The Rural Voice - March, 2020

March 2020

Rural Voice

The

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

BEEKEEPING 101 Have your honey and eat it too: Academics and beekeepers share start-up tips

PLANT-BASED SKEPTICISM Vegetable growers question healthiness of plant-based “meats” at industry conference

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Contents The

Rural Voice THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE

22

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

16 Columns Lisa B. Pot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72

Departments Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 News & Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . .87

Newsletters National Farmers Union . . . . . . .82 Perth County Pork . . . . . . . . . . .83 Grey County Federation . . . . . .84 Bruce County Federation . . . . . .85 Perth County Federation . . . . . .86 Huron County Federation . . . . . .88

37 MARCH 2020 • Cover Photo Forestry expert, Steve Bowers.

By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

• Deadlines: April Issue – March 10 May Issue – April 14

16 Beekeeping Success Tips Knowing about bee diseases and pests is the key to successful beekeeping

22 Have an Attitude of Excellence Owner attitude plays an important role in employee retention

29 Plant-Based Group Wants a Say Vegetable growers react with skepticism to Plant-Based Foods Canada’s presentation

32 Citrus of the North Sea buckthorn berries are bright orange and packed with antioxidants, says grower

Contributing writers: Keith Roulston, Kate Procter, Jeffrey Carter, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, Arnold Mathers, Steve Bowers, Melisa Luymes, Anne Mann, Nancy Fisher, Dorothy Henderson, Bonnie Sitter, Gary Kenny, Jeff Tribe, Bob Reid and Geoff Dale Mailed by: McLaren Press Graphics, Bracebridge, ON Sales representative: Shelley Kroes rvads@northhuron.on.ca Production co-ordinator & Telemarketing: Joan Caldwell Advertising & editorial production: Dianne Josling PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40037593 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 429 BLYTH ON N0M 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca Subscriptions: $20 (12 issues) $35 (24 issues), includes HST Back copies $2.75 each,U.S. rates, $65.00

37 Steam makes a Sweet Legacy Steam powers the making of maple syrup at Legacy Maple

49 Zoonotic Diseases Investigated Veterinarians and doctors need to talk about zoonosis

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

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

NH

ORTH URON

PUBLISHING COMPANY INC.

A division of North Huron Publishing Company Inc.

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

Story on nesting swallows brings back good memories The Editor, I saw the February issue of The Rural Voice in the library and did a perusal of it. The story on nesting spots for barn swallows reminded me of my younger days. Our house had a front door (which was never used). It also had a light fixture with a top that was about eight inches below the three-foot roof overhang. For many years there would be a barn swallow nest on the fixture. They were rather dirty, but we put up with it for nature’s fly control. I also remember seeing barn swallow nests stuck on knots of barn beams. And many times we would enter an unused barn and be nearly deafened by the songs from umpteen dozen canaries (gold finches?).

I am sometimes tempted to go into an unused barn to see if the birds still do their thing.◊ – Robert Drummond, Exeter, ON

Solar powered eggs is good marketing, not good for the environment The Editor, My mother used to say “just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should”. I think that applies to the story in the February issue of The Rural Voice on the “solar powered egg farm”. The article suggests the combination of solar PV panels, batteries and a diesel generator produces electricity that is better for the environment than Ontario’s grid.

That’s certainly not correct. It’s an 2 The Rural Voice

advantageous marketing angle perhaps, but it’s in no way a model of sustainability here.

PV panels and lithium batteries don’t fall from the sky. They take large chunks of energy and resources to manufacture and transport, most often coming from the other side of the planet. Recycling is a problematic and energy-intensive challenge for both. Using them in Ontario to replace cleaner grid electricity now provides no benefit for the environment or the province’s economy.

Life cycle emissions for PV are typically estimated to be three times higher than nuclear emissions.

Ontario’s freakishly clean grid is made up of 55 per cent nuclear, 25 per cent hydro and wind averaging around 10 per cent. Natural gas hovers in the background but it’s usually 10 per cent. Average emissions are only about 55 grams of CO2/kwh now.

Solar PV can’t come close to that.

Add the lithium batteries and occasional diesel generator and it’s no contest. Ontario’s grid is far gentler on the planet.

The seasonal nature of solar would also be ass-backwards to the demands of a poultry operation here. June would probably produce several times more electricity on low pitch fixed arrays than would January in Woodstock. These barns would need heat and more lighting in winter, so supplemental energy would likely be needed. It wasn’t mentioned but I suspect natural gas or propane plays a significant role as does the diesel generator in winter.

Too often ignored is the fact these buildings are challenging for fire crews. Large amounts of stored electricity, active roof panels and potentially burning lithium ion batteries (that give off very toxic hydrogen fluoride) make for far more dangerous situations for them than simply pulling a hydro meter.

It would have less “bling effect” but a cleaner, safer and better renewable energy approach would be using Ontario’s grid electricity combined with heat pump technology.

Geothermal could perhaps even be combined with a multi-function constructed wetland. Even with cheaper, less-efficient air-to-air technology, it would be far more

sustainable and could provide summer cooling/dehumidifying, which is increasingly valuable.

Applying PV/batteries/diesel to a poultry barn in Alberta or Nova Scotia where coal powers their grid might make some sense. In Ontario, it’s more about misapplication of resources and attempted virtue signalling. We have a contracted surplus that we export at a loss and it’s the cleanest on the planet; it’s foolish not to use it. ◊ – Robert Budd, Goderich

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{

MARCH INSPIRATION

wet areas – and consider planting or naturalizing these areas for bees.’

}

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind

less profitable, or not workable –

~ Advice on rural beekeeping from Paul Kelly, research and apiary manager at the University of Guelph’s HoneyBee Research Centre ~

blows cold; when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade.

~Charles Dickens

Lexophiles • No matter how much you push the envelope, it’s still stationary.

• Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she could not control her pupils?

•

Neil’s One-Liners (Wisdom from McGavin Files)

• Bad habits are like a

comfortable bed – easy These little piggies Rooting through the fluffy snow While others cry “wee, wee, wee” All the way home. ~Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

to get into but hard to get out of.

•

March 2020 3

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4 The Rural Voice

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

Three blue barrettes for Sunday lunch When I first met Linda, she had two blue barrettes in her hair. One on the left and one on the right, holding back her thick, graying hair. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone wearing barrettes and I was thoroughly delighted.

Linda was featured in the February issue of The Rural Voice.

She’s the barn swallow lady who spent hours at my place, nailing up devices to encourage the swallows to nest in my horse shed/barn. I thought she was marvellous.

That afternoon, while I stamped about trying to keep my feet warm, we chatted about many things and it wasn’t long before I had an invite to her horse farm near Harriston for a riding lesson. My daughter, you see, has a new horse and though we’ve had horses for years, I don’t consider us “horse people” in the way that we have innate knowledge of how to train a horse. My horse was a seasoned pro when I got him and he convinced me I was a natural. I’ve since learned on less-trained equines that Blackjack was very generous in obeying my unrefined requests. Boy, do I miss that big, black, gelding.

That expression, “You don’t know how good you have it until it’s gone?” Truth.

Now we have Cody, the quirky horse of unknown parentage with a friendly and willing temperament.

He’s on Instagram as Cody the Quirky Horse! It’s in our best interest, and his, to learn how to refine our requests.

Turns out, Linda knows how to ask horses things. She has three big, black, Clydesdale crosses at her horse farm. Plus a giant arena and a hugely-generous spirit. Off we went

on a Sunday afternoon to visit her place for lunch and to improve our horsemanship. This included a line driving lesson to start the process of training Frankie The Pony to the cart.

We met 20-year-old Brutus, the head honcho and Ariel the smart, 19year-old mare, and led both to the arena to receive our lessons. I was given a rudimentary line-driving lesson with Brutus, who hasn’t been line driven in over a dozen years. He must have the memory of an elephant (and wasn’t that much smaller) for he responded with alacrity. Brutus, like Blackjack, made it so easy for me. A trained horse is worth its weight in gold and given Brutus’ size, he’s one valuable animal.

The rest of the time, Maria rode Ariel and polished her sit, her hand placement on the reigns and her asks.

It was lovely to watch; my beautiful blonde daughter on this gorgeous black mare.

Then, in a corner, the mare decided she didn’t want to listen. No drama. No bucks. She just decided to turn the other way. Linda was issuing instructions at a decidedly higher decibel level and Maria was trying to prevent the horse from cantering into the wall. Linda wasn’t having it. She told Maria to get off, launched on the horse herself and made the mare turn into that corner a dozen times. She has little ones riding that horse, you see, and cannot risk this colossal queen of horseflesh deciding she is going to rule the world.

Through it all, Linda explained what she was doing and why. There was no cruelty. Just leadership and direction, which the mare acquiesced as part of her natural understanding of there being an “alpha mare’ that takes care of the herd. Linda is that alpha. I think it was the take-home message of the lesson – “no matter what, you make that horse listen” for it’s good ... and your own. When Maria resumed her ride, the mare floated around that corner. No more shenanigans.

Linda got chatting with Karin, who is not a horse lover. She took a ride but doesn’t thrill to it like the rest of the females in our family do.

Linda asked her, “What is your favourite animal.” I expected Karin

Lisa B. Pot to say “dogs” and she answered, “cows.” Karin likes cows! She goes to the barn almost daily to help her dad with chores and it’s one of the highlights of her day.

Meanwhile, a purebred German Shepherd is watching the action from the corner, a cat in heat is making rude noises from the corner of the barn, the strong pickles from lunch are making me burp and everyone’s feet, except Linda’s, are freezing.

Cold feet and a ticking clock indicated it was time to go. Saddles came off and the horses were led back to their pasture after much petting and praise. We popped back in the car with heat turned full blast and off we went.

It was a simple experience really.

Maybe you are wondering why I am writing it. Certainly, I’ve thought long about why it has lingered as a profound experience in my mind. I think I have a few ideas: • It’s a surprising pleasure to make new friends in middle-age. I have a wonderful circle of people I love in my life and to add a new friend is like an unexpected gift you look forward to unwrapping.

• There’s something about watching a tiny woman take on a giantess and win. Her confidence was empowering to all of us and reminded us about the manifest order of things. Specifically, in our case, to develop Maria’s confidence to make riding a Cody a positive experience for both of them.

• Kindness and generosity always works. It brings out the truth and best in everyone and uncovers interesting facts. Karin loves cows. I did not know. Note to self: Keep asking questions, Lisa!

Finally, it was those blue barrettes. Three blue barrettes! They were different shapes and sizes, equally spaced, pretty as sapphires, holding back that lively hair.

As I ponder the value of seeing how other people live, friendships, developing skills, connecting with wise creatures, spending time with my daughters and controlling the inherent power of a big horse, I have to say it wasn’t just a one-barretteday. It was truly a “three-barrette kind of day.” ◊

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March 2020 5

Keith Roulston Keith is the former publisher of The Rural Voice. He lives near Blyth, ON.

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Virtually overlooked among the attention-getting promises of last fall’s election (and seldom heard from since) was a promise by the Prime Minister that Canada would plant two billion trees in the next decade as a way of countering climate change. I hope the pledge doesn’t get forgotten in all the more momentarily-pressing issues of running a government.

Time will tell if Mr. Trudeau was serious about the huge commitment or if it was a way of delaying until the future battle against climate change after he met with Swedish climate-change activist Greta Thunberg when she was in Canada for the Montreal Climate Strike.

He’ll need to not only embrace the promise, but mobilize government and the public to meet the goal.

We once took tree planting seriously in Canada. In 1968, thenPremier John Robarts planted a sugar maple tree at Queen’s Park, representing the one billionth seedling grown in a network of provincial tree nurseries across the province and planted, mostly on private land, over the previous 60 years. Governments of all political stripes have failed us since then. Bob Rae, then an NDP Premier, closed 10 provincial tree nurseries in the 1990s.

In 2013, Stephen Harper, on one of his cost-cutting campaigns, closed the Agroforestry Centre in Indian Head, Saskatchewan, which had grown 650 million seedlings for the Prairies over the previous century.

With all this infrastructure lost, gearing up to plant two billion seedlings will be challenging.

Then there’s the reality that a tree is not just a tree. There are 38 tree seed zones in Ontario alone and we must collect and grow the right seed for the right region and according to

the conditions of each site (for instance, wet or dry). We need to collect and plant seeds right now for the later years of the campaign.

At a time when it’s hard to find people to take on physical work, we’re going to need a huge number of tree-planters to plant so many trees. And once the trees are planted, they need to be cared for until they can fend for themselves. Reporters for the Montreal newspaper La Presse last year visited tree plantings near Mirabel from 2013 and found 30 per cent of the seedlings had died.

According to a Swiss study released last year, Canada has plenty of land on which trees could be planted. The researchers estimated there’s enough room on earth for another trillion trees, and Canada has 78 million hectares of land available for “canopy cover restoration potential”.

Persuading farmers, who control a huge amount of Ontario’s land, to plant trees can be a bit of a challenge.

Having spent many hours for a recent writing project, imagining what it was like to be early pioneers trying to clear thick forest to grow the crops to keep themselves alive, I can understand if there’s a sort of deeplyhidden aversion to trees among the great-great-grandchildren of the settlers.

Still, over the years I’ve interviewed pioneering farmers who had proof, thanks to yield monitors, that by planting windbreaks, they actually improved crop yields. And trees provide so many other benefits, from storing carbon and cleaning the air to preventing wind and water erosion and providing habitat for birds and animals. Take a walk in a woodlot, and you can even feel your tension melt away.

Meeting the Prime Minister’s ambitious goal seems a huge challenge, but others have accomplished amazing things. In Ethiopia they planted 224 million trees in a single day and in Scotland they planted 22 million trees in the last year. I won’t hold it against the Prime Minister if we miss the target by a year or so, as long as the movement has momentum come 2030. To make it happen, however, we all need to get on board.◊

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March 2020 7

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

Historical walkabout in Montreal blunts the urge to complain Winter in Huron County – the snow is swirling and the winds are blowing, with a bit of freezing rain thrown in for good measure every once in a while. Lots of people swear on heading south, getting a bit of sun and a vitamin D boost by shedding the mitts and toque, if only for a week. I’ve long been convinced that having come into the world in February has made me a life-long winter lover and have never had the urge to fly south for the winter.

8 The Rural Voice

Last winter was my first time ever at a resort – and that included staying on the edge of Algonquin Park and spending the week cross country skiing, skating, and dogsledding. It was magical despite the -30 degrees celsius temperatures. This year, I had the opportunity to get away and spend a weekend in Montreal.

I had never really spent time in Montreal so I booked a walking tour ahead of time. Organized walking tours are such a great way to get to know a place. I have done one in New York City, Boston, and now Montreal. You learn things that you never would have known. Or, you get to learn them in a different way that makes them more memorable.

Walking lets you really experience a place – the sights, smells, topography, and people, in a way you can’t otherwise. It also helps you get your bearings so you can go back and take time to explore areas in the city that catch your eye.

Our tour started at one of the most famous landmarks in the city – the Notre-Dame Basilica, which is impossible to describe in words. The

outside of the building is modeled on English architecture, while the inside is French. Attracting around one million visitors every year, the Basilica is a marvel of architecture and a place of beauty and reverence.

I have read that there are many other churches throughout the city worth visiting, and not nearly as busy as this one. That is another advantage of winter travelling – the crowds are just not the same during toque weather.

While we were marveling at the building itself and waiting for our tour to start, my eye caught a statue on the edge of the area called Place D’Armes. Upon further investigation, it was a man, with a huge prosthetic nose stuck up in the air, holding a small dog. Just 210 feet away, was a woman, also with a huge prosthetic nose stuck up in the air, holding a different small dog. In a city filled with monuments commemorating dashing historical figures, the modern clothing and stance of these two characters seemed out of place – not to mention the noses, obviously tied on with a string.

The accompanying plaque explained one of the most interesting monuments I came across…. “The English Pug and the French Poodle” was inspired by the Commedia dell’arte and Two Solitudes from novelist Hugh MacLennan. “The English man, holding his pug, is staring at the symbol of French power, the Notre-Dame Basilica, while the French woman, in her Chanel suit and French poodle, is staring toward the symbol of English power – the Bank of Montreal’s head office. The two dogs, however, have eyes only for each other. These two snobs set up an ironically touching scene of the cultural distance between English and French Canadians.”

You can see them for yourself here: https://artpublic montreal.ca/en /oeuvre/the-english-pug-and-thefrench-poodle/ There are many monuments throughout the old part of the city, rich in meaning about the history and people of one of Canada’s largest cities. If you take the time to look – you will see tributes to the farmers,

Kate Procter nurses, teachers, business leaders, as well as the soldiers, generals, and First Nations people who all contributed to the development of the country we know today. I was struck by the number of monuments honouring the women who played major roles in the developing country. Nurses and teachers, they were credited with educating and developing hospitals, building a foundation for the people who followed.

The amazing architecture throughout the old city is also fascinating. One building had stones brought from Scotland for construction – as if we didn’t have enough stones already here! Another caught my eye – the “Molson Bank”, which apparently had its own Molson currency. It was founded in 1855 and operated until 1925, when it merged with the Bank of Montreal. Who knew that beer brewing, which John Molson began in 1786 in Montreal, would be big enough to have its own currency!? The Bank of Montreal located at 3 King St. S, Waterloo, Ontario was originally a Molson Bank, built in 1914, and is listed in the Registry of Historical Places in Canada.

Visiting and learning about new places adds colour to my knowledge of Canadian history. It takes the vague black and white pictures from my memory of high school text books and makes it a lot more real. It helps me gain an appreciation for the struggles and hardships that our ancestors went through, not to mention their incredible ingenuity and bravery.

As crop farmers, winter is a time for planning, getting equipment repaired and tuned up for the next season, and dealing with stuff that fell through the cracks during the hectic cropping season. If you can swing it, getting away for a change of scenery can be one of the best ways to get revitalized and energized for the upcoming season. Reflecting on the people who braved the travel, and the unknowns, leaving behind loved ones and comfort, and all they did to get us where we are today also helps to put our modern day complaints (like a wet harvest) in perspective. ◊

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

Fannie Merritt Farmer knew how to cook I hadn’t heard of Fannie Merritt Farmer until I picked up a copy of her cookbook – one of millions printed – at the Presbyterian Church a couple years ago during Dresden’s town-wide yard sale.

I remember the two women at the time, chuckling at my purchase. I had the impression that they were either skeptical of my culinary skills or viewed my choice as being out of fashion.

Fannie, however, may never go out of fashion and remains as relevant today as she ever was.

Having referenced her cooking book numerous times over the past months, I’ve found the recipes live up to their reputation as having been “tried and tested” – Fannie’s words – something of a rarity with today’s cookbooks that are published primarily as entertainment rather than to be used in a practical way.

Julia Child, please step to one side. Martha Stewart, incarceration suited you. Miss Farmer rules.

Born in 1857, Fannie had a rough

start to life. Ill health, in what was described as a paralytic stroke, took her out of school. Her parents (people of some means it would seem) later enrolled her in the Boston School of Cooking where she evidently excelled. Upon graduation in 1889, she was asked to stay on as the assistant director and five years later headed the school despite the continuing fragile state of her health.

In 1902, Fannie and the Boston School of Cooking, an institution founded by the Women’s Educational Association of Boston, parted ways and Fannie spent a year at Harvard and also founded Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery.

The Boston School of Cooking, incidentally, was folded into Simmons College, now Simmons University, where food and nutrition remain an important part of the educational programming.

The cookbook that would earn her so much fame was first published in 1896 with 10 editions following before Fannie’s passing at the age of 57. Revised editions continued to be published on an almost yearly basis, including my 1951 edition, The New Fannie Farmer Boston CookingSchool Cook Book.

Fannie is credited with having helped developed (she certainly played a pivotal role in popularizing) the system of standard measurements for cooking. She also goes to considerable length to describe ingredients, cooking utensils, methodology and information about planning ahead for family or guests.

She also understood the importance of food to healthy living.

