a tick while working in the barn in August 2015 and didn’t think anything of it. That was until she fell ill while on vacation weeks later. She suffered from joint pain, blisters and flu-like symptoms. For months, she suffered physical and mental fatigue.

“I thought I had MS,” Evans said, explaining that her family physician could not find a diagnosis. She was sent for an MRI, which found white lesions on her brain. After seeing a Lyme disease specialist in Toronto, Evans was prescribed six months of antibiotics. “Finally, after two years, I had energy again,” she said.

Evans and Costigan are far from alone. Sherri Hames was bitten by a tick in the backyard of her Marsville home in 2012. “I had a bull’s-eye rash,” she said, remembering that she didn’t think much of it at the time.

As a recently graduated nursing student, Hames remembered feeling chronically exhausted when she started her first nursing job at a retirement home. She had flu-like symptoms that she attributed to a cold going around in the workplace.

“I was depressed,” Hames said, remembering strange things happening, her vision blurring randomly, a fever at 2 p.m. every day, numbness and pain in various parts of her body.

“I was having anxiety and panic attacks,” she said, explaining that she had never experienced it before. It wasn’t until her daughter came back from a camping trip with two bull’seye rashes that Hames started to research ticks and Lyme disease. Her daughter received antibiotics to prevent any sort of infection that the ticks may have transmitted.

This was the start of long journey for Hames to receive a diagnosis and treatment. “I did the Lyme disease test,” she said, noting that she tested

Colleen Costigan battled Lyme disease for over a decade.

positive for antibodies, but did not test positive for the Western Blot Test, which is the second criteria to confirm Lyme disease within the Canadian medical system. She did not want to wait eight months to get in with the Lyme disease specialist in Toronto, so she travelled to New York for treatment. Hames says that there are a number of changes that need to be made to better treat Canadians that have been bitten by ticks. She says there needs to be better testing methods, and more readily available antibiotic treatments to prevent infections after being bitten.

At the Magnotta Research Foundation at the University of Guelph, scientists are researching how Lyme disease affects the human body, testing and treatments.

“Understanding the nuance of the Continued on page 69 Grey County Federation of Agriculture

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

• August 15 – 8:00 p.m.

• September 19 – 8:00 p.m.

• November 14 – 8:00 p.m.

All meetings are held at Grey Ag Services, Markdale

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 Lyme Disease an issue for Bruce/Grey County

Continued from page 68

micro-organism itself and its impacts on the human body,” said Melanie Wills, director of the G. Magnotta Lyme Disease Research Lab at the University of Guelph.

The lab started from scratch more than a year ago, diving headlong into research for a disease that became officially recognized in Canada in 2009.

“We do have several prongs of investigation underway,” she said, explaining that some researchers are looking at the microbiology, while others are looking at health impacts and how to develop a concrete, quick testing method.

“That’s a main staple of our mandate,” said Wills, talking about the concerns Lyme patients voice about testing.

She said that currently, it takes four weeks to be reactive to the current test. If someone has been bitten, the optimal treatment time for antibiotics is right away.

“I don’t want to wait four weeks and give that pathogen a chance to migrate,” Wills said. “Right now, we have a major, major technical limitation of the test.”

The issues are further complicated by the different co-infections that can be picked up by the tick bite.

“There’s no gold standard for consistent treatment protocol,” Wills explained, adding that doctors vary in their understanding and approaches to treating Lyme disease.

There are two camps of belief within the medical community about treating long-standing Lyme. “That’s a pretty controversial area,” she said, noting that some doctors do not subscribe to the belief that long-term antibiotics have an effect. “There’s nothing consistent,” Wills said, noting that there is also fear and misinformation about doctors being investigated for giving out long-range antibiotics to treat historic Lyme disease.

For Costigan, she had to travel to a specialist in New Jersey to get the

treatment that she needed. The doctor listened to her for four hours, hearing about the years of pain and confusion.

Two weeks later, Costigan sat in front of the doctor in her office with a brown envelope filled with test results. She had Lyme disease. The doctor explained she was suffering three co-infections from different strains of virus transmitted from the tick, mono and fibromyalgia. “I was on high doses of antibiotics,” she said,

explaining the long recovery filled with several long-range antibiotics.

