The Rural Voice, 2002-04, Page 6Who is the biggest
bull?
At the Ontario Corn Producers'
annual meeting in London on March
5 - 6, those present were highly
amused by a story told by Ontario
Minister of Agriculture Brian
Coburn, who addressed the crowd
with a good presentation. The story
goes as.follows:
A farmer had a herd of 150 cows
and three bulls. The biggest bull
claimed 100 of those cows for
himself and looked after their needs.
The next biggest bull was responsible
to keep 40 cows happy and the
youngest bull was left with 10 cows
in his care – and everyone knew
whose was whose.
One day a truck backed up to the
loading chute and out came the
biggest, meanest looking bull anyone
ever laid eyes on. The very ground
shook with each step he took.
It didn't take long for each of the
bulls to see trouble in the making, so
after a little thinking, the first bull
said, "You know, I've had a good
time and a good life; why spoil it now
with a fight I know I can't win. The
new guy can have 60 of my cows."
Then the middle bull said, "You
bet, I know when I've met my match,
he can have 30 of my cows if he
wants."
Then they looked over at the
youngest bull who was over in the
corner of the barnyard pawing up
dust and roaring and bellowing —
just raising a storm. Walking over to
him with great concern they said,
"you're not going to try to fight him
for your 10 cows, are you?"
The young bull stopped putting on
his show long enough to say to them,
"Fight him? Are you kidding? I'm
just doing this so he knows I'm not
one of the cows!"
2 THE RURAL VOICE
Feedback
Good joke, Minister Coburn. good
joke! Or wait a minute, maybe you
were giving us a subtle insight into
the game of "Survivor" that is
currently taking place in agriculture.
In the same theme, there was a
resolution tabled at the OCPA
business meeting, that addressed the
issue of limiting the size of safety net
payments. It recommended that
safety net programs be designed to
give the maximum benefit (payment)
to the average -sized farm business,
with the intent of keeping the greatest
number of farmers possible from
being swallowed up by the corporate
aggression so prevalent in agriculture
today. The resolution was defeated by
a relatively narrow margin.
You might ask, "How was that
resolution related to minister
Coburn's story?" Well, if you are
one of those delegates who voted
against that resolution you had better
develop an appetite for grass, because
if you're not the biggest bull in the
barnyard, among other possibilities,
you might soon find yourself put out
to pasture in the back 40 with the
steers!
But if you're lucky, I'm wrong.0
John Schwartzentruber
Brussels, ON
Power prices quoted
were too low
In his article on the upcoming
deregulation of Ontario's electricity
market ("Now What?" – February
2002) Mark Nonkes covers a lot of
issues. I can imagine that it took
much research to come up with an
informative story.
I just cannot imagine where he
came up with the quoted current
energy prices in Ontario at four to
five cents per kilowatt hour. Maybe
he fell prey to some of those energy
retailers who go around signing up
householders and not telling the
whole story.
Even though I have not paid a
hydro bill for over eight years I do
keep informed by consulting with our
Citizens For Renewable Energy
(CFRE) members. In cities and towns
where public utilities distribute the
electricity a kilowatt hour might be
priced at between six and seven cents
while in rural parts prices now are as
high as 9.5 cents (per kw hour)!
There is certainty, even in high
government circles, that prices will
move higher and even Bob Budd
might change his opinion towards the
reality that renewable energy and
especially wind generated electricity
will pay for hydro users in the
countryside. After all the fuel is free
and there are no waste disposal
expenses!
Thank you for sharing this with
your readers and thank you for a
great magazine.
- Ziggy Kleinau
R.R. 4, Lion 's Head, ON
More beekeepers are
required in Ontario
Doug McRory, the Provincial
Apiarist, reported in his 2001 Annual
Report, that Ontario hail only 3,400
beekeepers with 75,000 dolonies. The
winter of 2000-2001 had not been a
good one for honeybees in Ontario.
Overall winter losses were in the
range of 25 per cent; much higher
than the normal 10 per cent that most
beekeepers experience due to climatic
and management reasons.
The average. honey yield per
colony in Ontario has been around
102 lbs. The weather and the flora
have the greatest influence on the
honey yield, but also of great
importance is the number of young
bees present in the fall, for they are
the ones that revive the colony in the
spring. Ensuring a high bee
population in the fall is in large part
dependent on the management skills
of the beekeeper.
In areas where intensive
agricultural practices are carried out
(where the elimination of weeds that
bees forage on is the goal) the
beekeeper has to be satisfied if the
colonies manage to store sufficient
winter feed. In such areas the
beekeeper does not have to overwork
himself, or herself, with the hard job
of harvesting honey.
However, a great and profitable
opportunity exists in the very
interesting and profitable job of
breeding honeybee colonies for sale.