The Rural Voice, 2002-06, Page 3About this issue
The search for new markets
With ever-increasing efficiency ensuring that farmers
are always producing slightly more product than the market
can absorb, thereby driving prices down, the dream of
many farm leaders has always been to build demand by
finding new uses for the crops grown.
The newest possibility to arise is biodiesel with the ideas
that oil crops like soybeans and canola, even fat from
rendering plants, might be converted into a fuel to power
trucks, busses and even the farm tractor. David Blaney
talked to industry leaders about the prospects of biodiesel
becoming an alterative use for farm crops.
Weeds are exasperating things. You think you've got
them all and more sprout. Where do they come from? Larry
Drew looks into the reality of weeds and found they can
exist dormant in the soil for generations before sprouting.
There's plenty of concern about animal welfare
concerning the size of pens animals are kept in but there
should be more attention paid to preventing the animals
from getting sick through biosecurity, argues Dr. Catherine
Templeton of Synergy Services Inc. in Listowel. The same
goes for food safety issues, she says. If animals aren't
exposed to sickness they don't need to get as much
medication leading to less possibility of over use of drugs.
Templeton says vets and farmers alike should be
focussing on prevention of illness rather than treating pigs
once they're ill. It makes biosecurity more important than
ever, she says in a story this month.
Could the smell from your livestock facility reduce the
value of your neighbour's property? Paul Vogel, discussing
the issue in his Agri -law column, says a U.S. court of
appeal found it could, awarding landowners near a large
barn a reduction in the assessed value of their property.
On a much sweeter note, Bonnie Gropp's recipe column
this month deals with ways to make use of strawberries,
those precious jewels of June.
Patti Robertson's decorating column deals with the five
most common decorating mistakes she's seen in her years
as an interior decorator.0
Update
Preventing munching deer
In our June issue a year ago we included a story on the
high cost for Georgian Bay orchard owners of feeding
Bambi through the harsh winter of 2000-2001. An
experiment in preventing deer from damaging trees by
using fences and dogs has paid dividends for a Lanark
County farmer, says the Ontario Soil and Crop
Improvement Association in a recent press release.
While trying to fence deer out of an orchard has
generally proven expensive and not too successful, Hendry
experimented in 1999 with enclosing three hectares of
orchard with an invisible fence and having the enclosure
patrolled by two dogs. While the Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Act prohibits dogs from running at large
where they might run down deer, when they're on the
inside of the enclosure any deer crossing the fence is fair
game. The deer sees the dogs as predators and is likely to
try to avoid them.
To assess the effectiveness of the experiment, 50 trees
within and another 50 outside the enclosure were
monitored over three years and the results were
remarkable, with a bud gain inside the fence and
substantial loss outside.
One dog can cover a 25 -acre field if there's no natural
vegetation to obscure the view, Hendry says. "The
presence of dogs is enough of a deterrent to keep deer from
coming into the orchard. I haven't seen my dogs actually
chase deer." 0
'Rural Voice
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NEI
IKRM Wlp, R919YG OO a?4Y K 1
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Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.;
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
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Pearce, Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Sandra
Orr, Janice Becker, Mark Nonkes, Larry
Drew
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