The American treatment cost her nearly $100,000. “It was all out of pocket,” she said, explaining if she hadn’t sought the treatment, “I’m not sure I’d be here.” She said that awareness is the most important — for doctors and the general public. “I don’t wish this on my worst enemy,” Costigan said. “There needs to be a lot more talk about it.”◊

Submitted by Patrick Jilesen OFA Zone 2 director As the weather warms, Public Health Units are warning residents about the risk of tick bites and the threat they pose to both people and pets. Lyme disease is spread through the bite of an infected blacklegged tick.

Listed below are helpful resources that will provide information on tick identification, habitat and removal; the symptoms and dangers of Lyme disease; and how to protect yourself and minimize the risk of being bitten. First and foremost, reduce the risk of Lyme disease by covering up, using bug spray and always wearing protective clothing such as long pants, socks and closed-toe footwear when entering tick habitat.

Key Information: • Public Health Units are noticing an increased population of both Blacklegged (deer) Ticks and Dog Ticks; it is only the Blacklegged (deer) Ticks that can potentially carry Lyme disease.

• Blacklegged Ticks are much smaller than Dog Ticks.

• Be aware that according to Lyme Ontario, those various “home remedies” you may have heard for tick removal have not been proven effective and can potentially do more harm than good. Please be advised that under no circumstances should a flame, ointment, flammable liquid (gasoline, oil, lighter fluid, acetone, nail polish, etc.) or caustic material be used in removal attempts. Seek the attention of a doctor to remove the tick or refer to the material below to find out how to properly remove a tick at home.

• If you (or someone you know) have been bitten by a tick, once you have removed it carefully, you can bring it to your local Public Health Unit for identification. If it is determined that it’s a Blacklegged tick, the Public Health Unit will send it to be tested for Lyme disease.

• Blacklegged ticks cannot jump or fly. Instead, they seek hosts by climbing on vegetation such as grasses or shrubs in the woods (especially along trails) as well as the fringe area between the woods and border. Ticks will wait for a host to rub against them and climb onto the host’s body, eventually attempting to attach and feed.

• Tick bites are generally painless, so a visual check of the skin is necessary. A tick bite can happen anywhere, but it is particularly important to check for ticks if you have been walking or working in potential tick habitat or in areas of higher tick populations, as promptly removing ticks can help prevent infection.

• In Ontario, blacklegged ticks are most commonly found in areas along the north shores of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

• The greatest risk of getting Lyme disease is during the spring and summer months.

Resources: • Helpful tips, resources and information from the Ontario Ministry of Health on Lyme Disease on how to avoid bites from blacklegged ticks: https://www.ontario.ca/page/lyme-disease • Resources and information from Public Health Ontario: https://www.publichealth ontario.ca/en/BrowseByTopic/InfectiousDiseases/Pages/IDLandingPages/LymeDisease.aspx • Lyme Ontario has an excellent fact sheet of information on tick identification, avoidance and removal, as well as the symptoms and testing for Lyme disease: http://lymeontario.com/about/about-lyme-disease-2/ • Ontario Ministry of Labour developed a helpful resource for employers to help protect outdoor workers from tick bites and Lyme disease: https://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/pubs/lyme.php

JUNE 2019 69

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

Perth, Huron, Grey and Bruce County Pork Producers

NEWSLETTER

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

Canada caught in crossfire of international politics The fast-moving mind of a toddler has resulted in more than a few YouTube clips being played in our house. There is a healthy dose of Paw Patrol and it appears my child may enjoy Formula 1 highlight packs. But every once and awhile we fit in some David Attenborough. His calming voice narrates popular nature programs like Planet Earth and Frozen Planet and, although his stoic English demeanour is contrarian to the ideal sportscaster, he is essentially a British version of a “nature sportscaster”. An English Bob Cole of the natural world whose fame has been made by narrating highlight pack after highlight pack of Mother Nature at her finest. Or at her worst if you happen to be a member of a species that finds itself at the bottom of a food chain.

If a farmer allows themselves, there is some gallows humour to be found in identifying with the same prey Mr. Attenborough so calmly narrates the demise of. While there is the odd, poor decision that may push us to ruin, more often than not it is something beyond our control that hastens our end. Take the recent clip my son and I watched covering the migration of the Sockeye Salmon. If you were to watch it with no great knowledge of salmon migration, it seems that the majority of fish swimming up the Fraser get snapped up by a grizzly. Based on the videos it seems the grizzly has the ultimate power and, right now, it feels like there are a lot of grizzlies upstream in our proverbial river.

The global system of trade that powers the Canadian hog industry is a hot mess. President Donald Trump seems content to blow up decades of progress brought on by liberalized trade because he lacks the aptitude required to grasp the complexities of geopolitics and monetary policy.

