The Rural Voice - November 2022

Rural Voice

The

November 2022

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

GRANDPA’S COCKSHUTT Twenty years and six moves later, the Eggleston tractor wins top prize

APOLOGY ACCEPTED, BUT...

Indigenous people accept Pope’s apology but await restitution for stolen land

FARM FRESH in BRUCE Museum display celebrates farming history in Bruce County

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Contents The

Rural Voice THE MAGAZINE OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE

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 Website: ruralvoice.ca Publisher: Deb Sholdice

17

20 24 Columns

Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Keith Roulston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Kate Procter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Jeffrey Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Mabel’s Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Recipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Gardening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Woodlots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Agrilaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Departments Ruralite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Business Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Advertisers Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Newsletters

National Farmers Union . . . . . . . . . .58 Perth County Pork . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Grey County Federation . . . . . . . . . .60 Bruce County Federation . . . . . . . .61 Perth County Federation . . . . . . . . . .62 Huron County Federation . . . . . . . . .64

NOVEMBER 2022 • Cover Photo Wayne Eggleston, Goderich Photo by Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

Editor: Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot rveditorlisa@northhuron.on.ca Contributing writers: Keith Roulston, Kate Procter, Jeffrey Carter, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, Arnold Mathers, Donna Lacey, Melisa Luymes, Anne Mann, Nancy Fisher, Carolyn Crawford, Bonnie Sitter, Jeff Tribe, Amanda Brodhagen and Hetty Stuart

• Deadlines: Dec. Issue – Nov. 08

Advertising Sales: Shelley Kroes rvads@northhuron.on.ca

17 Restoring Grandpa’s tractor

Production co-ordinator & Telemarketing: Joan Caldwell

January Issue – Dec. 06

The Cockshutt 40 was in terrible shape but a meticulous restoration process has it gleaming

20 Indigenous Apology Gary Kenny examines the Pope’s apology to Indigenous peoples

24 Horse Hooves and Cuddles

Choosing to be a farrier was a great decision for Sarah Thalmeier of Brussels

26 Farm Fresh in Bruce The Bruce Museum examines the history of agriculture with new Farm Fresh exhibit

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: $25 (12 issues) $45 (24 issues), includes HST Back copies $2.75 each.

Make cheques payable to: NORTH HURON PUBLISHING CO.

28 Musical Memories

The RCMP ride is fun and interactive in Exeter

30 Queen of the Furrow

Maranda Klaver had to wait three years to compete but she went home with the top title

All manuscripts submitted for consideration should be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited submissions. 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.

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Ruralite

•

Tractor Restoration

Food System

“I think my grandather would have said I was foolish

Change

for spending that kind of money on the tractor.

He was very frugal.”

“The idea of local,

~ Wayne Eggleston on restoring the Cockshutt 40 that

once viewed with a

used to belong to his grandfather, Gerald Dustow. See page 17.

certain level of

Dad Jokes • What did the neurotic pig say to the farmer?

You take me for grunted.

• As a farmer I hear lots of jokes about sheep. I’d tell them to my dog but he’d herd them all.

• What kind of pigs know karate?

Pork chops • Who tells chicken jokes?

Comedi-hens.

Anagrams

disdain within some

• The Morse Code. When you

quarters of the farm

arrange the letters it becomes:

community, is being

Here Come Dots.

increasingly

• Dormitory. When you arrange the letters it becomes: Dirty Room.

• Election Results. When you

embraced throughout the food system.” ~Jeff Carter on how hunger will

arrange the letters it becomes: Lies — Let’s Recount.

drive the food system.

See page 10.

FARMING IN JUNE “We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order — a kind of artist.” ~ Wendell Berry

•

Neil’s One-Liners (Wisdom and humour from the McGavin files)

• When in doubt — mumble.

When in trouble — delegate.

• There is never time to do it right but there’s always time to

Pumpkin Truck

do it over.

This Dodge Ram owner parked in the right spot to enjoy double the display of pumpkins at Twin Pine Orchards and Cider House near Thedford.

Photo by Bonnie Sitter

•

November 2022 3

Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

A

s the first snowflakes loom in November, a look back to October brings back memories of a Thanksgiving weekend blessed by perfect weather. Families everywhere were taking walks down the street, in the parks, or to the river as did we with horse and dog in tow.

Maybe nothing new can be said about the mental, physical and spiritual benefits of walks in nature but every time we go out, there is SOMETHING new to see, talk about and experience. Even if it’s just breathing cleansed air. Via photosynthesis, trees remove carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air and release oxygen. Trees: providing food, shelter and purifying our air for centuries. Definitely something to be thankful for!

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

W

alking my grandson along the streets of Seaforth, I felt a bumpity bump on the wheels of the stroller and realized the sidewalk was strewn with conkers (English term) from a gorgeous Chestnut tree shadowing a homeowners lawn. Shiny and perfect, I picked up dozens of the future-forest baubles and loaded the stroller. Next, new pots were added to a homemade tree nursery and 25 were planted with hopes a few will sprout to grace my yard. I won’t live long enough to be able admire the majesty of one of these trees and there’s a fleeting thought of “why bother”. But my grandson will be able to sit in its shade and that changes everything, doesn’t it.

4 The Rural Voice

I

n her column on page 8, Kate Proctor writes about the value of County Forests with a view of conservation and valuable lumber in mind. New signage (above) promotes awareness of the value of healthy forests. (Photo by Dave Pullen) Meanwhile, our garden columnist, Rhea Hamilton Seeger, writes about the concept of fast-growing mini-forests which encourage biodiversity and combat the climate crisis. These forests condense the natural cycle of forest recreation to 20 years from 150. Read about that on page 38.

Both stories radiate the value of forests, diversity and the need to keep planting trees. There was concern at the Grey Federation of Agriculture meeting that trees should not be planted on farmland. I hear that ... both farmland and forests are so valuable.

Perhaps all the horizontal housing being built should go vertical to quite stealing space from both forests AND farmland.

Celebrating 4-H! Become a Leader Age 18

Looking for 4-H Alumni to join your local 4-H Association Bruce: brucecounty4h@gmail.com Grey: greycounty4hsecretary@hotmail.com

Welcoming Cloverbuds (ages 6-8)

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November 2022 5

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New Idea Snow Blower, 516A, single auger, 3PH, manual hood, 540 PTO........$1,650.

Universal 500 Diesel Tractor, 45HP, cab heater, has creeper gears.......$6,700.

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Keith Roulston Keith is former publisher of The Rural Voice.

He lives near Blyth, ON.

Farmers helped win two wars While the emphasis on November 11, Remembrance Day is quite naturally on the soldiers who gave their lives, or at least a big part of their youth, to fighting in two World Wars, the immense efforts of the farming community should also be remembered.

Not only did Canadian farm families provide 345,000 of the volunteers who manned the army, navy and air force during World War II, but the shrunken population left at home on the farm was charged with the burden of increasing food production to feed a Britain crowded with Commonwealth armed forces.

More than 20,000 young women, in addition to family members left behind to pick up the work, helped doing farm work, as the book Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz, Memories of Ontario Farmerettes by Exeter author Bonnie Sitter points out.

The result was incredible. As well as feeding all those young farmers who were overseas in the Canadian armed forces, according to Canada’s Prime Minister of the time, William Lyon Mackenzie King quoted by author Terry Reardon in Winston Churchill and Mackenzie King, So similar, So different, “We are supplying about 200 pounds of food per annum for every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom.”

It wasn’t all the sort of food we’d choose for ourselves, of course.

Millions of dozens of fresh eggs were turned into powdered eggs for transport and easy storage.

Meanwhile, in a land of plenty, Canadians had to learn to do with less – and this after years of sacrificing during the Great Depression. On July 1, 1942 every resident of Canada, young and old, was issued a ration book. They had to get used to such limitations as eight

ounces of sugar, a half-pound of butter and two pounds of meat per person, per week.

Of course that seemed like a feast when the war ended and we began to hear stories of the hunger in The Netherlands, particularly during the dire winter of 1944-1945 when the Germans sent Dutch food to Germany. Even the formerly wealthy like the future movie star Audrey Hepburn, a dual British/Dutch citizen caught with her mother in Holland during the war, was reduced to eating tulip bulbs to survive that harsh winter. Liberation from the German occupation by the Canadian army in the spring of 1945 was made sweeter by in influx of Canadian food.

But for Canadian farmers, that’s the triumphant part of the story.

Many years ago I remember attending a reunion of some of the officials who organized and hosted the Farm Radio Forum on CBC radio during the war and into the 1950s.

After listening to much praise for the efforts of Canadian farmers, Huron County native Harry J. Boyle who was a vice-president of CBC Radio and responsible for Farm Radio Forum felt obliged to respond.

Boyle recalled that Canadian farmers did indeed play a huge role in winning the war but that effort was soon forgotten after peace came.

Faced with a heavy debt, Britain soon cut out imports, while maintaining rationing into the 1950s. Canadian farmers, who had increased production 100 per cent during the war to feed Britain and our troops, suddenly couldn’t cut production fast enough. Prices for farm commodities collapsed.

I speak from experience of the consequences. My father, who had served in Italy and Holland, had come home from the war to put every cent he had into buying a farm north of Lucknow. With such poor prices he struggled to make ends meet and pay the mortgage and eventually had to take an off-farm job and, finally, to sell the farm.

So as Remembrance Day approaches, by all means remember the men and women who sacrificed their lives, but also remember the efforts of those farmers who stayed home, but gave much.◊

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November 2022 7

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

Growing a forest in a lifetime

For most of my life, one of my favourite places has been, of all things, a county forest. The name “county forest” doesn’t really conjure up images of something very exotic, or even very interesting. But the Stephenson Tract, located at the corner of Morris Road and Clyde Line, like most wild spaces, is ever changing, never exactly the same no matter how many times I go there.

The Huron County Forests, which include over 1,600 acres, were part of the “Agreement Forest Program”, a collaboration of the province, municipalities, and local communities. The recent pandemic has seen a huge increase in the number of people finding solace and peace in our natural spaces, and the Stephenson Tract is no exception.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to forward-thinking people from the 1930s and 1940s, who saw the value in forests for environmental protection, education, and recreation. (https://www.huroncounty.ca/news/c ounty-of-huron-forests-see-benefitsfrom-75-years-of-forestconservation-programs).

Edmund Zavitz, who through his life held positions of Chief Forester of Ontario, deputy minister of forests, and director of reforestation, first raised the alarm about the harm deforestation was causing in Ontario.

Zavitz dedicated his life to educating people about the importance of forests, and he led the way to developing conservation authorities, provincial nurseries, forestry stations, and by-laws protecting trees. “Two Billion Trees and Counting – the Legacy of Edmund Zavitz”, by John Bacher, details the story of Zavitz’s life, and includes stark pictures of the Ontario landscape prior to the conservation efforts that he led. The first tree by-law was passed in Huron 8 The Rural Voice

County in 1947, and was supported by landowners and farmers who were concerned by soil erosion and water quality issues that had resulted from clear cutting and over-harvesting trees (https://www.huron county.ca /plandev/forestry-services).

One of 14 county forests, the Stephenson Tract has recently had a facelift, opening more of its 200 acres to local residents. The land was the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Neutral peoples, subject to the Dish with One Spoon wampum, under which multiple nations agreed to care for the land and resources by the Great Lakes in peace (County of Huron placard, Stephenson Tract, 2022).

Huron County purchased the land in 1951 with the goal of reforestation as it was unsuitable for agriculture.

Over 140,000 trees, mostly Eastern White Pine, were planted between 1952 and 1966. The Sunshine Creek flows through the forest, and is named for a pioneer settlement that existed close by in the late 1800s.

There still remains evidence along the trail of historic building foundations.

If you ever walk in a County Forest, you may notice the coniferous trees look like they were planted in a grid arrangement. This is part of a plan to provide a kind of nursery for deciduous trees to reestablish themselves. The White Pine that

were originally planted were also managed and the branch pruning in the years after planting has resulted in valuable pine lumber with no knots. Money raised from timber sales from County Forests has been reinvested for further improvement of the properties.

The White Pines provided an opportunity for higher quality trees such as sugar maple, black walnut, and cherry to move in. One of the reasons the sugar maple is so common and well-known in our area is that it is able to regenerate in the shade, which many other species are unable to do. This transition is quite obvious in the Stephenson Tract – a variety of hard woods are now dominant, with just a few coniferous trees remaining from the original plantings.

Landowners across Huron County are attempting to salvage lumber from Ash trees that have been decimated by the European Ash Borer, a pest that has also plagued the County Forests. The Perth-Huron chapter of the Ontario Woodlot Association recently had a field day at the Stephenson Tract. Various methods of selective harvesting methods were demonstrated, including a local Amish father, son, and Norwegian Fjord Horse, who were able to skillfully skid felled logs out without damaging remaining trees. These selective cutting methods also help improve forest

The Smith family from Huron East cut the ribbon to celebrate new signage honouring forests at the Stephenson Tract in Morris‐Turnberry. ~Photo submitted by Dave Pullen

health by encouraging further tree regeneration.

The Stephenson Tract has trails on both sides of the Maitland River, accessible from Morris Road and the Clyde Line. 41580 Morris Road will take you to the newly upgraded trail, which has a number of placards along the trail, providing information about the history, natural environment, and development of the forest. Both trail sections have improved parking areas and are well used, but not crowded.

Bayfield Santa Claus Parade Join us for Christmas In Bayfield November 18-20

Whether you are into hiking, skiing, dog walking, geocaching, riding horses, fishing, or hunting check out the County Forests. We can be thankful that a long history of preservation and conservation continue in Huron County and now nine of the f14 County Forests have trails — these are detailed in the Huron County Hiking Guide, which can be found at https://www.ontarioswestcoast.ca/wp -content/uploads/2021/05/2021HIKING-GUIDE-web-1.pdf. ◊

Goderich Santa Claus Parade

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Teeswater Christmas Parade

Saturday, November 19

Saturday, November 19

6:30 pm

5:30 pm

Friday 7pm Lighting of Clan Gregor Square; Saturday 11am Parade; Sunday 11am - 4pm Carriage Rides in town; Outdoor Artisan Market and entertainment all weekend Shopping all season!

Come and join us for Goderich’s Festival of Lights.

Entertainment will start at 6:30 pm in Courthouse Park and the Lighting of the Lights will take place at 7pm with Parade to follow.

Contact: Tourism Goderich 519-524-6600 or 1-800-280-7637

Starting at south end of town and travelling north Organized by Kinsmen & Agricultural Society Floats will be judged. Prize money donated by South Bruce Community Business Association Free Public Skating 6:30-8:00 pm Come out and enjoy a great Parade and visit with Santa

Paisley Santa Claus Parade

Lucknow Santa Claus Parade

Come to the Annual Wroxeter Parade

“Gingerbread, Glitter & Garland” Friday, November 25 7:00 pm

Donations to the Paisley Food Bank accepted during the parade.

Queen Street Paisley For information email tannerc@eastlink.ca Karen.beech4@live.com

Friday, November 25 Downtown at 7:00 pm Theme: Christmas Music Meet with Santa, Christmas treats and free skating at the Lucknow Arena after the parade Sponsored by Lucknow Kinsmen and Lucknow and District Chamber of Commerce

Friday, November 25 6:30 pm.

Following the parade at the Wroxeter Hall join us for a visit with Santa for all the children and musical entertainment for the whole family provided by “Lost Highway” with an open bar.

Anyone interested in taking part in the parade contact: Tony Clark 647-221-6226 The Hall Board thanks the many local businesses and community members for their donations towards the parade and the treats for the children.

November 2022 9

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

Hunger will drive food system change I had conversation some time ago with an indigenous professor from Western Canada; a person with a distinguished academic career with books and many peer-reviewed articles to their name.

During the course of our discussion, the topic shifted to food. I asked her opinion of the idea creating a better relationship within Canada, farmers in the south working closely with to remote northern communities to provide more affordable and nutritious food options and eventually establishing mutually beneficial trade.

In Northern Canada – it’s no secret – food security has been a problem for decades. It’s not so much in terms of quantity. Rather it is quality and the exorbitant cost. Rates

of diabetes, heart diseases and other health issues are running rampant.

The professor, rather than responding, suggested the member of the communities in question may not have an interest in the types of food that might be provided through such an arrangement. I remained silent, thinking that’s something the peoples of those communities will have to work out for themselves.

Then came a surprise. I was asked whether the First Nations of Canada can “count on” the government.