Here is what she had to say in the

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preface to the first edition: “I certainly feel that the time is not far distant when a knowledge of the principles of diet will be an essential part of one’s education. Then mankind will eat to live, will be able to do better mental and physical

This particular version of Fannie Farmer’s cookbook came out in 1922.

work, and disease will be less frequent.”

Fannie’s book has become my goto place to back up my decisions when I cook from scratch and am not entirely sure of the steps to be taken.

I’ve also followed a number of her recipes quite closelu and have yet to register a disaster when having done so.

There are literally hundreds of recipes contained in my volume, nearly 900 pages in length. The recipes reflect what foods were widely available at the turn of the 20th century and seasonal patterns of consumption. As such, Fannie remains an important voice today, a time when a large part of the population supports ideas like “eating local” and “the 100-mile diet”.

Her cook book is also a good fit with our backyard garden. When there’s a large flush of any particular vegetable or small fruit, I turn to Fannie. She’ll know that to do. ◊

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

“So, what’s that about?” George McKenzie asked Dave Winston after he watched him stop to pin a note to the bulletin board at Mabel’s Grill before he arrived at the table for the catch-up coffee session on a recent morning.

“I’m selling my snowmobile,” said Dave.

“Kind of the wrong time of the year to be selling a snowmobile, isn’t it?” asked Cliff Murray.

“Probably as good a chance to have enough snow in March to use it as there has been the rest of the winter,” grumbled Dave. “I think I started it once and ran it around the yard for five minutes. I think I hit gravel five times.”

“Well I’m glad we’ve had a winter like this,” said Molly Whiteside as she filled the guys’

coffee cups. “I suppose you’d have preferred what they got in Newfoundland back in January.”

“No, you can have too much of a good thing,” admitted Dave.

“I didn’t see many pictures of people on snowmobiles in Newfoundland,” said Cliff.

“Probably because their machines were buried in snow,” laughed George.

“The only fun I saw was those guys snowboarding down the street,” said Cliff.

“Yeah, well there were times this winter when we had more rain than snow. I’d have been better off with a surf board than a snowmobile,” complained Dave.

“No please, stick with the snowmobile,” said Molly, eyeing the extra weight Dave had packed on over the winter. “That body in a snowmobile suit I can take. The idea of you in a swimsuit is more than my mind wants to process.”

“Who’d have thought a few years ago that you’d have winters around here where you wouldn’t get enough snow to use a snowmobile,” said

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George, shaking his head.

“Yeah, every fall I ask myself if it’s worth buying insurance for the machine and I keep saying surely this winter there has to be snow,” said Dave. “That snowmobile is one of the worst investments I ever made.”

“Obviously you didn’t buy cannabis stocks,” said Cliff. “Talk about your money going up in smoke. I read that Aurora Cannabis wrote down the value of their stock by a billion dollars.”

“What I can’t figure out is why so many people invested so much money in pot stocks in the first place?” wondered Molly. “Did they figure that as soon as marijuana was legalized everybody would start using it?”

“With how much investors bid up cannabis stocks they must have thought we were all going to be high 24 hours a day,” said Cliff.

“Now me, if I’m going to make an investment I want it to be like that watch that guy down in the States bought,” said Molly.

“What’s that about?” asked George.

“Well this guy brought back this Rolex watch in 1974 while he was serving in Vietnam,” explained Molly. “He paid $345 which was almost a month’s army pay back then, but after he got this fancy watch he thought it was too nice to wear everyday so he put it away, still in the original box. He went on Antiques Roadshow to find out what it was worth and they told him because of its like-new condition it was worth $700,000. He nearly fainted.”

“Now that’s the kind of investment I want!” said Dave.

“Well you can buy a similar watch for only $17,000 today,” said Molly.

“Ouch! Now that’s inflation!” said Cliff.

“Then all you have to do is wait 56 years!” laughed George.

“What I can’t figure out is who would pay $700,000 for this watch?” wondered Dave.

“Maybe some guy who sold pot stock when it was high,” said Cliff.

“Or somebody with too much money who was high on pot,” suggested George. ◊

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Viewpoint Gary Kenny is retired from a career in international human rights, is a writer and resident of Grey County.

Encroachment in the name of glory, gold and God Recently a short essay was shared on Facebook that’s profoundly pertinent to the climate-crisis times in which we live. The essay laments what befell the Inuit people with the 16th century coming of Europeans to their windswept Arctic land. It’s author is Inuit lawyer, Sandra Inutiq.

As with the traditional lands of all First Peoples in the Americas, Inuit territory was encroached upon by

Europeans in the name of “glory, gold, and God” or some such epithet.

They primarily saw in the land “resources” – caribou meat, whale oil, dried fish, and eventually fossil fuels and precious minerals – to be exploited for commercial gain.

To the Inuit, Inutiq writes, nature regarded as a warehouse of consumable commodities was entirely alien. Like Indigenous peoples elsewhere, they understood themselves as stewards, not owners, of the land. What they harvested from the land was regarded, not in a utilitarian manner, but with the deepest of reverence.

The Inuit lived in sacred relationship to the land and understood it, deeply intuitively, as part of their very being. “I am the land” is a commonly-held spiritual expression among First Nations communities. In Inutiq’s poetic words, “Streams and rivers are our veins, rushing through our bodies.”

So what does all this have to do with the apparently growing calamity of global warming? Actually, a lot.

Those early Europeans carried

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with them a deeply embedded understanding of the natural world as something wholly other than, and inferior to, themselves as humans. It is this human-nature divide, this selfimposed alienation from nature, that has taken Western civilization down a path of possible global environmental catastrophe.

Historically, religion and philosophy provided convenient justifications for the separation of humans from nature in Western culture. As Christianity developed, humans were re-positioned outside of nature. Genesis 1:28, for example, came to be interpreted as God having given humans licence to “subdue” and have “dominion” over “every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” For early Christians, however, the sacred was found throughout nature in which humanity was thoroughly enmeshed.

In the secular realm, the work of 17th century French philosopher René Descartes was enormously influential in shaping modern ideas of science and how Western society views human and animal identities.

He framed the world as essentially split between the realm of mind and that of inert matter. As the only rational beings, humans were viewed as altogether separate from and superior to everything in nature.

Values such as these laid the foundations of modern anthropocentrism, a system of beliefs that elevates humans above the nonhuman world.

Contemporary philosopher Val Plumwood was among the first to suggest this disintegrated values system underlies the world’s environmental crises. The very term “natural resources” implies that the earth’s fabric holds no value apart from what it provides us with, Plumwood says.

Because of their close association with nature, Indigenous peoples like Inutiq’s Inuit were lumped in with the not-fully human. Their objectification and treatment as “other” made it acceptable for Europeans to exploit them also. They and other Native societies were hobbled by a European belief system that tried to sever their relationship with nature in

Viewpoint the interest of advancing an oppressive colonial agenda.

Today, governments and corporations have immense control over the natural systems they exploit, and they are destabilizing the chemistry of the earth’s climate. So are those of us living unsustainable lifestyles. We know the cost: inhospitable global heat, massive wild fires, prolonged droughts, crop failures, rising seas, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events – trends that could render millions of people refugees.

It can be difficult for those of us weaned on a worldview of “humans versus nature” to understand the world more holistically. But there is good news. Right relationship with nature as an over-arching global ethic can be restored.

Economist and philosopher Charles Eisenstein has called for a “living earth” narrative that views the earth not as a dead rock with extractable resources, but as a living system whose health depends on the wellbeing of its “organs and tissues” – its wetlands, meadows, forests, seagrasses, coral reefs, mangrove swamps, and more.

Strong vestiges of that way of seeing and living still exist within global Indigenous cultures like Inutiq’s Inuit, or closer to home, members of Six Nations Reserve near Brantford and Saugeen First Nation near Southampton. We can learn from Native people like them.

They might just represent our ultimate salvation from ourselves.

Education, especially of children and youth, is vital. Nature schools where forests and other natural settings are viewed as classrooms hold great promise. We need more of them. Mainstream elementary and secondary schools can integrate nature immersion exercises into their curricula. Higher education courses across disciplines can be redesigned to deepen the relationship to nature of those about to enter the workforce.

To truly bring ourselves into right relationship and harmony with the natural world, we must return to seeing humanity as part of it and it as part of ourselves. ◊

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Beekeeping

Having your honey...and eating it too Beekeepers and academics are teaching backyard beekeepers the tricks of the trade

• By Linaya Pot • The University of Guelph is home to the Honey Bee Research Centre which has noted the increased popularity in backyard beekeeping and offers weekend tours of the centre’s hives to teach beekeepers while the Guelph Organic Conference dedicated an entire day of workshops to teach new and experienced beekeepers how to maintain healthy hives.

B

eekeeping in Ontario has experienced a surge in popularity over the past 10 years, with the number of registered beekeepers in Ontario growing by almost 40 per cent since 2008. No one is quite sure where to attribute the cause of this increased popularity. Some have suggested it may be due to increased public awareness of the declining pollinator populations; others suggesting it’s due to a resurgence of back-to-nature trends. Despite the lack of a definitive source, the increased attention is felt by the industry and academic world alike.

“This facility has been open since 1982,” says Paul Kelly of the University of Guelph’s Honey Bee Research Centre, where Kelly works as the research and apiary 16 The Rural Voice

manager. “Yet we’ve been getting a lot more recognition and attention in recent years.”

Likewise, the agriculture industry has felt similar effects from the increased popularity. In response, the 2020 Guelph Organic Conference, hosted at the University, dedicated an entire day’s worth of workshops to information and issues concerning beekeeping.

Rick Pacini, one of the beekeeping workshop speakers at the Guelph Organic Conference, suggested that it is simply a great hobby to have. “This is one of those times where you can have your cake (or in this case honey) and eat it too,” he touts. He points out that any work you put into your hives not only benefits the bees and the plants, but also benefits you by boosting honey production.

Pacini himself has fallen in love with the hobby of beekeeping. Over the past five years, he has grown his beekeeping enterprise from two hives in the backyard of his Toronto home into over 40 hives located on multiple lots. He also points out that in this hobby, the trickiest part of the work – converting nectar into honey – is done for us.

“Honey bees have been making honey for thousands of years,” quips Pacini to those attending the conference. “It’s arrogant to think we are the ones who need to direct these bees what to do. I just need to give them the right habitat and do my best to help them with pest management.”

Unfortunately for beekeepers, this still represents a significant amount of labour. Kelly cautioned about the amount of work the hobby entails. “It seems like a simple transaction – buy some bees, set up a hive, take some honey and leave some for bees,” he says. However, he warned that it takes a lot of work and excellent management techniques to keep these bees alive.

“On average, a honey bee hive in the wild is only able to stay alive for two years”, he says, citing high pest loads as the main cause for hive death in both wild and farmed bees.

One pest, the varroa destructor, are particularly detrimental for beekeepers due to their ability to decimate entire hives.

“These mites puncture both the pupae and the adults to draw out nutrition from the bee,” Kelly explains. Historically, it was thought that these mites were feeding on the bee’s blood, but recent research shows that these mites are actually feeding on a honeybee organ called the fat body.

“These fat bodies are not only how the bee stores its energy, but it also impacts the bee’s immune system – so it’s absolutely the worst thing these mites could be eating,” emphasizes Kelly. Not only does the mite deplete these vital food storages, but the entry wound created by the mite also serves as a vector point for other viruses and pathogens to enter the bee’s body. Additionally, losing this fat body tissue impairs both the bee’s ability to mount an immune response and detoxify pesticides.

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“These mites have a triple-threat attack on the bees,” says Kelly.

This is a problem that every beekeeper will need to prepare and manage for, due to the pervasiveness of the mite in Ontario hives. “Almost every hive will have a varroa presence,” Kelly says. Unfortunately for the beekeepers, they are not easy to spot. They are relatively inconspicuous in colour and their

small size makes then hard to spot by the human eye. Kelly warned against being complacent about preventative treatments just because a mite infestation isn’t easily visible. Since these mites can grow exponentially within a hive, even just a small number of unnoticed mites left unchecked in the spring can quickly grow to a dangerous level that jeopardizes the survival of a hive.

These sentiments from Kelly were echoed by Pacini at the Organic conference. “If you don’t keep your mite population numbers down, your hive will most likely be dead or abandoned in a year or two,” says Pacini of the mites. “These pests are the biggest challenge we face in beekeeping. So learn about your bees, but spend more time learning about pests.”

Due to the large negative effect that varroa mites can have on apiaries, the Honey Bee Research Centre’s goals largely focus on bee health and pest management. Their long-term goal involves breeding lines of bees that are naturally resistant to pests, so the bees will be able to fight off the pest themselves.

However, this goal is years away from fruition. The centre’s short-term research goals include developing products and treatments for beekeepers to help with pest management. They have recently developed a formula and application method for a product derived from the essential oils of the thyme plant to help reduce the pest load in honeybees. Kelly says they are working with the Ontario Beekeepers Association to get the product registered, though he cautions it will still take a while until it’s available to the public. he University of Guelph isn’t the only one looking to plants as a natural source for products to combat pests. Plants produce biologically active compounds, also known as phytochemicals, which the plant uses as a defence mechanism against predators and pathogens.

Because of the co-evolution between bees and plants, some bees can tolerate and even benefit from the ingestion of phytochemicals as they consume pollen and nectar.

This was the focus of Fran Freeman’s workshop at the Guelph Organic Conference, which highlighted research that focused on these plant-sourced phytochemicals, their beneficial properties and how they could potentially be used to support bee health. This is of special interest for Freeman, who manages the apiaries at Humber College and the Humber Arboretum, and whose business “sticky bees urban

T

Paul Kelly (above) research and apiary manager of the University of Guelph’s Honey Bee Research Centre, says learning about bee disease, such as varroa mites, goes a long way to maintaining healthy hives such as the ones, above, at the university apiary. (You can see a varroa mite on one of the bees in the story cover photo, page 16.)

18 The Rural Voice

honey’focuses on honey production from sustainable and natural sources.

Freeman suggested that research indicates bees can “self-medicate” by sourcing pollen and nectar from plants producing specific phytochemicals that will help the bee fight against both pests and pathogens. For example, a study involving feeding phytochemicals to bees found that the treated bees exhibited reduced levels of the Deformed wing virus. The study’s author proposed that flowers could serve as “seasonally varied, serially consumed pollinator medicine.”

While plant phytochemicals are certainly known to have a variety of antibacterial, antifungal and/or antiviral properties, the relationship between bee health and phytochemicals is still not widely understood. owever, for those wanting to capture the potential benefits of plant phytochemicals, Freeman had many suggestions for types of flowers and trees to plant.

What she stressed the most was the importance of plant diversity. “It isn’t a matter having a specific, magical plant present for the bees.

It’s the diversity that is really important.” She suggested that this diversity could allow for phytochemicals from different plants to work synergistically together, as well as the additional benefit of having different plants flowering at different times to ensure a continual source of blooms.

Freeman provided an extensive list of valuable plants to have surrounding your hives, including sunflowers, white clover, goldenrod, sumac, berry bushes and witch-hazel.

Medicinal herbs also topped her list of recommendations, such as thyme, catnip and oregano.

She recommended planting these herbs in larger swaths, as having only a few plants may not suffice to attract the bees.

She particularly recommended planting plants from the borage family, which can become crucially important in the dearth period. A dearth period is a time when there is a lack of nectar flow, such as in the hot summers when plants are dry.

Borage flowers are an excellent plant to help sustain the bees over this period since they produce lots of nectar, as well as being adaptable to a wide range of growing conditions.

Freeman recommended planting borage plants about three weeks apart, so the plants produce flowers sequentially for a continual source of blooms.

Although Freeman’s recommendations are based on a more

urban approach to beekeeping, many of these plants are important to rural beekeepers as well. Most of these plants, including the goldenrod, sumac and berry bushes, are commonly found on the borders of farmlands – and it is within these peripheral areas that bees flourish.

“Despite what people may think, bees actually do very well in rural areas,” Kelly said when asked about beekeeping from a rural perspective.

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“Look at the fringes of your farmlands, or areas of land that are less profitable, or not workable fence lines, ditches, bush lots and wet areas – and consider planting or naturalizing these areas for bees.”

He, too, encourages diversity when planting, to provide not only a variety of nutrients and metabolites for the bees, but also to ensure a range of flowering seasons. He also comments that these areas, once naturalized, will naturally promote the growth of a variety of plants that are great for bees.

However, he did caution that not all agricultural situations are ideal for bee colonies. Areas such as large cash-crop enterprises of wheat, corn and soybeans, that tend to have fields planted right up to the roads with minimal spaces between, are not the ideal habitat for bees. “Unfortunately, these three big crops are not really utilized by honeybees,” says Kelly, “and they don’t really succeed in these areas.” hether rural or urban, the best piece of advice Kelly can give to those wanting to start out in beekeeping would be to educate themselves. While there is a large amount of online resources available, he recommends a more practical approach to learning.

“Nothing beats a hands-on beekeeping course from a qualified instructor,” he says, while putting emphasis on the qualified part. “Due to the recent popularity of the hobby, there are a lot of people out there who will want to teach you about bees – so just make sure they are qualified.”

Thankfully, the Honey Bee Research Centre is doing its part to contribute quality informational resources for those interested in beekeeping. They have created a series of YouTube videos based on a wide range of beekeeping topics that are helpful, concise and factual. They are based on years of real-world experience and scientific evidence.

These videos have reached audiences worldwide, with the most-watched video boasting over 600,000 views.

For those interested in learning more, the videos are online at the Honey Bee Research Centre webpage: https://honeybee.uoguelph.ca/ ◊

W

Rick Pacini (right) of Toronto started with two hives and quickly fell in love with beekeeping. He now has over 40 hives on different lots near the city (above) Pacini was a featured speaker at the Guelph Organic Conference and said as long as we give bees the right habitat and help with pest management, they know what to do!

Fran Freeman (above) who manages the apiaries at Humber College in Toronto, also spoke at the Guelph Organic Conference. She has a specific interest in plant-sourced phytochemicals and how giving bees the right plants such as sunflowers, white clover, goldenrod, sumac, berry bushes and witchhazel can support bee health.

March 2020 21

Dairy

Your farm is the best recruitment tool but employees need to feel valued to retain them

Keeping employees: Find something to celebrate

Ben Loewith (left) of Joe Loewith & Sons dairy farms near Ancaster along with Lloyd Holterman of Rosy Lane Holsteins in Wisconsin were members of a dairy panel on employee management and engagement at Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Dairy Day held in January in Elmwood. Also joining the panel was OMAFRA’s Mark Ferguson, who is a Farm Business Specialist.

• By Lisa B. Pot •

F

inding employees to fill positions on dairy farms and then keeping them has been a struggle in today’s labour market. So how do two successful dairy farms manage it?

It comes down to recruitment, relationship, good benefits and finding a role an employees does well at said Ben Loewith, manager at Joe Loewith and Sons Ltd., near Lyndon, Ontario and Lloyd Holterman of Rosy Lane Holsteins in the state of Wisconsin. Both men were featured speakers on a Farm Labour Management and Engagement Panel at Dairy Day during Grey Bruce 22 The Rural Voice

Farmer’s Week held in January.

Mark Ferguson, a Farm Business Specialist with OMAFRA was also part of the panel. The panel was facilitated by Marie Paibomesai, a dairy specialist with OMAFRA. Loewith said their family farm has been employing nonfamily employees for 50 years and they recently hired two workers from the Philipines to milk 50 hours per week.

They employ four full-time workers plus 16 part-time (less than 30 hours per week). The family and employees milk 480 cows three times a day in a double-16 parallel parlour.

Rosy Lane has two full-time, non-family managers and multiple part-time employees to milk 950 cattle in a double-12 parlour, three times a day.

The first task when hiring is to find employees. How do you recruit?

Loewith: â&#x20AC;&#x153;In my experience, the best people come from getting the word out with your present employees. They tend to come prevetted, then. We find the quality of applicants tends to be much better and they also know what the expectations of the job are before they come to the interview. I still always interview so that I have control over the process.â&#x20AC;?

