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.