I didn’t answer then but having considered the question in the intervening months I’ve come up with an answer of sorts: “Ask a farmer.”

It is not just indigenous communities impacted by the failure of the food system. The crisis is growing everywhere, throughout Canada and globally. Increasingly, families are forced into difficult decisions of where to spend their limited incomes while at the same time members of farming community struggle to remain profitable and deal with the fallout of that struggle – stress and mental illness.

Having worked as a foodsystem/agricultural journalist for the past 30-odd years, I don’t think it’s out of the way to make a few observations.

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10 The Rural Voice

The wider Canadian community remains blissfully unaware of the realities of today’s food system despite the diligence of members of the farm community to correct this issue. I spoke, for instance, to my farm-raised sister who didn’t realize that field corn is no longer ‘picked’ but rather combined.

According to Food Banks Canada, food insecurity has reached an alltime high in Canada. The time is ripe for fundamental change, given that an ancient maxim remains as true today as it did millennia ago – “Hunger breeds unrest.” While food banks, soup kitchens and others charitable means to feed disenfranchised families will grow, more consideration will be given to the underlying issues that necessitate these efforts.

Agriculture’s future will no longer be based on the extraction of inexpensive fossil fuels. That transition will be gradual but inevitable, driven primarily by market forces rather than government policy. Farmers have already made the initial shift, limiting their use of energy-rich inputs to the point they’re able to remain profitable – at least when the stars align themselves favourably. Others have moved even further in this direction, embracing soil-based systems to capture such benefits as animal-crop dynamics and the power of soil biology.

Local food systems will continue to grow. The idea of local, once viewed with a certain level of distain within some quarters of the farm community, is being increasingly embraced throughout the food system but that doesn’t necessarily support all participants, including farmers.

For farm families to benefit, they must exercise a high degree of control.

Not only will the trend toward home cooking continue, gardening will make a comeback but, as with farming, the transition will take time.

As more families build their ‘fromscratch’ skills in the kitchen, growing their own food, or at least sourcing it directly from farmers will be embraced more widely. ◊

Feature Price

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

“What’s this?” George Mackenzie asked Molly Whiteside as he perused the menu at Mabel’s Grill the other morning. “You’ve changed the price of my pancakes and maple syrup again,” he noted, looking at the price crossed out and increased.

“Costs keep going up,” sighed Molly. “You should try to feed two growing kids if you think this is bad.”

“Didn’t Mabel just get these printed a couple of months ago?” asked Dave Winston as he set down his menu.

“She did, but food prices just keep going up,” shrugged Molly. “You farmers of all people should know about that. You should be able to afford a few cents more, too, given the prices you’re getting.”

“Huh, obviously you haven’t had

the pay to fill up the diesel tank on my combine or dry corn with the price of propane these days!” Dave shot back.

“I hear your pancakes and maple syrup price might get worse yet,” said Cliff Murray. “I was seeing on the TV about one farmer down in Nova Scotia who had more than half his maple trees knocked down by Hurricane Fiona. He won’t get his maple syrup back to the level he had before the storm in his lifetime, so if that happened to many producers the maple syrup price is likely to go up again by spring.”

“Guess I’ll warn Mabel not to rush out and print new menus yet,” Molly sighed. “And I suppose I don’t dare ask her about a raise, either. I mean she just survived being closed for COVID-19 and now this.”

“At least you’ve still got a corn crop to harvest”, George told Dave after Molly took their orders back to Mabel in the kitchen. “I was reading that some of the farmers in Prince Edward Island had their corn ruined in the hurricane. The plants were hit with so much salt water picked up by

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the winds that they’re loaded by salt and mycotoxins infected them.”

“Yeah, I know, I should be happy I didn’t have to live through all that,” sighed Dave. “I mean even if my corn yield is down a few bushels, I’ve got a crop to harvest, which is more than I thought I might have when we got so little rain this summer.”

“Well it won’t be long now before the harvest is finished for the year,” said George.

“Yeah, we can stop worrying about the weather and crops in the field for a few months,” said Dave “And get used to more hours of it being dark,” sighed Cliff. “Guess I’d better get my full-spectrum light out again to help pick up my spirits in the months without much daylight.”

“I don’t know, those long nights have their advantage,” said Dave with a twinkle in his eye as he nudged Cliff. “More bedtime offers certain benefits for a married man.”

“Yeah, I can use the extra sleep,” said George.

“Obviously you must have done something else than sleep in the long winter nights,” said Dave. “Weren’t three of your four kids born in late summer or fall?”

“Oh, you meant that?” said George. “Heck, I’m old enough that nights are for sleeping these days,” “I hope I never get that old,” said Dave. “And I don’t think my wife would be happy either.”

“Yeah well, my wife doesn’t complain,” said George, “particularly since COVID-19 broke out and bed was the safest place to avoid it.”

“COVID? Was COVID-19 a problem?” wondered Dave. “I mean there’s what, six and a half million people in the world who’ve died because of it, but listen to some people and the real problem was the actions the government took to reopen the border from the protesters or clear out the Ottawa blockade.”

“Yeah, apparently COVID-19 isn’t a problem in Alberta” said George “I see that the new Premier says the real problem is the vaccination mandates that are the worst discrimination she’s ever seen.”

“Obviously she hasn’t ever been a person of colour,” said Cliff. ◊

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Finding the gifts inside conflict There’s nothing like Thanksgiving with the family to see how we deal with conflict. I guess you’ll be reading this a few weeks after the fact, but it is Thanksgiving weekend as I write this.

And what great timing! I just finished four days of an incredible course in Understanding Conflict from the University of Waterloo so I’m eager to use my new knowledge on my unsuspecting family.

My key take-away from the course is that the key to managing a conflict is to accurately identify the problem. Seems simple, but I think

14 The Rural Voice

this step is the stickiest because we humans have a strong tendency to think that ‘other people’ are the problem. And, spoiler alert, other people are rarely the problem, it is our own expectations of a situation that are often the culprit.

But for some reason, it is easier and juicier to make others into the problem and so we develop a villainvictim narrative about the situation.

We recruit our friends into our story and then we might even start to draw the trenches of polarization. And if certain friends don’t buy into our story, we will be in conflict with them too. The conflict story gets stuck on our faces, and we can’t even see it because it is now the lens through which we see. So, it is a never-ending cycle of who-hurt-who and it leads to resentment, broken families, difficult workplaces, etc.

And, as I’m learning about myself this Thanksgiving, conflict isn’t always overt and explosive because many of us just smile and nod or apologize too quickly to keep an artificial peace. I read somewhere

that if conflict is kept quiet, it moves inside and makes a war within our bodies, expressing itself as sickness and disease.

Apart from our health, the other downside to not addressing a conflict is the missed opportunity. When conflicting parties de-personalize the problem and understand where the others are coming from, a gift appears for them. The gift could be a new perspective, idea, opportunity or solution, a deeper relationship … a miracle, really. But this gift is hardearned because the only way to get to it is through the thorns of conflict.

The thorns are the internal pain or the outward disdain, when even the thought of the other person makes your stomach turn and your face gets hot with anger. I’ve been there. Heck, I’ve been there since April if I’m being honest. It is said that resentment is like drinking poison, while expecting the other to die. Yup, the only one that is suffering here is me.

“Just let it go”, people say. But I think that before we can really let things go, we need to do some serious self-reflection first. Even if the other party isn’t there, we can get to the deeper part of the conflict in order to heal it and move on. Because we just see the tip of the iceberg. On the surface it might not be too big of an issue to some, but things that hurt deeply likely go all the way to our core human needs. Those thorny emotions are the alarm bells warning that part of us is being stepped on.

According to the Understanding Conflict course, delivered by Credence & Co, the core needs are Belonging, Meaning, Recognition, Self-Determination, and Security. I can see how at least three of my needs were seriously stepped on back in April, so it is understandable that I would feel how I feel. I think that acknowledging and allowing for one’s own needs and emotions is the first step to transforming a conflict.

The next step is to re-humanize the other. In the conflict process, we make the other out to be either illogical or having ill-intent and we might even caricaturize them as nonhumans. But if we truly listened to them, we would see them operating

from a logic that is different from our own, and we might understand why they acted as they did, stemming from their own pain and core needs.

And only after first giving empathy to ourselves and then seeing the humanity in the other can we peel the conflict off our faces to depersonalize it and identify the problem as the problem.

And then might come a brave conversation with the “other” to find the gift in resolution. Much of my

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thinking on conflict resolution comes from NonViolent Communication TM which was developed by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg in the 1960s. He writes that “to practice the process of conflict resolution, we must completely abandon the goal of getting people to do what we want.”

We have to get ourselves out of the way and let a situation be what it is, instead of what we think it should be.

But it is so difficult! I don’t know why we hold so deeply to these

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wounds and conflict stories instead of letting them heal. There is some sort of power in playing the victim that I can’t quite understand. But for the sake of our health, our families, our workplaces, our institutions, and our world, I believe we all must lean into the difficult thorny spaces to find the gifts.

Lucky for us, every relationship gives us an opportunity to practice and to transform conflict. And so does every Thanksgiving! ◊

Brussels Santa Claus Parade Saturday, December 3 5:00 pm Theme: “ A Country Christmas” The parade travels downtown Brussels ~ parade line up is at the north end of town (not at the arena due to construction).

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Chatsworth Santa Claus Parade Saturday, December 17

Theme.... “A Disney Christmas” 10:30 am Parade begins at the old Chatsworth Community Centre.

Activities continue throughout the day as we celebrate with Christmas in the Village.

For more information, or to register a float, contact Sharrie 226-974-0334 sbrickonelderlane@gbtel.ca

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Twenty years and six moves later... a win!

The 1951 Cockshutt 40 wins top tractor but memories of his grandfather are the real reward for tractor restorer, Wayne Eggleston • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

T

he beat-up old 1951 Cockshutt 40 sat outside for years on Wayne Eggleston’s grandfather’s farm.

One day, young Wayne asked his grandfather, Gerald Dustow, if he could start it up.

“If you are interested in getting it running, you can have it,” said Dustow to his teenage grandson.

“Well, I had it running the next day!” remembers Eggleston who farms outside of Goderich on Loyal Line. He also works for crop farmer Achim Stoecker.

However, it would take another 20 years and moving the tractor six times before it came to its full, shiny-red glory before being shown for the first time at the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association’s 61st reunion in September 2022. To his surprise and delight, the tractor won the Billy Joe Hallahan Memorial Trophy for Best Antique Tractor, 1951 and up.

“I could not believe it. I actually did not know about the trophy,” says Eggleston. In fact, he didn’t put the tractor in the nightly parade and was “encouraged” to do so on Sunday night because “something” might be waiting for him at the end.

What was far more important to Eggleston was the two or three people who came up to him with memories of his grandfather. “They called him a true, honest man,” says Eggleston and that, to him, was all the trophy he needed for spending tens of thousands of dollars on restoring a tractor that he estimated is now worth $6,500. He did it in honour of his grandfather.

The process started on the day 20 years ago when he cleaned out the carburetor and fuel tank to get it started. Eggleston The 1951 Cockshutt 40 had been well used to work the land by Gerald Dustow before his grandson, Wayne Eggleston (right) took an interest in the old tractor sitting in the yard. It would take almost two decades, but Eggleston restored the tractor to its former glory just in time to show it at the Thresher’s Reunion in Blyth in September.

November 2022 17

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imagined the rusty, dinged-up old tractor restored so he took the tractor apart and lined up the parts in his grandfather’s shed. Then he moved to Fullarton with the tractor frame and its parts where it sat for many years. A garage fire wrecked that shed but the tractor survived so it was then moved to the Loyal Line property he purchased 15 years ago with his wife Nicole. It had an old shed on site. “It sat untouched for quite a few years,” admits Eggleston.

Planning to get moving on the project, he then moved the tractor and its parts to one of Achim Stoecker’s shops where some progress was made. Then Eggleston built his own shop and shed three years ago and the Cockshutt came back home to his farm. All in all, that was six moves, including the moves on his grandfather’s farm.

“I never lost a part,” says Eggleston, as a loader tractor moved the frame and muscle moved totes of the “loose stuff” from shed to shed.

Then, in 2021, at the age of 93, Gerald Dustow passed away and Eggleston realized it was well past time to get the Canadian-made Cockshutt restored. Dustow had never pushed his grandson to finish whatsoever, but Eggleston had three generations of memories tied up in this tractor (his dad drove it too).

Plus, he and Nicole have two children of their own. Marlene and Emmett will grow up to drive it someday.

The restoration process involved organizing, repairing and sandblasting every single piece of the tractor. “I didn’t really have to do all that but I am a bit fussy,” admits Eggleston. Some of the parts had to be purchased new and others machined. He particularly wants to mention and thank Yannic and Christian Burdan of Red Cat Bakery on Highway 21 outside of Goderich for their skill in doing the machining work.

“Honestly, the tractor was in terrible shape,” laughs Eggleston.

The rims, grill, radiator and muffler all had to be replaced.

The tractor was then reassembled, primed and painted to its original red

and cream colours. Nicole was a willing assistant and a loving support when Eggleston got frustrated. He admits there were many times he wanted to quit because of the cost and the massive amount of time it took. Not to mention the mistakes. He was sent the wrong paint for the rims so it had to be all stripped off and redone. Then, after building the new radiator, the kids knocked it over and punctured it, so it had to be fixed again. The restoration took all his spare time over the winter of 2022.

The last thing to be done was sticking on the decals and seeing it done was a “good moment” says Eggleston. “It was like a dream come true when it was finally done.”

Working alongside Achim Stoecker and Rick Pot – who were both restoring their own tractors over the winter – was also a positive part of the experience.

Stoecker and Pot’s goal was to have their tractors ready for the Thresher’s Reunion and given their camaraderie, Eggleston wanted to be part of it too. So they all entered Restoring the Cockshutt 40 was a labour of love and Wayne Eggleston (top, left) was supported the tractor pull (two out by his family including daughter Marlene, mom Peggy, wife Nicole and son Emmett. The tractor of three did poorly) was parked outside for years at his grandfather’s farm (above, left) and was in bad shape without gunning for a before its restoration (below), a feat that earned the family top antique tractor at the prize. “That wasn’t my Thresher’s Reunion in Blyth where Wayne participated in the tractor pull for the first time. goal,” he said.

Still, it was a proud moment for the whole family when Eggleston was presented with the trophy. It was also overwhelming for Eggleston. He says he’s a bit of a “shy guy” and doesn’t like a lot of attention. Neither did he fix the tractor as an investment because he put far more into it than the tractor will ever be worth. He did it for his grandfather.

“I think my grandfather would likely have said I was foolish for spending that kind of money on the tractor. He was very frugal,” laughs Eggleston.

However, seeing Eggleston’s face when he recounts chatting with farmers who knew his grandfather, and hearing the words “he was a true, honest man”, one can see the restoration was worth every penny. ◊ November 2022 19

Culture

Words of remorse from the Pope • By Gary Kenny •

The Pope’s apology to Indigenous people was accepted by some; considered woefully inadequate by others.

As October’s Indigenous People’s Day passes, writer Gary Kenny explores what the Pope’s apology meant to the Indigenous people.

W

hen “Shepherd One,” Pope Francis’ chartered Airbus A330-200 landed at Edmonton International Airport last July 21st, expectations among Indigenous, Inuit and Métis survivors of Canada’s notorious Indian Residential Schools were high. They hoped the head of the global Roman Catholic Church was bringing what they’d long awaited: words of remorse for the role the Church played in an assimilationist system that took an immeasurable toll on some 150,000 Indigenous children and their families.

The following morning, the 85-year-old pontiff was wheelchaired into the powwow grounds of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School in Maskwacis, south of Edmonton. He was greeted by thousands of Indigenous people from across Canada, many of them residential school survivors.

Then, with what many in the audience felt was unmistakable remorse, Francis said, “I am deeply sorry.

Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonization mentality of the powers that oppressed Indigenous peoples.”

And he added, “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.”

By most accounts this writer has read, Francis’ words were well received by, especially Catholic, survivors in the audience who still suffer the effects of the abuses inflicted by the priests, nuns, clergy and staff who ran the schools.

Tears ran down the cheeks of many.

“When I realized that (The Pope had) apologized, I started to cry,” said Flora Northwest, from Samson Cree First Nation in Alberta and who attended the Ermineskin 20 The Rural Voice

residential school. “We were in prison (in the school),” she said. She spoke candidly about always being hungry, nuns calling her and other children “savages, pagans and sinners” and being raped by a priest.