Holterman: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think the best recruitment is your own farm. Neat and organized (attracts) employees.

Plus, we have all our employees wear Rosy Lane shirts and we hear, from people in town, that our employees are good. Also, we pay well, give our employees a chance and offer opportunity for advancement.â&#x20AC;?

What is involved in the interview process?

Loewith: â&#x20AC;&#x153;First we have a phone call to talk about the bare bones of the operation. Then we ask for a rĂŠsumĂŠ. When we do the interview, it helps to have two people present.

This way I can ask questions and the other takes notes. I have a list of things to cover in the interview and I ask open-ended questions, such as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Tell me what happened at your last job when you got frustrated.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;?

Holterman: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We interview each person more than once. We look for solid people and not ones who are moving from a long way away with baggage. We hire slow and fire fast.

It sounds bad but if the job is not for them and they do not perform or do not like it, we let them move on with dignity.â&#x20AC;?

Do you offer a trial to see how they do?

Loewith: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think you have three months to let someone go. After their first shift, I will sit with them and ask how they found it. They are often worried that they are too slow and I always say I would be shocked if they were not slow at first. In the beginning I just teach them three things â&#x20AC;&#x201C; how to strip out cows, line up the milker and attach it. Just three things. If you throw too much at them, they will not remember.

Holterman: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important is to see if they like it. If they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like the job, they will not do their best. I

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24 The Rural Voice

don’t hire people from other farms because they have bad habits and we expect perfection from our milkers.

So I don’t like people to touch a cow until they are trained. They spend a lot of time with a mentor and Jordan (manager) will not let guys into the parlour for two weeks.”

Ferguson: “You can have new recruits come to the farm and do a little assessment beforehand as well.

It is a good idea to verify if they have familiarity with farming. Part of recruiting for a busines is assessing if they can do the job and will they be a good team member for the organization. Having them work a few hours allows them to see what the job is like and helps set their expectations.”

What are your onboarding processes?

Loewith: “Most of my hires work in the milking parlour. When I train someone there are four people in the parlour. The employee’s job is to watch how I clean cows, why I do it and how I do it. This goes on for an hour and then he does it for an hour while I watch his technique. It is mind-numbing and boring training people but it is the best time spent to make sure they get the basics right.”

Holterman: We spend a lot of onboarding time talking about safety.

Not only does it save people from missing work at the farm but it also sets an expectation of doing quality work and not taking chances. It sets the tone for the operation – we do quality work and we do it safely.

Do you have documentation?

How do you promote the culture of the farm?

Loewith: “When we hire, we go through the mission statement. We go through it systematically. Also, they go through Workplace Hazardous Material Information System (WHMIS) training before they start milking. There is also a sexual harassment/religion/ethnicity document they have to sign off on.

As well as an animal welfare document.”

Holterman: “Every one of our employees has to sign and read the policy and employee manual ... in their own language. Communication is vital so that expectations and lines are clear. We also have policies

Ben Loewith says new employees at his family’s dairy farm often get recruited via existing employees, which gives both sides an advantage — these recruits are often pre-vetted and they have an understanding of what the job entails before the initial interview. ~Facebook photo

because there is no room for racism or sexism.”

Loewith: “I wanted to add that this year, we had a potluck so that everyone could try each other’s food.

We had one worker from India. We found it really humanizes everybody even when you cannot understand each other’s language.”

Holterman: “That’s great. Doing things like that puts out messages to the broader community and can help you find new employees. It helps people be happier at work and perform the best they can. At the end of the day, your farm gets recognized as a good place to work.”

Is there are difference between male and female when hiring milkers?

Loewith: “If you have so many applicants applying that you can choose, wow. We are happy just to have applicants! We do find most of our applicants are women because it’s a part-time job. Particularly adult women. The only difference I see is that men have an easier time working with someone they do not like. But with females, I find that they will find a flaw with someone professionally when they do not like someone personally.”

Holterman: “We are equal opportunity employers but I will say

when a person zeroes in on something they enjoy, they will do better. We have some people who are happier fixing things and they tolerate milking cows. In the calf barn, we have mostly women right now.”

How about staff meetings and checking progress?

Loewith: “We don’t have formal meetings with the milkers because with so many part-time staff, it’s hard to get their schedules to jive. I do constantly talk to more senior members to ask how a new hire is working out. I also watch our computer software to check for reattaches, and low flow rates and I look for patterns where the numbers are different than anyone else’s. If their flow rate is lower than everyone else, then I will have a chat with them. For the full-time staff, we have a yearly review. Individually, I talk about where they did well, where they can improve and we talk about salary. I actually make a list of where they can improve and then give it to them a day before the meeting. I do that because they either nod or get defensive and it’s not a ‘gotcha’ meeting.”

Holterman: “A staff meeting should be part celebration. We achieved a productiob level of 45 March 2020 25

litres per cow so we stopped to tell everyone that this was great, thank you and keep up the good work. As to meetings, they happen quite often for safety. Manager Tim has a safety meeting with everybody who drives a truck to remind them to be nice to the neighbours by slowing down and waving. We have time for that. We

do not have time for accidents. We want our neighbours to know we are respectful.”

In rural Ontario, not too many people are looking for a job. When do you call it reviewing or when do you call it nitpicking?

Loewith: “Sometimes we get donuts from vendors and they are in

Lloyd Holterman (second from right) of Rosy Lane Holsteins in Wisconsin says that it’s wise to promote a culture of excellence right from the beginning of hiring someone. Employees will rise to meet it and those who cannot handle that kind of culture will leave. He is pictured here with his two full-time managers and his wife Daphne, who also plays an integral role at the dairy farm. ~Photo supplied

the lunch room. Sometimes chocolate melts off the donuts. My Uncle suggested we tell the employees to eat the glazed donuts because they melt. Then eat the other donuts. I asked him, ‘Do you think it’s possible we are micro-managing the staff?’ When there is an issue, I hardly ever mention it unless it happens more than once. Stuff happens. If it’s a chronic issue, I will mention it. Bear in mind there is huge difference between process and outcome. If all the claws get washed, who cares how they do it.”

Holterman: “You have to pick your battles. If we get higher somatic cell counts, for example, we will tell it to everyone. We are careful not to point the finger. But if it affects the farm, it affects the ability to make profits and share the wealth. We find that a culture of excellence seeps through people and those who cannot handle that culture stay behind. Also, the value of a standard operating procedure (SOP) is that it puts the pressure on management (to manage).”

How do you retain employees?

What is the number one reward and challenge to manage farm labour?

Loewith: “Our number one challenge is that a part-time workforce is transient by nature.

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experience and they get $18 per hour which is rising to more than $20 this month. The best thing we do to maintain staff is to find something to celebrate each year. One year we got a food truck to come in because we did not lose a single heifer calf in hutches that year. It was a free food truck. People like to work for a successful operation. Find something to celebrate.”

Holterman: “The key to retention, in my view, is making people feel appreciated. Never mistake intelligence with education. We hired Julio from Mexico and he is the best cow guy we ever had. He checks all the cows and does all the breeding with only a highschool education. Because Julio is doing higher-level work, we pay him a lot more. We pay Julio like he is a king. So have confidence in people and move them up. Teach them how to do ultrasound and how to breed.”

Ferguson: “This is nothing new but take into consideration that a good wage makes employees feel valued and appreciated at work.” ◊

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28 The Rural Voice

Vegetables

Plant-based foods a hot topic at conference Vegetable growers expressed their skepticism over plant-based “meats” at industry conference Leslie Ewing, the Executive Director of Plant-Based Foods Canada said the organization wasn’t created to vilify other goods. Many of its members play both sides of the fence. While she believes the time for plant-based foods has come, she told vegetable growers at their annual conference held in January in London that all foods fit.

• By Lisa B. Pot •

D

espite the fact that they grow vegetables, it seemed many attendees at the Ontario Processing Vegetable Industry conference held

in London January 28 were less than thrilled with the lack of information on the amount of processing plant-based foods such as the Beyond Burger go through.

“I’ve been reading that a lot of plant-based foods are so processed that they aren’t good for you,” stated one grower at the meeting, after hearing Leslie Ewing, Executive Director of Plant-Based Foods Canada organization, speak.

“The word processed gets a bad rap,” says Ewing, whose presentation was about the evolution and future of plant-based foods. She was careful right from the start to point out that she wasn’t there to “vilify” other foods. She said while plant-based food’s time has come, they are part of the whole food picture. “All foods fit. We promote

plant-based foods. We do not throw other foods under the bus.”

Her reply to the processing issue was careful, however.

“Not all processing is bad,” she said. “I am not going to stand up here and say one product is better than another.

The meat analogues (plant-based foods intended to look, taste and feel like meat) are trying to replicate beef or pork or chicken. That is their intended purpose.”

One savvy grower in the crowd said if eating habits are heading toward plant-based foods, then what plants should they be growing?

Ewing answered that makers of plant-based foods are already seeing supply issues with peas and soybeans.

However, because so many new products are coming out and companies are exploring many plant protein sources, she did not have a definitive answer of what is the best crop to grow. However, a meeting in May of the PlantBased Foods Canada Organization may reveal what the next big ingredient will be.

March 2020 29

Before the crowd responded with comments and questions to her talk, Ewing gave a background of the organization to explain why it was formed and what its goals are. She acknowledged that plant-based foods are a hot topic right now and suggested that “their time has come.”

Plant-Based Foods Canada was started to address regulatory reform and produce plant-based food products. The organization includes farmers, retailers and processing companies including Upfield, Earth’s Way, Daiya, Beyond Meat, Greenlead, Danone and Green Space Brands. “This is just a smattering of who is involved. There has been a massive interest in being part of a collective voice,” she said.

Regulatory issues are the number one priority. Education is a close second because there is still a lack of understanding over what plant-based foods are. “We wanted to have a narrative,” said Ewing. “There is a lot of misinformation out there.”

There’s also a lot of conflicting opinions and emotional reactions.

Consequently, Ewing says anyone

“In the last 18 months, there has been a tsunami of demand looking for plant-based products.” ~Leslie Ewing

who wants to be part of this organization is heavily vetted by her because the organization is considered a “moderate”. Ewing said it has a membership of companies that “play both sides”.

And, she said, it is not all about Beyond Meat though they definitely are a huge player in the conversation as McDonalds and other fast food

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chains have started selling their product. Tim Hortons was also selling a Beyond Meat product but cancelled its partnership with the brand due to lack of sales.

As to definition, Ewing said people who choose to identify as plant-based may eat meat, eggs and dairy. They just choose to eat plantbased foods more often. They can be vegetarians but mostly, they are flexitarians or “meat-reducers”.

Ewing presented a number of slides from a questionnaire conducted by the organization revealing: -- one quarter of Canadians claim to be eating a plant-based diet -- 63 per cent of Canadians have a positive viewpoint towards plantbased foods -- it’s not just Generation Z or millenials driving the plant-based movement; there is a lot of acceptance among 35 to 54-year-olds -- there is a willingness among most eaters to expand their diets; “it’s about an AND not an OR,” said Ewing.

What is driving the interest?

Changes in Canada’s Food Guide have certainly put more emphasis on plant-based eating but societal change from the food guide will be seen generationally as kids get taught from the new guide in school.

People, now, are influenced by celebrities promoting plant-based foods and a focus on health and the environment. The “saving the planet” mentality plays a role, says Ewing.

Also, Canada itself is promoting plant-based protein options with funding for ”super clusters” to grow Canada as a powerhouse in the plant protein arena.

Ultimately, though, it is consumers driving the plant-protein market, says Ewing. “In the last 18 months, there has been a tsunami of demand looking for plant-based products,” she said. “People will tell you they are doing it for their health while 37 per cent say they are doing it to save the animals and 33 per cent are choosing plants for sustainability and the environment.” With activists like Greta Thunberg taking stage calling for change to protect the world, countries the world over are investing in alternative proteins to

meat. Other plant-based products It started with soybeans and now reduce what is perceived (rightly or wrongly) as the negative may resemble the form of meat but food companies are using peas, environmental impact of traditional are not intended to replicate the almonds, hazelnuts, oats and hemp farming. appearance, taste or aroma of real which are the fastest growing Like many things, plant-based meat. Should that be labelled? ingredient, particularly in non-dairy eating could be a fad. Ewing doesn’t One grower in the audience came milk. think so. “When you have actual right out and accused plant-based Definitions: What is protein? signs on the product companies of identity theft.

How can a cafeteria floor at “Ask kids to open a dictionary and consumer identify Q u e e n ’ s look up chicken or beef. You will not products? Where University see plant-based meats there. You are should they be “Ask kids to suggesting that stealing names!” he said. merchandised? legumes are a “That is a complicated Should they sit on open a great source of conversation,” Ewing said in shelves with dictionary and protein, then this response. “There are clear rules in traditional protein look up chicken isn’t a fad,” said Canada on what you can and cannot sources?

Ewing. label things. However, it is one of the Skills and or beef. You will When talking things that was not considered before T e c h n o l o g y : not see plantabout plant-based we ended up in this place.”

From inputs based meats foods, one cannot She admitted there has been through to ignore the impact kickback from the meat industry. preparation, where there. You are of the Beyond Canadian meat producers have filed and how are these stealing names!”

Meat burger. an official complaint against Beyond products being ~Vegetable Ewing said what is Meat for using the word “meat” in its prepared? If a interesting about producer at labelling and misleading consumers. restaurant cooks a its approach is that “There is work to be done,” Beyond Burger in conference when A&W (the admits Ewing. “It’s a challenge the same skillet as first fast food because what do we call the products a real meat patty, chain restaurant to and where should they be placed in can it really be a offer it), it was the store?” Part of the goal of the plant-based food? marketed as Beyond Meat, rather organization she leads is to find Labelling: Trade wars have been than following a trademarked A&W answers to those questions. fought over labelling. How do new name. “This shared advertising built Looking forward, Ewing repeated plant-based products get labelled and phenomenal awareness and got that she doesn’t see a time when is the word “plant-based” enough to everybody talking,” said Ewing. consumers will not eat meat. What let consumers know it does not come Other fast food chains soon followed. she sees is a consumer base that from animals? The Beyond Burger, Ewing said it became a race for chooses to purchase plant-based for instance, is a “meat analogue” fast food chains to come out with the foods more often. ◊ made to look, taste and feel like real products and social media was driving the growth via Instagram.

COME SEE US AT THE BMO CENTRE - MARCH 4-6, 2020 People trying a plant-based burger BOOTH #708 OR CONTACT US FOR A COMPLETE for the first time were SPRING PLANTING PROGRAM instagramming it, in a process called “earned media.” Ewing said another interesting fact was that customers buying the plant-based products were new customers. “A key thing is that meat sales did not go down. It was bringing in new customers. There was not a wholesale shift in their customer base.”

Now that plant-based meat analogues and other products are out there and readily available, other issues are starting to arise from ingredient supply to naming.

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Berries

Sea Buckthorn, the Citrus of the North

Marlene Wynnyk is a 74-year-old entrepreneur with the passion of a youthful hippie who grows sea buckthorn berries on her Wingham-area farm, known as the Golden Orchard.

The tart, orange berries are exceptionally high in carotene for healthy skin and also act as antioxidants • By Hetty Stuart •

I

n late August, the satisfaction of ripening harvest surrounds us in rural Ontario in fields of corn, soybeans and hay. North of Wingham, in what appears to be completely out of place in our northern climate, there is an orchard with jewel-toned berries growing on silvery-green shrubs. This Golden Orchard seems like a misplaced slice of tropical paradise, like it should be growing in Florida, perhaps.

Golden Orchard grows the sea buckthorn berry – intensely orange berries the size of a cultivated blueberry that grow in tight clusters. Marlene Wynnyk, the feisty owner and operator of this orchard, calls the berries the “Citrus of the North”. She may be 74 years old, but this adventurous, modern-day pioneer of the Golden Orchard 32 The Rural Voice

has the passion of a youthful hippie and the ambition to work long hours every day on her property. Ten of her 80 acres of the beautiful rolling land of Bruce County have been planted to a healthy orchard of sea buckthorn shrubs, approximately 600 per acre.

We arrived at the Golden Orchard during their annual August Open House, hoping to do a farm tour, and a sampling of this sea buckthorn berry. Rounding the corner of the huge shed, we saw an unusual and festive sight: a circle of about 10 people, sitting outside, around a tarp filled with mounds of branches of bright orange berries. As the sun shone above, these folk sat and stripped the sea buckthorn berries off the prickly branches into bowls in their laps, tossing the empty branches aside to be picked up

later. A small tractor chugged up the hill and dropped off more branches that had been pruned from the bushes.

We were welcomed to join the group on the wooden chairs, and thus began the arduous task of rolling the berries off the thorny branches. The stories and laughter hummed pleasantly about, as fingers flew along the branches. At once, we felt part of the extraordinary experience that Marlene strives to create – the circle of camaraderie, and community.

The first berry that popped into my mouth was greeted with a bolt of surprise. Tart! “Like a good Scotch,” we were told, adding “It gets better with time.” Not owning a sophisticated palate for a good Scotch, I decided to get beyond the sour orange/mango taste, and learn what the intrigue of sea buckthorn could possibly be.

“First,” informed Marlene, “the bright orange of the berry is full of carotene, to nourish the skin. The oils from these berries can treat topically, as well as internally. Rosacea, acne, and eczema will benefit from a drop of the essential oil that is produced from these berries, as well as age spots, ulcers and lesions, burns and wounds, and cataracts.

“In fact, in the 1980s, sea buckthorn oil was used to treat burn victims from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Sea buckthorn berries also sustained many people when resources were scarce after WW2.”

During harvest, a section of the building is set up as a small store, with “sea buckthorn-everything” – jams, jellies, soap, beauty creams, juice, and essential oils.

“The essential oil is purchased from Finland,” explained Marlene.

“There are facilities in Canada to extract the oil, however there are not enough sea buckthorn berries to use for this purpose as of yet.”

Sea buckthorn berries (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) are loaded with enough wonderful nutrients, that it can easily be called a super-food. pparently, there is not a healthier fruit that grows in our Canadian climate: sea buckthorn is the most nutrient-dense of all berries available. They are an

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excellent source of vitamin A, K, E, C, B1 and B2. There are also high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, amino acids, folic acid, retinol, beta carotene, and potassium. There are high concentrations of carotenoids, as well as the phytochemical known for strong anti-oxidant activity.

The leaves and berries are currently being tested at the University of Guelph for additional nutritional properties. Surprisingly, not only do the citrus berries contain essential fatty acids, but the leaves also contain 20 per cent protein.

Deer are attracted to both berries and leaves, however, the sharp thorns are a deterrent. These thorns are also a protection for song birds, who will nest in the branches, perfectly safe from predators.

The berries are also used in smoothies, made into salsas, or tossed into granolas or salads, giving a bit of punch to the meal. This past fall, Golden Orchard supplied Junction Craft Brewing of Toronto with their berries for their new beer offering – Junction Sea Berry Sour.

There are many varieties of sea

buckthorn shrubs. Marlene has carefully chosen varieties that produce large and bountiful amounts of fruit. Both a male and female shrub are required for fruit production: bees do not do the pollinating. In April, the orangeladen winds in the orchard assures

that fruit will be forthcoming in late summer. The average ratio is one male to five females in an orchard, or one male to three females in a household garden. Seedlings can be bought throughout the season.

“The shrubs need to be planted in the sun, on dry, alkaline soil for best

Sea buckthorn berries grow on shrubs, which have been planted 600 to an acre at Marlene Wynnyck’s orchard near Wingham.

results,” stated Marlene. “My soil is considered marginal; sea buckthorn has been grown here because it will grow on marginal land, while improving the quality of the soil due to its nitrogen-fixing properties. The compact shrubs can withstand temperatures ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to +40 degrees Celsius, and are very resistant to droughts and pests. Sea buckthorn is a value-chain plant, requiring no pesticides, fertilizers or herbicides.

