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The Rural Voice, 1979-10, Page 10the men riding with a rifle tucked into their saddle next to the lariat gives them even more of the popular cowboy image. On an ordinary day, the men spend about five hours in the saddle, but Glen Wells admits, "there's no set hours, you work until the job is done." If the two men find a steer that is just too difficult to handle or if he needs more attention than they can give it, Glen Wells has the authority to send the animal back to his owner. ROUNDUP Since the men have become rather expert at moving Targe numbers of cattle, their services are in demand off the ARDA farm as well. Last fall, after rounding up the ARDA cattle for shipment to auctions or back to their home farms. the two horsemen assisted with the roundup of wild cattle for five different cattlemen. Glen Wells said regardless of what other modern equipment they have available to work with, "we still need the horse." Over the years, the ARDA community pasture project has picked up a number of enviable records. For example. they have yet to lose a cattle beast. When the steers are brought to the farm in May. they're branded with a registered ARDA brand. Each farmer's cattle arc also tagged with markers on each ear and Ron Slade said, "we've always been able to account for every steer." When the steers are accepted, they must be in good health, without horns, and the men try to weed out any staggy steers. LOCAL COMMITTEE Although they can handle 1500 steers on the pasture land, Ron Slade said they receive applications for 2800 to 3000 cattle each spring. The job of deciding whose cattle will be accepted falls to a local committee composed of six members - three members appointed by the Bruce County council, a member of the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture, a rep- resentative from the Soils and Crop Improvement Association and a member of the Bruce County Cattlemen's Association. Committee members serve a three year term, and terms are staggered so there are always some veteran committee members to guide in the decision-making. The committee makes all the manage- ment decisions for the community pasture, including selecting which cattle will be accepted. The cattle must belong to smaller farm operations, and to residents PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/OCTOBER 1979 of Bruce County. Mr. Slade said they get requests from outside the county but "if we started taking steers from all over Ontario, it wouldn't make much of an impression anywhere." The other community pastures in the province include cow -calf operations on Manitoulin Island and dairy pastures in eastern Ontario. When you see the hundreds of healthy looking beef cattle roaming the ARDA pasture lands. in the shadow of the Hydro towers running from the Bruce nuclear power station a short distance away, you can't help considering the disparity. With one of Canada's most modern complexes only a short distance away, two men are riding the range on horseback, the way it's been done for centuries. Maybe like nuclear power. the horse is an idea whose time has come. Ron Slade, secretary -treasurer of the ARDA pasture, works out of the Walkerton OMAF office.