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The Citizen, 2015-01-29, Page 11THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015. PAGE 11. Total receipts for Brussels Livestock for the week ending Jan. 23 were 1,930 cattle, 382 lambs and goats. On Tuesday fed steers and heifers sold on a strong active trade at steady prices. Fancy steers and heifers sold $197 to $203. Choice steers and heifers sold $187 to $196. Second cut sold $182 to $187. Cow sold actively at steady to higher prices. On Thursday veal sold on a steady market. Lambs and sheep sold steady to the week’s decline and goats sold on a good active trade. All classes of cattle sold actively at steady prices. Art Bos of Blyth, consigned five head that averaged 1,278 lbs. and sold for an average price of $176. One steer weighed 1,380 lbs. and sold to Clark Bros. Canadian Livestock Inc. for $203. K/C Alpine Farms of Ailsa Craig, consigned nine head that averaged 1,629 lbs. and sold for an average price of $194. One limousin steer weighed 1,515 lbs. and sold to Horizon Meat Packers for $201. D.K. Sholdice Investments of Brussels, consigned 11 head that averaged 1,382 lbs. and sold for an average price of $186. One blue heifer weighed 1,315 lbs. and sold to Clark Bros. Canadian Livestock Inc. for $190. Amos N. B. Martin of Holyrood, consigned eight head that averaged 1,325 lbs. and sold for an average price of $187. Four charolais heifers averaged 1,323 lbs. and sold to Clark Bros. Canadian Livestock Inc. for an average price of $188.50. There were 300 cows on offer. Export types sold $115 to $130 with sales to $133; beef, $130 to $140 with sales to $150; D1 and D2, $85 to $90; D3, $75 to $85; D4, $70 to $75. Wayne Roddick of Wyoming, consigned two cows that averaged 1,247 lbs. and sold for an average price of $144. One black cow weighed 1,010 lbs. and sold for $150. There were six bulls selling $137 to $150 with sales to $178. Ross Baird of Wingham, consigned one blue bull that weighed 1,970 lbs. and sold for $178. There were 165 head of veal on offer. Beef sold $200 to $250 with sales to $260; good holsteins, $160 to $170 with sales to $182; medium holsteins, $140 to $155; heavy holsteins, $145 to $160. Lamar Frey of Listowel, consigned four calves that averaged 845 lbs. and sold for an average price of $244. Two heifers averaged 838 lbs. and sold for an average price of $260. Joni J. Shelter of Lucknow, consigned four calves that averaged 851 lbs. and sold for an average price of $230. One blue heifer weighed 835 lbs. and sold for $241. Jim Maw of Forest, consigned one steer that weighed 900 lbs. and sold for $239. Lambs, 50 - 64 lbs. sold $295 to $299; 65 - 79 lbs., $251 to $269; 80 - 94 lbs., $233 to $250; 95 - 109 lbs., $228 to $237/lb. Sheep sold $80 to $130/lb. Goats: kids sold $150 to $320 with sales to $350; nannies, $80 to $125; billies, $150 to $300/lb. Top quality stocker steers, 400 - 499 lbs., sold $281 to $345; 500 - 599 lbs., $270 to $330; 600 - 699 lbs., $254 to $330; 700 - 799 lbs., $247 to $279; 800 - 899 lbs., $234 to $245; 900 - 999 lbs., $228 to $237; 1,000 lbs. and over, $209 to $235. Top quality stocker heifers, 400 - 499 lbs., sold $257 to $300; 500 - 599 lbs., $236 to $277; 600 - 699 lbs., $238 to $261; 700 - 799 lbs., $232 to $260; 800 - 899 lbs., $220 to $230; 900 lbs. and over, $201 to $257. Walton’s Cantelon wins innovation award At the annual meeting of the Huron County Beef Producers last week, Steve Eby, a feedlot director with the Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO), told the local group of an ambitious, long-term plan to increase the province’s cow herd by 100,000 animals per year. The provincial organization, Eby says, has its eye on a large spread of land in northern Ontario near the Quebec border as a potential site for the project. He said it could add as many as 4,500 jobs to the industry while contributing nearly $320 million of added value to the province. The demand for Ontario corn-fed beef is higher than the province can currently supply, he said, and a long- term project like the one being proposed by BFO can help satisfy that demand. The project will need government support, he said, but added that there will be a whole social aspect to the project that will have to be addressed, as the land has, for the most part, been abandoned for years. If the area were to be developed, Eby said, and populated by beef farmers, the land would need to start from the ground up, including the construction of roads, schools and other services essential to life in Ontario. There has been a lot of interest, however, from a number of northern Ontario municipalities with struggling economies due to the tough times currently being faced by both the mining and forestry industries. The project won’t grow to the annual production of 100,000 cattle overnight, Eby said. It expected that it will take the project 20 years to rise from proposal to full implementation. So far, Eby said, the plan has received a favourable response from a number of provincial cabinet ministers, but it is still in its infancy. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work,” he said. Eby also presented updates on a number of other BFO issues. He said the number of cattle being produced in Ontario seems to have “levelled off” in recent years after the free-fall that was seen in the years immediately following the BSE crisis. Over the last three or four years, he told producers, the number of cattle being produced in Ontario has remained relatively stable, but going back 10 years, the number of cattle BFO unveils ambitious plan Each year, the Innovative Farmers Association of Ontario and BASF Canada recognize an Ontario grower as the Innovative Farmer of the Year. This year the award goes to Walton’s Wayne Cantelon. The Cantelons, Wayne and Scott, began zone tillage in the early 1990s and haven’t looked back, experimenting and fine-tuning a system they now use on a large scale across a wide variety of