When considering our carbon footprint, these berries are an excellent way to ensure we do our part.” he Tibetans, revering the berries as the “holy fruit of the Himalayas”, own sacred gardens filled with the all-giving sea buckthorn trees. Sessions of meditation are held, as the monks roll the berries from the branches, hour after mind-numbing hour. For thousands of years already, sea buckthorn berries have been harvested for their medicinal properties.

Both Russian and Chinese

T

34 The Rural Voice

percentage of Marlene’s customers are ethnic Canadians. As well, there are the foodies – gourmet food-lovers from the city, and the environmentalists who are excited to include a citrus fruit in their 100-mile eating range.

Looking over her rolling hills and orchards, Marlene muses: “I’m an artist – I like to think of my property as a work of art; admittedly a very large canvas and ever changing. My goal is to persist in promoting sea buckthorn until it becomes widely known as the Citrus of the North, a TH

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physicians prescribe sea buckthorn oil for many ailments, including stomach ulcers, burns, and hemorrhoids. In traditional Siberian medicine, the seed oil and leaf extracts are used to maintain eyesight, hearing, fight off cataracts, and ward off winter depression.

Marlene’s research-based supplement company, The Healing Arc Inc., does a complete and extensive analysis to study the benefits of sea buckthorn. She has collaborated with the University of Guelph, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Agriculture Adaptation Council, “analyzing the flavonoids and other nutrients and the leaves of the plants. There are also industrial labs in Tillsonburg. I have worked with women’s health in the past, and have a keen interest in the natural healing of these amazing berries. We pride ourselves on focusing on research, quality, professional support, and service.”

Marlene’s thriving business, the Healing Arc Golden Orchard, along with neighbouring Everspring Farms Ltd., won the 2009 Premier’s Award for Innovative Agri-Food Excellence for Bruce County.

Because sea buckthorn is a native to the colder climes of the world such as Russia, China, and the Scandinavian countries, a great

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Sea buckthorn berries are turned into juices and smoothies, or tossed into granolas and salads.

gift to future generations.”

What an inspiration, and what tremendous potential in Marlene’s Golden Orchard. It is the dead of winter as I write this article, and I have enjoyed several months of a daily intake of a teaspoon of these berries immersed in maple syrup: the sweet and sour taste is my goodmorning pucker! This is also the first winter that I am not fighting the winter blues.

The Citrus of the North may be worth trying, to give your body the boost that it may need to thrive. ◊

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MEAL PRICE Adults - $12.00 Children (6 - 11) - $5.00 Children 5 & under - FREE

For your further enjoyment . . .

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www.drudgesmaplesyrup.com 36 The Rural Voice

Wedding favours available

All events are held in the Belmore Community Centre Wheelchair Accessible - Courtesy Vans Available.

For further Festival info call 519-335-3748 or 519-392-6095

Maple Syrup

Steam turns sap into sweet syrup The MacKenzies combine historical steam power with modern vacuum technology to make maple syrup Brian and Annette MacKenzie use her dad’s 1926 Sawyer Massey boiler to create consistent heat from steam to boil sap from 1,500 taps in their St. Helen’s woodlot.

• By Lisa B. Pot •

A

piece of history is powering a new crop of maple syrup thanks to inventive minds at Legacy Maple in St. Helens.

Brian and Annette MacKenzie and her dad, Bill Vincent have combined their skill sets to pair old with new. Using Bill’s skill and knowledge with steam engines, Brian and Annette have created a historical and reliable heating system to boil sap at their 1,500-tap maple syrup operation.

The pair have found the 1926 Sawyer Massey steam engine boiler delivers a steady stream of steam to heat the evaporator, preventing any dirt or ash from getting into the finished product. Most maple syrup producers use a fired arch under the evaporator to boil the sap.

“The fire stays in the boiler’s firebox and the steam runs into tubes to heat the sap and make syrup,” explains Annette, who grew up with her dad restoring old steam engines and showing these historic relics at thresher reunions across the province.

It was Bill who first suggested the idea of using a steam engine boiler when the couple decided to make their crop farm a four-season enterprise.

“My dad is a manufacturer. When Brian wonders if something can work, my dad goes home, sits in his chair and gets out a paper and pencil. The next morning, he’ll come by and say ‘I think we can make this work.’” Handy himself, Brian says Bill has been a tremendous asset to the business. Not only because he was brainchild behind installing the boiler, but also because he has the license to run it! In turn, Bill finds deep satisfaction helping family and getting to be part of a growing enterprise. He also enjoys the social aspect of farm gate sales.

Brian’s father also played an indirect role in the establishment of Legacy Maple. When Brian was a child, his dad built him an evaporator to make maple syrup. This fond memory prompted him to want to recreate it when he joined his family to Annette’s in 2010. With four children between them, the couple decided it would be a fun and educational project to make maple syrup. Sap was collected in pails and evaporated over an open fire That first year they did 50 pails. The next year was 100 pails and so on until 2017 when Bill brought over his 1926 Sawyer Massey steam engine to run a newly-acquired March 2020 37

Enjoy Pure Canadian Maple Syrup 28th Annual Maple Syrup Maple Butter Maple Jelly Maple Sugar Leaves Granulated Maple Sugar BBQ Sauce, etc.

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38 The Rural Voice

2020 Fort Rose Maple Company Pancake Brunch We are proud to use the boiler from a 1926 Sawyer Massey traction engine — the last one manufactured in Hamilton, Ontario — to produce the steam for our operation. We believe that a steam fired evaporator results in a quality maple product with a distinguished taste. Come and see our operation in action, by appointment or by chance.

A Div. of Amalgamation Acres Brian & Annette MacKenzie 85399 St. Helens Line, R.R. #2 Lucknow, ON N0G 2H0 519-528-5995 amalgacres@hurontel.on.ca

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Annette’s father, Bill Vincent (above) was instrumental in designing the 1926 Sawyer Massey boiler (right) to create steam to heat the evaporator (below right) which boils down the sap to create the multihued Legacy Maple brand of maple syrup owned by Brian and Annette MacKenzie.

evaporator. That tractor (with a replacement boiler) is still at the farm. It seemed the family was hooked and in 2018, the decision was made to turn the hobby into a business. The entire operation was modernized with a vacuum pipeline, a reverse osmosis system (to remove water from sap) and a new sugar shack with easy-to-clean walls and lots of room to create product.

The family now runs 1,500 taps in 30 acres of hardwood maple and hopes to expand to 3,000 taps next year by tapping the other 30 acres of bush on their property. They average about one litre of syrup per tap The best part of using steam to heat the evaporator is the consistent heat. The boiler runs at 100 pounds of pressure to create 337.6 degrees Fahrenheit of steam heat. Sap turns to syrup at 218 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bill says while boilers can be dangerous because they are a pressure vessel, the key is to pay attention to the glass gauge at the end of the boiler which indicates the water level. “The water level is critical,” says Bill. “The boiler does have a safety valve which releases at 125 pounds pressure.”

With the combination of the reverse-osmosis system and consistent, steam produced by the boiler, sap turns to syrup in less than two hours.

March 2020 39

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CASH & FORWARD CONTRACTS Call us today for Quotes Scott Speers Richard Smibert Scott Krakar Matt McKillop Alex Kissler

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40 The Rural Voice

Reserve Champion 2019 at the Royal Winter Fair

Maple syrup, Maple butter and other maple products available throughout the year.

Come to our facility at Products also available at 4780 Road 104 Schmidt’s Bulk Pantry New Hamburg, ON Wellesley, ON 519-500-1517 519-656-3400

marketing goals. Her dad has a one-third scale working steam engine that would be a real draw for customers.

Last year, Legacy Maple was part of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Association (OMSPA) tour.

They ran water through the system to show how the boiler works in their syrup production system.

Being a member of OMSPA has been a huge help, says Annette. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Networking at member meetings and summer tours has been invaluable, as well as the paper and online resources that are available to us.â&#x20AC;?

Annette says syrup producers as a whole are a very courteous group of people. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are always willing to answer Brian and Annette MacKenzie turned their hobby into a questions and share business with an extensive build and upgrade at their St. the lessons they have Helenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s farm to launch their maple syrup business, learned from their Legacy Maple. own mistakes. This is an â&#x20AC;&#x153;always learningâ&#x20AC;?

Annette says the current system is adventure. Producers who have been so much more efficient. While costly syruping for years say they still learn to establish, the labour savings over something new every season, using pails and boiling are because every operation is a little significant. different.â&#x20AC;?

Still, managing 1,500 taps and As they learn and grow, Brian and producing syrup in a two-month Annette hope to do the same as well window makes for some long days. as offer more tours, especially to Bill and Brian do most of the boiling school children. while Annette, an accountant, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I really want people to come and manages the books and is in charge see the boiler and see our operation,â&#x20AC;? of marketing. says Brian. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It really means She chose to bottle the amber something. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history; a piece of hued syrup in tall, angular, glass history that is still running.â&#x20AC;? bottles and is finding people like to Annette agrees. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s part of our give them as gifts. Annette also heritage. The boiler is an old attends farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s markets and innovation that was high-tech back in threshing events to sell the product the day. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nice that we can keep that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sold in bulk. this bit of history alive and can â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think with the steam engine, we encourage the next generation to have a niche and I would love to appreciate it.â&#x20AC;? In fact, this original target steam shows to sell our syrup,â&#x20AC;? boiler is from the last Sawyer Massey says Annette as she ponders future steam traction engine made in

Hamilton in 1926.

Besides cropping and producing maple syrup, Brian has his own construction company. Vacation time is hard to find. But there is something about working in the woods that brings calmness to the days. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Last year was the first time I spent of lot of time tapping,â&#x20AC;? recalls Annette. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I found I really liked being in the bush. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relaxing. Calming.

Last year I would tap, tap, tap and then Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d heard a woodpecker repeat the sound. That was something.â&#x20AC;?

Brian also loves the social aspect of farmgate sales from their maple syrup operation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have worked really hard to build and design this place so Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m really stoked when people come to see it,â&#x20AC;? he says.

Before the sap starts running, he is keen to install a train whistle on the outside of the sugar shack. Run by the steam engine boiler, the old train whistle emits a loud, deep chord of sound. He canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait to get it up and running for customers visiting the farm at St. Helenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Line. â&#x2014;&#x160;

^J2M<2C,2bU92bZ2M_b(2RUbF6b $C$0$ Rb "U b $\M2C,2b$C0b UU$\$b <Z2MR b b b b bD=7:Vb-NX=S3Sb%)G%N1bV:3bDGSV%@7=- b bSV%V3NGGBbN3K@>-%bSV3%B)G%Vb b ! ## b Y4*4.b ?Wa b WW&]& b ?E8TWHEb 4L&OWYO4Tb 'AAbVG1%`bVGbN3-3=[3bGXNbVN%[3@b+QI/;XP5b

March 2020 41

Recipes by Nancy Fisher

Eggs: Nutritious and versatile

A

s I wait impatiently for the last of the snow to melt, it helps to turn my mind towards warm sunny days and bright green sprigs of grass. The seasons are ever reliable to change my mood and my menu. Gone is my desire for heavier soups and stews, I’m looking for lighter flavours and the first of the spring vegetables. The spring or vernal equinox falls about March 19th this year and to celebrate the return of the sun and longer days I’m going to focus on one of my favourite foods that is often associated with spring – eggs.

It really doesn’t matter what time of year or what time of day, I love to eat eggs and I use them in so many different ways.

The first recipe I would like to share with you is combining them with another sign of the changing

season - asparagus. While my own asparagus will not be ready in March, it is available in stores for much of the year.

Savory Brunch Muffins Oven 400 degrees Fahrenheit Fresh asparagus (12 – 15 spears) 3 cups all-purpose flour 4 teaspoons baking powder ¾ teaspoon salt ¾ - 1 cup grated cheese – a nice sharp cheddar if you have it but you can be creative here. ½ cup butter melted Chives, 2 tablespoons fresh chopped (can used 1 tablespoon dried, but fresh is better) 2/3 cup milk 1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt 2 eggs Salt and pepper to taste Directions: Insert 12 paper baking cups into a

muffin tin.

Cut the asparagus in to 2 inch pieces and blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove and place in a bowl of ice water to retain colour and freshness. Drain and separate the tips from the stalks and set tips aside for making the muffins attractive.

In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the shredded cheese and chopped chives and toss to coat.

In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients – melted butter, milk, sour cream or yogurt, and eggs. Mix and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry and add the asparagus stalks gently combining.

Spoon into 12 muffin baking cups and top each with an asparagus spear (if you want you could add a little

Eggs are a simple, nutritious and versatile food that can be used so many different ways. Savory brunch muffins (above, left) combine eggs with fresh asparagus and chives. For salads, eggs can be simply boiled, sliced and arranged over a bed of lettuce with some sprinkles of bacon and a measure of homemade spinach salad dressing.

42 The Rural Voice

Recipes extra shredded cheese) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden, checking doneness with a toothpick.

These taste best hot out of the oven with lots of butter. They are a bit more like a biscuit than a muffin and would be great with a salad. s soon as I can in spring I like to plant some spinach because there is nothing better than baby greens from your own garden. I keep creating my own fresh salad dressings as I think they are nicer and I can experiment with lots of flavours. I do like a poppy seed dressing on spinach, but this was a nice tangy change and would have been great alongside the asparagus muffins had I made them on the same day. A great way to make salad dressings is to combine all the ingredients in a clean jam jar and shake to combine, but you can also prepare in a bowl and whisk.

Spinach salad dressing ¼ cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 2 cloves garlic - crushed 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon honey ¼ teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon olive oil Combine all ingredients and shake or stir.

Pour over a mix of baby spinach, chopped cooked bacon and sliced, hard-boiled eggs. think there are some recipes that people assume are really difficult but are actually very easy and versatile. I forget how much I like crepes, until I pull out the blender and mix some up. They can be savoury or sweet, and filled with almost anything. I love that they can be made ahead and kept in the fridge or frozen between sheets of waxed paper too.

Friends and family of all ages enjoy them. I’m not sure why I don’t make them more often.

Chicken mushroom and spinach crepes Basic savoury crepe In a blender mix – 1 cup all-purpose flour 2 eggs ½ cup milk ½ cup water

A

I

¼ teaspoon salt chopped finely 2 tablespoons melted butter 2 heaping tablespoons plain cream Directions: cheese Blend until smooth, pausing to Salt and pepper scrape any dry flour off the sides and Directions: blending again. Let rest in the Sauté onion and garlic in butter refrigerator for about ½ hour to until soft, add mushrooms and cook thicken slightly. until all moisture has been released, Heat a non-stick 12-inch frying add a little butter if pan is dry, then pan on medium-high heat. Recently I sprinkle with flour and stir for about bought a new frying pan that is a minute until flour is cooked. ceramic coated. The crepes slipped Add the milk and stir with a right out, no oil or butter is needed. wooden spoon cooking until Pour about 1/3 – 1/2 cup of batter thickened. Add the cream cheese and into the hot pan and immediately spinach, lower the heat and simmer swirl about to coat the bottom of the gently for a few minutes until the pan. You can also use the back of a spinach is softened and cream cheese ladle to spread the batter. It is best if melted. you can almost see through the batter To serve, place a warm crepe on to the bottom of the pan. Watch the plate and spoon a portion along closely as the crepe will cook up the center. Fold the sides in and quickly, and when it is no longer wet garnish with a sprinkle of chopped on top carefully flip and brown the chives if you have them. Enjoy! other side for a few seconds more.

Simple to use, nutritious and Then slide off on to a plate. It takes a versatile, this is why I love eggs. ◊ few to get the wrist action right, but even if your first attempts are less attractive, they will still taste great! Keep cooking until all the batter is gone. You should get about 6 large crepes.

Chicken spinach and mushroom filling The other day I had a single cooked chicken breast left over, this was a great way to stretch it out.

Approximately ½ - 1 cup chopped cooked chicken ½ onion finely chopped or a shallot would be nice too.

1 clove garlic crushed 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon flour 1 ½ cups milk I eyeball the milk for a sauce like this so this is a guide. Use enough to get the consistency you want.

About 4 mushrooms Crepes are one of those foods that might seem difficult sliced to make but are actually very easy and versatile. They Approximately 2 can be savoury and sweet and filled with almost handfuls fresh spinach anything, such as chicken, spinach and mushrooms.

March 2020 43

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44 The Rural Voice

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

March is a good month to prune damaged trees March has to be one of the hardest months to write a gardening column for. I have lingered over and listed everything that I want from my seed catalogues. I held off starting seeds too early and I will be slipping my geraniums later in the month. A number of slips from last year did not make it out of the communal rooting pot and after a summer on the patio are spending a winter on the windowsill. So that means I am slipping my slips!

We went for a walk around the yard and then across the field to check on trees. A couple of inches of beautiful, pristine snow dusted everything. Around the house we have a number of trees with a lot of broken limbs, some fairly large and high up. There is an old dwarf apple tree that toppled over. The bonus, if there is one, is that the deer, rabbits and one stray porcupine have been cleaning up the wee small branches and tips.

We have not had this much damage since the year our daughter was married and we were busy cleaning up in preparation for the outdoor wedding. We are over the hump of winter now and can focus on the trimming of broken limbs and doing a bit of shaping of lilacs while we are at it.

Ice off of the roof broke half of the Eastern red bud outside the office window. Such a loss. The branches that needed trimming were hanging too low over the path and the ones that were ripped with the ice were nearer the building. So it will be a bit 46 The Rural Voice

of a challenge to trim.

The Japanese maples have tree guards over the trunks and sheltered some of the branches. As you may have guessed, the rabbits trimmed one small tree back to the protective wrap. It is the treeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s third spring coming up and I am hoping the strong root system will work past the severe trimming and set up new shoots. It did a good job last year. I have sheltered some small trees with stalks of pampas stems and leaves inserted into the soft ground in the late fall. The clumps look rather exotic in the garden and so far I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see any evidence of rabbit nibbling but it is early. I have seen rabbits trim off my rose shoots in the spring.

There are simply no words to express both my frustration with damage from creatures and simple enjoyment when I see them unexpectedly in the yard.

Back to the assessment of the yard: the lilacs can be a challenge.

We trim the older wood that is leaning and putting pressure on trees around it. The lilacs were old when we moved in 45 years ago. We did a Black knot (below) attacks the new plum trees. It is a fungus that spreads in the spring by the wind and rain that carry it to new spots.

At left, ice and snow coming off the roof broke a main branch of an Eastern Redbud tree. Both problems will require pruning, an ideal task for the month of March.

big cleanup then, taking out old fence posts, wild plum and vines. Every few years we get in there and trim out dead wood and interlopers. We cannot seem to rid ourselves of wild plum that pops up along the edges of the lilac grouping. I like wild plums but we have black knot that quickly attacks the new plum trees. It is a fungus that spreads in the spring. On rainy days the spores are released and winds carry them to new spots. It does not take much moisture for the spores to infect a tree. It targets plum and cherry trees and is not averse to affecting apricots and peaches.

The first course of action is to prune it out during winter months.

We cut it out at ground level, but you can target specific branches and cut a

Gardening good three inches below the black gall. Burn or bury the infected material. You can apply a series of fungicide sprays but you need to research to determine the one best for your area. Unless you are planning on harvesting plums or cherries on a wide scale, maybe the toxic fungicide is more bother than warranted.

Clean-up is the first mode of control.

Thankfully, lilacs are not affected by black knot fungus. Proper care of lilacs involves removing 20 per cent of their structures every year. Trim back a number of suckers and prune out older ‘canes’. Lilacs bloom on year-old wood. You should prune immediately after blooming and before the next year’s flower buds are set. There is a bit of confusion about trimming spent blooms. No one is trimming blooms on the stands of lilacs that linger around old abandoned farm lots and they seem to do fine.

Simply trimming off the spent flowers is not enough to encourage more blooms. Trimming out declining sections, thinning out suckers and twiggy branches will do more for rejuvenating lilacs.

