The Rural Voice, 1998-02, Page 3Editor: Keith Roulston
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
John Heard, soils and crop extension
and research, northwestem Ontario
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
contributing writers:
Gisele Ireland, Cathy Laird, Wayne
Kelly, Sarah Borowski,
Mary Lou Weiser -Hamilton, Ralph
Pearce, Susan Glover,
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Darene
Yavorsky, Peter Baltensperger, Sandra
Orr, Carl L. Bedal, Kevin Shillinglaw
marketing & advertising sales manager:
Gerry Fortune
advertising representative:
Merle Gunby
production co-ordinator:
Joan Caldwell
advertising & editorial production:
Dianne Josling
Anne Harrison
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Behind the Scenes
On new crops and old crops
Nothing seems to excite farmers
like the potential of a new cash crop
of livestock variety. Bt genetically
engineered varieties and Roundup
Ready corn and beans have had
farmers talking for the past couple of
years. When we ran a story on garlic
production a couple of years ago, we
were overwhelmed with calls for
more information.
A new such crop could be on the
horizon, if the interest expressed at
the Crops Day of Grey -Bruce
Farmers Week is any indication.
People were lined up to talk to
Michael Columbus, Alternate Crop
Specialist with OMAFRA's Simcoe
office after he talked about some new
crops — particularly hemp.
Long talked about (we talked to
Ridgetown College researcher
Gordon Scheifele about it and other
crops back in April 1993), hemp will
finally become legal to grow, under
restricted circumstances, in 1998 and
there's plenty of interest. While
experimentation has been centred in
the tobacco country, it's a crop that
could be grown farther north. Still,
until the market infrastructure is in
place, the market will be limited. We
have a report on Columbus's
presentation on the potential of this,
and other, crops.
While we're on the subject of
Grey -Bruce Farmers Week, we have
reports from the rest of the Crops
Day, and on the Beef Day. Beef Day
provided information on new export
opportunities for beef. Crops Day
included the latest grain marketing
outlook from Colin Reesor,
Commodity Marketing Specialist
with OMAFRA.
While all the attention in the farm
business locally has been on
genetically altered crops, having
unaltered crops could be an
advantage in some markets. In
November, a boatload of certified
non -genetically -altered grain shipped
out of Godcrich bound for Europe. In
our Profit$ section, Blake Patterson
reports on why the grain was
gathered and the difficulty involved
in serving this niche market.
Meanwhile, Mervyn Erb has been
visiting cropping updates and reports
on the newest information available
for the 1998 cropping season.
February is a dark time of the year
and can be hard on the human spirit,
but it is also a hard time for the
indoor plants that help us keep our
spirits up. In her gardening column,
Rhea Hamilton Seeger gives some
tips on the winter care and feeding of
houseplants.0
Update
OFA enters internet game
For several years, since April 1994 when Corinne Robertson -Brown produced
a story Farming in the fast lane on the problems facing farmers as they tried to
get on the "information highway", we've been following the evolution of the
internet for farm businesses and families. Along the way we've had other stories
on how farmers can gain information through computers and modems.
Things are changing ever more rapidly. One of the issues that original article
dealt with was the problem of multi-party telephone lines in rural areas that made
the use of fax machines and computer modems impossible. The recent Canadian
Radio -Television and Telecommunications Commission decision to allow a local
telephone rate increase in order to upgrade rural telephone lints means that all
farm homes will soon have access to fax and modem transmission.
Meanwhile Clinton -arca computer enthusiast Henry Damsma is setting up a
computer network for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture to link all 49
Federation county offices and as many farmers as wish to subscribe. "The idea is
to have the farmers of the province be able to communicate with each other via e-
mail and the internet," he recently told the Ontario Farmer.
The OFA is paying Damsma's expenses but he's donating his labour free. "I'm
a member and the Federation was built on the expertise of all its members."0