“To hear the Pope speak… (it was) as if he spoke directly to me as a survivor, and the impact was just incredible,” said Andrew Carrier of the Manitoba Métis Federation who also attended the ceremony. “It means a lot to me as a survivor and a practicing Catholic,” he added.

In its 2016 report, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools (TRC), in Call to Action 58, urged the Pope “to issue an apology to survivors, their families, and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of Indigenous children in Catholic-run residential schools” in Canada.

More than 60 percent of the government-funded schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations. (Others were overseen and staffed by the Presbyterian, Anglican and United churches.)

All the schools operationalized what the TRC called the genocidal assimilationist policies of the federal governments of their day. Children were forbidden to speak their native languages or observe traditional spiritual practices. They were punished, sometimes severely, if they disobeyed. Assigned numbers replaced their given names.

In the blunt words of an unidentified 19th century observer of the schools, their overall objective was to “kill the Indian in the child.”

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Eleanore Sunchild, a Cree lawyer from Thunderchild First Nation in Saskatchewan, told CBC News in May that she’s heard thousands of stories from residential school survivors she’s represented. “The particularly heinous ones involved the Roman Catholic Church,” she said.

“The Pope and the Catholic Church are ground zero for the genocide that we’ve endured,” said Eva Jewell, an Anishinaabe and research director at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Yellowhead Institute. “So much of our world and nationhood has been stolen by this particular church,” she added.

All other churches that ran residential schools apologized before the TRC began its work in 2015. The United Church offered the first of two apologies in 1986. But the Catholic Church – both the Catholic Church in Canada and the global Roman Catholic Church seated in the Vatican – has largely remained silent, until recently.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops officially apologized along with other Catholic entities in Canada for their role in the schools in September 2021, after resisting public pressure to do so for years.

Some speculate the discovery in May 2021 of 215 unmarked graves at the site of a former, and Catholic-run, residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia (and detection of hundreds more at other school sites since) prodded the Catholic Church in Canada, and now the Pope, into action.

An apology seemed the least the leader of the Roman Catholic Church could offer given the devastating legacy of the schools. And he seemed to grasp how past residential school traumas have insinuated themselves into subsequent generations leading to poverty, alcoholism, substance abuse, domestic violence and other dysfunctions.

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can answer.

For a great many Indigenous people in Canada, the Pope’s apology seemed to fall woefully short. Joel Abram, grand chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians in southern Ontario, said the apology was unsatisfactory. “I did not hear (the Pope) take responsibility for…the actions of the church itself and laying the groundwork for the assimilation.”

Among its harshest critics of the apology is Truth and Reconciliation chairperson, Justice Murray Sinclair.

He said the Pope’s words left a “deep hole” in recognizing the full role the Catholic Church played in running residential schools. The Pope only emphasized the “evil committed by so many Christians,” thereby individualizing blame rather than holding the Church as an institution responsible, he said.

Added Sinclair, an Anishinaabe from Peguis First Nation in Manitoba, “Catholic leaders not only enabled the Government of Canada (in setting up the residential school system) but pushed it even further in its work to commit cultural genocide of Indigenous peoples,” Sinclair said.

The Pope failed to address the institutional Church’s responsibility for “the widespread sexual abuse, torture and deaths of thousands of Indigenous children and babies” in the schools, said Pamela Palmater, a Mi’kmaq lawyer and chair in Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University. Many of the harms inflicted at the schools had nothing to do with government policies of assimilation as the Pope seemed to imply, Palmater added.

Canada’s Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister, Marc Miller, also acknowledged “gaps” in the pontiff’s apology and noted that Francis omitted mention of sexual abuse in his list of abuses committed at Catholic-run schools.

Indigenous peoples in Canada have long demanded that the Pope take responsibility, not just for abuses committed by individual Catholic priests and religious orders, but for the Church’s complicity with assimilation and the papacy’s 15th century religious justification, known as the Doctrine of Discovery, for 22 The Rural Voice

European colonial expansion to spread Christianity and seize Indigenous lands.

It is commonly understood that the doctrine, cemented in place by a series of papal bulls (edicts) issued in the 1400s, gave permission and moral cover to Catholic European nation-states of the day to colonize, convert and enslave Indigenous peoples and appropriate their lands.

Justice Murray Sinclair Truth and Reconciliation Chairperson

But papal visit organizers also said the Vatican has clarified that the doctrine has “no legal or moral authority” in the church and that Francis, in his apology, condemned ideas associated with it.

“There is no Catholic Doctrine of Discovery,” wrote Canadian Catholic writer Brendan Steven in The Hub. “The claim that (the doctrine) is part of contemporary Catholic teaching is simply untrue.”

Explained Steven, the 15th century papal edicts in question were effectively rescinded in subsequent years with the issuing of other decrees that recognized the inherent dignity and liberty of Indigenous peoples and their right to their traditional lands.

Regardless of the doctrine’s Vatican status, enactment of its essential juridical tenets has continued for centuries. They are “infused” in Canada’s and other countries’ legal systems to a degree that they continue to impact national ideologies, concepts, and even

common laws, said Palmater. The doctrine continues to impact Indigenous Peoples, no matter what the Vatican says about its status, she added.

Cody Groat, a member of Six Nations of the Grand River near Brantford, said First Nations communities’ call for the Pope’s explicit renunciation of the doctrine reflects tensions around Indigenous sovereignty within Canada. “Our systems of sovereignty and our systems of governance have been minimized through documents such as (papal bulls) … that we are not true sovereign entities,” he said.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief, RoseAnne Archibald, believes the Pope and the Vatican should still revoke the doctrine outright. “I’ve always said we need a new papal bull to talk about the value and worthiness of Indigenous Peoples and cultures around the world,” she said.

Canada’s Catholic bishops now seem of the same opinion. “We resonate with the Indigenous desire to name (the bulls behind the doctrine), to say we completely distance ourselves from them,” said Archbishop Dan Bolen of Regina.

Bolen added that Canadian bishops are working with the Vatican to produce a document that will provide more clarity on the issue.

The full truth about the Church’s full role in the residential school debacle, the Doctrine of Discovery and the global colonial enterprise may not be known until the Vatican opens its secret Apostolic Archives.

They consist of a cavernous underground vault with 85 km of shelves containing documents spanning 12 centuries.

Vatican officials insist the archives house no relevant records.

But that’s doubtful, asserted Ry Moran, former director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). There’s a “very, very high likelihood” that the Vatican has key historical records on the residential school system, as well as files “that will provide further evidence on the intentions and effectively the global strategy of colonization,” said Moran, a member of the Red River Métis.

For its part, the Government of Canada has committed to the “efficient and secure transmission of (residential school-related) documents” to the NCTR. That process is “ongoing,” the government says. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has also pledged to release “relevant documentation or records.”

The Pope also didn’t say anything about financial compensation, another of First Nation’s communities’ key demands. In 2006,

facing billions in lawsuits from survivors and their descendants, Christian churches, the federal government, and survivors signed the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. It led to the creation of the TRC, a healing fund, and a settlement on compensation.

The Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches promptly paid their full amounts. The Catholic Church didn’t. Some experts estimate it still owes survivors more than $60 million.

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Saskatoon Cree lawyer Donald Worme, who served as head counsel for the TRC, said the Vatican is worth billions and should pay its bill.

“The Catholic Church has played a corporate shell game around the globe,” Worme told CBC News.

“They operate hundreds, if not thousands of corporations, even in (Canada), that hold their assets.”

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Horses

Kicks, bruises and magnificent animals • By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

B

ent over, scraping manure off hooves and risking being kicked by an excitable horse…being a farrier wouldn’t be everyone’s choice for a life occupation.

For Sarah Thalmeier, it’s the perfect job.

“When I was finished I knew I didn’t want to go to University for another four years,” recalls Thalmeier as she slices slivers of hoof off to create a healthy, even surface for Cody, a 16-year-old gelding who has been through this process many times and bears it stoically, only moving to shift his weight now and then.

As a girl, Thalmeier knew she loved horses and being outdoors so when she heard about the Canadian School for Shoeing run by an “older fellow” 20 years ago now, she signed up. “I don’t believe it exists anymore,” says Thalmeier.

However, the skills she learned there have kept her busy for two decades in a career that can be totally self-supporting for anyone who loves horses and isn’t afraid to get kicked now and then.

“I’ve had some wild experiences,” recalls Thalmeier. In the early days, she would do hooves for a farm that was breeding Warmbloods and had over 100 horses in the stalls. “They were huge horses and some hadn't been handled very much…it was not fun,” laughs Thalmeier.

Thalmeier says she’s been kicked “plenty of times” but has never been seriously injured while working as a farrier. She did suffer a broken ankle when she got bucked off from her Sarah Thalmeier has been working as a farrier for over 20 years and says own horse, a few years back. These days she spoiled ponies can be a struggle because they don’t want to stand and can keeps three horses on a five-acre hobby farm be nippy but other than that, working with horses is an ideal job and she is near Brussels.

Twenty years on the job now, Thalmeier thankful for the horses and people she gets to work with every day. prefers to do six horses a day to protect her back and maintain a good life balance. Most clients are like me, with two to six horses needing trimmed and/or shod, though she does a few barns with more horses. Her goal with a horse that has no hoof issues is to keep the horse balanced and the hooves as even as possible. She trims, checks, and trims some more before finishing the hooves with a rasp.

It’s a fascinating process to watch. Clearly it’s hard work, requiring strength and patience.

It’s dirty and messy and odorous as well, though Thalemeier says she doesn’t notice the smell anymore. The dog sure does though.

There are a few kicks, for

sure, but working outdoors with horses is the best life, says farrier

24 The Rural Voice

Normally terrified of horse’s hooves, Jack gets right in there in order to snatch a piece of cut hoof to chew on.

“No dogs can resist them,” laughs Thalmeier.

This summer, with all the dry weather, Thalmeier saw a lot of sole bruises and the hooves were extra hard because the ground was so packed and dry.

For young men and women thinking of becoming farriers, Thalmeier says first and foremost, you have to love working with horses.

Secondly, get as much experience as possible working with a wide variety of horses. “Then you really get comfortable with horses and that’s important because horses can sense when you are nervous or apprehensive.

They will feed off you.”

Ponies, however, are a beast onto themselves. If ponies are used for riding or driving, then Thalmeier says they are good to work with. If they are ponies treated like a dog, or spoiled and lazy, they can be a problem.

“They don’t want to stand and they can be nippy,” she says.

Ponies or not, Thalmeier says she genuinely loves her job. “I am thankful to work with animals and work outdoors. Plus I get to meet a lot of amazing people so I’m thankful I get to do a job I enjoy.” ◊

Sarah Thalmeier chose to work as a farrier 20 years ago and says its been a rewarding career being profitable, allowing her to work with animals and getting to meet interesting people.

November 2022 25

History

Bruce museum celebrates farm fresh

The Farm Fresh exhibit at the Bruce Museum and Cultural Centre in Southampton is designed to bring back memories of life on the farm while revealing how agriculture has changed over the decades.

A

• By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

griculture has and continues to make a huge impact on Bruce County which is why the Bruce County and Cultural Museum wanted to teach and celebrate agriculture with their new exhibit called Farm Fresh.

“Our agricultural past is part of who we are as a people,” says Cathy McGirr, Director of Cultural Services.

“Agriculture is historical, economical and cultural.”

The Farm Fresh exhibit fills one of the large temporary galleries at the museum and examines how agriculture fostered strong community bonds while building the economy of Bruce County. The exhibit also examines farming technologies, life on the farm, off-shoot industries, community groups and changing trends in the business of agriculture. It also examines Indigenous farming practices.

Curatorial Assistant, Laura Leonard, explained that some of the off-shoot industries include grist mills. Back in the day, Walkerton had one of the few grist mills and if you were farming in Southampton (where the museum is located) it would literally take days to travel and wait for your wheat to be ground into flour.

“You would hook up the oxen, put the grain in the wagon, and travel in the winter (because winter “roads” were best for travel) to get your flour, explains Leonard.

“It’s mind-boggling that to make your loaf of bread, you had to be away from home for sometimes a month to get your grain ground.”

Farm Fresh does have artifacts from the Tara Milling Company which was open between 1857 and 1953.

Leonard said that flour mills had an unfortunate tendency to catch fire and that’s what eventually destroyed the Tara flour mill.

26 The Rural Voice

Another intriguing exhibit is that turkey egg incubator that was heated with a kerosene lamp. Looking at it brings back memories of hatching chicken eggs for McGirr. “My mom used to take the chicken eggs that weren’t hatched and put them in a box on the oven door.”

McGirr said that’s part of the purpose of a museum exhibit – to unleash memories, long buried and recall family times growing up on the farm, or visiting a grandparent’s farm.

The exhibit also tracks the trajectory of farming from when pioneers had to cut down trees to clear land, to families depending on each other to survive the winters to establishing mixed farms where the goal was to feed yourself, and sell what you had left over.

“It’s so very different from today’s farms that are hundreds or thousands of acres with the sole purpose of selling products,” says Leonard.

An old plow called the Scottish Swing Plow is another artifact at the Farm Fresh exhibit that draws curiosity.

Contributed by the McDonald family, it was imported in 1852 by James “Red Jim” McDonald. His grandson, George, would later win the Bruce County Plowmen’s Association Trophy for the best single furrow with a plain plow at the first Bruce County Plowing Association competition held outside Paisley in 1924.

Another curious item is a pan with straps that was used to broadcast seed. “If you didn’t have a seeder, that was the best way to do it,” says Leonard. This particular pan had a harness that was ergonomically designed before that phrase became popular, allowing the farmer to wear it for many hours planting his field.

The exhibits also include displays of pamphlets and materials from such important agricultural social societies, movements, and supports as the Farm Forum, Queen’s

Bush Ministries and local fall fairs.

“Visitors like to see the names because essentially, fall fairs are all about people,” says McGirr. “There are prizes for things like the best pie and the best cow. But it’s about connecting to your own ancestry. If you see a butter churn here, you might remember seeing one in your grandparents’ house and that keeps the farm connection for your family alive.”

There are over 60 artifacts in the exhibit. Plus, the display features companion pieces from Archives Ontario’s Fresh from the Farm exhibit.

McGirr said the exhibit is being used by teachers in the area to teach students about historical farming methods and the benefits of community.

The next goal is to digitize the display so that anyone with mobility issues who cannot visit the museum, or people from other countries, can view the historical artifacts depicting farming’s past.

McGirr encourages people to come visit, adding the museum isn’t a dry, dark place to go. “This is an accessible, hands-on museum,” she says. “It’s not stagnant…it’s a dynamic site and a happy place!”

The space will next be used for a Made in Bruce exhibit which will launch in mid-January.

“Made in Bruce is a story about innovation, the kind which doesn’t happen in urban centres,” says McGirr. “A lot of it was born out of necessity.” ◊

The Farm Fresh exhibit at the Bruce Museum and Cultural Centre has some interesting artifacts including a prize‐ winning plow that was used by the McDonald family (below, with Cathy McGirr). The grist mill display shows some of the offshoot businesses that developed in connection with agriculture as stated by Laura Leonard (bottom, right). Also in display is a turkey egg incubator heated by a kerosene lamp (top, right).

November 2022 27

Tradition

A Canadian tradition worth watching The Royal Canadian Mounted Police offer musical ride for tradition, honour and pride at Exeter Rodeo • By Bonnie Sitter •

T

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers receive one year of training and commit to three years of performing, establishing close bonds with their horses. This officer and horse performed with the group in Exeter this fall.

he Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)Musical Ride wowed the crowd with a third visit to Exeter in September. The previous years were 2008 and 2016.

It is a big commitment for the organizing committee to arrange the facilities and prepare stables for the horses. The RCMP presents shows throughout Canada and this year they performed in Southern Ontario, the Maritimes and Saskatchewan. They travel to every province on a rotational basis every four years. Their home base is at the RCMP stables in Ottawa. After a two-year pause because of COVID-19, they resumed performances in July.

If you have not experienced the musical ride it is truly a Canadian icon. It is advertised as a symbol of tradition, honour and pride and plays a part in recruiting officers.