And what plant does not appreciate a bit of enrichment of the soil? Top dress with organic fertilizers like aged manure and compost. Don’t over do it as too much of a good thing promotes lots of growth and fewer blooms. If you reach for an off-the-shelf fertilizer, look for one with a higher middle number (promotes flowers) like 4-128.

One final note, try planting a Preston lilac. This variety was specifically developed by Isabella Preston of the Experimental Farm in Ottawa in the 1920s. They are quite tall, and bloom much later, extending the flowering season into mid-June.

Another bonus is they produce fewer suckers and are unaffected by insects and diseases. Leave ample space for them as they love to fill the landscape.

I guess March is pruning month here. It is the best time to take a critical eye and prune before perennials spring up. And then there will be warmth and new jobs to do! ◊

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March 2020 47

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48 The Rural Voice

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Diseases • By Lisa B. Pot

When to worry about zoonosis

Coronavirus is a deadly virus that has crossed from animals to humans but there are other diseases farmers should be vigilant about when working with animals

T

he line between awareness and paranoia is pretty short, says Scott Weese, writer of the Worms and Germs Blog and a professor at the University of Guelph.

Speaking to the deadly novel coronavirus which has caused hundreds of deaths in China and has now spread to Ontario, Weese says people “need to pay attention but not panic” and that people need to treat their animals like people. By this, he means if someone is infected, the response would be to trace that person’s contacts. “Typically, that means human contacts. For me, that means anything with a pulse.”

If someone is infected and quarantined, so their pets should be also. Little is known about the latest coronavirus – it is not known whether it could infect household pets or farm animals. Or, if these animals could spread the disease.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) both of which led to many deaths in the 2000s. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted from animals to humans.

SARS was transmitted from cats to humans while MERS crossed from dromedary camels to humans.

The latest outbreak of the novel coronavirus started in China from one or more animal species at the Wuhan Seaford Market which sells more than aquatic animals. At the time of this article, the origin of the virus is not clear yet but bats and snakes are likely culprits.

Weese is an expert on zoonotic diseases. He is a Professor at the

Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph and a Zoonotic Disease/Public Health Microbiologist at the University of Guelph’s Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses. He is also Chief of Infection Control at the Ontario Veterinary College Teaching Hospital and holds a Canada Research Chair in zoonotic diseases. He states that this new coronavirus is a problem because it is deadly in severe cases and there isn’t complete certainty from which animal it originated or what animals could carry it.

Do cats and dogs carry the virus? There have been reports of many dog killings in China. Again, there are no current answers but if the infection comes closer to Dr. Bob Wright wants to bridge the distance home, Weese urges people between human medical health and animal health to “keep fear at bay and by teaching both doctors and veterinarians about apply logic to the problematic zoonotic diseases. He spoke at the problem.”

Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Horse Day event.

In areas where the virus has not yet established cough, difficulty breathing and itself, Weese suggests the following pneumonia in both lungs. Symptoms steps: may take up to 14 days to appear • Ensuring animal contacts of after exposure to the virus. However, human cases are queried, some people ill with the virus have • Ensuring exposed animals are little to no symptoms. quarantined, Weese’s advice not to overreact • Using good old-fashioned was echoed by Dr. Bob Wright who infection control, like hand-washing, says people often develop “disease• Avoid close contact with anyone of-the-week syndrome” when they showing signs of respiratory illness hear about new diseases. such as coughing and sneezing When West Nile virus came out, Symptoms of the novel there was a bit of panic that it would coronavirus have included fever, kill hundreds of humans.

March 2020 49

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“I tend to take a step back and discern if it is true or sensational news,” says Wright. While West Nile – which is spread by mosquitoes from infected birds – can infect and kill humans, it is rare in Ontario.

West Nile also infects horses, which are dead-end hosts. Horses can be protected by vaccines.

Wright spoke to the whole issue of zoonotic diseases at the Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Horse Day held January 5 in Elmwood. The event was organized by Grey Agricultural Services.

There’s a host of diseases that we share with our pets, big and small alike, and Wright wants to teach us about them.

“It’s time to merge human and veterinary medicine,” says Wright, a former equine extension services manager with OMAFRA who now focuses on his small animal practice in Belwood.

There is a lack of coordination between veterinarians and physicians which leads to a lack of understanding about diseases and what happens on farms, says Wright.

He thinks physicians would make better doctors if they understood zoonosis (animal-to-human transfer of disease) better. So he teaches doctors at workshops and farmers at events such as Grey-Bruce Farmers’ Week.

The novel coronavirus was just coming out in the news at the time of Wright’s talk so he did not address this current, news-dominating, threat.

Rather, he focused on existing zoonotic diseases which should be on our radar screen. Wright discussed which ones we should be worried about ... or not.

Ringworm: It’s unsightly but past generations expected they would get it. “Most of us have lived with it for generations and we don’t get too excited about it. If you get it, treat it.”

Lyme Disease: “This is one we are very concerned about right, now,” says Wright whose own horse contracted the disease in 2019.

Ontario has a natural reservoir of mammals including mice and deer, which feed the ticks that carry the disease. Lyme disease education is

Advice prevalent so Wright just reminded everybody there are many hotspots in the province and to check for ticks.

Toxoplasmosis: This in an infection of the toxoplasma gondii parasite and is dangerous to pregnant women. “What I tell the male in a couple is that one of the benefits to having sex is that they get to take the litter box out. You don’t want your loved one taking out the litter box during her child-bearing years,” says Wright.

Roundworms: Viscera larva migrant are the culprits here and are the reason people cover their sandboxes to prevent cats from pooping and spreading the worms.

However, raccoons are the real culprits as they choose multiple latrine areas. Roundworms from raccoons (Baylisascaris roundworms) are nasty and children who get them can get severe infections and suffer from seizures, myocarditis and encephalitis. Wright says when he finds bales of hay or straw in his barn with raccoon poop, he burns them.

“Because when you pick up that bale, you infect your hands and then you infect yourself,” he says. Though not common, raccoon roundworms are something to be avoided.

Eastern Equine encephalitis (EEE): Also a mosquito-transmitted disease, EEE can cause severe inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) in horses and humans.

Rabies: Bait dropping eliminated almost all cases of fox rabies and then raccoon rabies started to increase leading to 50 reported raccoon cases in 2018, along with 21 rabid skunks and 31 rabid bats. Bait droppings will work for raccoons but it’s almost impossible to vaccinate bats. Horses with rabies is no joke, said Wright, referring to a case in 2003 when a man was mauled and killed by a horse that had rabies in Grand Bend.

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Pseudointermedius (MRSP): This antibiotic-resistant disease is not often transmitted from animals to humans but it can happen.

Wright shared the story of a dog owner whose dog slept in his bed, had MRSP and transferred the disease to its owner at night. The human went to a doctor, the dog

came to Wright. Wright wanted to work with the human doctor to ensure the best treatment but there was no interest from the doctor’s side, he said. “I didn’t want to use the antibiotic on the dog and make this bug resistant to the antibiotic because you will not have an antibiotic to use on your patient,” Wright remembers telling the physician.

This specific case shows exactly why veterinarians and doctors need to have dialogue on zoonotic diseases says Wright.

Wright repeated that his goal is not to scare people. Though the diseases mentioned above (not including novel coronavirus) are ones farmers could contract from farm animals and wildlife, that doesn’t routinely happen. His goal is to increase awareness of zoonotic diseases. Knowledge about exposure can protect people from disease and be used to educate doctors if someone is worried they have contracted one of the aforementioned diseases. ◊

March 2020 51

Forages • Lisa B. Pot •

Grass in alfalfa increases yield While it may be hard to manage, adding grasses to alfalfa stands can really bump yields and increase digestibility says Cornell University forage expert, Joe Lawrence

J

oe Lawrence makes a strong case for adding grass to Ontario’s alfalfa-dominated hayfields.

Adding 30 per cent grass seed makes a dramatic increase in yield but can forage growers maintain that percentage?

That’s the debate Lawrence presented to forage growers at the annual Forage Focus Conference held in Stratford in December.

Joe Lawrence was the keynote speaker at the event, sharing his knowledge as a forage expert with the Department of Animal Science at Cornell University.

“We have a comfort level with alfalfa and our nutritionists know how to make rations with it,” said Lawrence. “However, we have research and results to show that seeding grass with alfalfa is beneficial.”

New data is showing the merits of grass even if you have alfalfa ground, said Lawrence. In fact, adding grasses can help with variable soil drainage and optimizing yield.

Alfalfa has a deep tap root which gives it great survivability in drought conditions. However, those roots are susceptible to root damage and other stressors in poorly drained fields.

Adding forage grasses as a complementary crop helps fill in areas of the field where alfalfa dies off.

This creates a higher-producing stand with greater longevity and less weed encroachment.

The problem is matching up the maturity of the grass with maturity of the alfalfa. Also, for dairy farmers, it’s harder to measure the value of the forage because of its inconsistency.

However, there is a real 52 The Rural Voice

Adding grasses such a reed canary grass (above), even as little as five per cent, can have a positive impact on fibre digestibility for dairy cow rations says Joe Lawrence (right), a forage expert with Cornell University. He was the keynote speaker at the annual Forage Focus Conference held this winter in Stratford. ~ Grass photo from the University of Wisconsin.

measurable benefit from adding grasses to alfalfa stands: digestibility.

Using recent work by Dr. Cherney at Cornell, Lawrence said that as little as five per cent grass in a stand can have a positive impact on fibre digestibility. To get the optimum advantage of fibre digestibility, the forage stand should contain 30 per cent grasses.

This, though, brings up another concern. How to maintain that 30 per cent?

Freezing cycles hurt alfalfa giving

Joe Lawrence Department of Animal Science, Cornell University

grass the advantage. If you have a potato leaf hopper outbreak, that further favours the grass. Moisture levels also affect the stand. If you get a lot of moisture after planting, you’ll get lots of grass. If it goes dry after planting, you’ll get alfalfa.

“The concept of getting 20 to 30 per cent grass in a stand versus

Forages reality is difficult but we know it’s a good percentage to target,” said Lawrence.

One of the methods to help manage the percentage is aggressive cutting. Alfalfa can tolerate a close shave so by cutting the field short and often, the alfalfa will rebound over the grass.

Also, adjust the seeding ratio.

“We dropped our percentages to one to two pounds of grass with 12 to 14 pounds of alfalfa,” said Lawrence.

“We find with this ratio in our seed mixes we hit the target.”

Also, figuring out the actual percentage in the field takes some doing. It isn’t enough to just look at the field. Cornell is currently working on a cell-phone app that will be able to analyze pictures taken within a hay field to determine the grass-to-alfalfa ratio. However, it is still in the works. For now, farmers have to scout in a W-shaped pattern in the field to take a cumulative sample and get a running average.

Types of grass also matter.

Lawrence says if you add orchard grass, not only is it impossible to match the harvest time with alfalfa, but it will take over the stand. Same with reed canary grass. It may take a while to establish but once it does, it really takes over.

Lawrence then showed a number of charts weighing the advantages and disadvantages of various kinds of grasses with mixing with alfalfa.

For ease of establishment, he recommended timothy, orchard grass, tall fescue and meadow fescue.

For regrowth potential: tall fescue, orchard grass, meadow fescue and reed canary For crude protein: orchard grass, reed canary, smooth bromegrass, meadow fescue and tall fescue For forage quality: meadow fescue, reed canary, tall fescue, timothy and orchard grass.

“We went from choosing reed canary grass as our grass of choice to tall fescue. One is because the data looked good and other reason is because reed canary grass seed prices went through the roof,” said Lawrence.

From a quality standpoint, Lawrence really prefers meadow fescue but it has low establishment ease.

He also really likes smooth bromegrass. “It can be a really nice quality grass if cut two or three times a year but it does not tolerate an aggressive cutting schedule like you have with alfalfa.”

In summary, Lawrence listed the pros and cons of planting a

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Mental Health • By Lisa B. Pot

Have friends that like you for you Mental health advocates said we all need to talk about our day with loving friends as part of staying mentally healthy

I

f we took care of our mental health like we did of our dental health, we’d be okay.

That was a line delivered by Jackie Ralph, a Youth Awareness Coordinator with the Grey Bruce Community Mental Health Association who, along with Becky Hunt, a mental health counsellor, encouraged dairy farmers to take their mental health seriously in a humourous way. The pair were speakers at Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Dairy Day. Mental health issues are costly in the workforce, added up to $51 billion a year in lost time. It’s not quite the same on farms, where many farmers slog through the days whether they feel well or not.

Being mentally healthy is about the ability to enjoy your life, said Ralph. “Like, when I woke up this morning, I knew it was going to be a roast beef dinner day. Woohoo!”

All of us are on a continuum from optimal mental health (flourishing) to poor mental health (languishing) to serious mental illness. Signs of serious mental illness can include severe anxiety and not being able to eat or sleep.

Culture is changing and people know that they should not be ashamed of mental illness but they still are. Eliminating the stigma and bias is an ongoing task because it shames us all, said Hunt.

Ralph said she likes to think of our brains as thermostats. Brains are supposed to regulate our emotions but every now and then, they just doesn’t work as well as they are supposed to.

Another tool Ralph likes to use is the thought that if Plan A isn’t working in your life, say “So what.

The alphabet has 25 more letters.”

In the farming community, research indicates that 45 per cent of farmers report high stress. It also

Jackie Ralph, a Youth Awareness Coordinator with the Grey Bruce Community Mental Health Association said that one in five people will struggle with mental health at one point in their lives. It happens to farmers too and she urged dairy farmers at Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week Dairy Day to learn resilience and perform a mental health check-up periodically to stay healthy.

shows that 35 per cent meet the classification for depression while 58 per cent meet the classification for anxiety.

To get better, people tend to turn to unhealthy coping strategies such as overeating, smoking, drinking, gambling, shopping, yelling and/or isolating themselves.

Finding out what makes life better can be harder to pinpoint but it, for sure, involves people, not isolation.

“Have friends that like you for you,” advised Ralph. “You need to have people you can count on and let you verbal diarrhea all over them.

We really need to get better at talking about our day.”

Also, staying mentally healthy involves building good self-esteem.

Do you like who you are? Are you comfortable in your own skin? Are you comparing yourself to others on social media?

Ralph repeated that taking time to sit and talk about the day is key. She says her husband has to book a barber visit three days ahead in Owen Sound because this particular barber always encourages people to sit down, grab a beer, and talk about their day. People are hungry for that opportunity.

Ralph and Hunt also recommended that people make space to have fun. “We need that.

What we do outside of work makes us feel better.”

In conclusion, the pair offered a quote by John Lennon: “When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy. They told me I did not understand the assignment and I told them they did not understand life.” ◊ March 2020 55

News • By Lisa B. Pot •

It’s really about food safety, says Hardeman

G

rain farmers want to be part of Bill 156, an act that promotes food safety, too.

In a roundtable meeting held at Blyth Memorial Hall on February 7, Grain Farmers of Ontario director, Keith Black, told Agriculture Minister Ernie Hardeman and MPP Lisa Thompson that crop farmers also face trespassing from activists.

“We are very supportive of the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act but it does not go far enough,” said Black, who was one of 30 farmers, transporters and agriculture businesses attending the meeting.

“We have had anti-chemical and anti-GMO demonstrations on our farms. We have bins that are vulnerable to tampering. We need protection as well.”

“Bill 156 is about animal welfare but there is more to be done,” said Thompson.

Hardeman agreed, saying there will be time in a future when the mandate of the bill can be broadened.

Now, though, is the time to teach rural and urban dwellers alike that this act is really about food safety.

“The challenge is to convince people that the actions of some organizations (animal rights groups) takes away from our ability to ensure food safety,” said Hardeman.

Though he didn’t have financial numbers, Hardeman says he knows farmers, transporters and processors make large investments to ensure animals are healthy and safe as they get to market. “All that investment and effort is put at risk in one afternoon when people put their selfinterests first over the safety of livestock.”

Bill 156 was introduced in December (see feature story in the January issue of The Rural Voice) to strengthen protection for farmers, transporters and processors by trespassers by: • increasing fines for the first offence up to $15,000 and up to $25,000 for subsequent offences

56 The Rural Voice

Bill 156 is really about food safety and that’s the message farmers need to convey when talking about the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, urged Minister of Agriculture, Ernie Hardeman.

Hardeman and MPP Lisa Thompson hosted a roundtable discusssion at Blyth Memorial Hall on February 7 to hear farmers’ opinions on the proposed legislation.

• allowing courts to order restitution in cases where a farmer has suffered damages to their livestock or from theft • protecting farmers from civil claims by people who were hurt on the farm while they were trespassing There has been outcry from animal rights’ organizations saying the legislation will take away their right to “whistle blow” in cases where animals are being mistreated.

This is hardly the case, believes Hardeman who said along with Bill 156, Ontario also created the new Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) Act which came into effect January 1, 2020. The PAWS Act implements a provincially-funded animal welfare enforcement model, designed to protect animals from abuse and neglect, and creates uniformity across the province.

“PAWS will have 100 inspectors who, when called, will check out the

situation and can make charges to the full extent of the law,” explained Hardeman.

Between the two acts, Hardeman said everyone is covered.

“When you put the two together, we have the best and strongest animal welfare and trespass protection in all of Canada,” said Hardeman.

The legislation was created after farmers starting sharing stories of how activists are trespassing on their properties, leaving them feeling unsafe and vulnerable.

“People need to feel safe in their homes,” said Hardeman.”Everyone has a right to that.”

Also, farmers spend considerable time implementing biosecurity procedures on their farm to protect animals from disease. Animal rights activists will travel from farm to farm without respecting these protocols.

Transport companies indicate

News some truck drivers are refusing to drive livestock trucks because of the hassle they receive from activists at processing plants.

The end result is that trespassing on farms and at processing plants affects the safety of the food supply.

This is the message farmers need to share with their urban neighbours to help everyone understand why the legislation is needed, suggested Hardeman.

“We have to do more outreach to help people understand the challenges activists cause the agriculture community,” said Hardeman. These round table events are part of that process, as he both listens to ideas on Bill 156 itself, and encourages farmers and agriculture businesses to set the protocols in place to ensure their livestock zones have signage.

The thing is, said Hardeman, that everyone wants and expects their food to be safe to eat. This legislation helps ensure that, he concluded. ◊

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Arnold Mathers

T

he weather is a likely topic whenever a few old folks get together to reminisce and one-up each other. Each person has their good-old-days story about his or her favorite winter storm.

Those who are as old as I am will remember March 1947. The year before this big storm, I was in Grade One at the Stone School. We lived about a mile and a half from the school. It was a brutal winter and Dad and the neighbor took turns taking us to school. The roads were not plowed in those days in the 1940s and transportation was by sleigh or cutter. It was easier to cut across the fields than suffer the pitches caused by drifting along the sideroad.

Once, during that winter, the cutter upset and threw Dad and five kids with their school bags and lunch pails into a snowbank. The horse took a nasty lurch but suffered no harm. She was a well-seasoned old gal and not easily frightened by the accident. Nobody was hurt and we all helped upright the cutter and get back in and continue on to school.

In the spring, we moved to a farm beside the school on the Second Line. The next winter was one of the mildest on record. There was very little snow at Christmas and the ground was barely white through January and February. Old timers were talking about the year with no winter. This was nature’s way of the perfect ambush.

Winter began on March 17. It was a roaring blizzard for nearly a week.

The snow drifted so high that I could touch the telephone wires along the road from the top of the drifts.

Schools were closed for the week.

Train service was halted. Wingham was cut off from the rest of the world. After the blizzard ceased, the men along our concession began to break out a road to the highway.

They took turns with their teams to make a path across fields and along the road wherever it was not too deep. It was an all day effort. When we reached the highway, a one-lane track was being cut between Belgrave and Wingham by the first snowblower I ever saw. A gang of men were shoveling the snow down 58 The Rural Voice

Winter Storms

Nature teams with March to plan the perfect ambush

By Arnold Mathers “We were pushing snow well over the front bumper of the car. At that time, we were driving a diesel and to its credit, it was like the proverbial postman of yore, neither snow nor sleet nor hail can stop the delivery.”

into the blower which just inched along. It took several days to open up the highway.