China has no intention of capitulating as their autocratic regime can suppress discontent, and they want to assert themselves as equal to the 70 The Rural Voice

Americans when it comes to global heft. In reality, Canada is caught in the crossfire. Not only were we subject to costly steel and aluminum tariffs from the USA, we’ve also drawn the ire of the Chinese for detaining Meng Wanzhou at the request of the Americans. It’s hard to say what the long-term impact will be but, for now, we already know Canadian canola has lost its most important export market with a couple hog plants losing market access as well.

At the same time, weather patterns have given us two challenges in short succession. Animal performance is down across the province because our livestock industries continue to deal with mycotoxin issues present from the 2018 Ontario corn crop. On top of that, Spring 2019 has been wet and cold, and hardly a wheel has turned as producers are challenged to get manure out and corn planted before they will no longer be able to capitalize on the maximum potential of their fields. If our crop producers struggle it will become increasingly difficult to get quality feed and it’s possible high-quality feed will be extremely expensive before year’s end.

The biggest bear of all is the continued spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) throughout southeast Asia. In our globally connected world the task of keeping out reportable Foreign Animal Diseases (FAD) like ASF is incredibly difficult. An ASF break in Canada would be devastating

as borders would slam shut, just as they did for Canadian beef in 2003.

The Canadian hog industry exports more than 70 per cent of our product and it is neigh impossible for us to eat the amount of stockpiled pork that would result from border closures. If an outbreak occurred, it is possible nothing but a massive government support package would save the producers who want to remain in the industry.

We can be certain that an individual salmon is never excited about traversing the grizzly infested river. Yet, the school knows that if it is to grow and prosper they all must try to cross in hopes that most will prevail. There will be years when population numbers dip and years when numbers grow. There is bubbling anxiety stemming from the ability to know when the ebbs and flows of survival may come. While there is anxiety in the anticipation of lean times, there is a comfort in the inability of one to know when their time may come. A blend of faith, luck, and good decisions lend their hand to higher chances of survival and barring extinction, there are always some that make it out the other side of a crisis.

Right now, it is scary to be a pig farmer in Ontario. There are many threats that seem to be on the doorstep that could destroy our livelihoods. But just as the salmon, we must keep swimming.◊ – Submitted by Stewart Skinner

PERTH COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS PORK PRODUCTS • Smoked Pork Chop • Fresh Pork Chops • Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage • Smoked Cheddar Sausage • Bacon Burgers • Teriyaki Pork Steaks AVAILABLE FROM: Dave and Ruth Kloostra (Monkton).. 519-347-2619 Jerry and Sandra DeGroot (Kinkora) 519-393-5237 Ted and Donna Keller (Mitchell)........ 519-348-9836 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.

Index Morris Sachs Silo Construction........ 56 Motorcycle........................................ 34 MRC Wireless.................................. 26 Mulch Gulch...................................... 43 Newman Dust Control...................... 38 Nuclear Waste Management............ 45 Nuhn Forage.................................... 33 Nutra-Glo.......................................... 25 Ontario Standardbred...................... 55 Parker & Parker........................Cover 5 Peak Realty - Cathy Hendriks.......... 61 Perth Auto Dismantlers.................... 60 Peterhans Stefan.............................. 66 Raynbow Signs................................ 61 Ridgeway Metals.............................. 61 Roth Drainage.................................. 61 Row by Row......................................47 Rural Living................................ 42, 43 Rural Routes Pest Control................ 61

Rural Voice Books....................Cover 6 Sauble Beach Motorsports.......... Insert Schmidts Farm Drainage.................. 50 Schweiss Doors................................ 66 Seifried Farm Equipment.................. 38 Sew & Save...................................... 43 Smyth Welding..................................59 South Bruce Tourism........................ 65 Southwestern Ontario Fiddle............ 71 Steffen Well Drilling.......................... 61 Stihl.................................................. 53 Triple P Consulting............................23 Trouw Nutrition.................. Back Cover WD Hopper & Sons.......................... 71 Weber Farm Supply.......................... 62 Whitechurch Welding........................ 62 Williams Drainage............................ 51 Yokassippi Auctions..........................50 Zehr’s Sales & Manufacturing.. Cover 7

W.D. Hopper & Sons Ltd. Seaforth, Ont. 1-888-522-1737

Water Well Drilling: Farms, Irrigation, Residential Grundfos Stainless Pumps Well Abandonments Down Hole Videos Geothermal Drilling Serving You For 100 Years+ wdhopperwaterwells.com E-mail: wdhopper@tcc.on.ca

