The Rural Voice, 2001-08, Page 31
1
R.V.
Editor & Publisher: Keith Roulston
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
contributing writers:
Bonnie Gropp, Ralph Pearce,
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Sandra
Orr, Janice Becker, Andrew Grindlay,
Mark Nonkes, Larry Drew
marketing & advertising sales manager:
Gerry Fortune
advertising representative:
Merle Gunby
production co-ordinator:
Joan Caldwell
advertising & editorial production:
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Behind the Scenes
Learning
A hidden theme for this issue
might be `learning lessons".
Farmer members of the
Mornington Heritage Cheese and
Dairy Co-operative Inc., for instance,
in the past year have been learning
what it takes to turn raw milk into a
finished food ready for the retail
shelf. Some of the members who
milked cows before turning to goat
milk production, admit it's been a
revelation learning what goes on after
the milk truck goes out the lane.
While many farmers look at the retail
price for a product that started out on
their farm and think they should be
receiving a bigger chunk of the
consumer dollar, these farmers now
know that producing milk is just the
first step in a long road to the market.
Nancy Lidster is a former pork
producer who has spent a lot of time
trying to think like a pig. Alarmed by
the frustration created among the
staff whenever it was time to move
pigs on the Saskatchewan farm she
ran with her husband, she set out to
learn more about what pigs like and
dislike. Not only did the new
approach sooth staffing problems, but
lessons
it created a new career. Lidster and
her husband now train other pork
farmers. She spoke, along with
Australian animal welfare researcher
Paul Hemsworth, at the
"Stockmanship, Swine Behaviour and
New Sow Housing Designs"
conference in Shakespeare in July.
Also from the same meeting, a
number of leading pork producers are
proving there may not be as much to
fear as some think if animal welfare
concerns lead to the elimination of
gestation stalls in Canada as has
happened in Europe. Loose sow
housing has worked for producers
like Chris Cockle of Heronbrook
Farm in Embro and Dave Linton of
Lindell Farms, Brussels and they
relayed their stories to those present.
Fifty years is a long time in any
business. To survive that long, a
business has to adapt to a lot of
change. The trucking business is no
different and as Luckhart Transport
Ltd. of Shakespeare celebrates its
50th anniversary, staff writer Mark
Nonkes discussed how the business
of livestock trucking has changed in a
half-century.0
Update
Fascination with Donnellys continues
Back in our June issue, Mark Nonkes wrote of the continuing fascination with
Lucan's Donnelly clan and their death at the hands of a vigilante mob one cold
night in 1880. Obviously the fascination continues because theatre director Paul
Thompson's most recent examination of the tragedy, The Outdoor Donnellys,
sold out every single seat in June before it opened at the Blyth Festival.
Thompson's third play on the subject, this was a huge event requiring a cast of
some 60 amateur actors as well as a core of nine professionals. The event, and
it's more than a theatre presentation, began each evening at 6:00 p.m. with
audience members being taken by "stage coach" (actually tractors and wagons),
to locations throughout the town where vignettes were acted out by the
professionals or community volunteers. Audience members could choose to
attend three of nine different scenes: everything from a wedding feast to the trial
of one of the Donnellys.
The whole audience came together for the outdoor show at the fairgrounds at
dusk where the professional cast performed a rowdy, yet poetic, retelling of the
legend, complete with live horses tearing past the audience pulling a stage coach.
Weather dampened the success somewhat, with one performance being
cancelled altogether and three being moved inside a nearby shed. Still reviews
were strong with Bob Reid of the Kitchener -Waterloo Record saying: "The Blyth
Festival should be proud of this magnificent achievement, which in so many
ways is the glorious creative culmination of the work of one of the most
innovative artists in Canadian theatre — Paul Thompson."0