The next huge storm was a dozen years later. I was a first-year teacher at a one-room rural school in Bruce County just outside the village of Tiverton. Again, the winter had been reasonably normal and by now townships and counties had really good snow plows and blowers to handle the white stuff. The storm began on a Sunday morning about the end of January and I decided that I had better make the trip from home in Morris township to my boarding house in Tiverton while the roads were still open. It was an incredibly slow drive, whiteouts all the way. My 1949 Plymouth had what undoubtedly was the world’s worst

defroster so at times my head was out the window to see where I was.

Somewhere, just past Ripley, I slid off the road and had to get a farmer with a team of horses to pull me out of the ditch. I could barely find a house, and being 18 and knowing everything, I likely wasn’t properly dressed for the adventure.

By late afternoon, I finally arrived but the last few miles were tough slogging even with good snow tires.

The snow continued! School was cancelled on Monday and the blast continued all week. Nobody moved.

The next Saturday, a bulldozer began clearing the road between the village and my school. It took them two days to open a narrow path, shoving the snow back and forth from ditch to ditch. The students and I both

Mathers enjoyed a house-bound holiday.

The third storm was in 1971. I was the principal of Huron Centennial School near Brucefield.

The nearly 600 students and the staff all arrived at school on a drizzly Tuesday morning. By 10 a.m., the drizzle changed to sleet and then snow. We were into a full-fledged blizzard with a 100 km winds. The buses were dispatched from Clinton but never made it to the school. The radio stations were all predicting the storm of the century. However, we were mid-storm by the time of the prediction. By noon, we suspected that we would all be staying in the school overnight. The snow was up to the top of the doors.

We began a “save or starve” campaign. Eat only half of your lunch at noon and save the other half just in case. We decided to drop the school routines and play games, have sing-songs, take turns in the gym, have storytime in the library, have marches in the halls, and in short, make the problem an adventure.

Someone said “When you are dealt lemons, make lemonade”.

The Grade 8 students were dispatched in pairs to assist the teachers and give them short breaks.

A bread truck ran off the road just in front of the school. Heaven provided manna! The closest neighbour was pretty certain that the milk truck would not be coming so he brought two or three cans of milk on a toboggan. I have no idea how he made it the 40 rods or so across the field in a raging whiteout.

We all stayed two days and two nights. Nobody came or went, including the bread man. Desks were pushed to the outside walls and the students slept on their coats on the floor. Grade six, seven and eight students were segregated each night.

One Grade 6 girl went to the washroom during the night and wandered back into the wrong room.

She was horrified when she woke in the morning in the “boys” room. The heat stayed on, the water continued to flow, we were warm and nobody starved. Indeed, many students learned to share, and realize that Mommy did not have to tuck them into bed. No one died from

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During the wee morning hours of the second night, the wind abated and the snow ceased. By dawn on Thursday, the snow plows were out and at 10 a.m. and the buses arrived to take the children home. Staff went home and slept for two days. The bread man probably decided to never marry and have children.

My great-uncle and aunt lived in northern Saskatchewan and he scoffed at our stories of Ontario storms. They actually had a rope from the house to the barn so he would not get lost during the frequent prairie blizzards, which was any day from December first to April first.

His weather forecaster was a logging chain firmly fastened to the back kitchen of the house. When the chain was still, it was good weather. When the chain was rattling, it was blowing up a storm and when the chain was flying straight out, it was a blizzard.

He told us that the wagon blew away one winter and come spring, they found it 10 miles east. Another time, one of the horses disappeared in a blizzard and returned to the farm, in about six weeks, when the wind died down, with a mare and colt.

We had one other storm experience to remember. Before Christmas 1987, we were on holidays with friends at their condo in Florida.

We flew back to Toronto a day early to make it home for Christmas with our family. There was no snow in Toronto but when we got to Woodstock, we were in the thick of it with cars stuck everywhere. Having been advised that the roads from Kitchener to Exeter were bad and/or closed, we chose the London route.

The city was pretty quiet but after we headed north on Highway #4 it was Death Valley – not a single car in sight from Arva to Lucan. We were pushing snow well over the front bumper of the car. At that time, we were driving a diesel and to its credit, it was like the proverbial postman of yore, neither snow nor sleet nor hail can stop the delivery. We made it to my sister’s laneway in Lucan and no further for three days.

Those were the good old days alright...when nature and March colluded to create winter storms. ◊

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March 2020 63

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

Uncertainty is the scourge of markets The optimism that was once felt in many commodity markets seems to have faded away. For a long time, many commodity prices seemed to trade at levels that were below the hopes of the producer, with market chatter indicating that this would change when the U.S. and China came together with a trade deal.

These two nations did finally come together to form the Phase 1 trade deal. From this, the markets were somewhat positive, and the outlook seemed brighter that U.S. ag trade would resume to the big Chinese marketplace. Then as soon as the optimism seemed to be gaining speed, and commodities began to appreciate in value, the markets turned lower and the outlook soured.

The change in sentiment came from the coronavirus outbreak which originated in Wuhan, China. What

the final outcome of this spreading virus will be is uncertain. What will be its duration and how widespread will it become around the world and what will be the mortality of the virus? These are questions that no one can answer with certainty today.

Uncertainty is the scourge of markets and in times of doubt, many market prices fall as speculators pull their money from “risk assets” until there is a feeling that the risk has dissipated.

There are many who speculate that the virus will have minimal impact on human health, and the situation will clear up much like SARS did years ago. There seems to be a general thought that many markets have been under pressure due to worries of epidemic hysteria and a herd mentality that will prove to be unfounded. Whether this will be the case or not is yet to be shown.

What is apparent though, is that even if the virus does go away quickly, the impact to many markets – especially ag markets, will likely remain and keep prices subdued for some time to come.

The Chinese economy will be negatively affected as a result of the attempted containment of the virus.

Many Chinese cities are under lockdown conditions and travel is impeded for millions of people.

Global traffic has halted to the region

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as the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern.

China has become a major economy within the world sphere – representing 15 per cent of the global economy. With this emerging situation energy markets are under pressure and this weakness spills over into weakness in the ag markets likewise. China is hindering shipments of many commodities to its shores and has declared “force majeure” on some liquid natural gas shipments; this is indicative of falling commodity demand in the nation.

While energy demand will most likely resume its regular pace as business turns back to normal, U.S. ag markets will not be so lucky.

The top U.S. White House economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, has already indicated that the virus outbreak would delay the U.S. export surge promised by the completion of the Phase 1 trade deal. Agriculture was to account for 16 per cent of the increases in U.S. trade to China, and much of this is now on hold. It is not only grain and oilseeds that will be affected, but also meat consumption.

This outbreak has coincided with the Lunar New Year celebrations which is typically a time of high meat consumption. As these celebrations and public gatherings are limited, so is celebratory consumption of food items, including large volumes of meat.

U.S. soybeans into China will likely be the most challenged, as large South American crops are expected to hit the market soon. The Brazilian bean harvest is thought to reach record high volumes this year at 124.5 million metric tonnes – with supplies of about 75 million tonnes for export. This puts further skepticism over large purchases of U.S. beans as China emphasizes that the Phase 1 agreement still allows China to buy ag commodities as market conditions dictate. In other words, China will only buy U.S. beans when they are cheaper than Brazilian and that will not be the case when Brazilian harvest hits full swing. Brazilian farmers are reported to be heavy sellers of soys. Brazilian farmers are feeling fear in regards to

Markets world demand for their beans from coronavirus, the reduced Chinese hog herd and uncertainty as to China’s intentions for U.S. purchases. Couple that with a record harvest and a weak Brazilian currency and Brazilian farmers are ready sellers.

The opposite position is seen currently in Argentina. Producers there are becoming more vocal in opposition to the grain export taxes that have been increased by the recently elected government. It is reported that farmers are demanding soybean export taxes to be dropped to 24.5 per cent from the current 30 per cent export tax. A rural association called Carbap, which represents 32,000 farmers, has said that they will withhold sales if the government didn’t propose tax changes. From the government’s perspective, they are desperate to hold tax rates high. The government has debt obligations in U.S. dollars and is counting on soy revenues to pay the bills and support the local economy. ◊

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March 2020 65

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

Saying farewell to writing, but not the woods I’ve been writing this column for over 16 years so this is likely close to the 200th one I’ve written. It is also my most challenging, because it’s my final one.

The idea for the column came out of a group I was part of that was discussing how to better profile the many benefits of woodlots in rural agricultural Ontario. Resurrecting the column was actually a suggestion from Jim Ginn, current Warden of Huron County (also part of the above group). Jim farms near Goderich. He has a genuine interest in his woodlots, has completed many stewardship projects on his farm and over the years has participated in multiple committees and initiatives promoting responsible stewardship, including the local woodlot association, Huron Stewardship Council, etc., etc. As I said above, it was actually a resurrection of the column, as at some time previously there had been another woodlot column in The Rural Voice. It was written by Andrew Grindlay from London, Ontario who owned several farms in Huron County and became very interested in the woodlots and natural areas on his farms. Since Andrew had a background publishing a financial magazine, it seemed natural for him to start writing about his woodlots in The Rural Voice, which he did for several years until he moved to Vancouver.

Anyway, I decided to give it a try and clearly recall meeting Keith Roulston at the Grandview Restaurant in Blyth to pitch the idea.

I’m sure Keith was somewhat skeptical that I’d be able to deliver, but to his credit he agreed to let me 66 The Rural Voice

give it a try. I’m proud that I’ve trees (over 500,000 per year) and never missed a deadline in those 16 provided advice and assistance to years, although there have been many thousands of landowners. times when I’ve been writing into the The only constant in life is change wee hours of the morning on the date and I’ve learned that government the column is due. I’m even more programs change depending on who proud to have been associated in a is in power, the perceived interest in small way with such a high quality the environment by voters at the time publication as The Rural Voice. and of course economic factors. By Writing is not something that comes the early 1990s those programs were easily for me. It has been a challenge mostly dismantled, but a short few as well as a learning and personal years later I was part of a development opportunity. It has community-driven program called certainly enhanced my respect for the Ontario Stewardship that rose from abilities of truly good writers such as the ashes.

Keith Roulston and current editor, As Stewardship Coordinator with Lisa B. Pot. the Huron Stewardship Council I was I hope the column has achieved fortunate to work with many partners the original intent of profiling our on a wide variety of projects. It was local woodlands and natural areas. It an interesting role – employed by the has certainly provided me an province, but taking direction from a opportunity to express myself on council composed of community many different topics including members. It definitely created angst wildlife, wetlands, forests in other for some MNR bureaucrats! parts of Canada or elsewhere in the Eventually that program also world, hiking the Bruce Trail, disappeared, shortly after I retired harvesting, woodlot management, from MNR in 2011 (although the forest health, species at risk, invasive species, tree planting, windbreaks, climate change, etc.

Coincidentally, it is now almost exactly 43 years since, fresh out of university, I started working at the Wingham Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) office in early 1977. It is interesting to reflect back on my experiences during those years. Early in my career I was fortunate to be part of a world class extension and assistance program for private landowners then delivered by MNR across rural Ontario.

Just in our small corner of the province (Huron and Perth Counties, as well as As Stewardship Coordinator with the Huron four townships from Stewardship Council, retiring Rural Voice columnist, Bruce and one from Steve Bowers encouraged counties to advocate and Wellington), we implement responsible ecosystem-based planted millions of management of natural resources.

Woodlots Huron Stewardship Council is one of the few province wide that still exist). Throughout my career, a definite highlight has been the many landowners and community members Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked with, including folks like Jim Ginn and Andrew Grindlay mentioned above and many, many others. Another highlight is the many competent and committed staff I worked with at MNR and other partner agencies and organizations.

It is interesting to note some other changes during what seems like the short time period of my career. When I started, I remember almost having to develop a business plan to justify purchasing a portable calculator (of course they were more expensive in those days). The concept of having computers in our office wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought of then, let alone needing a calculator! Of course we all know how that has changed, along with other technology like GIS and cell phones. Also, women in the workplace mostly filled clerical roles when I started. By the end of my career I was fortunate to be able to work with many wonderfully competent women in professional and field roles.

I have a whole bunch of people to thank. Thanks to Keith Rouston and Lisa B. Pot for providing the opportunity. Thanks to my wife Rita for her tolerance of late nights (among many other things) her input and encouragement. Thanks mostly to the readers, particularly those who have taken the time to provide comments, suggest topics or say hello â&#x20AC;&#x201C; your kind words have been the most gratifying thing about this 16 year project .

And finally, our forests are the most significant natural feature of our southern Ontario landscape. We need to value them not only for their direct economic benefits (i.e. forest products, jobs, etc.) but also for the many other benefits that are harder to quantify economically such as water quality, aesthetics, recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat, human health, wind protection, climate change mitigation, etc. Is there another, largely privately owned, resource that provides so much benefit for society as a whole? â&#x2014;&#x160;

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Thank you

Over 16 years of woodlot wisdom A s Steve Bowers retires, we share a few “woodchips” of wisdom from the archives to thank him for his dedication to trees, the environment and The Rural Voice

Steve Bowers has been writing about trees, woodlots, vacations in the woods, ecology, sustainability and environmental issues for over 16 years in The Rural Voice. Now retired from his role as Huron County Stewardship Coordinator and as a forestry expert with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Bowers is looking forward to catching up on jobs and hobbies at his own 100acre woods near Walton in Huron County.

• Healing from the Forest, August 2004: “Many trees found in our local forests are currently utilized in medicinal, natural health or personal care products. Throat lozenges often contain a product from the inner bark of slippery elm.

The inner bark contains mucilage that helps to soothe a dry or sore throat and acts as a cough suppressant.”

• How to Harvest Tree Seeds and Plant Your own Trees, October 2005: “Oak acorns can be dumped in a pail of water. The floaters are usually bad while those that sink are more viable. Usually acorns fallen on the ground with caps on are no good.

Sugar maple keys have two seed cases but it is normal for one of them to be empty.”

• Mushrooms Play a Vital Role in Healthy Woodlot, September 2006: “The lowly mushroom plays a vital role in the ecological health and function of our forests. Mycorrhizal mushrooms ... form a symbiotic or mutually beneficial relationship with the roots of other trees and plants.

These fungi produce root-like filaments called mycelium that grow around and into the tree roots as well as throughout the soil, somehow helping to provide tree roots with moisture plus nitrogen, phosphorous and other essential elements.”

• An Alternative for Ash? Try Bur Oak, March 2007: Bur oak ... grows on a wide variety of sites and soil conditions ranging from sandy textures to clay and dry uplands to moist bottomlands. It has a deep taproot and is also considered to be drought tolerant as well as resistant to pollution.”

• Learning by playing ‘Treevia’, November 2008: “If you drive a nail into a tree, does the height of the nail above the ground increase as the tree grows in height? No, the nail always March 2020 69

stays at the same height. Elongation or growth in length only happens at the tips of branches and the tips of the roots.”

• Go Native Planting Trees, April 2009: “For any landscaping or tree planting project, a good rule of thumb is to use native species wherever possible. Native species have evolved over thousands of years to be suited to local climate and soils as well as meshing with local biological processes such as how they interact with other species.”

• How I Spent my Summer Vacation, October 2010: (On family camping, canoeing and weight gain).

“Another challenge on portages was that my canoe seemed to have gained weight – just like its owner.

Also while in the water, in spite of our best efforts at arranging our load, the front of the canoe rode a lot higher than the back. My son obviously needs to bulk up a bit.”

• Don’t Say it’s Good for Them, January 2011: “ Maple syrup is a neutraceutical (antioxidants and nutritional elements). Now parents, think carefully before you tell your children that maple syrup is good for them. I’ve spent the last 20 years trying to be a responsible parent and telling my kids to eat their broccoli and other fruits and vegetables. It would be a shame to spoil their enjoyment of maple syrup.”

• The Challenges of Tree

70 The Rural Voice

Planting, July 2012: “The first term tree seed collectors need to learn is periodicity. This relates to that fact that the frequency of good seed crops varies considerably from species to species. While some species like silver maple and green ash have good seed crops almost every year, for others it happens much less frequently. Sugar maple and red oak only average a good crop of seed once in every three to five years while red pine, white pine or white oak may only produce a good crop once in every seven to 10 years.”

• Sounds in the Woodlot, July 2013: An experience this spring with what I thought was a demented woodpecker made me reflect on the many sounds normal to our forest habitat that we often take for granted.

The woodpecker that caught my attention was drumming on metal ... I assumed he must be a young male trying to impress the ladies or some of his buddies with his macho demonstration of ear-shattering drumming. Most woodland animals use sound to communicate, one of the most recognizable being the howl of coyotes on clear nights. Even the white-tail deer is surprisingly vocal, using a variety of wheezes, snorts and grunts to “talk”. A sound I could definitely do without is that of raccoons scrapping with each other in the middle of the night.”

• Hiking One of the Best Ways to

Experience Vegetation and Forest, December 2014: “A highlight for me this past summer was hiking the Maitland Trail from Auburn to Goderich along with my wife and daughter. Aside from the health benefits hiking provides, it’s also a fun thing to do with family or friends or even as a solitary activity. There’s definitely no better way to experience the forests and other natural areas of our local landscape than on foot. At the risk of sounding silly, there can also be therapeutic or even spiritual benefit from close contact with nature that is often missing from our lives today, particularly for urban folks.”

• Curvy Figures in Hardwoods Drive up Value, March 2015: “Believe it or not, most woodworkers are significantly influenced by fashion and really interested in a good figure. One of the best known figured hardwoods is birdseye maple.

Birdseye is a series of small circular patterns in the grain that can be found in several species, but is most common in hard maple. Curly grain is another sought-after figure and is most common in soft maple but is also found in other species such as cherry, birch and walnut.”

• Earthworms can be Detrimental to Hardwood Forests, May 2016: “A typical forest has (or had) a considerable amount of decaying leaf litter and other organic matter on the forest floor (called the duff layer) that is recycled slowly into nutrients by bacteria and fungi. This duff layer provides a moist, fertile area utilized as a rooting zone for many plants as well as habitat for many other organisms. When earthworms invade a forest they feed on organic matter on the ground’s surface and the duff layer often disappears along with much of the biodiversity on the forest floor” • Ontario’s Oldest Trees can be Found Near Populated Areas, November 2017: “I’ve been walking the Bruce Trail with friend, Terry Schwan, for the past couple of years.

So far we’ve hiked about 350 of its 894 km. total length. I didn’t realize until earlier this year that during our hikes we had been passing by some of the oldest trees in eastern North America!”

• Are Transgenics the Cure to Trees in Crisis, January 2018: (On transgenics to create diseaseresistance trees) “We have a long list of forest species in, or approaching crisis, due to (mostly invasive) disease or insect issues, and the stress of climate change. The American chestnut, once one of the most common trees in eastern North America is essentially gone due to a blight introduced in the early 1900s.

Our native elms (white, red and rock), also common once, are struggling to survive due to the Dutch elm disease. Butternut canker has butternut on the endangered species list. Beech trees are disappearing from our woodlots due to beech bark disease. Oak wilt is raising concern in the U.S. and is close to our border. Thousand canker disease is affecting black walnut in the U.S.” • Subdued Colours Mark the Taiga Landscape, October 2019: “In southern Yukon, the landscape was covered with Boreal forest, similar to what you would find across much of northern Canada with species such as white spruce, black spruce, tamarack, lodgepole pine, trembling aspen, white birch and various willows. As you get farther north and/or higher in altitude, growing conditions become more challenging. Trees get smaller, less common and eventually disappear beyond what is known as the “tree line”. Eventually ... the trees gradually disappeared altogether and we entered a vegetation type known as tundra, composed of low growing dwarf shrubs, herbaceous plants, mosses and lichens. The transitional zone between forest and tundra is often referred to as taiga.” ◊

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March 2020 71

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

Setting boundaries (of the real property sort) Ontario’s Boundaries Act enables landowners to make an application to the Director of Titles to confirm the true location of a boundary of a parcel of land “on the ground” where doubt exists as to its true location. If an objection is made to the application, the Director must hold a hearing to dispose of the objection. The Act provides that the Director may dispose of any objection “in such manner as he or she considers just and equitable under the circumstances”. The Director may also confirm the location of the boundary at issue as shown on a plan of survey or, if the Director thinks it proper to do so, may order that a survey and plan be amended. A decision of the Director may be appealed to the Divisional Court.