The 30-minute show is preceded by a lengthy “warm-up” which is also entertaining. The officers and their horses execute a variety of cavalry drills that are choreographed to music. The basis of the ride’s movements stems from the ability to move a mounted cavalry regiment with some form of organization. Examples: single file, half sections and sections at all three paces. The show ends with a cavalry charge so the audience is alerted to have their cameras ready.

After the performances in Exeter, the audience was invited to visit the stables to see the horses up close and ask questions of the officers as they fed and watered their 28 The Rural Voice

mounts and cleaned their tack. The horses were content and their black coats were shining! The mounties were obviously happy too. There were smiles everywhere. Both parents and children were excited as they collected the cards with the mounties’ photos on them, posing with their horses of course. It was like collecting hockey and baseball cards. Every question was taken seriously and answered without hesitation as they continued to brush their horses and pose for photos.

One of the questions was about what breed of horses they ride. They replied that their black horses are mostly thoroughbred blood. However, in 1989, Hanoverian stallions and mares were introduced to enhance their quality, size and colour. Most of the horses are 16 hands in height and weigh between 1200 and 1300 pounds.

History and Interesting Facts The first recorded public display of the Musical Ride was in Regina in 1901. The number of officers and horses does vary but the troop can have as many as 32 riders, both men and women, who are all police officers. Officers apply to train and perform in the musical ride. Essentially it is a year of training and three years of touring. When accepted to join, you do not have to have experience riding horses.

Equestrian training stopped being mandatory for all recruits in 1966. Since then, only members assigned to the Musical Ride receive the training.

In 1967, Canada’s Centennial year, the ride managed to perform in nine provinces. Only B.C. missed out that year. The musical ride travelled by air for the first time in 1968 when it performed in Bermuda. Since then the performance has been seen in Asia, Continental Europe, and Great Britain.

There is an interesting history between the RCMP and our late Queen Elizabeth ll. The RCMP was aware of the Queen’s keen interest in horses and they gifted her eight horses over the years beginning with Burmese in 1969. The Queen was an Honorary Commissioner of the RCMP. She rode Burmese each year for 18 years at the annual Trooping of the Colour an event to celebrate her birthday. The horse, Centenial (only one ‘n’), was gifted in 1973 but stayed at the Ottawa stables and received training in the Musical Ride until 1977. James was gifted in 1998 and George in 2009. When the mare named Elizabeth was gifted to the Queen, she said she would have her bred and the first foal would be gifted back to the RCMP. The Queen fulfilled that promise and a filly named Victoria came to Ottawa in 2018. Horses named Sir John, Kluane and Darby were gifted to Queen Elizabeth ll between 2016 and 2019. All the horses were chosen because of their size, colour and temperament.

The Musical Ride was performed at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth ll in 1953. Four officers were given the honour of leading the way at Her Majesty’s recent funeral and the horses they rode were ones they had gifted her. The Queen had specifically requested that The Mounties be there for her funeral.

There is an opportunity for children to submit names for foals that are born at the RCMP Stables in Ottawa. Each year a letter of the alphabet is chosen and the contest requires that the name starts with that letter. h t t p s : / / w w w . r c m p grc.gc.ca/en/musical-ride/name-thefoal-contest The Royal Winter Fair will celebrate 100 years this November and the Musical Ride will be there to help celebrate. ◊

The Musical Ride put on by the RCMP is filled with choreographed cavalry drills (top) and after the show, the audience can visit the officers grooming their horses and cleaning tack in the stables to ask questions. One officer, Constable Amritpal Gill was eager to pose with Ryan Caldwell, Charles Barlow and Jason Essay (above, left) who are WWI reenactors. ◊ November 2022 29

Plowing

Klaver wins provincial furrow title

M

• By Denny Scott •

aranda Klaver has joined an elite group of women in Huron County who have worn the Queen of the Furrow sash for both the county and the province, winning the provincial title at the International Plowing Match (IPM) held in September.

Klaver, who represented Huron County as Queen of the Furrow from 2019 through to the plowing match held last month, traveled to the IPM in Kemptville to compete in the province-wide competition. She competed against 18 fellow Queens, each of whom was scored on their appearance, deportment, an interview, a speech and, of course, plowing.

Klaver said when the announcement was made, it didn’t immediately register.

“It was pretty surreal, and that was what I said in my acceptance speech,” she said. “At one point, during my reign, I didn’t even know if I’d get to go to the IPM because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so to be standing there and crowned, I needed someone to come pinch me to make sure it was real.”

Klaver said she stayed on message from when she was crowned the Huron County Queen of the Furrow in 2019, talking about mental health in the agricultural field. In her speech, she called it the “elephant in the room” and she had an elephant balloon to help people connect with her speech and message.

She also practised plowing with Brian McGavin, who has experience at all levels of plowing competitions, which obviously helped as Klaver finished fifth out of 13 in that portion of the competition.

“I was really happy about that,” she said. “I went and looked at the other contestants’ plowing and I thought it was going to be very close. I was super happy to land in the top five.”

The competition across all fronts was very close, she said, including the plowing, so Klaver was extremely happy to come away with the win.

It’s been a whirlwind of activity since she was crowned, she said. Early on, she picked up the car that is leased to her for the year and she has been handed the social media credentials for the Queen of the Furrow. She has also fielded several invitations for plowing matches, including those in Haldimand and Halton, and is already booking Christmas events.

Klaver is excited to help promote the 2023 IPM, which is set to be held in Bowling Green between Arthur and Orangeville. After traveling nearly 600 kilometres to Kemptville for this year’s competition, she says she is excited to have the opportunity to represent a match that’s just over 100 kilometres away.

Klaver has also connected with a number of previous Queens who reached out to congratulate her, both from Huron and other counties.

“They said they had incredible, exciting and fun years,” 30 The Rural Voice

Maranda Klaver, shown above plowing at the 2022 International Plowing Match in Kemptville, proved she had the plowing skills to be crowned the 2022‐2023 Ontario Queen of the Furrow. Klaver beat out a field of 18 other competitors to earn the sash and the title. ~Photos courtesy of Beth Cooper

she said. “They all enjoyed their time, so I’m hoping it will be the same for me. It’s a whole new experience, so I’m excited for it.”

Klaver said the reality of the win is still sinking in, even several days after being crowned, and she looks forward to seeing exactly how she can best fill the role.

Ontario Queens from Huron Maranda Klaver is the fourth Huron County Queen of the Furrow to be crowned the provincial queen, starting with Amy Beccario (née Stewart) who was crowned in 1966.

She served from 1966 to 1967 and, by winning at a match held in her home county, she achieved something that has yet to be matched. The 1966 match was held near Seaforth at the Scott farms.

Beccario, who passed away in 2009, had her recollections of the 1966 IPM, known locally as the Mud Match, recorded in a special anniversary book produced just over a decade ago. Specifically, she was struck by the grandeur of the site.

Lynne Godkin (née Dodds) was the second, being crowned in 1984 in Wellington County.

Godkin said that her year with the crown “was a blast” and marked one of her best years ever. Back then, the Ontario Plowmen’s Association bought a car for the winner, which saw her driving around a new Ford Escort, which was a huge development in her life. She had fond memories of all the events she went to, including her first banquet, which was located in Grey County, which taught her the importance of asking for different estimates of how long it would take to get there.

Melissa Veldman (née Sparling) was the most recent winner in 2010, crowned at the Elgin County match.

Veldman remembers that, with the 2010 match near Tecumseh was quite a trek and not all of her immediate family could make it.

However, the strong plowing community in Huron County made the trek, she said, and she won in front of “a bunch of hometown people.” ◊

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November 2022 35

Recipes by Anne Mann

Cauliflower and cheese, a perfect combination

I

like to keep a cauliflower in the refrigerator and eat it simply boiled with butter, salt and pepper but when I want to pair it with something else, it inevitably has some cheese!

I shared Cauliflower Mac and Cheese in November of 2018 and would not think of making macaroni and cheese without the cauliflower.

Just like bread and butter, milk and cookies, cauliflower just goes better with cheese.

I saw a recipe for “Cauliflower & Brussels Sprouts Gratin with Sage” in the Thanksgiving edition of Canadian Living and I had to try it when I saw brussels sprouts fresh from the garden at the market. It will definitely be made again when an extra vegetable is needed on the buffet table! https://www.canadian living.com/food/lunch-anddinner/recipe/cauliflower-brusselssprouts-gratin-with-sage Roasted Whole Cauliflower with Cheese When I was young I loved when my Mom added the cheese sauce to cauliflower for dinner, but I seldom take the time to do this myself because I am more of a “make ahead” cook. When I had this cauliflower roasted on the barbecue at my brother-in-law’s, I knew I would be making it at home. It has all the flavour of Mom’s but it is naturally gluten-free, is never lumpy and goes in the oven! It is perfect when you want to dress up a plain meal, extend a meal to serve more people or need an extra vegetarian dish on the table.

Ingredients: 1 large cauliflower head, trimmed but left whole 2 Tbsp butter, melted 1/4 cup sour cream (if you do not have sour cream you can just double the mayo) 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1 - 2 tsp prepared mustard of choice 3/4 - 1 cup grated cheese of 36 The Rural Voice

Ratatoulle lasagna (top) is simple, refreshing and made with cauliflower. In the middle, roasted whole cauliflower is made extra tasty by roasting a whole cauliflower on the barbeque while, at bottom, a cauliflower ham bake makes use of leftover ham while fresh dill adds flavour to the dish.

choice, old cheddar, Parmesan, Swiss or combination Salt and freshly grated black pepper to taste Directions: Cut off leaves and tough portions of stem, leaving enough to keep the head together. Wash and boil, core side down, in lightly salted water for about five minutes until tender crisp and remove carefully, trying to keep from falling apart (mine usually does and the only problem with that is how it looks).

Place cauliflower in an oven or BBQ proof pan that is about the right size to keep the head together even if a few florets have broken off. Brush the top of the cauliflower with melted butter.

Mix sour cream, mayonnaise and mustard together then turn over cauliflower (stem side up) and spread with sour cream mixture and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Season with a little salt and pepper.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes in a preheated 400°F oven or barbeque until cheese is bubbling and cauliflower is tender.

Cauliflower Ham Bake When I have a little leftover baked ham I always think of this winning combination for dinner based on Anne Lindsay’s recipe in The Lighthearted Cookbook. This dish takes a cauliflower and a few leftovers and makes it into a meal. It is deliciously different and is especially nice if you have fresh dill in the garden.

Ingredients: 1/2 head of cauliflower, broken into florets 1/2 - 1 cup cooked ham, diced 1 shallot or small onion, chopped 1 sweet coloured pepper, sliced 1 tbsp margarine 2 tbsp all purpose flour (1 tbsp cornstarch and 1 tbsp rice flour for GF) 1 cup milk 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese 1/4 cup or more shredded cheddar or cheese of your choice 2 tbsp fresh dill weed or 1 tsp dry 1 tbsp fresh parsley or 1 tsp dry

freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs* 1 tbsp butter Directions: Cook cauliflower in boiling water for about five minutes until tender crisp.

Strain and place in a 9 x 9 inch baking pan along with the ham.

For sauce, cook onion with margarine until soft, about five minutes.

Add sweet pepper and cook for a few more minutes.

Stir in flour (if making GF whisk the cornstarch and rice flour into the milk before adding) until evenly absorbed then add milk slowly, stirring to keep lumps from forming.

Simmer for a minute, stirring often then add both cheeses, dill, parsley and pepper.

Pour cheese sauce over ham and cauliflower.

Mix melted butter with fresh bread crumbs and sprinkle over all.

I put a bit more shredded cheese on top.

Bake at 375°F for about 30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the top is beginning to brown.

Serves four. *Cut or break stale bread or rolls into 1/2 inch pieces.

Ratatouille Lasagna This vegetarian version of lasagna is simple and fresh tasting. I have made it with only cauliflower and only eggplant but I like it best with a mixture of both. Every time I make it I wonder why we do not have it more often. Since I started making the gluten-free version I add a layer of cottage cheese because the uncooked Catelli noodles hold together better with this extra layer of cheese.

Sometimes I add some sauteed mushrooms to the cottage cheese layer for a little extra interest.

Ingredients: 2 tbsp butter or olive oil or mixture (omit if using cauliflower) 1 eggplant, peeled and diced or 1 small cauliflower, 4 - 5 cups or a combination of both 1 tsp olive oil 2 onions, chopped 3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp hot pepper, minced or 1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes 2 sweet red peppers, chopped 2 zucchini, sliced 3 1/2 cups fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped* or 1 can (28 oz) tomatoes with liquid 1 bay leaf 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp thyme 1/2 pkg (500 g) lasagna noodles 1 pkg (500 g) cottage cheese 1 egg 1 tsp basil, dried 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 tbsp melted butter *If using fresh tomatoes, add 1 tsp of salt and ½ tsp sugar and cook for 10 minutes longer before adding other cauliflower and eggplant.

Directions: Cook eggplant in butter in a large saucepan and set aside. If using cauliflower, blanch and set aside.

Cook onion in olive oil, in a pan used for eggplant, until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add garlic, hot and sweet peppers and zucchini and continue cooking for 10 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, bay leaf, salt, pepper and thyme and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Add cauliflower and/or eggplant and cook for five more minutes.

Prepare lasagna noodles according to package directions.

Spread some tomato sauce on bottom of a deep 10 x 14 inch baking dish.

Place noodles over sauce to cover bottom.

Mix cottage cheese with egg and basil and spread ½ mixture on noodles.

Layer with enough sauce to cover cottage cheese then spread with half the mozzarella and Parmesan.

Repeat layers ending with mozzarella cheese.

Drizzle melted butter on top and bake at 375°F for 30 - 45 minutes.

Serve or refrigerate and reheat later.

Serves 6 - 8. ◊ November 2022 37

Gardening Rhea Hamilton‐ Seeger is a skilled cook and gardener who lives in Goderich.

Intense forestry, Japanese style The latest good-read for both gardeners and non-gardeners is Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard.

It does a deep dive into the relationship between trees, fellow plants and soil. There have been a number of scientists around the world that have been looking more closely at relationships between soil organisms of assorted micorrhizae fungi and native plants. As the research becomes published and accessible we are becoming more aware that this intense relationship is key to a thriving environment.

Our Canadian forest industry is slow to acknowledge the linkage and change their reforestation programs from stripping all the plant cover from a logging site and replacing it with a single species or plantation A strip of land between neighbours supports the planting of eight plants but it could support more.

Countries around the world are adapting the idea of “fast growing mini forests” designed by ecologist Dr. Akira Miyawaki who promotes intense, tightly‐ planted areas that mature quickly, attract songbirds and sequester carbon with planting of 30 or more different species.

38 The Rural Voice

style to a more balanced approach that includes a variety of plant material and acknowledgment that it takes a community of plants to create a forest.

Another approach to repairing the damage to the environment comes from Dr. Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese ecologist who has developed a method of restoring and reconstructing forests. His intense, tightly planted areas help to encourage biodiversity and fight climate crisis. He was awarded two Blue Planet prizes in 2006 for his methods, which have been implemented in Asia and Malaysia.

Miyawaki has planted over 1,600 such forests. His method condenses 150 years of growing a natural forest into 15 to 20 years.

His method is quickly being implemented in Europe. These “fast growing mini forests” mature quickly, attract songbirds, and beneficial insects as well as sequester carbon and return some balance to the environment.

We only need to take a walk in a forest to renew our spirit, enjoy the cooler air, and admire the many creatures big and small we can see.

We already know forests improve the water quality in our watersheds.

So just how intense is the planting? I will admit when I started looking into this I thought it would be a great idea for the strip of land between our driveway and the neighbour’s. Our portion is three metres wide and 15 metres long. This does not include a couple of metres at either end to act as a buffer. It is suggested that you plant saplings close together, three per square metre, using native species and infill with native shrubs and perennials.

We started with an eight-foot tulip tree, with nannyberries on either side.

Further along we planted a pair of paper birch about one metre apart and a service berry on the end. A few weeks later we planted a pair of chokeberry shrubs. So in our strip we have eight plants, a variety of both trees and shrubs — far cry from a possible 135 saplings and shrubs we could plant in that space.

To recreate the layers of a natural forest you should aim for 30 or more different species; that would include the trees, shrubs and perennials. The whole idea makes me think of author Mel Bartholemew who wrote about square foot gardening, planting your vegetable garden on a grid system to harvest the best crop. It is now a “movement” and helps many take the

guess work out of planting vegetables. I hope that the mini forest becomes a movement too!