soils in Huron County. As more acres were added to the farm, the Cantelons had a decision to make: “do we add bigger conventional equipment or do we take a different direction?” Perhaps taking some lessons from history, they wanted to use less equipment, control soil erosion and be able to manage fertility. But first and foremost, they had to make the economics work. That’s when Becker Farm Equipment of Exeter, brought in a Trans-Till demo unit and the Cantelons tried zone tilling. Through a bit of experimentation, Wayne was convinced to break away from conventional tillage. In the first five years, he ran a side-by-side comparison and he says that the zone tilled fields did as good as or better than conventional and were generally drier as well. Wayne recalls the first year was the only time the conventional plot pulled ahead and that was because they hadn’t yet found a way to add fertility into the zones. Once they solved that problem, they were sold on it. Wayne says, “Conventional might look a bit showier but it didn’t mean anything when the combine went through.” The Cantelons grow a rotation of corn, soys, white beans and wheat, zone tilling the corn and no-tilling the soys and wheat. They put down Phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in the zones in the fall, follow in the spring with a starter mix of 30-70- 20-12S-1Z and later side-dressed nitrogen. They built a folding toolbar with coulters to side-dress dry urea every 60 inches. Scott Cantelon says this is an important part of their program: “It lets us control the amount of nitrogen. We can vary the rate and use almost 20 per cent less that what most would.” More recently, they’ve had success planting oats and radish down with the dry fertilizer in the fall, admitting that it’s not a perfect system because seeding and fertilizer depths don’t jive. Still, the innovation continues at Cantelon Farms with cover crops. Last September, they tried aerial seeding 200 acres of cereal rye into corn with some success. Though the Cantelons have long put red clover after wheat, this year they have put 250 acres into an eight species mix. While Scott plans to zone till his field this fall, Wayne wants to pull zones in the spring and kill off the cover crop just after he’s planted the corn. The rationale is that living roots take up more moisture than dead ones, so they will dry the soil more quickly. “One thing I’ve noticed on the cover crops,” says Wayne, “is that when we put something green in our wheat stubble, there’s something about that combination that the worms and the biology must really like. When we come back and do a spring zone, even the wheat stubble is gone. And the proof is there, you can see all the worm tents.” “We really don’t understand what’s going on underneath the ground,” Wayne says. He believes agriculture needs more farm level research to better understand nature’s soil biology. “This isn’t something that you can just bottle up and sell.” Not wary of sharing trade secrets, both Wayne and Scott keep in touch with others on social media, to spur on their collective understanding. Notice If you are located close to a municipal well and would like to learn if Plan policies apply to you, or how you can protect local drinking water sources, call toll-free 1-888-286-2610. For more information on the approved Source Protection Plan and the policies that will apply to drinking water threat activities, you are also invited to attend one of these open houses: Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015 – REACH Centre, Clinton, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, 2015 – North Huron Wescast Community Complex, Wingham, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thank you for all you do to protect drinking water and public health. Maitland Valley Conservation Authority 1093 Marietta Street, Wroxeter, Ontario 519-335-3557 Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority 71108 Morrison Line, RR 3 Exeter, Ontario 519-235-2610 Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Region, c/o ABCA, 71108 Morrison Line, RR 3 Exeter, ON N0M 1S5 519-235-2610 • 1-888-286-2610 • info@sourcewaterinfo.on.ca • sourcewaterinfo.on.ca Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region Date of Notice: January 22, 2015 Made possible with funding support from the Province of Ontario Province of Ontario has approved local Source Protection Plans and Updated Assessment Reports for Maitland Valley, Ausable Bayfield Source Protection Areas The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee is pleased to announce positive steps forward that will reduce risk to your municipal drinking water sources. The Province of Ontario has approved Updated Assessment Reports and locally developed Source Protection Plans. Plans were approved on January 19, 2015. The date they take effect is April 1, 2015. You are invited to inspect these documents online at: www.sourcewaterinfo.on.ca or during business hours at one of these locations: TUESDAYS 9:00 a.m. Fed Cattle, Bulls & Cows THURSDAYS 8:00 a.m.Drop Calves 10:00 a.m.Veal 11:30 a.m. Lambs, Goats & Sheep FRIDAYS 10:00 a.m. Stockers Call us 519-887-6461 Visit our webpage at: www.brusselslivestock.ca email us at: info@brusselslivestock.ca BRUSSELS LIVESTOCK Division of Gamble & Rogers Ltd. UPCOMING SALES Agriculture Brussels Livestock report All cattle sell at steady prices at sale BLYTH 519-523-4244 www.hurontractor.comHensall 519-262-3002 | 1-800-265-5190 | www.hdc.on.ca Multiple Locations across Southwestern Ontario · GRAIN ELEVATORS · CROP PRODUCTS · PETROLEUM & PROPANE · FEEDProud to be farmer-owned. wouthoss Srrotions accraoccaMultiple L ensall 519-262-3002 | 1-800-265-5190 | wH V· GRAIN ELE d.wneo farmer-o bee ud tPro · FEED · PETROLEUM & PROP · CROP PRODUC arioern Onttaesttewwe a.on.c.hdcwwensall 519-262-3002 | 1-800-265-5190 | w ORSTAATV ANEM&PROPPA ST· CROP PRODUC By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Continued on page 14