On appeal, the Director’s decision

is reviewed on a standard of reasonableness. The Court must give deference to the judgment of the Director as was described by the Court of Appeal in a 2005 decision: [T]he Director has particular expertise when contrasted with that of a court: he is a surveyor. His expertise is recognized by the Boundaries Act, which gives him independent authority to require certain information (s.4(2)); to initiate a proceeding on his own initiative and to engage a surveyor (s.5(1)); to determine whether to hold a hearing (s.8(4)); and, most significantly, confers broad powers to dispose of the dispute (s.9(1)).

The difficulties inherent in boundary re-establishment … show the expertise required of the Director in weighing facts and balancing expert opinion. Indeed, the parties before the Director were surveyors and not the landowners.

Given the application of appropriate legal principles, the determination of the running of a lot line or the re-establishment of a boundary are factual matters peculiarly within the knowledge and skill of those trained in surveying, which suggests a high degree of deference is owed to the Director’s findings.

Where a boundary is described clearly in the title documents for the property, and what is described is an accurate expression of the intention of the grantor (the party who “created”

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the parcel of land), the Director will apply the written boundary description. However, where it is determined that the words used in a legal instrument do not correctly and unambiguously express the intention of the grantor, the Director’s task is to re-establish original property lines based on the best evidence available.

The Courts have adopted the following hierarchy of evidence for re-establishing property lines, ranked from most compelling to least compelling: (a) Natural boundaries; (b) Original monuments; (c) Fences or possession that can reasonably be related back to the time of the original survey; (d) Measurements (as shown on the plan or as stated in the metes and bounds description).

In one recent appeal, the Divisional Court reviewed the decision of the Director in a case where there were no natural boundaries and no original monuments in place to establish the property lines of a lot within a subdivision created in 1915. The Director had to look to evidence of possession that could reasonably be related back to the time of the original property survey or to original plan measurements, with evidence of possession to take precedence. On appeal, the landowner applicant unsuccessfully disputed the Director’s rejection of a cedar hedgerow as the marker of one of the boundary lines of his property. The Divisional Court ruled that the Director’s decision was reasonable, as she had reviewed all of the evidence available and found significant gaps that precluded her from finding that the hedgerow intended to reflect the original boundary. While it was established that the hedgerow had been planted no later than 1961 (based on a sketch in the field notes of a surveyor), there was no evidence available to show that the hedgerow was planted when original survey monuments were in place or that it was planted with an intention to mark the original boundary.

In another recent appeal, the Divisional Court reviewed a case where the legal documentation contained a metes and bounds description of the boundaries of a property, but there was reason to

Agrilaw believe that description was based upon a mathematical error. The error was revealed when a surveyor found a wooden stake that had been set when the property was first surveyed; the location marked by the stake differed from the metes and bounds description by about 7 feet. The Director found that the wooden stake was an “original post” and should be recognized as marking the boundary intended by the grantor. On appeal, the landowner who stood to lose the 7 feet argued that the description of the boundary in the documentation registered on title was clear and unambiguous, and that it was not open to the Director to go behind that documentation. The Divisional Court disagreed, noting that: In contrast to the complexity of a metes and bounds description, the visual expression of a surveyor’s post is translated in our minds into one word - “here”. The law therefore allows for a review of whether the words used in a legal instrument express correctly and unambiguously the intention of the grantor as discerned from original posts and other evidence that, in this area of the law, can provide more certainty than the written word.

Corrigendum: In the January 2020 edition of Agrilaw, the existing language of the contamination prohibition in the Environmental Protection Act and the new language contained in Bill 132 were incorrectly transposed. The new language (enacted as part of Bill 132, but not yet proclaimed in force) will prohibit the discharge of a contaminant into the environment where “the discharge causes or is likely to cause an adverse effect.” This change will narrow the application of the prohibition, which currently applies where “the discharge causes or may cause an adverse effect.” ◊ _____________________________ 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.

$

Financial Planning

INCOME TAX SERVICE

$

Farm, Business, Personal • complete year-round service including tax audit representation • E-file available

Stephen Thompson R.R. #2, Clinton

519-482-3244 stevethompson@tcc.on.ca

Trust family

neighbours

Contact: Larry Batte MNP Clinton office T: 519.606.8550

wisdom

intuition

dreams

Jordan Bowles MNP Stratford office T: 519.272.0000

March 2020 73

Photos by Bonnie Sitter

Lots of snowmobiles but no snow Lack of snow meant the 10th Annual Vintage Snowmobile Show at the Howick Community Centre on January 26 was more a show’n’tell than a riding event but it was good family fun for everyone who attended.

Snow was falling but there wasn’t enough on the ground to get the machines running at the 10th Annual Vintage Snowmobile Show.

However, there were plenty of machines to investigate and sit on, as cousins Ben Wynja, age 10, and Gavin Wynja, age four, proved (above right). Snowmobile collectors needing parts were pleased to see Cindy and Shawn Small of Mount Forest (left and above) who took a trailer full of tracks and other parts to the event.

74 The Rural Voice

Above: Richard Armstrong of Wroxeter and Travis Haasnoot of Fordwich enjoyed wings after working in the kitchen as part of the Optimist Group fundraising which cooked over 200 pounds of wings for the event. Below: Carson Keffer, age 8 from Brussels got to sit on a 1979 Ski Doo while Jace Turton, age one, from Mapleton was perched on his grandpaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Snowbug, vintage 1968. Bottom: Family skating was also part of the fun at the Annual Vintage Snowmobile Show held in January at the Howick Community Centre.

March 2020 75

The

Rural Voice

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

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

RODENT PROBLEMS? WE CAN HELP!

ROTH DRAINAGE LTD

Agricultural Residential Commercial

Quality Workmanship Since 1948

Visit our Booth at the London Farm Show March 4-6 Gads Hill 519-656-2618

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

• Unmarked Vehicles • Fully Insured • MOE Licensed Technicians

Blyth 519-895-6367

1-866-494-2618

STEVEN NIXON

Serving the area since 1999

Broker WILFRED MCINTEE & CO. LIMITED

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

519-357-2228 • 1-888-667-3545

With the launch of my brand new web page www.stevennixon.com the first 20 new listings of 2020 will be entered into a draw for a $2000 destination travel voucher from Ship2Shore in Wingham.

Not intended to solicit properties already listed.

I have clients looking for acreages, large and small in Huron, Bruce and Perth Counties.

Plastic Tile Installed, GPS Surveying, Excavator, Backhoe, Dozer Work, Weeping Beds Installed

195 Wallace Avenue North, Listowel, Ontario N4W 1K8

FAMILY BUSINESS SINCE 1949

www.peakrealestate.com

Mark Cook Main 519-393-5656 Cell 519-276-7402 4283 Line 42, Sebringville, ON N0K 1X0

76 The Rural Voice

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

Cathy Hendriks Sales, Rep.

519-357-5128

If you would consider selling please give me a shout at 519-357-5128

MANUFACTURING STEEL ROOFING SIDING & TRIMS

Wa n t e d to buy

OLD BARNS FOR SALVAGE CALL STEVE

519-523-4523

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

Galvanized Roofing For Sale

Also Supplying Other Building Accessories

• Bulk Bags • Tote Bags • Super Sacks

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

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

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

1-519-291-4924 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

Est. 1991

Maitland Welding & Machining

• In-shop & on-site millwrighting • Custom fabrication • Steel & industrial supply sales

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

PACKERS: WE BUILD B RUBBER U TIRE PACKER S SPECIALISTS Order Now I Also large fold-up steel drum packers, lawn & estate rollers, N custom manufactured E S RR #2, Arthur, Ont. (519) 848-2799 S

63 North St. Wingham

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

STEFFEN WELL DRILLING 519-531-0355 TEESWATER, ON

mike@steffenwelldrilling.ca

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

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

March 2020 77

C E N T R E

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

Automobile, Residential, Farm & Commercial Properties

507 Main St. S., Exeter

519-235-0350

www.usborneandhibbert.ca

WINGHAM

BUSHELLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S AUTO SALES

TRUCKS 2014 2011 2011 2010

519-357-6731

VANS

Chev Silverado ext. cab, 4x4, 170,000 km ....$17,500 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan 139,000 km ..............$14,995 Ford F150 crew cab, 4x4, 180,000 km ............$16,995 $ Dodge Ram ext. cab, 4x4, 184,000 km ...........$11,995 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan 111,000 km .............. 11,700 2010 Toyota Sienna 310,000 km ..................................$4,995 Chev Silverado 2500 HD ext. cab,

4x4, 262,000 km ...............................................................$16,995 2010 Chev Silverado reg. cab, 4x4, 239,000 km....$11,200 2007 Chev Avalanche LTZ 4x4, 232,000 km .......$12,995

CARS

2013 Chev Malibu L7 72,000 km ...........................$10,995 2012 Ford Focus 125,000 km......................................$6,995 2011 Hyundai Elantra 127,000 km...................................$5,995 2010 Buick Lacerne CXL 112,000 km............................$8,995 2009 Honda Accord 165,000 km................................$6,995 2007 Toyota Corolla 306,000 km...............................$3,500 2006 Mini Cooper 188,000 km....................................$4,795 1974 Fiat Convertible 118,000 km...................................$8,995 1971 Chev Impala 77,000 miles ........................................$2,995

SUVS

2016 Ford Escape 126,000 km .....................................$15,995 2015 Ford Edge Titanium AWD, 70,000 km .........$25,900 2015 GMC Terrain SLE 75,000 km.............................$18,500 2013 Chev Trax 86,000 km ..........................................$10,995 2013 Ford Edge Limited AWD, 82,000 km ............$19,500 2012 Dodge Journey 153,000 km ................................$6,995 2011 Ford Edge AWD, 140,000 km................................$12,900 2011 Honda CR-V EX-L AWD, 75,000 km..................$14,995 2009 Jeep Liberty 181,000 km .......................................$5,995

Is your car in the Body Shop?

We have rentals available for most major insurance companies.

Give us a call today!

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

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

www.bushellsauto.ca 78 The Rural Voice

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.

-------------------------------------------------CONSIGNMENTS -------------------------------------------------Consignments wanted of tack and horses for the Ontario Belgian Horse Association Annual Sale for April 11 at Ancaster Fairgrounds. Contact Mark Lindquist, 705-887-3350 or Dave Zister, 519-881-0436.

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

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

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

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

-------------------------------------------------FARM EQUIPMENT FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Tired of hand milking? Bucket milker and vacuum pump set-up, $700 o.b.o. 519-775-2670.

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

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

FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Few thousand board feet of air-dried hardwood lumber of various thicknesses, widths and lengths maple, ash, cherry and walnut. 519775-2670.

-------------------------------------------------Masonry wood-fired bread oven, black oven design, 40"x60", with 8" stainless steel chimney and housed in a 14-foot diameter steel granary building, $3,500 takes it all. 519-7752670.

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

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

Closed Sundays, 519-338-3920.

-------------------------------------------------Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds – vegetable, herb and flower seeds, RR 3, 5961 5th Line, Palmerston, ON N0G 2P0. 519-343-3375, hawthornfarm.ca sales@hawthornfarm.ca --------------------------------------------------

Bodywood • Slabwood Quantity Discounts

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

519-441-2085 519-656-2057

Serving Southwestern Ontario for over 10 years!

-------------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Hay and 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.

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

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

• Tree Seedlings • Nursery Stock • Shade Trees • Native Species Order for Spring 2020 Now

888-226-6344

www.hrichardsonfarms.com

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

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

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

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

-------------------------------------------------Soybean seed for sale – Absolute RR, Altitude R2, Mahony R2 and Xtend varieties. Treatments and inoculants available. Call Mitch at Courtney Grain & Seed (2015) Ltd. 519-440-6712.

-------------------------------------------------HAY/STRAW -------------------------------------------------DRY COW HAY – large square low potassium grass, all types of hay and straw. Test results and delivery available. Call Neeb Agri-Products at 519-529-1141.

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

March 2020 79

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

LIVESTOCK BEDDING -------------------------------------------------MIRACLE FIBER Livestock Bedding.

Also, coarse wood mulch for horse and cattle walkways, wet areas around water troughs and bush lanes.

Also available is dairy pack starter bedding. 1-877-773-8004. Sittler Grinding. Rick Sittler.

-------------------------------------------------LIVESTOCK FOR SALE -------------------------------------------------Reg Hereford Breeding Bull – D.O.B. 01/25/16. Three breeding seasons on our farm. Medium-sized smart calves. Contact Ken Bassindale, Selkirk: kenli@optionsdsl.ca -------------------------------------------------LIMOUSIN-quality breeding bulls and breeding females for sale.

Delivery included. Posthaven Limousin, John Post 519-766-7178. www.posthavenlimousin.com -------------------------------------------------Suffolks – purebred yearling rams, British bloodlines M-V negative closed flocks. 519-233-7896.

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

James and Joan McKinlay 519-5996236. jmckinlay@bmts.com -------------------------------------------------Spring Hatchery: day-old heritage Beltsville Small White turkeys and White Chantecler chickens for family and breeding flocks. Pick-up in Meaford.

See website: www.cirrushillfarm.ca, email: info@cirrushillfarm.ca --------------------------------------------------

RESTORATION -------------------------------------------------The Olde Tyme Radio Centre – antique radios, clocks, gramophones, telephones; sold/restored. (vintage autoclock radio, speedometer, tachometer repaired). Belgrave 519357-4304, www.oldtymeradio.ca -------------------------------------------------RETAIL & GIFTS -------------------------------------------------Stitches with a Twist – 404 Queen St., Blyth, 519-523-9449. Yarns, knit and crochet instruction. Chainmaille supplies. Alterations and repairs, including leather.

-------------------------------------------------SERVICES -------------------------------------------------INCOME TAX FILING – for farms, small business, truckers and individuals. Will make house calls in the North Huron, Perth and surrounding area. Call Shirley in Wingham – cell No. 1-705-434-8187.

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

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

Ph. 519-528-3019

22nd Annual Open House & Private Treaty Sale

GLAVIN BARN & COMMERCIAL PAINTING

Limousin bulls and open and bred females

FARMERS repaint your faded coloured steel

Saturday, April 4, 2020 At the farm 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

Smart Limousin

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

FREE QUOTES ~ FULLY INSURED

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

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

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

Tell them you saw their ad in The Rural Voice!

80 The Rural Voice

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

519-524-5113

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

PAL & HUNTER ED. Ongoing courses available.

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

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

519-692-4232 www.sgspestmanagement.ca

SEAMLESS EAVESTROUGHING

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

London 519-268-8500 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

-------------------------------------------------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 – Ukraine & Romania – Poland & Ukraine – UK, Scotland & Ireland – Alberta Farm Tour & Calgary Stampede – Alaska Land and Cruise – Yukon and Northwest Territories – Australia & New Zealand – Peru/Brazil/Argentina/Chile Portion of Tours may be Tax Deductible.

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

CLASSIFIED UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------------Planting a Natural Dye Garden – FACTS Chat - March 6 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the FACTS Gallery and Creative Space, 441 Queen Street, Blyth. We will discuss everything you need to know about planting and harvesting plants and flowers that produce dye colours.

Register at www.factsblyth.ca. $10.

-------------------------------------------------It’s a BARNYARD PARTY at Grey Roots! March 16 to 20. This March Break, hop on the farm bouncers, play a board game or go fishin’ in the pond. With different activities every day, it’’s fun for everyone! Details and schedule at greyroots.com -------------------------------------------------Spring into Moreston! March 28, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Grey Roots. Celebrate the changing of the seasons with live music, tree tapping, and a hearty pancake breakfast. Bring the whole family and rejoice at this traditional rite of spring! Details at greyroots.com -------------------------------------------------March Sale 16-28 on large variety of fabrics and quilting supplies, also finished quilts for sale – crib to king size. Retail Day Goods, 10 kms. north of Kinloss to sideroad 30, Brockton, first farm on left. Fire #418.

-------------------------------------------------23rd Annual RV/Campout Jamboree May 21-24, 2020 at the Blyth Arena Complex and Campgrounds.

Brochure and registration form available by contacting The Barn Dance Historical Society, Box 68, Wingham, ON, N0G 2W0 or www.thebarndance.ca 519530-8000 or email: barndance2013@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------WANTED -------------------------------------------------Farmland to rent or share crop – no-till. Monthly, quarterly, semiannual, annual rent payment options.

Please call/email Joe: 519-525-0359 or joewhitely05@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------Looking for land to rent for upcoming year. Call Adam Braecker 519-524-0615.

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

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

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

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

Short and long term. 519-200-7845 or hundt.chris@outlook.com -------------------------------------------------Young couple looking to rent land for forage in the Blyth area. Call Joel 226-921-1917.

-------------------------------------------------Stockers or cow/calf pairs for 40 acres of pasture, new fencing and water system, daily supervision, St. Thomas area 519-775-2670.

-------------------------------------------------International or John Deere 7 ft. grain binder, 22x38 or 28x48 Dion threshing machine, International corn binder, International #7 or #9 ensilage cutter. Phone evenings 905-9839331.

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

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

Midwestern Ontario Bull Sale April 11th at 1 pm Gilchrist Farms, 1269 Grey Ox Ave., Lucknow

Our females make the difference in raising your herd sires

Representation of Bulls Selling

Contact for more information: Brad Gilchrist: 519-440-6720 Ben Wright: 519-374-3335

Consignors: 1269 Grey Ox Ave., Lucknow Brad Gilchrist 519-440-6720 5164 Perth Line 58, Milverton Pete & Karen Frijters & family 519-276-9314 5536 Guelph Twp. Rd. 3, Guelph Rob Hasson/Karen McMaster 416-817-7339/416-433-5595

Advertising in The Rural Voice – A Wise Choice! – Call Today! 519-523-4311 Deadline for the April issue is March 10

Rehorst Farms Ltd.

Teeswater Adrian Rehorst 519-357-7077 307483 Centre Line A., Proton Station Al Hargrave 519-375-5541

March 2020 81

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

Where’s the Beef (Processors)?

The closure of provincially licenced abattoirs in Ontario has been carrying on for decades. Small abattoirs used to speckle the landscape, requiring farmers to transport their animals mere kilometers away to be processed.

Over the past 30 years, closures have become so regular that they don’t make the news. But today, in eastern Ontario the rate of abattoir closures has gone from being a nuisance to being a crisis. Farmers are forced to book their animals over six months in advance while the cost of processing continues to rise. Animals are being transported two hours or more to be processed, unless you’re lucky.

Consequently, the NFU-O has started to take a look at why so many abattoirs are closing rather than changing hands. What makes this business so tough, and what impact does it have on our farming communities?

Over time, layers of regulations aimed at protecting public health have resulted in extra costs to abattoir businesses. BSE and E. coli outbreaks have forced provincial abattoirs to adhere to regulations similar to federally licenced abattoirs, despite the fact that there has never been a case of BSE or E. coli contamination coming from a provincially licenced plant in Ontario. The NFU-O wholeheartedly supports regulations that protect public safety. However, the consequences associated with these regulations come in the form of slowed production or extra costs. The number of animals processed in a provincial abattoir is much smaller than federal plants. In one day at a provincial plant, 30 animals would be killed compared to 200-300 animals that larger, federally-licenced abattoirs see. Therefore, there is less ability to absorb costs incurred by

extra expenses and slowed production, which means those extra costs must get passed down to the farmers. One may even wonder if there is much risk of contamination in a smaller, provincially licenced plant simply due to the inspectors’ ability to have more intimate involvement in a smaller environment.