Advocates say the mini forest will grow 10 times faster and 30 times denser and will be 100 times more diverse. Since they are planted all at the same time the soil is not disturbed as it would be with successive plantings each year. The trees are similar size in an open area and grow quite quickly together. The sunlight is allowed to reach flowering plants below that attract pollinators. The leaf fall stays put and is another attraction for insects, snails, butterflies, amphibians, bugs and grasshoppers.

Researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands planted a mini forest in 2017 and closely monitored it. They noted a marked increase in biodiversity especially compared to the nearby forest. Both the number of species and the number of individuals was higher than in the reference forest.

Here in Canada there are organizations embracing and promoting mini forests and meeting with a lot of enthusiasm. Instead of planting trees as individuals we now see that we can plant these forests and recreate a natural community.

If you want to explore this idea some more, the Rideau 1000 Islands Master Gardeners has a lovely website, https://rideau1000islands mastergardeners.com/?s=100 Their project is called Little Forest Kingston. Their website contains valuable links of which I think the primary one is Forest Gene Conservation Association. Their focus is on conserving the genetic diversity of Ontario forests with species conservation, collecting high quality seeds, studying climate change and how our forests are responding. That information helps us restore and manage our forests so that they will thrive. They take the hard research out of making a list of plants for your area.

A Native Woody Plant Species interactive map offers a list of native plants for each area. I have my list to help me with our plantings here.

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Advice

• By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot •

Technology yes, but we still need soil and rain Humans owe their existence to six inches of soil and that should always be the number one focus, says panelist

D

espite technology and our reliance on it, humans still owe their existence to the top six inches of soil and the fact that it rains.

That perspective led to a discussion by four technology innovators who shared what new advances in technology mean for farming during the Globe and Mail’s Sustainable Agriculture event held in June.

“How we sustain ourselves as a society is all about the soil,” said Blake Weiseth, an Applied Research Lead, GFM Discovery Farm Research Chair and PhD student at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.

“Fortunately, with new soil moisture probe sensors, we can transmit data wirelessly throughout the field to analyze and interpret data. Once you can measure something, you can analyze it and that will help make decisions for a growing season.”

Jillian Moffatt, the Chief Technology Officer for McCain Foods is excited about McCains Farm of the Future where regenerative agriculture practices are being implemented and researched to improve soil health. In the broader agricultural community, she is excited about the growth of microgreens on indoor farms. She says indoor farming allows companies to grow food closer to where the population is, uses 95 per cent less water than the average farm and reduces carbon emissions.

The Living Lab projects going on across the country (and previously reported in The Rural Voice by writer Melisa Luymes) is an advancement Christine Noronho, a Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, believes will teach farmers how to build soil health and soil health properties. These onfarm research projects investigate

40 The Rural Voice

Blake Weiseth is the General Farm Manager of the Discovery Farm in Saskatchewan and is a fan of soil moisture sensors to transmit data wirelessly to a main computer for analytics. He spoke about technology in farming at the Globe and Mail’s Sustainable Agriculture event held in June. new cropping systems and which fertilizer makes soil better biologically as well as chemically, to name two ongoing projects.

The final panelist, John Raines of Telus Agriculture, was all about data and productivity. He said farmers have done a fantastic job over the last several decades to produce more food with less land. Telus wants to be a part of it by focussing on the digitizing value chain to connect the domain of the consumer to the supply chain. “Ultimately, we want to move food and resources through the supply chain in real time,” said Raines. “A third of the food we produce gets wasted because it is in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

While site-specific technology is valuable, farmers need to realize the food chain is worth over $10 trillion and that billions of dollars worth of food is wasted when it doesn’t get to where it should go. “We want to get the right product to the right place in

the right package,” said Raines.

Climate Change Climate change will be one of the key issues for farmers because it changes the water supply, while drought and flooding affect pests and diseases, said Noronho.

Coming from the western provinces, Weiseth said dealing with drought has been an ongoing issue.

The key, he believes, is about creating healthy soils and healthy cropping systems because “these are resilient systems.” He believes intercropping is an excellent management strategy and that perennial forages are under utilized.

So is crop rotation, something other countries do better, said Noronho.

Having worked internationally, she believes countries like Italy have a head start on soil health to prevent soil erosion. “They are focussed on building soils that have more organic matter and they do it through crop rotations. They

also grow crops that produce nitrogen to reduce how much nitrogen needs to be added to the soil.”

Cell Phones, Drones and Affordability A few years ago we thought drones would be the next big thing but they cannot be flown all the time so farmers are moving to satellite information, said Moffatt. “It’s good enough data to understand what is going on in the fields,” she said. Cost drives what farmers can adopt on their farms.

There are more sensors on machines today than ever before in history and it’s allowing farmers to be site specific and sustainable, said Raines. “Farmers are hungry to use this information but it needs to be real-time.” Phones allow farmers to take pictures of a weed or insect to immediately identify a problem and how to control it. There is just a lag connecting all the dots.

Weiseth said farmers grow food but they are also business people. “If a certain technology as a repeatable return on investment (ROI) then it will be adopted,” he said. It’s why GPS is now widespread – it allows growers to be more efficient.

Rural Broadband The use of technology is often stymied by the lack of high speed internet in rural areas, agreed Raines and Weiseth. “We need reliable and cost-effective access to cellular internet,” said Weiseth.

Farm of the Future Weiseth believes autonomous machinery will be adopted on future farms as the labour shortage issues increase. “Adoption of it has lagged from what we expected and there are certainly barriers in terms of ROI and liability on an autonomous machine.

However, it is difficult to attract skilled labour and I believe that will be the push to adopt autonomous machines.”

He also hopes there will be better forecasting for weather. “All the decisions we make on the farm are impacted by the weather and as we employ more weather stations, better data collection and AI predictions, hopefully it will be more accurate.”

Moffatt was in full agreement about autonomous vehicles being a

wise investment. She also believes increased data collection will be turned into predictive models to understand yields on a field-to-field basis to direct opportune times for harvesting. “Lots of growing regions have had early frosts and freezes which really impacts the growers … an entire year can go to waste,” she said.

Noronho said farmers will continue to fine-tune cropping using precision farming and that systems and data will continue to amalgamate to make data collection and processing easier. ◊

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Advice

The Three Sisters: The indigenous method of planting corn, beans and squash together is a good model for farming

By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot

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he indigenous system of growing corn, squash and beans via a method known as the Three Sisters can be used as a metaphor for a new way of looking at agriculture, says Adrianne Xavier, Acting Director of the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University.

Speaking at the Arrell Food Summit in June, Xavier said she had to see for herself if the trio grew better together or apart. She tested both systems and found that, separate from each other, she had to water and weed the plants more. Together, the trio helped each other.

“They grow synergistically better because they protect each other,” said Xavier. “The older sister is corn and the baby sister bean grows up her body. The middle sister is squash and she protects them and brings water to them by the nature of her leaves.”

Xavier believes if she can get people to understand the metaphor, they can place themselves within that system allowing them to understand, relate and change their practices.

For instance, a person with wealth and land could be the older sister and provide land to a future farmer, or food to a food bank, or funding to nonprofits. They can be the corn to provide the support.

The baby farmers can actively work to feed others, or work at a food bank.

The squash/middle sister could be an educator, bringing the older sister and baby sister together. Or you partner those who have with those who need, together.

“In a practical sense, you can choose which sister to be and be one of many working together toward the same goal,” said Xavier.

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Adrianne Xavier Acting Director, Indigenous Studies, McMaster University joined by Michelle Week of Good Rain Farm in Vancouver who said land was stolen from indigenous people via misinformation and deceit. “We signed treaties but there was not a lot of well-informed decision making in that process.”

She said farms can play a role in establishing access to land for indigenous communities to continue to practise, educate and demonstrate traditional ecological knowledge while also engaging in traditional diets. “I do not like the private property idea and that is where we are in this time and place.”

Week said to protect the land and space, indigenous communities need to have control and ownership of land, to be put in a trust so they can pass it down generation to generation. “The farm can be an economic model to move towards modern and new technologies that still allow us to bring our teachings, worldview and practices to exhibit reciprocity and relationship with ecologies and embrace an ecological food system.” ◊ February 2019 43

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

Barge freight rates and dry weather are driving costs even higher Grain prices continue to see turbulence as developments between Russia and the Ukraine continue to unfold. Tensions in the region only seem to be reduced for a short time before hostilities flare up again after a short reprieve.

Russia has long been complaining that the humanitarian food corridor that was established is being used

improperly by Ukraine, and from this there is speculation that Russia would not renew the agreement upon its expiry later this year. Within the deal, inspections that are to occur in Turkey, prior to sailing into and out of the Black sea, are exceptionally slow and vessel line-ups are building.

The slow-paced inspections themselves are a barrier to large volumes moving from the region. At one time, there were over 97 vessels awaiting inspection exiting Ukraine carrying over two-million tonnes of cargo, with wait times reported at 10 days to two weeks. Delays of this magnitude are too long for buyers, and too long for ship owners as this excessive idle time is too expensive to be economical. United Nation officials have asked Russia to end the requirement of inspecting outgoing vessels to shorten wait times for vessels, thus far to no avail.

Grain markets jumped sharply on the explosion that damaged the Kerch bridge that links Russia and Crimea over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. As retribution to the

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44 The Rural Voice

terrorism (as Russian President Putin called it), he launched an aggressive missile campaign – targeting key infrastructure in Ukraine, including energy facilities. Shortly after these retaliatory attacks, Turkey again took on the role of the moderator, stating that Turkey shared with Russia a “common understanding” that a ceasefire was urgently needed.

Markets that rallied on the news of the attacks, sold off on news of the “common understanding.” This highlights the market being driven by headline news and war measures in the ongoing conflict.

Russia has grown a record crop this year, with over 103 million metric tonnes of wheat production.

This crop size is over 35 per cent more than last year’s crop, and Russia would like to get this crop marketed.

The problem is Russia isn’t finding enough willing buyers for this crop. World buyers are reluctant or unable to pay current market prices. There are Russian export tax fees and freight costs from Russia have ballooned due to the war measures in the region.

Ukraine is also a low cost competitor with Russia as they look to clear inventories similarly. The fact that Ukraine is preventing some Russian shipments from moving to market through competitive forces, makes one wonder if Putin would look to extend the shipping agreement currently in place from the Ukraine. This deal — which is due to expire November 19— seems to work against Russian exports.

What comes next from this region is anyone’s guess. Unfortunately, the uncertainty provides food insecurity for much of the world’s most vulnerable. The world has no shortage of wheat today — the problem is that a large portion of the available stocks are located in this conflict region.

The United States, often called the reserve holder of wheat in the world, may not be able to help the world market if shipments from the region are greatly held back. The U.S. plains are extremely dry and questions remain about the establishment of the U.S. hard wheat crop. Already there

Markets are indications that the crop is running into establishment issues with poor germination. This brings fears that the 2022/23 harvest may be short and unable to meet world demands into the future.

But there are other constraints more concerning at this moment, and that is water levels in the Mississippi River. Because of the drought conditions in large areas of the U.S., the Mississippi has experienced multiple vessels grounding out in the river system, from a lack of navigational draft. The groundings caused two locations on the river to close for at least a week and other traffic movements were very slow. At one time there were over 2,000 barges waiting to be moved, demonstrating the extreme impact of the low water, which is expected to fall to levels not seen since October 1988.

Barge freight rates have risen astronomically, making costs of moving further goods prohibitive.

This has pushed U.S. gulf corn exports to their lowest level in nine years for the first week of October.

This issue is expected to remain for quite some time. If it persists grain exports from the U.S. will be greatly impacted. The main export window from the U.S. is harvest, October through January. After this time frame South American supplies come on the market. ◊

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

Needles point to tree identification

conifers with single needles coming from the stem. Needles of hemlock and fir are flat and come off the stem individually, not in groupings. While spruce needles may be arranged individually on the stem, the needles are round. A simple test of this is to try to roll the needle between your fingers; a hemlock or fir needle will not roll, and a spruce will. Looking closely at the needle that has been removed, a hemlock needle will have a small stalk or stem at the base. This makes for an easy rhyme, hemlock stalk. It is also worth noting that both hemlock and fir needles are soft.

Spruce needles are very rigid and a little prickly.

In differentiating between all of the other coniferous trees that we have in our forests; we must look at the number of needles in a grouping and the arrangement of the needles.

Starting off with the easiest once again, tamarack is a coniferous tree that loses all its needles in the fall.

However, the arrangement of the needles on tamarack is quite unique to the larch family, in that they come off the stem on a little shoot that holds a tuft or grouping of 10 to 20 needles. I like the term tuft for the needle arrangement as tamarack needles are very soft.

Now we will venture into the realm of coniferous trees that have

Spring and fall are likely the two most common times that people think about tree leaves. In spring it is the flush of the buds and the sign of new growth. In fall it is the beautiful colours and often the mess that fallen leaves make.

There are so many times that people talk about tree leaves, but how often do we really talk about the actual leaf and not the damage that an insect, disease, or even hail has caused? We talk about the dieback of leaves as indicators of health problems, we talk about fungal spots, and we talk about holes in leaves.

How about we just talk about the leaves of our forest trees?

Leaves come in many different types and shapes, and it is those differences that help us determine the tree species. Many people forget that needles are just another leaf shape and would argue that coniferous trees do not have leaves. Truly, coniferous trees have many different types or arrangements of leaves often in the form of needles that allow us to differentiate species. A quick note of the one coniferous species that just has to be different – cedar. Our most common forest cedar tree, eastern white cedar, has leaves, but leaves that are in the form of overlapping scales, not needles.

While walking through or brushing up against cedar leaves may not seem abrasive, if you hold a section of leaf and try to rub it going against the scales Needles are just another leaf you will feel some roughness. shape and can be used to identify To start narrowing down the tree species. Above, the short‐ different needle arrangements needle of this tree indicate it is for tree identification we need to White spruce while the long start with eliminating the easiest needles (at right) are from a Scots species first, this would be the Pine.

46 The Rural Voice

needles that come off the stem in multiple numbers, the pines.

Depending on whether your forest is naturally occurring or planted, the variety of pines could vary. I am including all of the pines that, to my knowledge, may have been planted or are naturally occurring in the forests of our region.

A coniferous tree that has soft needles coming off the stem in bunches of five is white pine. The two key factors are that the needles are soft, and that there are five letters in the word white and five needles in a bunch.

A hard-needled pine that has needles in bunches of two, takes a little more investigation to determine which variety of pine it is. If the two needles are long and straight, you are looking at red pine. If you have two needles that are fairly long, but are twisted, you are identifying Scots or scotch pine. I found it easiest to remember this rule by thinking that after having a bunch of Scotch things may be a little twisted.

Finally, if the needles are short and have a little bend or twist to them the tree is a jack pine. In our area, jack pine needles are often significantly shorter than any other species as the tree is pushing the range limit for the species.

When in a mature forest it is often

incredibly difficult to determine the needle arrangement of a tree that is 80 feet tall, or even 60 for that matter. I really like to determine species by looking at the bark. Each of these coniferous trees has unique bark that aids in identification.

Colour and texture is quite indicative of the species.

Next month we will explore deciduous tree leaf shapes and identification. ◊

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MAITLAND CONSERVATION’s 2023

Tree Planting Programs It’s time to plan your spring planting project.

2023 Tree and Shrub Orders - A variety of tree and shrub species are available to purchase for spring 2023. Large stock and seedlings may be ordered. For information and order forms please visit our website at mvca.on.ca or email Greg Urquhart, Forestry Technician,at trees@mvca.on.ca.

Order deadline: January20,2023 Planting Services - Interested in starting a windbreak, stream buffer or block planting but not sure how to begin? Maitland Conservation staff are available to assist you with choosing the best planting options for your property and identifying potential funding opportunities.

GRANTS AVAILABLE for some planting projects! Call for details.