Our Newest Addition

A.G. Hayter Contracting....................13 Advantage Royal Group....................33 Bag Supplies.................................... 59 Bayfield Rec Sales............................10 BDO.................................................. 37 Belore Trailers.................................. 59 Berlett Farms.................................... 59 Bernie McGlynn/SB Flooring............ 54 Bervie Supply......................................7 Bester Wood Products...................... 54 Bill Walker MPP................................ 15 Bio-Ag.............................................. 38 Blyth Brewing...................................... 7 Blyth Festival...................................... 7 BP Dust Control................................ 61 Brough & Whicher Limited................ 59 Bushell’s Auto Sales........................ 56 Canadian Co-op Wool Growers........ 66 Cargill’s Pickin’ By The Pond.......... 31 Chalmers Fuels................................ 66 Cliff’s Plumbing................................ 15 Cow Planet..........................................2 Crop Management............................ 49 Cross Country Eavestrough................8 D.C. Craig Excavating...................... 71 Diamond Roof.................................... 8 Donkers Agri...................................... 9 Dundalk Credit Union........................13 Durham Gun Show.......................... 65 Easy Lift Doors..................................14 Egger Farms.................................... 62 Elma Steel & Equipment Ltd............ 60 Fawcett Tractor................................ 62 Friends of Hullett.............................. 63 Gerber’s Workwear.......................... 59 Grey Bruce Construction.................. 51 Grills On...................................... 16, 20 GRK Products.................................. 23 Grober Nutrition........................Cover 4 Hanover Customs Brokerage..............9 Hardi................................................ 51 Hearing Life........................................ 6 Hill & Hill Farms...... Inside Front Cover Holstein Agro Expo.......................... 39 Hunter Steel Sales.................. Cover 4 Huron Commodities.......................... 11 Huron County Health Unit................ 27 Huron Soil & Crop Improvement...... 27 Hyndman Transport.......................... 62 Innis New & Used Tractor Parts........60 JA Porter Holdings............................ 56 Jones Harold Enterprises..................60 Keith Siemon Farm Systems............ 62 Kuepfer Farm Drainage.................... 61 Kuepfer Firewood..............................60 LAC.................................................. 58 Lakeside Shelving.............................. 6 Lambton Heritage Museum.............. 25 Lands & Forests Consulting..............55 Layton Steve.................................... 60 Legge Fitness.......................... Cover 3 Mapleview Agri..................................19 Marquardt Farm Drainage................ 13 Martin Farm Wagons........................ 11 McIntee Real Estate - Steve Nixon.. 60 Metzger Agri......................................13 Michael’s Stabling...................... 12, 45 Mike’s Custom Welding & Fab..........60 Mitchell Pro Rodeo............................28

Licensed by the Ministry of the Environment

D. C. Craig Excavating • Excavating

• Drainage • Snow Plowing • Bulldozing • Septic Systems & Removal

519-523-4966 CANADIAN CULTURE AT ITS BEST!

36 Annual Fiddle & Step Dance Championships th

Tavistock and District Recreation Centre Preliminaries: Friday, June 28 - 6 pm • Saturday, June 29 - 9:00 am FINALS & SHOW: Saturday, June 29 - 6:30 pm THERE WILL BE NO ADMISSION FEE FOR THE SATURDAY 6:30 PM FINALS/SHOW!!!

Tickets available at the door for each program.

For camping or info please see our new website: http://fiddlestepdance.com

JUNE 2019 71

HURON

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

County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER

HCFA sponsors Huron County Young Farmers to attend OYFF in November The Huron County Federation of Agriculture (HCFA) would like to draw your attention to The Ontario Young Farmers’ Forum (OYFF) that is being held in Hamilton this fall.

This two-day forum for those aged 18-40 is administered by Junior Farmers in partnership with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) annual convention.

The Ontario Young Farmers’ Forum (OYFF) attracts some of the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable young farmers from across the province. Delegates have the opportunity to learn, connect and discuss the most pressing agricultural issues that the industry faces on a daily basis.

Ontario Young Farmers Forum November 17 & 18, 2019 Hamilton Convention Centre (for more information and to register visit www.jfao.on.ca/oyff).

The HCFA is pleased to inform you that we are offering a limited amount of sponsorship for the 2019 Ontario Young Farmers Forum.

To qualify for the HCFA sponsorship you must: 1. You must be a first-time

attendee of the OYFF. 2. You must reside in Huron County.

