The Rural Voice, 2001-09, Page 19T
hours trying to take advantage of
good weather. If the conditions are
right the harvesting may go from
8:00 a.m. to midnight or even 2:00
a.m.
Once out of the field and safely
into the cold storage, the rutabagas
will be processed throughout the
winter, being washed, trimmed and
coated with wax to keep the moisture
in. Then they're loaded on transport
trucks and shipped throughout North
America, mostly to the eastern half of
the United States, though Toronto is
also a major destination.
Culls and trimmings are chopped
and go by the truckload to a local
feedlot which specializes in
alternative feeds.
Though rutabagas are shipped
all winter long, demand is
particularly heavy around the
Canadian and American
Thanksgiving holidays.
For 41 years, dating back to
before his move to Blyth, George has
had a relationship with Stovel
Siemon Limited of Mitchell who act
as.broker for the crop. The rutabagas
are bagged in Stovel Siemon's bags
for shipment.
Rutabagas were already a big crop
in the Blyth area long before George
Hubbard moved there in 1963. He
bought the plant operated by Russell
Dougherty who had first started
waxing rutabagas in 1939 in an
unused part of a building where he
also sold new and used cars. By 1944
he had built a plant near the railway
station and farmers from as far away
as Walkerton and Exeter were
delivering their roots to the plant.
Growing a few acres of rutabagas
was a profitable sideline for many
farmers in those days. The work was
hard, however, with hoeing and
thinning to be done. In peak season,
Dougherty might have up to 150
people in the fields.
Like George Hubbard, Russell
Dougherty was something of an
inventor, building a precision seeder
in 1951, the first in North America.
The first year after Hubbard took
over the Blyth operation he grew 70
acres. Today all the rutabagas
processed by the plant are grown on
Hubbard land.
Ideally, rutabagas are part of a
four-year rotation including barley,
wheat and soybeans, coming after the
cereals. Often, however, George says
he's forced into a three-year rotation
for lack of land. "It takes a pile of
land when you're growing 300 acres
of rutabagas every four years."
Though rutabagas need only a
small amount of nitrogen, they need
heavy applications of potash. "I own
a potash mine somewhere," he jokes.
Herbicides for rutabagas are
limited to about one option for
broadleaf weeds and —one for
ragweed. "It's a pretty sensitive
crop," George says. As a result,
scuffling remains part of the summer
work schedule.
Unlike many other crops, there
hasn't been a lot of change in the
genetics of rutabagas with old
favourite Laurentian still being the
seed of choice.
Things have changed in the
market, however. In this era of quick
meal preparation, rutabagas aren't a
favourite with younger consumers.
"They're not the easiest thing to
prepare," George admits.
The rutabaga growers' association
has spent "a pile of money" trying to
develop new, easy-to-use products
like rutabaga cut up in a plastic bag,
he says, but consumers haven't
responded. It's meant that instead of
a fleet of trucks going into a major
centre like New York each week,
there's now a trickle of traffic.
Prices have remained strong,'
however. Last year's wet weather
meant there was no surplus to reduce
prices and the dry weather early this
summer meant no growers had
excess product to push.
Though Ontario once had
hundreds of small growers,
only a handful of producers are
left today. Their main competition
for the North American market
comes from Quebec which still has
many smaller growers, closer to the
situation in Ontario years ago.
"As long as the prices stay up
they'll keep producing," George
says. "Not too many people like
working for nothing."
There have been years, as with
any other crop, when there hasn't
been a lot of profit in rutabagas. Still,
the family that has been making its
living from the humble root crop for
four decades has another generation
now working to keep the family
tradition going.°
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Tuesdays Sept.4 to Dec. 18 @ 10:00 a.m.
1000 - 1200 local calves and stocker cattle
Fridays, Sept. 21 to Oct. 12 @ 10:00 a.m.
1000 - 1500 yearling steers 8 heifers each
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Friday, Oct. 19 @ 10:00 a.m. 1200-1500
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1200 - 1500 vaccinated presorted calves
featuring Limousin, Blonde, Hereford and
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Friday, Nov. 2 @ 10:00 a.m.
1000 - 1200 vaccinated presorted Charolais
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Wednesday, Nov. 7 @ 7:00 p.m.
250 Black heifers bred Blk. & Red Limo. due
March/April 2002
Friday, Nov. 9 @10:00 a.m.
1000 - 1500 Yearling Steers and Heifers
selling ONS
Friday, Nov. 16 @ 10:00 a.m.
1000 vaccinated local calves, preweaned or
right off cow, selling owner lots - NOT presort
Friday. Nov. 23 @ 7:00 p.m.
Bred heifer and cow sale
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519-934-2339
SCHMIDT'S
FARM DRAINAGE
1990 LTD.
• FARM DRAINAGE
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• BACKHOEING &
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Frank Fischer, Harriston
519-338-3484
"We install
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drainage tubing.
SEPTEMBER 2001 15