The Rural Voice, 1979-09, Page 13Bigger, better and beef—
Farming
in Bruce
Farming on the Bruce Peninsula can be summed up in one
word - "beef." While there's the rare hog operation in the north ,
dairy farms seem to trickle out in the Wiarton area, and then
you're into the neck of the woods where bigger, better and beef
seems to be the order of the day.
HOWARD CROW
Howard Crow, who owns H. Crow and Sons Stock Farms with
his son Don on Bruce County Rd. #9, north of Wiarton, is the
third generation in his family to live on the 200 acre homestead.
Today, Don Crow has taken over much of the farming, but
Howard Crow still lives on the home farm with his wife Jean. The
Crow farms include 1,000 acres of land in total, with over 800
acres arable and the remainder rough land, often covered by
bush. However, even the bush produces a valuable crop - last
year the family harvested 100 gallons of maple syrup and the
cedar swamps on the farms provide shelter for cows wintering
outdoors.
Don Crow (left) and father Howard, show a team of Belgian draft horses
they raised on the Howard Crow farm at R.R. 4, Wiarton. '
Now while corn is fast becoming popular in much of Bruce
County, the Crows haven't switched to the high intensive crop.
Instead, they grow 100 acres of grain, including oats and barley,
100 acres of trefoil which produced seven tons of seed last year,
and lots of hay. In this summer's first cut of hay, the Crows
harvested 32,000 bales and while there's still a second cut,
they've already met most of their cattles' needs.
The idea of growing corn doesn't really appeal to Howard
Crow - "if we switched to anything, it would be haylage, since
it's a struggle to get corn off up here (in the fall) lots of times."
This year, the Crows started haying in mid-June and had their
crop off by mid-July.
The crops the men grow are for one purpose - to fatten their
mainly Western I lereford and Charolais cross calves which they
ship in from the west when the cattle weigh about 400 pounds.
By the next fall. the cattle have gained to approximately 800
pounds, and the Crows take them to the fall feeder sales at the
Wiarton livestock barns.
Although traditionally the Crows have bought their cattle from
the Brooks, Alberta area in the West, last fall they purchased
some eastern cattle from the Renfrew Valley area.
Don Crow said the experiment seems to have been a success.
The cattle "really grew" and the advantage of buying their
livestock in Ontario is that transportation costs less and there's
less chance of sickness since the cattle spend less time in transit
and aren't standing around in a sales barn.
Although Howard Crow has four sons, Don is the only one who
has returned to the home farm. Don left the Wiarton area when
he was 17 years old and worked in the West on oil fields and
ranches for several years. In 1969, he came back to Bruce County
and took over the farming operation. He and his wife Maureen
and family now live at R.R. 6, Wiarton.
In the years since his son returned. Howard Crow, who admits
to a fondness for horses which he shares with his son, has
experienced a taste of ranch life himself. Mr. Crow has worked
on the ARDA community pasture farm near Tiverton where 1500
beef cattle are allowed to roam for six months each summer.
Farmers who operate smaller farms are allowed to put 20 cattle
each a summer on the community pasture. Mr. Crow and his
co-workers worked on horseback, checking for disease and
rounding up the cattle for shots.
On the Crow Stock Farm, cattle are fed on about 2' to 3
pounds of grain a day, with a little whole corn mixed in and some
beef concentrate - "Just so they gain a bit" according to Howard
Crow.
Although now the Crows sell their cattle at feeder sales in
Wiarton, at one time they fattened cattle and transported them
right to Toronto.
The rough land on the Bruce peninsula can prove a challenge
to farmers, but Howard Crow says at least you can count on it to
always grow bush. Mr. Crow sold the bush on his home farm a
year ago, and much of it has been taken out for lumber. Although
farmers once combined farming and timbering on the
peninsula , this isn't as common anymore. The cattleman said
the bush is getting pretty well timbered off now, and it will be
about 50 years more before it will be any good for timbering
again.
When asked about the future of beef farming, with the current
poorer prices, Howard Crow said the poor price would be hard on
any cattleman who bought calves this spring. The farmer said he
thinks consumers have stopped buying beef due to the higher
prices and have switched to lower priced meats like pork and
chicken.
The future for younger farmers on the peninsula concerns
Howard Crow - "If they put this generation off the farm, then
things are going to be tough." Just the same, if he had to make
the choice again, hP'd still choose farming.
Don Crow, who's filled three barns as well as his tather s with
cattle, also seems well satisfied with the life of a cattleman. For
the past year, he's taken part in the cattle health study being
carried out in Bruce County by University of Guelph researchers,
and this summer has lost only one steer. Also, he has one extra
dividend on hiF farm that farmers further south can't count on - a
nice chunk of angel stone that a contractor is digging up to sell to
the building trade.
Not bad, for someone who once rode the range on an Alberta
ranch!
IVAN MIELHAUSEN
Ivan Mielhausen, who owns over 1200 acres of farmland
outside the town of Ferndale, west of Lion's Head, farms land
that seems suprisingly prairie -like and free from stones for the
penninsula. It's part of a 5,000 acre hollow in the area. Mr.
Mielhausen and his oldest son John, who are in a family farming
THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1979 P(i. 11