The Rural Voice, 2001-01, Page 18GREY GETS IT DON
Like the land they live on, Grey County farmers are made of ta,ugher
stuff. When OMAFRA closed its Markdale office, Grey County farm
organizations were quick to pick up the slack, opening their own
Agricultural Service Centre
By Keith Roulston
Back in December, 1999, the
Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural
Affairs announced all county offices
would be closed. Many people went
into shock. Ray Robertson went into
action.
Robertson, who as Environmental
Farm Plan Co-ordinator for the Grey
County had worked out of the
Markdale OMAFRA office, knew
some sort of centre for agriculture in
the county needed to be established
and began rallying local politicians
and farm leaders to fill the vacuum.
The result today is the Grey County
Agricultural Services Centre, a full-
time co-ordinating office which will
soon offer things like a board room
for farm group meetings that's even
larger than the one in the old
OMAFRA building.
Robertson was in a position to
grasp the ramifications of the closure
faster than many others. He was
notified that he was going to have to
relocate his EFP office when the
OMAFRA building closed. His first
approach was to the Grey County
Soil . and Crop Improvement
14 THE RURAL VOICE
Association who encouraged him to
go further. Next he approached the
County of Grey which was
"overwhelmingly supportive",
Robertson remembers. County
officials suggested to him he should
co-ordinate getting support from the
county's farm organizations. He
approached 26 and got 26 letters of
support for the idea of a central
resource centre for the farm groups.
Many of the presentations were
extremely well worded, he said.
But while everyone was
supportive, Robertson knew it would
take more than goodwill to make a
centre work. The money had to come
from somewhere. As someone who
already operated under contract to the
EFP and as co-ordinator of the
Beaver Valley Watershed, he knew
that there was an administrative
budget involved with such contracts.
Be began applying for contracts,
everything from co-ordinating Grey -
Bruce Farmers' Week to a short-term
water quality project for the Ontario
Cattlemen's Association — and he
got them all.
Today the centre co-ordinates the
Environmental Farm Program
through the Soil and Crop
Improvement Association; the field
crop demonstration projects for the
Soil and Crop Improvement
Association, the Beaver Valley Water
Quality Project, the Georgian Central
Soil and Crop Improvement
Association includes Grey, Bruce,
Dufferin and north and south Simcoe
and Grey -Bruce Farmers Week.
The Agricultural Services Centre
also offers to do work like sending
out meeting notices or preparing
newsletters on a cost -recovery basis
for various local farm groups.
The different avenues of
financial support has allowed
the hiring of Marlene Evans
who, as the previous office manager
of the Markdale OMAFRA office,
brings a wide knowledge of farmers
and farm issues in the county. The
two -person staff allows the office to
be open most weekdays from 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Centre provides services such
as:
• soil sample kits
• water sample kits
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