Greg Urquhart, Forestry Technician [e] trees@mvca.on.ca [w] mvca.on.ca [t] 519-335-3557 ext. 235

November 2022 47

Agrilaw

Martin’s Nursery

Hydrangea Shrubs & Trees

Honey For Sale

Shade & flowering trees, Large selection of Fruit trees (fruit bearing age) Spruce, pine, cedars, hedging & windbreaks, We sell a complete line of Bee Supplies; shrubs, grasses including Extracting Equipment, ORHBS Select & much more! jars, pails, Varroa mite treatments Queens (weekly) and Bees, Nucs, Queens. during season

BEE Supplies Etc.

c/o EMANUEL E.M. MARTIN 42661 Orangehill Road RR #1 Wroxeter, ON N0G 2X0 1 Concession North of Wroxeter on Belmore Line Mon. - Sat. 7 am - 6 pm

():O O">05O<6 ),#7O):O"#:)'1#"OC)<(O# :#O3%O>:#O )1O0)1" O @#7:)M#"OD(##,:O 1"O O,3CO #1<#7O3%O'6 A)<KO 0# 1O<():O<6 ). #7O):O7# "KO<3O&3,/3COL3?O 1LE(#7# O # BO"><KO"#:)'1O&37O 3<(OE37+O 1"O5, L O (#O 1#O )H<##1O >:(O >'')#:O 7#O13DO A ), ,#O <(73>'(O O # ,#7O1#<F37+ O ), ,#O)1O 3<(O53E"#7N 3 <#"O 1"O ,A 1)M#"O )1):( O 3,37O 5<)31:O A ). ,# O #<O)1O<3> (OE)<(OL3>7O1# 7#:<O 1#O )H<##1O # ,#7O <3O ): >::OD( <O35<)31:O O #::37)#:O 7#O7)'(<O &37OL3> O

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48 The Rural Voice

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

Legality of Tree By-law confirmed The Municipal Act, 2001 is legislation by which the Province of Ontario delegates authority to Municipalities over various local matters such as roads, parking, zoning, business licensing, etc.

Importantly, the jurisdiction and power of Municipalities is no more and no less than what is delegated to them by the Province.

In the Constitution Act, 1867, the Provinces were given exclusive jurisdiction over the various local matters and over “Municipal Institutions in the Province”.

Municipalities may pass by-laws regulating matters for which the Province has delegated authority, but cannot exceed the scope of the authority that has been delegated.

Municipalities are often said to be “creatures of the Province”.

Section 2 of the Municipal Act, 2001 states the purposes of Municipalities: “Municipalities are created by the Province of Ontario to be responsible and accountable governments with respect to matters within their jurisdiction and each municipality is given powers and duties under this Act and many other Acts for the purpose of providing good government with respect to those matters.”

Municipalities are divided into two classes: upper-tier municipalities and lower-tier municipalities. “Upper-tier municipalities” are defined in the Act as municipalities “of which two or more lower-tier municipalities form part for municipal purposes”.

“Lower-tier municipalities” are defined as municipalities that

Agrilaw form part “of an upper-tier municipality for municipal purposes”. Commonly, Counties and Regional Municipalities are uppertier municipalities while Townships, Towns and “Municipalities” are lower-tier municipalities.

In 2006, the Province of Ontario passed an amendment to Section 135 of the Municipal Act, 2001 conferring broad powers on uppertier municipalities to prohibit or regulate the destruction or injuring of trees in designated “woodlands”.

“Woodlands” are defined in the Municipal Act, 2001 as “woodlands as defined in the Forestry Act that are one hectare or more in area”.

The Forestry Act defines “woodlands” as land with at least: (a) 1,000 trees of any size per hectare; or, (b) 750 trees over five centimetres in diameter per hectare; or, (c) 500 trees over 12 cenimetres in diameter per hectare; or, (d) 250 trees over 20 centimetres in diameter per hectare.

For the purpose of determining a woodland, measurements of trees are to be taken at 1.37 metres above the ground.

A by-law passed under Section 135 of the Municipal Act, 2001 may “require that a permit be obtained to injure or destroy trees” and may “impose conditions to a permit, including conditions relating to the manner in which destruction occurs and the qualifications of persons authorized to injure or destroy trees.” In passing the by-law, the Municipality is to “have regard to good forestry practices as defined in the Forestry Act”. The Forestry Act defines “good forestry practices” as “the proper implementation of harvest, renewal and maintenance activities known to be appropriate for the forest and environmental conditions under which they are being applied and that minimize detriments to forest values including significant ecosystems, important fish and wildlife habitat, soil and water quality and quantity, forest productivity and health and the aesthetics and recreational opportunities of the landscape”.

This past summer, the Superior Court of Justice heard an application by the “Upper Canada Land Titles

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November 2022 49

Agrilaw C - 119 Pinebush Rd., Cambridge, ON Fax: 1-866-388-9659 Email: info@waddelleng.com Website: www.waddelleng.com Instagram: @waddell_engineering TikTok: waddell_engineering

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50 The Rural Voice

and Patent Research Initiative” seeking to quash the Woodland Conservation By-law of the Regional Municipality of Niagara for illegality or to declare it without legal effect as against the property owned by a particular individual. The individual landowner is the president and a director of the “Research Initiative”, a not-for-profit organization created “to research and understand the root title of properties, their origin and the intent of the Sovereign as it pertains to each property of our members”, “to establish what rights so given and granted exists and how those rights are to be respected concurrently”, “to research on behalf of our members different departments and levels of government their position on the rights so given and granted and to understand if and why they should or should not be respected”, and “to understand how our head of state, our Constitution is being respected as it pertains to property”.

The “Research Initiative” argued that the Woodland Conservation Bylaw is invalid, in whole or in part, for four reasons: 1) it is “ultra vires” the Municipal Act, 2001, meaning the bylaw exceeds the authority delegated by the Province; 2) it is in conflict with and “frustrates” a superior legislative instrument – the 1818 Crown Patent by which the Crown granted the land to the landowner’s predecessor-in-title; 3) it is in conflict with and “frustrates” Section 58 of the Public Lands Act and other related legislation by which the Crown relinquished all reservations of timber and trees in pre-1869 Crown Patents; and, 4) it is overly vague.

In the 1818 Crown Patent at issue, the Crown (His Majesty the King in Right of Ontario) had reserved to itself “all White Pine Trees that shall, or may now or hereafter grow or be growing, on any part of the said parcel or tract of land hereby granted as aforesaid”. By Section 53(3) of the Public Lands Act, the Crown relinquished that reservation so that the landowner owns “all White Pine Trees” on his property free and clear of any ownership claim by the Crown. The central position of the

Agrilaw “Research Initiative” was that: … as the Municipal Act contains no express authority to the Region to create a reservation, covenant or other servitude in the Property, the Bylaw restricts or imposes a further restriction to the Property which contradicts the reservation that the Crown previously held and thereafter ceded. The Crown cannot make a new entry or claim against [the landowner] over trees on the Property nor can the Region.

Mr. Justice Nightingale disagreed, finding that the regulation of injuring and destroying trees on the property did not affect the landowner’s title or ownership in the property. He also ruled that the granting of the Crown Patent in 1818 was a “routine administrative act of the Crown as a means of conveying an ownership interest in land and was not an Act or legislative instrument which created property rights of any kind that superseded the delegation of

government power to the province and hence to the municipalities under the Constitution Act, 1867.” Lastly, Justice Nightingale saw no basis on which to find that the By-law was invalid for “vagueness and uncertainty”. ◊ ______________________________ 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 circumstance.

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

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

RR 2 GODERICH, ON N7A 3X8 Tel.: 519-524-8096 Website: www.sharpscreekforge.ca Email: jim@sharpscreekforge.ca

181 BARTLEY DRIVE

779500 CONCESSION 2 NCD

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Miller Lake, ON

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18 acres with a large cleared area that is ideal for a hobby farm.

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MLS# 40333804 | $199,000

99 Acres ready for logging, lots of hardwood bush & thousands of maple trees.

ALEXA MILLER Sales Representative

519.378.8689 alexa@terrihastings.ca terrihastings.ca @alexamillerrealtor

MLS# 40275047 | $400,000 Ready for logging, lots of mature trees.

OFFICE LOCATIONS 580 BERFROD ST ,WIARTON 7031 HIGHWAY 6, TOBERMORY 613 GODERICH ST, PORT ELGIN 201 9TH STREET WEST, OWEN SOUND *Not intended to solicit anyone already under contract

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Call 519.378.7171 for more infomation | $1,900,000 59 acre farm with large barn & 2 detached garages- 27x26 & 27x30.

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MLS# 40272350 | $1,825,000 122 acres. Approx 65 acres of workable land.

ADAM LESPERANCE Broker/ Team Lead

519.378.7171 adamsellsproperty@gmail.com terrihastings.ca adamlesperance.realestate

November 2022 51

People

• By Gary West •

Taxidermy display used to teach students about wildlife

S

tudents at Sprucedale public school in Shakespeare were treated to a community wildlife management workshop last week, as Greg Balch from London set up his wildlife ecology education/food study in the Shakespeare Optimist hall.

The travelling wildlife management display and education program shows students about wildlife ecology and the Canadian fur trade history. There were many wildlife species from foxes, to wolves, to coyotes to raccoons and everything in between. Also in the display were eagles, falcons, hawks and many other wild birds found in Canada and many regions of southern Ontario.

Balch — who has run the travelling program for 30 years —teaches groups of youth about hunting, fishing, trapping and the food chain and also the Canadian history of wildlife conservation by means of a sustainable harvest.

The mounted taxidermy animals and birds will be viewed this year by over 10,000 inquisitive visitors across the country.This includes schools, fall fairs and exhibitions.

The wildlife specialist was invited by the Optimist Club of Shakespeare to educate the students about all the animals he had on display and says the display is worth well over $110,000 if you figure in the fees for taxidermy.

Balch always works with the ministry of natural resources in bringing the animals and birds to the general public for education each year. ◊ 52 The Rural Voice

Viewing a taxidermy display at the Shakespeare Optimist Hall are Sprucedale Public School teacher Shannon Dyke, students Reagan Smith, Emmett Guligers and Miller Foling along with teacher Brett McGuinness.

Harvesting with help from the Girl Gang

T

Bev Bell gets help from her Girl Gang, aka grandaughters (left to right) Isla, Wraith and Lennox.

hanksgiving weekend has always been a time of year for families to get together and enjoy the good harvest. It is a time to be thankful for all the good things in life and when the weather is that great, enjoy living where we do.

The Pete and Bev Bell family farm is on the western edge of Shakespeare. in Perth County. They treasure family time and enjoy seeing their grandkids who love to help with picking up the abundance of pumpkins, squash and gourds that are ready this time of year. The harvest is carefully washed in water troughs and then placed on pallets in rows of different sizes.

Bev calls the helpers her “Girl Gang”. The farming couple sells pumpkins and gourds along with sweet corn. ◊

People

Ken Mogk celebrates anniversary 74101 Bronson Line, Zurich 519-565-2122 www.huronridge.ca

Poinsettia Festival Evenings by candlelight Wednesday - Saturday November 16-19 November 23-26 November 30-December 3 Open 9 am - 9 pm Pictured at the Mogk farm near Tavistock in September is Ken Mogk with wife Cindy and the next generation, Christine and Ken R. Mogk Junior.

I

t’s been a family affair for the Mogk family outside of Tavistock in East Zorra Township of Oxford County and its long-time patriarch has to be given much credit for accomplishing what he has.

Ken Mogk — otherwise known as “Butch” — has been recognized with many accolades over time. The years have flown and he is now a senior citizen but Mogk has never let the grass grow high under his feet.

The youthful 86-year-old has been a member of the Tavistock Agriculture Society for over 45 years. Once again this year, he chaired the heavy horse show at the Tavistock fall fair.

He has not only been instrumental in building his family’s butchering business, but also has more than done his part in making the community a better place to live through hard work and dedication.

In 2017 he was honoured with an “Ontario 150” award by the township and has continued to be a major contributor to the betterment of the community ever since.

Over the years he has been Trinity Lutheran Church’s burial and church custodian and provided snow removal when required at no charge.

With the help of his family’s butcher shop, he made sure that when

fundraisers in the area needed help, his family stepped up and donated meat at “no charge”.

Mogk has also been an integral part of the Tavistock Optimist club since 1981 and over the years made sure there was a spelling bee and public speaking contest for area youth to participate in.

Horses have always been close to his heart and Mogk has been involved with the Woodstock Trotting Association and also an active member of the Ontario harness horse association and Standardbred Canada.

He and his wife Carol helped to get Tavistock’s famous racehorse the “Eel” included in the 2011 legends panel at the “Hall of Fame” at Woodbine racetrack in Toronto.

This year marked the 65th wedding anniversary for he and Carol. They have five children — Donna, Brenda, Ken Jr., Bradley and Cindy. They are proud to say all five still live in the area along with children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Many in the Tavistock area will say that Ken is to be commended for his tireless efforts and the exceptional communicating ability he has developed over the years with young and old alike. ◊

www.huronridge.ca Merry Christmas from the Steckle Family!

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Bear Tracks Gift Shop (on location)

November 2022 53

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

DL Distributing Dave Mustard 519-794-3334 Authorized Dealer

Full service to all boats and marine engines

ARGYLE

Tough on Winter, Easy on You

Email: dlmustard2@gmail.com 556735 Strathaven Road, Chatsworth, ON

Marine & Small Engines Inc.

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

KRAEMER CONCRETE LTD. Two Locations to Serve You!

Leadership in energy and environmental design

Devon Henry 519-505-2473 84772 McDonald Line • Box 616 • Brussels

devonjhenry@hotmail.com

AGRICULTURAL

5595 Road 130 Brunner N0K 1C0

220 Industrial Park Dr., Brussels N0G 1H0

Fax: 595-4903

Fax: 887-8764

519-595-2343

519-887-8763

Toll Free at 1-888-RING-KCL

RESIDENTIAL

Choose from: Hazelnut, heartnut, Persian and black Walnut, chestnut, hickory, pecan, pawpaw, persimmon, mulberry, fig and more.

NEW CONSTRUCTION RENOVATIONS

54 The Rural Voice

519-524-0253

979 Lakeshore Rd, RR3 Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario L0S 1J0 Tel: 905-YEH-NUTS (934-6887) Fax: 905-YEL-NUTS (935-6887) E-mail: nut.trees@grimonut.com Catalogue Site: www.grimonut.com

Profitable, Actionable, Advice Crop Planning SWAT Maps/Soil Sampling Variable Mapping/Scripts Cropwalker Newsletter

QUALITY METAL ROOFING, SIDING & TRIMS

519-363-3757

Jonathan Zettler CCA-ON, 4R NMS 519-323-7505 jz@fieldwalker.ca fieldwalker.ca

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

The Better Choice, Plain and Simple

Organic Growers Wanted Long term production contracts available for HR Winter Wheat, Winter Barley, Winter Spelt and Winter Canola Also available in 2023 : production contracts for Soybeans, Edible Beans, Sunflowers, Peas contact: Wehrmann Grain & Seed Ltd

RR 1 Ripley, Ontario N0G 2R0 Cell: 519.955.0386 • Office: 519.395.3126 • Fax: 519.395.2935

e-mail: ingasven@hurontel.on.ca

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

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CASH & FORWARD CONTRACTS Call us today for Quotes Scott Speers Richard Smibert Scott Krakar Matt McKillop Alex Kissler 1615 NORTH ROUTLEDGE PARK UNIT 43 - LONDON, ONTARIO, N6H 5L6 519-473-9333 Toll-Free 1-800-265-1885

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519-523-4311 rvads@northhuron.on.ca November 2022 55

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

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

CONSTRUCTION -------------------------------------------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 519-2741490.

-------------------------------------------FOR SALE -------------------------------------------Rosco grain bins for sale – 19' and 14' diameter. Parts available. Used grain bins wanted for parts or reuse. Closed Sundays, 519-3383920.

-------------------------------------------Five-year-old spayed female Walker, straight coyote hound, had all her shots. 519-524-7990.

-------------------------------------------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 or windbreaks. Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce, White Spruce, Pine and Cedars. Also… a Complete line of Bee Supplies for the commercial or hobby beekeepers. Order your (Nuc) Bees for spring 2023. We now sell select Queen Bees raised under ORHBS program on a weekly basis. Order by Monday evening for Wednesday pick-up – during season. We stock all wooden-ware (bee-hives) foundation, assembled and unassembled frames, smokers, suits, jackets, gloves, mite treatments and some extracting equipment. Honey containers, jars, pails, custom built wooden-ware.

Come visit our nursery and bee supplies store Monday to Saturday at 42661 Orangehill Rd., RR 1, Wroxeter, ON N0G 2X0, one concession north of Wroxeter.

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

IRON & STEEL -------------------------------------------DISCOUNT STEEL: New second grade steel sales; 1" - 8" square tubing; 7/8" - 14" round tubing; Rectangle tubing, discount plate; New and Used I-Beams; Bar grating, rebar, angles; Custom cutting, welding, punching. Listowel. Phone Aden 519-595-7775.

