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The Rural Voice, 1998-09, Page 10"Our experience assures lower cost water wells" 98 YEARS' EXPERIENCE Member of Canadian and Ontario Water Well Associations • Farm • Industrial • Suburban • Municipal Licensed by the Ministry of the Environment /'.7t�1 �i;, l:-rr 0,1 DAVIDSON WELL DRILLING LTD. WINGHAM Serving Ontario Since 1900 519-357-1960 WINGHAM 519-664-1424 WATERLOO KELLY PORTABLE SEED CLEANING Available to Clean Fall Wheat Convenient and Economical Serving Mid -Western Ontario Kincardine, Ontario N2Z 2X4 396-4559 1-888-844-1333 6 THE RURAL VOICE Keith Roulston Fashions change, As my lawn turned the colour of sand at the beach this summer, a few patches of green prevailed. Even as the weeds wilted, the clumps of orchard grass stayed green. Which reminds me that orchard grass is getting new appreciation these days as a hardy, resilient, fast-growing component of good pastures. The first time I heard this, a few years ago, I was surprised. When I was growing up orchard grass was looked on as a useless remnant of days long gone. Today its value has been rediscovered. That rediscovery can be a lesson that even in things like advice given by scientific farm advisors, there can be fashion waves. Just because modern scientific thought is moving in a certain direction today doesn't mean scientists won't discover years from now that they made a mistake, or that they got so caught up in the excitement of their colleagues that they missed something. It's why things like seed banks and rare -breed farms are so important, keeping us from short- sightedly letting old varieties and breeds disappear when we might, some day, need their genetic strengths to solve new problems. Few ordinary farmers, concerned as they are with squeezing the most production from their current farm operation, can take the time to care about preserving old varieties. Luckily there are a few impractical people around who continue to grow old open -pollinated seed varieties or raise animals like the White Park or Canadian cattle or Barred Rock chickens. Someday we, or our grandchildren, may owe a debt of gratitude for their efforts. We're in a scientific farming fashion wave right now. From scientific management systems like The value of some old ideas rediscovered even in science three -site hog production to bio- engineered crops and, coming soon, genetically -altered animals, efficient farmers are being urged to throw out the past and grab hold of the future. We're in a brave new era and those who don't change quickly will be left behind, we're told. No doubt we are in a new era. No doubt the way farming is done will be greatly affected by the new scientific methods that are coming down the pipe, just as farming in the past was changed by the science of the time. But hopefully farmcrs, while listening to the advice of thcir scientific advisors, will not throw the baby out with the bathwatcr. 1f orchard grass is valuable to farmers with pastures today, then it must have been for farmers 20 years ago but many farmers ignored it. We have the most educated farm population of all time at work in the fields and barns (and farm offices and kitchens) these days. That education, plus practical knowledge working on farms, should create greater wisdom than we've had in the past. Unfort- unately, a university or college education can also turn professors and researchers into gods whose every word is accepted as a pearl of wisdom. Sometimes we're just not skeptical enough to use our native intelligence. Like everything in life, it is difficult to find the right balance between stubbornly ignoring scientific evidence and snapping up every trend unquestioningly. There's no doubt that too many farmers over the years have ignored good scientific advice and clung to old habits that spelled doom for their farms. There are other examples, however, of farmers being given wrong or inadequate advice (remember the campaign to remove fencerows when now we're being told the benefit of windbreaks). In the end, every farmer has to make his own decision. Here's hoping that farmers think it out and don't just accept ideas because they're the current fashion.0 Keith Roulston is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice. Ile lives near Blyth, ON.