3. You must be between 18 and 40 years of age.

4. You must submit proof of registration and accommodation invoices to the HCFA office.

You will be responsible for completing your own registration and arranging transportation and accommodations.

In order to assist the most attendees we cannot guarantee that we will reimburse the full cost of your attending. The amount of sponsorship available per person depends on the number of attendees from Huron County.

For further details please contact the HCFA office at 519-482-9642 ext. 2 or email: ofahuron@tcc.on.ca Huron County Federation of Agriculture

BOARD MEETING

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

Upcoming Events May 31 to June 2 – 165th Clinton Spring Fair. For more information visit: clintonspringfair.com.

June 8-9 – Hensall Spring Fair.

June 14-15 – Dungannon Super Pull. For more details visit: www.dungannontractorpull.ca June 19-20 – Ontario Congress, Stratford.

Pork

ROOM FOR RENT The Huron County Federation of Agriculture has a board room available for rent.

The board room rent is $40 which includes HST. Call the HCFA office at 519-482-9642 or 1-800-511-1135 to check availability and to book your meetings.

June 24

8:00 p.m.

Vanastra Office

CONTOUR DRAINAGE INNOVATION DEMONSTRATION June 15 ~ between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.

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

We are also open other days by chance

Huronview Demo Farm, 77722 London Road Clinton, ON. The field is located behind the Huronview Complex Follow us on Twitter

The event will include live installation, wagon rides, workshops, food trucks and a trade show.

twitter.com/huronfedofag

Admission is $5 per person.

For more information visit https://www.huronview.net/

Facebook at Huron County

and Federation of Agriculture

Hosted by the Huron County Soil and Crop Improvement Association The Rural Voice is provided to all OFA members in Huron County by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture

72 The Rural Voice

A NAME YOU CAN TRUST FOR ALL YOUR DRAINAGE SOLUTIONS Plastic Plastic Tile Tile Installation Installation • • Quality Quality Service Service & & Experience Experience

519-236-7390

HYDRO EXCAVATING /SEWER CLEANING CCTV VIDEO INSPECTION COLLECTION / TRANSPORATION LIQUID INDUSTIAL WASTE

519-236-7401

Happy Father’s Day

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

Arranged in chronological order - from the time of the region's Indigenous people through to early settlement and finally to Canada's coming of age during the Great War - it is a book you can enjoy one story at a time or cover to cover. $25.00

BE YOUR OWN HOUSE CONTRACTOR Author Carl Heldman shows how you can save 25 per cent on the cost of a new house without lifting a hammer by acting as your own contractor.

He explains how to deal with subcontractors. $25.95

RAL READING ROO RUBOOKS M ON RURAL THEMES

WHERE DOES IT HURT? Dr. Dave Perrin, a rural veterinarian from British Columbia, talks about the human side of being a vet in the third book in his often hilarious series. Stories include his efforts in coaxing a reluctant turkey into becoming a sperm donor. $23.95

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. $20.00

WOODEN HOUSES The beauty of wood adds a special warmth to houses. See through gorgeous photographs how wood is utilized from the exterior in siding and log homes to detailing, to interior panelling and trim to furniture.

33% off Only $29.99

SHEDS: The Do-It-Yourself Guide for Backyard Builders More than 200 pages, including colour photos, plans, instructions and tips for building everything from a garden shed to a gazebo, pool houses to boat houses to protection for your firewood. $19.95 Total

Qty.

OUT OF THE WOODS WHERE DOES IT HURT? WOODEN HOUSES THE TREE DOCTOR BE YOUR OWN HOUSE CONTRACTOR FROM IRELAND TO THE QUEEN’S BUSH SHEDS PADDLING AND HIKING THE GEORGIAN BAY COAST SHIPPING & HANDLING RATES $6.00 for the first book 60¢ for each additional item to a maximum of $20.00

$25.00 $23.95 $29.99 $19.95 $25.95 $20.00 $19.95 $29.95

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

THE TREE DOCTOR: A Guide to Tree Care and Maintenance Get tips and instructions on everything from selecting trees to planting them to pruning and dealing with disease and invasive pests in this handy guide to getting the most from your trees. $19.95

PADDLING AND HIKING THE GEORGIAN BAY COAST Kas Stone circles the Georgian Bay with suggested canoe routes and hikes: 38 chapters, 250 pages of trips to explore on the north, east, south and west shores – including many in Bruce and Grey. $29.95

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.

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