-------------------------------------------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 -------------------------------------------Suffolks - purebred yearling rams and ram lambs. British bloodlines M-V negative, closed flock, GenOvis tested. Several bloodlines available. 519-233-7896.

-------------------------------------------Rabbit breeding stock. High quality genetics available in Ontario. Order your PS40 bucks and PS19 does today. CuniON@tcc.on.ca -------------------------------------------Red Angus/Simmental, Simmental and Red Angus heifers bred to calving ease Red Angus bull for Spring 2023 calving. James and Joan McKinlay 519-599-6236.

-------------------------------------------LOCAL FOOD -------------------------------------------The Market Shoppe – Your source for local since 2013, 7 Toronto Street South, Markdale 519-9864144. Find us on Instagram and Facebook.

-------------------------------------------PUPPIES FOR SALE -------------------------------------------Australian Blue Heeler pups for sale, dewormed and vet checked, ready to go, parents are excellent with children and livestock. 519-9010787.

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

RESTORATION -------------------------------------------The Olde Tyme Radio Centre – antique radios, clocks, gramophones, telephones; sold/restored. (vintage autoclock radio, speedometer, tachometer repaired). Belgrave 519-357-4304, www.oldtymeradio.ca -------------------------------------------RETAIL & GIFTS -------------------------------------------Stitches with a Twist – 404 Queen St., Blyth, 519-523-9449. Yarns, needles, notions, patterns, books and lots more yarn.

-------------------------------------------SERVICES -------------------------------------------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, 519-3489062.

Cell 519-274-5000. www.croninpouredconcrete.ca -------------------------------------------INCOME TAX FILING FOR CORPORATIONS and late filers – 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.

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

Deadline for the December issue of The Rural Voice is November 8, 2022

56 The Rural Voice

DANNY’S

Custom Painting & Sandblasting 86362 Harper Line RR 1 Lucknow N0G 2H0 (just north of Zion Road) Specializing in on Farm Pest Management Serving Southwestern ON, Golden Horseshoe, GTA Email: info@sgsltd.ca

519-692-4232

www.sgspestmanagement.ca

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

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

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

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

CLASSIFIED

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

UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------Priceville Christmas Craft Show – Make plans Saturday, November 19, 2022 to attend the Annual Priceville Christmas Craft Show at Priceville’s Stothart Hall from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Vendors on two floors featuring baking, all kinds of crafts, Christmas gifts and much more. Free admission. Hot lunch available.

-------------------------------------------Christmas in the Village Craft Show Saturday, November 12, 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., Auburn Hall. All proceeds going to Grade 8 students at Hullett for year-end trip.

-------------------------------------------Christkindl Market and Messiah in the barn, December 9 and 10, Friday 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday 2:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Glencolton Farm near Durham. For information and tickets: christkindlfarm.com -------------------------------------------Flesherton and District Farmers’ Market Christmas Market, Saturday, November 26, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Flesherton Kinplex, 101 Highland Drive, Flesherton.

Locally grown, produced and handmade items for the holiday season, 519-924-0777.

-------------------------------------------WANTED -------------------------------------------Wanted - R6 Gleaner combine, running or not. Phone 519-3953320, leave message.

-------------------------------------------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. 519323-1113.

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

WANTED -------------------------------------------Looking for pasture for summer 2023 in North Huron/South Bruce areas. Fence repairs ok. Contact Justin at 519-357-8272.

-------------------------------------------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 -------------------------------------------Round bales of horse or cattle quality hay picked up. Wanted t o b u y : small square bales of wheat straw, conventional or rotary.

Call Riley Gorman 519-321-1012.

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

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

Ph. 519-528-3019

-------------------------------------------UPCOMING EVENTS -------------------------------------------14th Annual Christmas Home Tour in Saugeen Shores, Friday, November 11, 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 12, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Cost: $30. Visit: www.chantryislandchambettes.com for more information.

-------------------------------------------Sugar Plum Bazaar - Saturday, November 12, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m., Egmondville United Church.

Baking, crafts, preserves, seasonal decor. Everyone welcome.

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

Deadline for the December issue of the Rural Voice is November 8, 2022

Enjoy the Country Lifestyle!

THE RURAL VOICE MAGAZINE Don't Delay – Subscribe Today!

Produced by people with farming in their blood.

Serving more than 11,000 readers in the region.

One year for $25; two years for $45 (HST included)

The Rural Voice Box 429, Blyth, ON N0M 1H0

519-523-4311 November 2022 57

National Farmers Union – Ontario NEWSLETTER Phone: 1-888-832-9638 E-mail: office@nfuontario.ca Website: www.nfuontario.ca

Strong Communities.

Sound Policies.

Sustainable Farms.

Meet Rav Singh: Your NFU-O Youth Advisor Rav Singh is excited to join NFU-O’s council as the new Youth Advisor, saying that: “youth have such a unique position in radically changing our food and climate systems.” “More and more we’re seeing young people enter farming who are from the city and have no prior connection to farming, and that was me.” Rav remembers cornerstone moments from her farming journey thus far, like when she was a farm intern and touched soil for the first time, and the first time she saw a farmer who wasn’t white. She recalls feeling really lost when she first pursued farming, unsure of where to begin accessing land and resources, and knows that this is the reality for a lot of other young, BIPOC farmers.

Presently, Rav farms on a ¼ acre section that sits at the confluence of the urban and rural divide in Southern Caledon. “It’s a really interesting space, because five minutes in one direction is rural and five minutes in the other direction is middle of the suburbs.” Focusing on soil health and sustainable farming practices, Rav grows a little bit of everything, but is especially excited to offer fresh, organic okra and bitter melon. “I saw a missed opportunity,” says Rav “in Mississauga there is so many newcomer communities and communities of colour that depend on and want these other types of foods and yet, the only option they have of accessing them is going to a grocery store and buying them frozen.”

Thoughtful and creative, Rav brings a critical eye to her surrounding environment, noticing what populations are unrepresented, and how farming and food systems need to expand to let them in. “I think seeing food that people relate to and having food there that means something to them is a really key part of creating a community and helping them feel welcomed into these spaces.”

Although Rav considers herself a first-generation farmer, her ancestral roots are tightly woven with farming.

Miti, the Punjabi word for soil, is proudly stamped at the forefront of Rav’s organization: Shade of Miti. “I wanted to remind myself every day of the connection I have to food and the work that my ancestors have done and remind myself that I have a duty to carry that on.” Filled with thoughtful gratitude, Rav feels empowered as a farmer, and is glad to take ownership over what she believes in as a farmer and food advocate through her organization.

Shade of Miti is a food and climate justice organization with farming as its centrepiece. Rav focuses on workshops and education, saying, “community education will always be at the heart of what I do. I don’t see myself as just a farmer or just running a farm, but someone who is teaching people how to grow food in the city and helping them notice intersectionality by bringing awareness to food systems and farming.” Currently, she is working with the Peel Youth Food Circle to develop garden and farming resources that will be translated into other languages like Punjabi and Hindi.

Rav’s idea of an authentic local food system is one that truly

represents its community, like who is in it and what their needs are, which means more spaces that are run by youth and BIPOC folks. Rav says that shifting from individualistic struggle to collective action is vital and that community collaboration should be celebrated, because “it’s so nice to see how food can bring communities together.” Welcome to the NFU-O council, Rav!

National News/Events The NFU will “Confront Concentration” at our dynamic 53rd Annual Convention on Nov. 24­26th, 2022. This year’s Convention will be hybrid: online via Zoom and in­person at Park Town Hotel, 924 Spadina Crescent E, Saskatoon, SK. From global supply chains to input profiteering, seed patents, land concentration, and inequities, we take them all on – together!

Meet old friends and new. Delve into farm policy and debate farmer­led resolutions. Come home having made new connections with equally­ committed farmers.

Register for the convention online at nfu.ca/2022convention/register

A subscription to The Rural Voice is one of the benefits of being an NFU-O member 58 The Rural Voice

Perth County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER

Polly Hoekstra, President phoekstra@hotmail.ca / 226-580-0174 * The Rural Voice is provided to Perth County Pork Producers by the PCPPA perthcountyporkproducers@gmail.com

Pig Vaccines and Vaccination Timing – Part 1

By Greg Wideman South West Vets For better or worse, we have all become familiar with the scientific jargon around diagnostic testing, immunology, and vaccines since March of 2020. Prior to COVID-19, vets or farmers might, for example, mention sensitivity of a diagnostic test around non-farm acquaintances and be met with a blank stare; now you are as likely to hear such phrases in the grocery store checkout as you are over coffee with your vet.

I’ve heard it said several times now that “COVID-19 is the PRRS of people” and although the two viruses have lots of differences (and, I hasten to add, neither crosses the species barrier between pigs and people!) there is some truth to it: like COVID19, PRRS in its various forms can be devastatingly severe, or, surprisingly mild. As well, we have discovered that COVID-19 vaccines are not nearly perfect, and the same can be said for commercially available PRRS vaccines.

One of the key concepts in vaccination for any disease, including COVID-19, is the notion of ‘duration of immunity’, which drives the answer to the question: “When should the individual receive a booster?”

This concept is also critically important for vaccine strategies for gilts, sows, and pigs. And for our farrowing farms, it is especially complex, because the question “When should I vaccinate my piglets?” depends on how the sow herself has been managed. I hope to explain some of the subtleties of vaccine timing in the remainder of this article. Let’s start with vaccinating gilts and sows.

Vaccinating to boost immunity prior to breeding The pig on the farm with the highest potential is the healthy, fit gilt, just about ready to be bred. Thus, it is sensible that these gilts receive our attention at this stage as we

administer vaccines to protect our investment and her health and productivity.

Many producers who have gone through the cost and effort to establish a new sow herd have experienced the disappointment of a disease break in a ‘healthy’ herd.

This can occur as the whole population of new gilts, while indeed very healthy, lose their immunity from previous vaccination all at the same time, and at just the wrong time (either during breeding or around first farrowing). The best example of this phenomenon in my experience has been the ileitis outbreak in a new herd. The available ileitis vaccines are very effective when given after weaning, but they do not necessarily confer lifelong immunity, so boostering previously vaccinated gilts is recommended. This same phenomenon can be observed with circovirus (PCV2) and influenza as well. Therefore, many gilt programs now include a commercial PCV2 vaccine and a good multivalent regional autogenous SIV vaccine around the time of breeding.

Another important aspect of the

‘duration of immunity’ concept involves the vaccines which protect the gilt or sow against parvovirus, erysipelas, and leptospirosis. These vaccines are important to help your sows reach their maximum reproductive potential. Reading the labels of the vaccines in this category, you will see that the window of timing is very short… ideally both doses need to be given between 180 days of age and 14 days before first breeding. I have had many conversations about this short timeline, and how difficult it is to accomplish properly, with the modern gilt being bred as young as 200 days in some cases.

The rationale for this timing is described in the second article in this series and has to do with ‘maternally derived immunity’. Maternally derived immunity is a very important component of the juvenile pig’s immune system, but it can also interfere with vaccination. Our next article will detail how this plays out in developing effective vaccine programs for Canadian pig farms. ◊ – Part 2 will be published next month

Local Pork Products Available Fill your freezer with local pork products Order today from: Tanya and Darryl Terpstra (519-291-7603) or visit Leis Feeds in Milverton – Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon BBQ services for large groups are also available, contact: perthcountyporkproducers@gmail.com for more details.

Pork supplied by: Perth County Pork Producers November 2022 59

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

Grey County Regional 4-H Show Results

At the 170th Owen Sound Fall Fair held on Sept. 9 and 10, the 4-H Show had 52 Beef, 43 Dairy and 26 Sheep members participate on Friday and Saturday.

Overall showmanship went to Hunter Maisonneuve from the Wiarton Dairy and Sheep Club. Overall Reserve Showman went to Caden Martin from Rocklyn Calf Club.

Results are as follows: BEEF SHOWMANSHIP Novice: Bailey Lawrence, Samuel Squire, Bennett Tupling, Cooper Saunders, Grace Denhaan, Lila Squire, Callum Grant, Paul Twiss, Lisle, and Peyton Thompson.

Junior: Denver Campbell, Ella Lillico, Tate Williams, Clara Elchuk, David Kirby, Lillian Campbell, Sophia McGuire, Griffin Tupling, Emma Dobbs, Colton Marley, and Aleah McKay. Intermediate: Paige Grant, Summer McKay, Sydney Martin, Logan Saunders, Sharlotte Stewart, Lauren Johnson, and Sidney Sicard.

Senior: Halle Packer, Caden Martin, Madison Saunders, Mikaela Adams, Maddison Marshall, Spencer McKay, Delaney Hopkins, Travis Saunders, and Taylor Draper.

BEEF CONFORMATION Heifer Calf: Paul Twiss, Cooper Saunders, Bennett Tupling, Marly Woodhouse, Callum Grant, Sawyer Woodhouse, Bailey Lawrence, Sophia McGuire, and Lila Squire.

Jr. Yearling: Sydney Martin, Samuel Squire, Gregor Elchuk, Jackson Squire, Maddison Marshall, Sharlotte Stewart, Grace Denhaan, Jaiden Stull, Parker McKay, and Nolan Charlton.

Sr. Yearling: Madison Saunders, Griffin Tupling, David Kirby, Halle Packer, Logan Saunders, Simon Johnson, Denver Campbell, Paige Grant, Travis Saunders, Lillien Campbell, Lauren Johnson, and Caden Martin.

DAIRY SHOWMANSHIP Novice: Brookly Potter, Jaiden Stull, Aaron Huesing, June Ibbotson, Amelia Cook, Bennett Huesing, Kathleen Lewis, Tessa Zettel, Makenna Potter, Ken Wathke, Gilbert Ibbotson, Judah Kember, Neve Zettel, Samuel Elchuk, and Tyson Strutt.

Junior: Charlotte Woodhouse, Abigayle Clarke, Jacob Smith, Grace Elchuk, Lane Strutt, Elliott Kember, Emmerley Lewis, Eily Wathke, and Sophie Zettel.

Intermediate: Hunter Maisonneuve, Cassie Smith, Grace McNab, MacKenzie Peckham, Lauren McKnight, Warren Ibbotson, Shanelle Nolan, Preslee Hollingworth, Autumn Bechard, Renayla Campbell, and Olivia Black.

Senior: Taylor Draper, Jack Vickers, Joanna Kapteyn, Cynthia Bumstead, Kara Kapteyn, Robert Goodwill, Delaney Hopkins, and Josie McNab. DAIRY CONFORMATION Jr. Heifer: Josie McNab, Abigayle Clarke,

Makenna Potter, June Ibbotson, Tessa Zettel, Aaron Huesing, Gilbert Ibbotson, Bennett Huesing, Neve Zettel, Sophie Zettel, and Kathleen Lewis.

Intermediate Heifer: Delaney Hopkins, Jack Vickers, Brooklyn Potter, Cynthia Bumstead, Emily Wathke, Lauren McKnight, Emmerley Lewis, Judah Kember, Tyson Strutt, Ken Wathke, Amelia Cook, Samuel Elchuk, and Jacob Smith.

Senior Heifer: Kara Kapteyn, Joanna Kapteyn, Grace McNab, MacKenzie Peckham, Autumn Bechard, Jaiden Stull, Cassie Smith, Renayla Campbell, Preslee Hollingworth, Warren Ibbotson, and Grace Elchuk.

Summer Yearling: Taylor Draper, Elliot Kember, Lane Strutt, Shanelle Nolan, and Olivia Black.

Junior Yearling: Robert Goodwill, Hunter Maisonneuve.

SHEEP SHOWMANSHIP Novice: Maddi Carson, Kloe Ferguson, Troy Ferguson, Claire Gibbons, Nathan Kennedy, Brantley McAllister, Brayden Kennedy, Sydney

Orson, and Avery Brown.

Junior: Rylee Priddle, Cole Grinwis, Charlotte Woodhouse, Simon Potter, Annabelle Thompson, Luke Ferguson, and Wesley Brown.

Intermediate: Sierra Reid, Hunter Maisonneuve, MacKenzie Peckham, Hailey Priddle, Sidney Sicard, Mya Bechard, and Autumn Bechard.

Senior: Delaney Hopkins, Joanna Kapteyn, and Kara Kapteyn.