It’s the small things that count.

Cow hides and pig skins used to provide a value-added source of income for these facilities to the tune of $60/hide. But that business has dried up. The demand for animal skin for sporting goods and clothing is being replaced by synthetic materials.

Now, not only is the abattoir owner not making $60/hide, but they are also having to pay for disposal.

Meanwhile, there is a cultural issue at hand. As rural culture is impacted by urban sprawl, there is less interest in getting into the smallscale meat processing business or working as an employee. It’s hard

work. It requires flexibility, and it requires a strong constitution. When you add regulatory restraints that turn a profitable business into an unprofitable business, it is easy to understand why there isn’t too much interest to take over these businesses.

So the doors close. And once closed, it is very costly to open them again.

The impact this has on farmers is simple. It forces farmers to retire or change over from livestock to crops, and it discourages new and young farmers from considering raising livestock. In a time when we want to be encouraging local food production, limiting the layers between growing and eating our food, we need to ensure the infrastructure is there to support farmers who are on a smaller scale. And, we need government policy to reflect its support.

– By Hilary Moore, NFU-O Board member and farmer in Lanark County.

Coming Events Local 330 Renfrew – Next meeting is Monday, March 2, 7:30 p.m. at the Barr Line Community Centre. For more information, contact Connie Tabbert at rcnfu330@gmail.com or 613-646-7753.

Local 316 Frontenac, Lennox-Addington – Save the date for the Third Annual Spring Fling, our easy-going social event to celebrate the beginning of the growing season, on Saturday, May 2, 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Patchwork Gardens, 4649 Milburn Rd., Battersea. Everyone is welcome to attend – all ages, all connections to the farm and food network. Please bring your own cutlery, plates/bowls, and cups to minimize your ecological footprint for the potluck and bring a musical instrument for the jam session. Please dress for the weather – this is an indoor/outdoor event.

Local 320 Bruce has organized an Environmental Farm Plan workshop that is open to all farmers on Monday, March 23 and Friday, March 27 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. both days at Brucedale School, 1046 Conc.12, Underwood. There is no charge. To register call Lois Sinclair 519-955-3139 or email lsinclair@ontariosoilcrop.org or register online: www.ontariosoilcrop.org/osciaprograms/workshops-webinars/environmental-farm-plan/ Please bring a bag lunch.

Water, coffee and cookies will be provided. This is the fourth edition of the EFP, and you must complete this edition for the Ontario Cost Share Program.

A subscription to The Rural Voice is one of the benefits of being an NFU-O member 82 The Rural Voice

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

Perth, Huron, Grey and Bruce County Pork Producers

NEWSLETTER

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

Bill 156: Timely protection for the people who feed you Today’s consumer asks a lot of a modern farmer. Along with enjoying an abundant, safe, and affordable food supply, people have more questions about how food got to their plate than ever before. Farmers long left consumer education to companies like Maple Leaf and General Mills given that, more often than not, our products are transformed significantly between the farm gate and your plate. Yet consumer marketing doesn’t always translate into understanding how food gets from the farm to the plate and unfortunately, public education and advocacy are often the first things pushed off the plate when farmers get busy – how can we worry about something like consumer education when there is corn to be planted?

This thirst for knowledge about food didn’t happen overnight.

Generational removal from the farm took time and it wasn’t until the millennial generation that being related to a farmer put you in the minority. Layered into this was rapid technological change that transformed what food production looks like. It is understandable to have questions about what is going on when the places that produce your food look absolutely nothing like the books your teacher read in school.

While we farmers grappled with why, where, and how to share the story of modern food production; another group of individuals saw opportunity. Anti-animal activists realized that the combination of consumer questions, social media, and cheap camera technology gave them the perfect vector to advance their agenda of eliminating the use of animals by humans. Eventually farmers understood that we too could utilize these tools. Many have opened virtual doors through YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, and for over a decade an online battle of wills between farmers and anti-animal activists has waged. Personal experience taught that sharing one’s

own farm story can be exhausting and being the target of online hate leads to much stress. But never did it result in fear.

Fear is a new phenomenon for us at our farm, as are locked doors, no trespassing signs, and security cameras. Recently, anti-animal activists have become emboldened and are breaking into farms across Ontario. This infinitely small minority of people will tell you they want to improve the lives of farm animals but are never upfront about their true intentions; they will not rest until animal agriculture is eliminated.

Until recently, lack of legal clarity meant that activists could break into private property or mislead an employer without any real legal ramifications, and there was little consequence for those who willfully broke laws in their quest to end animal agriculture.

Bill 156, introduced last fall by the Government of Ontario, seeks to provide the clarity law enforcement needs to protect against trespassing and violations of our rights as private citizens. Bill 156 will make it illegal to take a farm job under false pretences, harass farmers and food plant workers, and will impose stiffer penalties for trespassing. Anti-animal

activists have billed this as an ‘AgGag’ law, saying it will inhibit the ability to expose animal abuse. This is a bold lie. Nothing in this legislation will inhibit concerned law abiding citizens from reporting suspected abuse. In fact companion legislation, Bill 136 has already become law and will make it easier to report suspected animal abuse. Bill 136 will create a specially trained group of inspectors who report to a newly-created Chief Animal Welfare Inspector. These inspectors have the ability to enter barns suspected of abuse without a warrant and the fines for animal abuse have been increased significantly.

It is understandable that you have questions about your food, and every person has the right to food choice.

Farmers will continue to do what they do best: raise safe, healthy and affordable food, and some of us will even have a camera in tow to share what we do with whoever wants to see. Thankfully, Bill 156 means that we can continue to do this while the fear of having our farms broken is lessened knowing there are clear consequences for those who willfully break the law to advance their personal agenda. ◊ – Submitted by Stewart Skinner

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

Phone Jerry DeGroot 519-393-5237 for more information.

March 2020 83

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

President’s scribbles 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 days are getting longer and so is the “to do” list for your County Federation. Your Board’s work continues to be guided by three big goals: 1) connecting with our Members 2 building a young farmers constituency 3) strengthening our environmental profile by working more closely with Conservation Authorities and others So what’s happening? We have some exciting new events planned, designed to appeal to a broad audience that have asked us to bring forward some speakers on subjects of interest to farmers. Watch for announcements about “ShedTalks”, the first planned for April 6, 2020.

Recently, we’ve seen some muchneeded Trespass legislation proposed in Bill 156. We are enthusiastic supporters of this legislation because of the protection of property privacy rights which have long been compromised by so many poorly informed trespassers. We will remain connected on this file because while Bill 156 makes sense, it has its detractors who are actively expressing their anti-farm views.

Last month in the Rural Voice we profiled the farm property tax issue and the negative impacts of the status quo for Grey County farmers.

Update: we have been taking our message about fair farm property taxation to each municipal council in Grey and will be making our proposal for a tax ratio reduction to Grey County Council on Februrary 27. We are pleased with the reception we have had in each of our meetings but we won’t know outcomes until Grey County Council hears our proposal and votes.

If you farm and pay property tax, there is a material financial impact at stake and you can help make this effort toward fairness a success by telling the Council that you support our proposition and just as importantly, by showing up at Council in Owen Sound on February 27.

More information about this campaign is available to you, call the office (519-364-3050) to get your questions answered and to learn how you can help.

We are planning now the annual meeting of local Politicians. This is an annual event with politicians at all levels who are invited to an all-day meeting where we present the state of Agriculture and our priorities. It’s a day that our farm and political colleagues look forward to, both for the formal and informal opportunity to connect.

We are excited again to report the continuity of GCFA’s annual curling bonspiel where experts and novices come together in the middle of winter to do the all-Canadian things curl and have a beer.

This Board has been advocating for Agriculture with young people for 80 years. This year marks the 74th year for the annual Public Speaking Contest. This long history is designed to support and recognize young people who write and present speeches and with special recognition for those with farm themes. At the deadline time for publication, this historic event’s destiny this year is uncertain due to the school teachers’ labour dispute with government.

The Grey County Federation of Agriculture (GCFA) was set up in 1940. For 80 years we have set out on a path in support of the farm community in Grey County. Much has changed in those 80 years; technology has evolved, our community has grown to include more urban populations, farm finance and politics have become more complex and the staying aware and

engaged of all the developments can be overwhelming. As the County organization affiliated with our provincial organization, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the GCFA is uniquely situated to assemble the facts and speak on behalf of farmers locally.

We are busy and excited about this year, and we are keen to hear from you and want you to know that you are welcome to plug in with us on any issue – formally by joining us on the Board or less formally by volunteering your ideas on even just one idea at a meeting. In any case we’d be glad to hear from you. Call the office at 519-364-3050 to find out how you can become more involved.

Spring is coming. ◊ – Submitted by Hugh Simpson President, Grey County Federation of Agriculture

GCFA Events for 2020 March – Public Speaking Finals March 12 – Directors’ Meeting - 7:00 p.m.

April 17 – Tommy Cooper Event June 11 – Directors’ Meeting - 8:00 p.m.

August – Ag Night at the Races August 13 – Directors’ Meeting - 8:00 p.m.

Sept. 10 – Directors’ Meeting - 8:00 p.m.

October – GCFA AGM

Nov. 12 – Directors’ Meeting - 8:00 p.m.

November – OFA Convention/OYFF December – Christmas Social

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

84 The Rural Voice

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

NEWSLETTER Nominations open for Tommy Cooper Award and Bruce Federation Award of Merit The Tommy Cooper award has been presented annually since 1959 to the person making the greatest contribution to agriculture and rural living in Grey and Bruce Counties.

Tommy Cooper was the Grey County Agriculture Rep from 1920 to 1959 and dedicated his life to agriculture. Anyone or any organization in Bruce or Grey County can nominate someone they feel has contributed significantly to agriculture over the years.

Nomination forms can be obtained by calling 519-364-3050 or emailing bruce@ofa.on.ca. The deadline for submitting will be late March.

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

NOMINATION FOR THE BCFA AWARD OF MERIT “For Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture” Each year the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture presents an award to a person in Bruce County who has made a significant contribution to the agriculture industry. If you have someone you would like to nominate, please complete this form and return to our office in Hanover by Friday, March 27.

I nominate: ..........................................................................................................................

Reasons for nomination ...................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................................................

Nominated by:......................................................................................................................

Please return to: Bruce County Federation of Agriculture 446 10th Street, Hanover, ON N4N 1P9 Email: bruce@ofa.on.ca

Celebrate Agriculture Starring:

Bruce County Federation of Agriculture

Events for 2020 March 23 – Directors’ Meeting April 17 – Tommy Cooper Evening April 27 – Directors’ Meeting May 25 – Directors’ Meeting June 22 – Directors’ Meeting August 24 – Directors’ Meeting September 28 – Directors’ Meeting November 9 – Directors’ Meeting

All meetings are held in Walkerton at County of Bruce Building at 8:00 p.m.

Friday, April 17th, 2020 Elmwood Community Centre Doors Open:6:30 p.m.

Dinner:7:00 p.m.

Dance to follow

Featuring Tommy Cooper Award Bruce Award of Merit GCFA Public Speaking Winners For Tickets call 519-364-3050 Ex 1

$30/Person

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

March 2020 85

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

Reflections from a board member

By Bill Denham PCFA Director By the time this article comes out I will have ended my time as a director on Perth County Federation of Agriculture. It’s time spent that I have enjoyed. Also, the time as a Director on the OFA board back when there were three directors from Perth County. Over the years I have sat on many boards and committees and would like to take this opportunity as I leave to highlight my thoughts on what I have discovered about boards over the years. I have had the opportunity to have attended some great director training seminars and every board can benefit extensively by offering their directors the opportunity to take training.

First observation is directors should know the difference between board activities and committees. To be a director on a board it is your job to set policy and make sure the organization is going in the direction that benefits its members. It is up to staff or committees to carry out this direction and do the work. Strong directors are able to voice their opinions and listen to the rest of the board and after the vote is taken be able to carry that decision forward regardless of personal stand on the issue. If you find this is not your strong point, then maybe you would Perth County Federation of Agriculture

DIRECTORS’ MEETING Thursday, March 19 7:30 p.m.

Mitchell Arena, Activity Room

like to work on a committee where you get to use your skills to complete a specific task. Most directors will find they do both duties from time to time.

A second observation is that small boards are better than large boards.

Any board where an attendee can stand up at an annual meeting and decide to become a director and the board can expand to take on one or more directors on the spot is usually not a strong board. Over the years strong boards are made up of directors that fight to get on the board, sometimes even requiring other members to sign your nomination before you can run. It is also the duty of a board to renew itself. Good directors scout out strong replacement directors and educate them on how they can take a place on and benefit the board. A good board is made up of directors with different strengths. Boards should have directors with various skills such as accounting, organizational, public relations, negotiating and leadership.

If selling my viewpoint on an issue at a board meeting fails to convince the other directors to vote my way, I must accept the fact that either I did not do a good job of bringing forth my facts or accept that the others’ viewpoint was correct.

Many people seem to think all issues are either black or white and you win or lose. I like to think there are middle-of-the-road areas that are better, and the goal is always to find what is best for the organization.

I would like to encourage the younger generation to get out and take part in one of their commodities or general farm organizations. I know everyone is busy but some of the business practices you can pick up by working with other great individuals can help you be a better operator of your own business. ◊

MP/MPP FORUM The Perth County Federation of Agriculture is making plans for the annual Politicians Forum with MP John Nater and MPP Randy Pettapiece.

If you have specific concerns that you would like the Board of Directors to present, please contact us at perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com or speak to a director to voice your area of concern.

PCFA launches new website The Perth County Federation of Agriculture has done an upgrade to their website

perthcountyfarmers.ca We encourage you to go to the site and give us feedback.

If you have an event you would like listed on the website email the PCFA office at perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com You can follow us on facebook @perthcountyfedofag and Twitter @perthcountyag

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

86 The Rural Voice

Index A&V Kucyk Ltd ..............................17 Arnold Mathers ..............................59 BAG Supplies Canada Ltd ............77 BDO ..............................................71 Belore Trailers ..............................77 Bernie McGlynn/South Bruce Flooring..71 Bill Walker MPP ............................33 Bio-Ag ............................................15 Blyth Brewing Co. (Cowbell) ............6 Brennan Custom Poultry................40 Bruce Way Equipment ..................15 Bushell’s Auto Sales ......................78 Canadian Co-op Wool Growers ......4 Chalmers Fuels..............................75 Cliff’s Plumbing & Heating ............19 Construction & Renovations 5,7,9,11 Country Weddings ..............60,62,63 DeDell Seeds ................................33 Diamond Roof ................................75 Donkers Agri ..............................2,23 Easy Lift Doors ..............................12 Farm Safety Week ....................28,48 Financial Management ............61,73 Fretz Welding ................................65 Gerber’s Workwear ........................76 Gerrit’s Ag Service ........................23 Grand River Robotics ............Cover 7 Greenville Liquid Plant Food..........31 Grober Nutrition ....................Cover 4 Hardi ..............................................35 Harold Jones Enterprises ..............77

Hayter Excavating ....................14,26 Hill & Hill Farms ....................Cover 2 Honda....................................Cover 5 Hunter Steel Sales ................Cover 5 Huron Feeding Systems ................10 Innis New & Used Tractor Parts ....77 JJM Concrete Grooving ................27 KMM Farm Drainage ....................53 LAC................................................40 Lakeside Shelving..........................40 Layton Steve..................................77 Legge Fitness........................Cover 6 Live Landscape..............................47 Maitland Welding & Machining ......77 Maple Leaves Forever ..........Cover 4 Maple Syrup ........................36,38,40 Mapleview Agri ..............................24 Mark Cook Farm Drainage ............76 Marquardt Drainage ......................30 Martin Farm Wagons ....................51 Marvin L. Smith Forestry................71 McIntee Real Estate - Steve Nixon..76 Metzger Meat Products....................4 Midwestern Ontario Bull Sale ........81 Morris Sachs Silo Construction......81 MVH Construction/519 Tours ........17 Nature’s Wave Inc ........................53 Nuclear Waste Management ........59 Nutrient Management ....................50 Ontario Forage Council..................27 Ontario Mutual Insurance ..............20

On-Track Door Systems ......Cover 3 Parker & Parker ............................54 Peak Realty - Cathy Hendriks........76 Raynbow Signs ..............................78 RBC ..............................................87 REACH ..........................................65 Ridgeway Metals ..........................77 Rollin’ Acres Charolais ..................13 Roth Drainage................................76 Rural Living ....................................44 Rural Routes Pest Control ............76 Rural Voice Books ........................45 Sauble Beach Motorsports ..47,57,64 Saugeen Valley Cons. Authority ....67 Schmidt’s Farm Drainage ................6 Schweiss Doors ..............................8 Sew & Save ..................................45 St. Marys Rotary Club - Dan Needles..47 St. Lawrence Cruise Lines ............41 Steffen Well Drilling ......................77 Stihl Limited ..................................68 Stratford Agri Analysis ..................34 SWO Diesel ..................................57 Triple P Consulting ........................27 Trouw Nutrition ................Back Cover Truckers Toy ..................................72 Upper Thames River Cons. Auth ..70 Usborne & Hibbert ........................78 WD Hopper & Sons Ltd ................35 Williams Drainage ..........................15

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March 2020 87

HURON

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

County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER

Farm Tax Burden in Huron County set to increase for ninth straight year Every four years the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) releases property assessment updates for all properties in Ontario. We are entering the final year of a four-year assessment cycle, in which the taxable assessment of farmland has increased by 84 per cent in Huron County. This is in addition to very significant increases in the 2012 reassessment.

As a result, the tax burden of farmers in Huron has increased every year since 2012. Unless the council of Huron County adjusts its tax ratio policy to reduce the farm tax ratio in 2020, the already burdensome tax load on local farmers will continue to increase until at least 2021.

As an upper-tier municipality, Huron County has been given legislative authority by the provincial government to adjust the farm tax ratio anywhere between 0-0.25 in any given tax year. If Huron County council chooses not to adjust the farm tax ratio in 2020, local farmers will be faced with upwards of $3.2 million in additional tax burden this year alone. This increase would mean that the farmland tax burden would be 21.7 per cent of the Huron County Budget. The increased burden of taxes paid without an increase in

ROOM FOR RENT The HCFA 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.

services is not equitable, and means bare farmland is paying more for services than what they are using, therefore subsidizing the other tax classes Given these substantial increases in property tax burden that local farmers are facing, the Huron County Federation of Agriculture urges county council to implement a farm tax ratio of 0.227 for the 2020 tax year. Reducing the ratio will not result in farmers paying less tax than they did the year before. This would result in slowing the increase in farm tax to a more manageable and equitable level.

If you are concerned about your farmland taxes, please contact your local County Councillors.

For more information, contact any HCFA Director or your OFA MSR. ◊ Huron County Federation of Agriculture

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

Upcoming Events March 4-6 – London Farm Show.

Visit: www.westernfairdistrict.com/ london-farm-show for details.

March 5 – Huron Dairy Producers Annual Meeting, Seaforth Agriplex.

Tickets and further details from dairy committee members.

March 6 – HCFA Annual MP/MPP local Politicians Forum.

March 24 – Grain Farmers of Ontario March Classic. For details visit: www.westernfairdistrict.com/ london-farm-show.

March 31 & April 1 – London Swine Conference. For information visit: www.londonswineconference.ca/s

OPP non-emergency line: 1-888-310-1122

BOARD MEETING March 23 – 8:00 p.m.

Vanastra Office

HCFA OFFICE HOURS: The office is open on

MP MPP FORUM The Huron County Federation of Agriclture is currently working on plans for the annual MP MPP local politicians forum. If you have specific concerns you would like the Board of Directors to present, please contact the HCFA office or a director to state your question or concern.

Mondays and alternate Fridays 9:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

We are also open other days by chance Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/huronfedofag and Facebook at Huron County Federation of Agriculture

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

88 The Rural Voice

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