HomeMy WebLinkAboutFarming '89, 1989-03-22, Page 10A10. FARMING ‘89, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1989.
MVCA study shows farm practices must change
The setting may look pastoral but the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority’s study into pollution problems on
the Maitland River says that cattle watering in streams is one of the causes for the poor water quality of the river.
Reduced penalty forTripartite signing
With the recent signing of more
provinces into the National Tripar
tite Stabilization Program for cat
tle, non-participating producers in
Ontario will be able to join at a
reduced penalty
In the feeder and slaughter cattle
programs, producers have until
April 28, 1989 to be eligible for
limited payouts beginning the
fourth quarter of 1988. Specifically,
these producers will be eligible for
25 per cent of the tripartite payouts
in the fourth quarter of 1988, 50 per
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cent in the first quarter of 1989 and
100 per cent thereafter.
For the cow-calf (feeder calf)
program, non-participating pro
ducers can join it by April 28, 1989
and be eligible for any tripartite
payments for 1989. These pro
ducers will have a higher premium
fee than the producers who enroll
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For more information or applica
tions, contact the Ontario Ministry
of Agriculture and Food office in Clin
ton at 482-3428 or 1-800-265-5170.
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BY BONNIE GROPP
A three-year study conducted by
the Maitland Valley Conservation
Authority (M.V.C.A.) has deter
mined that poor farm waste man
agement has contributed to the
pollution of the water resources in
the M.V.C.A. watershed.
Concerned with the pollution of
the Lake Huron shoreline the
Ministry of the Environment initi
ated the Rural Beaches Program in
1986 to identify the pollution
sources, determine the extent of
the contamination in the water
sheds, and encourage farmers to
attempt alternate methods of waste
removal.
Visits conducted to 194 top
priority livestock farmers were
made as part of the 1988 landowner
contact program. These visits help
ed the Authority Staff to determine
and inventory manure storage and
see what management practices
were most common in the water
shed. Eighty-five percent of the
farms surveyed had dry-solid man
ure storage and of these only five
per cent had proper runoff contain
ment. Twenty-six per cent of the
farmers spread manure in winter
and 56 per cent of the dairy and
beef operations admitted that their
cattle had access to watercourses.
These practices result in nutrient
enrichment of the watercourses by
manure and milkhouse waste, re
sulting in an excessive growth of
aquatic plants, thus decreasing the
oxygen in the water.
Few of the farmers were aware of
just how far the contaminated
runoff could travel. Nor did they
know of the high concentration of
nutrients and bacteria in the run
off. More than half of the farmers
felt that restricting the access to
the water source would improve the
quality, yet less than half felt it was
an acceptable practice for them.
The environmental contamination
and nutrient loss seemed less
significant to most of those ques
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and soil compaction.
When the farmers surveyed were
asked what effect they felt farming
had on pollution, 44 per cent felt it
was moderate while 37 per cent felt
it was only a minor effect. A
majority of the respondents felt
that their management practices
were adequate pollution prevention
methods.
Yet the results of the water
samples collected from the end of
March 1988 until early the follow
ing December were poor. The
discovery of fecal coliform bacteria,
which is found in warm blooded
animals, was exceedingly higher
than the Ministry of the Environ
ment’s objective, in all but one of
the sampling stations. Only 21 per
cent of the approximately 900
samples met the objectives. Only
seven of 27 sample stations of
phosphorous met the environmen
tal guideline and only 18 per cent
met the total phosphorous objec
tive.
M.V.C.A. Community Relations
Co-ordinator, Paul Weitendorf,
pointed out recently that the in
dividual farmer doesn’t see how his
cows can be a pollution problem,
and Mr. Weitendorf feels that the
farmers can’t be blamed for that. It
is a traditional practice to water
cattle in a stream and the alternate
methods are expensive. Mr. Weit
endorf states that there have not
been sufficient government grants
to help the farmers make these
changes. The Ontario Soil Conser
vation Environment Assistance
Program II that was providing
financial assistance to the farmers
has now ended and funds from
them are no longer available.
Mr. Weitendorf explains that the
only thing that can be done at this
point is to educate the farmers and
help them make the necessary
changes, though how far they can
go without grants he doesn’t know.
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