The Rural Voice, 1979-07, Page 25Schreyers at
Perth farms
Canada's Governor-General Ed Schreyer
and wife Lily had a chance to return to their
rural roots in a recent tour of two Perth
County farms.
The Schreyers visited a diary farm,
operated by Mr. and Mrs. Ron McKay of R
R 2, Stratford and a swine farm owned by
Don Knetchel of RR 1, Shakespeare. Perth
County Warden Ormond Pridham and his
wife acted as hosts on the tour.
At the Knetchel farm, Mrs. Schreyer
expressed surprise at the size of the barn
and asked if all barns in the area were built
with two storeys. She said she hadn't seen
any like it in her home province of
Manitoba. Mr. Knetchel said while the
majority of barns in the area are still
two-storey, newer barns are being built as
single -storey buildings.
The Gov. General was particulary
interested in the sealed -silo storage of corn
and the feed grinding and mixing process,
which Mr. Knetchel demonstrated for the
Schreyers.
Mr. Knetchel started his tour on the
second floor of the barn where the
farrowing pens are located, explaining that
the dry and pregnant sows are kept
downstairs until almost ready to farrow.
Then they are moved upstairs on a special
elevator built to move the pigs.
When they're ready for finishing to
market weight, the pigs are returned to the
first floor.
At the McKay farm, Mrs. Schreyer spent
a good deal of the visit questioning
Leonard Kellestine of Embro, a tester with
the ROP organization, who was testing
milk on the farm.
The McKays milk about 42 cows and
farm 280 acres in their operation. The
Knetchels kee p between 600 and 700 hogs
on their farm - 60 sows and five boar s plus
the hogs on their way to finishing.
The tour of the two farms was obviously
a success, and officials with the governor-
general and his wife had to remind them of
the tight schedule they were on, to
persuade them to cut short conversations
with the host farmers.
Ontario won't ban
2,4-D in schoolyards
Environment Minister Harry Parrott has
refused to ban the spraying of the
herbicide 2,4-D in an Ontario schoolyard
despite parent complaints that the herb-
icide is making their children sick.
The parents said 20 children in the
Cobourg-Campbellford area felt sick after
the herbicide was sprayed in schoolyards.
The environment minister said there is
no scientific evidence to prove the herb-
icide is anything but safe.
Mr. Parrott said it is up to the local
school board to take responsibility for what
it is doing, and he's not going to intervene.
The environment minister said his
pesticides advisory committee has shown
that 2,4-D has not been shown to be
carcinogenic. He said every province
allows its use. A report from the committee
which was distributed to the press said the
International Agency for Research in
Cancer has concluded that available re-
search doesn't support the claim that 2,4-D
is a carcinogen.
While the herbicide has been known to
cause birth defects at high dose levels, the
report said, "the potential exposure to
humans through the use of 2,4-D leaves
lame margins of safety."
Mr. Parrott said some of the protestors
in the Cobourg-Campbellford area use the
herbicide on their own farms. The minister
said he's chosen not to use it on his
property in Woodstock. Mr. Parrott said
the decision not to use the herbicide was
his personal choice
Blizzard
Warning
1980
New Everest
is here
LYNN HOY
ENTERPRISES LTD. 357-3435
WINGHAM - ONT.
THE RURAL VOICE/JULY 1'i! PO. 23