SHEEP BREEDING CLASSES January: Charlotte Woodhouse, Delaney Hopkins, Luke Ferguson, Autumn Bechard, Maddi Carson, Hailey Priddle and Mya Bechard.

February: Wesley Brown, Annabelle Thompson, Hunter Maisonneuve, Avery Brown, Simon Potter, Rylee Priddle, Cole Grinwis, Sidney Sicard, Sydney Orson, Joanna Kapteyn, and Kara Kapteyn.

March: Kloe Ferguson, Troy Ferguson, Brandley McAllister, and Claire Gibbons.

SHEEP MARKET CLASSES Market Class: Sierra Reid, MacKenzie Peckham, and Nathan Kennedy. ◊ Grey County TD Classic 2022 Team that will be competing at the RAWF November 8 and 9 Delaney Hopkins Dundalk-Durham, Hunter Maisonneuve Wiarton, Kara Kapteyn Wiarton, Joanna Kapteyn Wiarton, Jack Vickers (alternate) Wiarton, Grace McNab Wiarton, Robert Goodwill Wiarton, Abigayle Clarke Dundalk-Durham, Taylor Draper Dundalk-Durham. Chaperones, Ally Spielmacher and Brian O’Neill.

Grey County 4-H Beef Team 2022 that will be competing at the RAWF November 4 and 5 at the Masterfeeds National Junior Beef Heifer Show Bailey Lawrence – Grey County 4-H Beef Club; Caden Martin – Rocklyn Calf Club; Callum Grant – Rocklyn Calf Club; Clara Elchuk – Grey County 4-H Beef Club; Cooper Saunders – Rocklyn Calf Club; David Kirby – Feversham Beef Club; Delaney Hopkins – Grey County 4-H Beef Club; Denver Campbell – Rocklyn Calf Club; Ella Lillico – Grey County 4-H Beef Club; Faith Cubitt – Feversham Beef Club; Grace Denhaan – Rocklyn Calf Club; Gregory Elchuk – Grey County 4-H Beef Club; Griffin Tupling – Feversham Beef Club; Halle Packer – Rocklyn Calf Club; Jackson Squire – Rocklyn Calf Club; Lauren Johnson – Desboro Calf Club; Lillien Campbell – Rocklyn Calf Club; Logan Saunders – Rocklyn Calf Club; Maddison Marshall – Grey County 4-H Beef Club; Madison Saunders – Rocklyn Calf Club; Marly Woodhouse – Rocklyn Calf Club; Mikaela Adams – Rocklyn Calf Club; Paige Grant – Rocklyn Calf Club; Samuel Squire – Rocklyn Calf Club; Sawyer Woodhouse – Rocklyn Calf Club; Sharlotte Stewart – Desboro Calf Club; Simon Johnson – Desboro Calf Club; Sophia McGuire – Rocklyn Calf Club; Summer McKay – Rocklyn Calf Club; Sydney Martin – Rocklyn Calf Club; Tate Williams – Rocklyn Calf Club; Travis Saunders – Rocklyn Calf Club; Alternates: Colton Marley – Rocklyn Calf Club, Sidney Sicard – Grey County 4-H Beef Club.

Congratulations to all of these 4-H members!

We wish them success in Toronto as they represent Grey County at the Royal

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

60 The Rural Voice

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

NEWSLETTER

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

BCFA bursary winners announced at the AGM

The Bulding Careers and Futures in Agriculture bursary was created in 2017 by both the Bruce and the Grey Federations of Agriculture. Its purpose is to help students who choose a post-secondary education in a field related to agriculture.

To date the federations have helped 25 students with their education and hope to provide this support to students for many years. If you are interested in supporting this initiative, please contact them at bcfabursary@gmail.com.

At the Bruce County annual

general meeting held on October 28, the Building Careers and Futures in Agriculture committee chair Les Nichols announced the student winners for 2022. Kristy Blankers is attending University of Guelph for a

Bachelors of Science in Agriculture and Brinlee Pennings is undertaking a Bachelor of Science (Honours) at Queen’s University, Kingston.

We wish both these students well as they continue their studies. ◊

Planning is underway for Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week 2023 you to head home from Elmwood on time for chores at the end of each day!

GBFW 2023 dates are set - mark your calendars: Beef Day - Wednesday, Jan. 4/2023

Dairy Day - Thursday, Jan. 5/2023 Goat Day - Friday, Jan. 6/2023 Sheep Day - Saturday, Jan. 7/2023 Horse Day - Sunday, Jan. 8/2023 Ecological Day - Monday, Jan. 9/2023 Crops Day - Tuesday, Jan. 10/2023

There is an exciting speaker lineup coming together, and presentations in a variety of formats this upcoming event.

In-person presentations will be made each day from the Elmwood Community Centre were attendees can gather together after two years of virtual conferencing.

For those who live farther abroad or cannot make it to Elmwood, the conference will also be livestreamed.

You can catch all of the action from wherever you are! Livestream recordings will be available for 30 days after the event in an ‘Encore Access’ as well; whether you’d like to catch up on a presentation you missed, or review information in more detail, it will all be available.

On top of recordings from the live program in Elmwood, we plan to offer additional, pre-recorded bonus content, On Demand. You can catch these presentations anytime during the conference or in the 30 days following. This makes for even more great information, while still allowing * The Rural Voice is provided to OFA Members in Bruce County by the BCFA.

November 2022 61

Perth County Federation of Agriculture Email: perthcountyfedofag@gmail.com Website: www.perthcountyfarmers.ca Office: 1-833-229-6834 Julie Danen, President: 519-801-9200

Bill C-234: An Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Act When thinking about what to write about for this article, the Carbon Tax and the pending exemption bill is something that is top of mind for me as we start corn harvest. At home we have on-farm storage and drying capabilities, and I also work off-farm for a commercial grain elevator where we provide drying and storage services to farmers. So, I see the effects of the carbon tax from multiple angles.

Various farmer interest groups have been lobbying hard since 2019 for a carbon tax exemption on grain drying and barn heating. In February Bill C-234 was introduced to parliament to exempt on-farm grain drying and barn heating from the Carbon Tax on propane and natural gas. This bill is pending review by the Ag Standing Committee, which would next be followed by a third and final reading in the house. This could happen by the end of the year, but is not yet scheduled at this time.

Although the Bill has good intentions for the farming community, I am concerned about the un-level playing field it will put on Ontario corn farmers. The way the bill is currently worded today only exempts “On-Farm Drying”. Most farmers in Ontario do not have onfarm drying capabilities and rely on commercial elevators to dry and store their grain. The Ontario Agri Business Association estimates that two-thirds of Ontario’s corn is dried at commercial grain elevators operated by OABA members.

The Grain Farmers of Ontario estimate that the carbon tax on corn drying amounts to $14/acre which would rise to $46/acre by 2030.

These cost of production discrepancies would cause profitability inequality between farm operations who have on-farm drying capacity versus those who chose to use commercial grain elevators.

Ontario is in a unique situation compared to other farmers in Canada.

In Quebec, they have provincial carbon legislation exempting them from the federal tax system. In the Prairie Provinces, wheat is the major grain crop which can be harvested dry, or when it is needed to be harvested damp, less moisture is required to be removed to be stored and marketed.

On-farm grain drying can be a very capital-intensive process with

new grain dryers ranging in cost from several hundred thousand dollars to several million dollars for high throughput/high efficiency setups.

Ontario farmers may prefer to allocate their capital to other aspects of their farm business like animal production or crop production.

Hopefully by the time this wellneeded bill is passed, it will benefit all farmers equally. ◊ – Submitted by Tyler Denham, PCFA Director

OFA Launches Slow Moving Vehicle Campaign to Educate General Public The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) recently launched a province-wide billboard and radio ad campaign to draw attention to slowmoving farm vehicles and how to safely share the road with large pieces of equipment. The radio ads were played during traffic updates.

A committee of OFA board members and staff gathered input from local Federations of A Slow-Moving Vehicle campaign billboard located in Stratford, ON. Agriculture across Ontario to identify which roads and highways would let us reach the largest numbers of motorists. They wanted to target people travelling to and from work or the cottage, for example.

The call-to-action to launch a campaign about SMV signs and farm equipment on the roads was brought forward by the membership as a resolution at a recent Annual General Meeting. The OFA sees this as an investment in the safety of our members and the public. Please keep an eye out for these billboards on your travels.

As we head into the last leg of the harvest season, the PCFA wishes you and your family all the best for a safe and prosperous harvest!

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

62 The Rural Voice

Index Argyle Marine & Small Engines..54 Artisanal Chicken Program ........43 Axiom Mutual Insurance ............49 Bau-Tec Industries Inc................48 Bear Tracks Inn & Restaurant ....53 Belore Trailers ............................55 Bernie McGlynn/SB Flooring ....47 Bervie Supply ..............................63 Bio-Ag..........................................42 Canadian Co-op Wool Growers..47 Celebrating 4-H ......................5,23 Chalmers Fuels............................42 CropQuest Inc ..............................41 DeDell Seeds................................21 DJ Henry Homes & Renos ..........54 DL Distributing ............................54 Easy Lift Doors ............................12 Farm to Table ..............................18 Fieldwalker Agronomy ................55 Gerber’s Workwear........................7 Green Valley Heating Inc ............47 Grimo Nut Nursery ......................54 Grober Nutrition ................Cover 4 Harold Jones Enterprises ..........55 Hayden Water Wells ......................7 Hill & Hill Farms ....Inside Front Cover Holiday Shopping ............32-35,39 Hunter Steel Sales..............Cover 3 Huron Commodities ....................49

Huron Ridge Greenhouses ........53 Kingwood Bins ............................27 KMM Farm Drainage....................31 Kraemer Concrete Ltd ................54 LAC ..............................................55 Lakeside Shelving & Racking ......9 Lesperance Adam........................51 Mapleview Agri ............................13 Marquardt Farm Drainage ..........42 Martin Farm Wagons ..................31 Martin’s Nursery ..........................48 Marvin L Smith ............................47 Mike Boven Carpentry ................54 MNP LLP......................................44 Moore Hemsworth ......................41 Morris Sachs Silo Construction ..43 MVCA ..........................................47 Nature’s Wave Inc ........................14 North Huron Carpentry Inc ..........7 Nuclear Waste Management ....50 Ontario Forage Council ..............45 RBC Ag West ..............................16 Ridgeway Metals ........................55 RT Bolton & Son ................Cover 4 Rural Voice Books ..............Cover 6 Santa Claus Parades ................9,15 Sauble Beach Motorsports..................10,41,45,49 Schmidt’s Farm Drainage ............16

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Schweiss Doors............................16 Seed Directory ..............................2 Seifried Farm Equipment ..............6 Sew & Save Centre ....................63 Sharp’s Creek Forge ....................51 Steffen Well Drilling ....................55 Stihl Ltd ........................................11 Superior Barn Painting ......Cover 5 SWO Diesel ........................Cover 3 Townsley Barn Painting ..............57 Triple P Consulting ......................21 Trouw Nutrition ............Back Cover Waddell Engineering Ltd ............50 WD Hopper & Sons Ltd ..............45 Wehrmann Grain & Seeds Ltd....55

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HURON

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

County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER

Trespassing on private property is a concern Trespassing on private property is a concern that is ongoing in Huron County. Anyone who enters private property without the occupier’s permission, or under legal authority, is trespassing. If they fail to leave when told to do so, they can be found guilty of an offence under the Trespass to Property Act. If the property is posted, fenced or under any stage of cultivation, or the person fails to leave when directed, the person can be found guilty of a trespassing offence and could be subject to being arrested.

Examples of people who have the authority to enter private property include land surveyors, utility meter readers, building inspectors, public health inspectors and conservation authority staff.

The OFA website has further information on trespassing at https://ofa.on.ca/resources/trespassprob lems-tips-on-how-to-deal-withtrespassing/ Written permission is not necessary under the Trespass to Property Act but it is an excellent idea. Written permission makes clear the details of the permission such as who has permission to enter your property, when they can enter, what activities are permitted and what areas are out of bounds.

In non-emergency situations it is

best to report trespassing to your local police. The Ontario Provincial Police non-emergency line is 1-888-3101122. If the situation involves threats or violence then call 911. If the trespass involves hunting or fishing, you can also contact the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry violation reporting line at 1-877-8477667. The OPP can also be contacted as a second call. ◊

HCFA Scholarships The Huron County Federation of Agriculture is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022 Huron County Federation of Agriculture Scholarships.

One award is available to each Huron County high school to a student proceeding to a higher education in an agricultural-related program.

2022 Winners are: St. Anne’s Catholic Secondary School Rachel Gras F.E. Madill Secondary School Alycia Coultes

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

Upcoming Events November 4-13 - Royal Agricultural Winter Fair - celebrating 100 years of agricultural excellence. For details visit: www.royalfair.org November 6 - Daylight Savings Time ends.

November 11 - Remembrance Day. November 20-21 - Ontario Young Farmers Forum, RBC Place, London.

For information and to register contact oyff@jfao.on.ca November 20-22 - OFA Convention, RBC Place, London, ON. Huron County Federation of Agriculture

BOARD MEETING Monday, November 28 8:00 p.m.

Vanastra office

Congratulations

to Maranda Klaver who was crowned Ontario’s 2022 Queen of the Furrow

ROOM FOR RENT

Central Huron Secondary School Lainie Tremeer

The HCFA has a board room available for rent – $40 (HST included)

South Huron District High School Matthew Borland

Call the office to check availability and to book your meeting

Goderich District Collegiate Institute Jana Stewart

Ontario Young Farmers Forum “Doing it Different”

November 20-21 RBC Place London, ON

Registration is open – contact: oyff@jfao.on.ca

Congratulations!

The HCFA 2022 Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture Award was presented to Nick and Joan Whyte

Farmer Wellness Initiative

Ages 18 - 40 • Guest Speakers • Panel Discussions • Off-Site Tours • Delicious Food

24/7 counselling to farmers and farm family members, free year­round 1­866­267­6255 farmerwellnessinitiative.ca/

Any OYFF attendees from Huron County are encouraged to contact the HCFA office.

There is a limited amount of financial support available for those eligible

Frequently asked questions: farmerwellnessinitiative.ca/faq/

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

64 The Rural Voice

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ONION SKINS AND PEACH FUZZ Memories of Ontario Farmerettes Authors Shirleyan English and Bonnie Sitter dedicate this book to the thousands of Farmerettes who volunteered on farms during the years 1941-52. $49.00 Total

Qty.

A MOOSE IN A MAPLE TREE GRANDMA’S CHRISTMAS WISHES LITTLE BOOK OF BACKYARD BIRD SONGS 110 NATURE HOT SPOTS ONTARIO Z IS FOR ZAMBONI CANADIAN JINGLE BELLS ONION SKINS AND PEACH FUZZ OF BANDS AND BUDDIES Check out huroncitizen.ca for more books

110 NATURE HOT SPOTS IN ONTARIO Informative introduction to some of the province’s best-kept secrets. A fresh look at destinations that have made Ontario famous. If you’re looking for a day trip or a weekend getaway, this book will appeal to you. $29.95

$19.95 $13.99 $19.95 $29.95 $10.99 $19.95 $49.00 $15.00 Total for Books Shipping & Handling Canada Post Fuel Surcharge Add 5% GST on subtotal Order Total

$9.00 $4.00

OF BANDS AND BUDDIES: The Adventures of our 1960s Rock 'n' Roll Bands This book depicts stories from rock 'n' roll bands of the 1960s that originated from Goderich, Ontario.

Read about the adventures the Concords, the Mojos and the DelReys. $15.00

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

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

Hidden Gems of Huron County

Hidden Gems

of Huron

County

Fall issue print version now available FREE at tourist information booths, town halls, retail outlets, accommodations, and restaurants throughout the county and beyond!

Online version available at

stopsalongtheway.ca

Contact your local Shur-Gain dealer for more information HENSALL CO-OP Londesborough 519-523-9606 / 800-265-9000 Zurich

HOLSTEIN FEED MILL (2015) LTD.

MCBRAYNE FEEDS & NEEDS LTD.

Holstein 519-334-3424

Dresden 519-683-4439

THE HITCHING POST (2019) LTD.

TROUW NUTRITION CANADA INC.

St Marys 519-284-2360

Tavistock 519-655-2033

519-236-7155 / 800-565-7155 Ripley 519-395-5955 / 855-895-5955 Ailsa Craig 519-232-4449