The Rural Voice, 1979-04, Page 4DOUG JONES
On the
land...
What your
neighbours are
doing to get ready
BY ALICE GBB
PG. 2 THE RURAL VOICE/APRIL 1979
Spring is the time of rebirth. The
winter's leftover patches of snow gradually
recede from farm fields, creeks are swollen
with the spring runoff and lawns take on a
green tinge again.
For the farmer, spring is the time when
winter's planning goes into action.
Machinery comes out of storage , seed and
chemicals are ordered and the long hours
on the land lie just ahead.
Every farmer follows his own individual
routine in preparing for spring. Some have
used the winter months to re -assess their
farming operation and to plan changes in
planting, fertilizing or other routines which
will be implemented this spring. For
livestock operators, spring doesn't neces-
sarily mean the arrival of young animals as
it once did or the same rush to get livestock
back on the land. But even today, the
changing seasons affect few other
Canadians as much as they do the farm
population.
Blythe Lannin, of R.R.2, Dublin, a Perth
County dairy farmer with 50 registered
Holsteins in his herd, said his livestock
operation is pretty routine day-to-day, no
matter what the season. The cows usually
go back out on the land about May 20,
depending on the amount of grass. At one
time. calving was a springtime
phenomenon, but today Mr.Lannin tries to
space his calving year round, with ap-
proximately 20 to 25 per cent of the claves
born in March and April.
APRIL 20
About April 20, Mr. Lannin and a hired
man start working the land. The crop land
is on a three year cycle rotating corn and
alfalfa crops and the farm's grassland
acreage is left over the winter and
ploughed down in the spring.
This year, one innovation Mr. Lannin is
experimenting with is to use his winter
manure on the land, with little or no
commercial fertilizer application.
Mr. Lannin's cows are all confined to
small acreages - about 16 acres for exercise
lots - and fed stored feed. Another idea the
dairy farmer is toying with is to try growing
a few acres of soybeans - perhaps for use as
protein feed for the cows.
Murray Cardiff, a Brussels area farmer
who is the new chairman of the Ontario