The Rural Voice, 1998-10, Page 3Editor: Keith Roulston
editorial advisory committee:
Bev Hill, farmer, Huron County
John Heard, soils and crop extension
and research, northwestern Ontario
Diane O'Shea, farmer, Middlesex Cty.
George Penfold, associate professor,
University of Guelph
Gerald Poechman, farmer, Bruce Cty.
contributing writers:
Gisele Ireland, Mary Lou
Weiser -Hamilton, Ralph
Pearce, Bonnie Gropp,
Bob Reid, Mervyn Erb, Darene
Yavorsky, Peter Baltensperger, Sandra
Orr, Carl L. Bedal, Janice Becker,
Allison Lawlor
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
Old crops and new crops
As profit margins for farm
commodies get squeezed, the idea of
putting tourists dollars into the
pockets of farmers becomes more and
more attractive. The lure had been
recognized for years as groups like
Market Grey -Bruce saw the potential
of marrying the bounty of the land
with the tourists seeking lakes and
mountains — and new attractions.
This month a new agri-tourism
project gets underway when the
opening of the Huron Harvest Trail
takes place. Marked routes around the
county will take visitors along the
concession roads and into the
farmyards of farms offering farm gate
sales, pick -your -own operations,
tours or farm vacations. Also taking
part are retail stores that sell local
food products and restaurants, inns,
and bed and breakfasts. Response to
the project on the part of businesses
has been overwhelming. We have
information on this new initiative.
Back in October 1993 during an
interview with The Rural Voice, Dr.
Frank Humik, on promise of secrecy,
showed pictures of a farrowing crate
design so new it hadn't been
patented. Five years later the design
is now being manufactured by a local
company, J. K. Reid Manufacturing
and Sales Ltd. of Moorefield and the
first units are out in the barn. The
oval crates are designed for sow
welfare and comfort. Being oval in
shape they allow the sow to turn
around and with concave bars they
allow her to slowly lie down,
protecting piglets. What's more, they
can be put in the same space, or even
less, than conventional crates. We
talked to some of the farmers who
have been trying out the new crates.
After being forgotten for years, the
woodlot at the back of the farm has
been rediscovered by many farmers
because of high prices for hardwood
saw logs. But, as one speaker said at
the Ontario Farm Woodlot Expo and
Provincial Agroforestry Conference
in Woodstock, too often it's been
seen as a way of paying for a new
tractor rather than a long term
investment. In our Profit$ section we
look at managing a woodlot as a
long-term source of profit both from
sale of timber and as a maple syrup
operation. Properly managed, the
woodlot can be as profitable per acre
as any other part of the farm.
Elsewhere in this issue, Bonnie
Gropp has recipes for Thanksgiving.
In her decorating column, Patti
Robcrtson has some inexpensive
ideas for autumn decorating inside
and outside your home.°
Update
Still promoting crop alterntavies
We first met Gordon Scheifele early in 1993 when he was teaching at
Ridgetown College and was introducing the idca of alternative crops to students
at the college. Back then he was talking about things like evening primrose and
shiitake mushrooms.
We ran into him again at the Outdoor Farm Show as host of the tent dedicated
to a new alternative crop that seems to have piqued the curiosity of Ontario
farmers: hemp. The tent was full of spectators the morning we visited. Schcifele
explained the many uses of hemp in everything from the blue jeans he was
wearing to oils made from the seed. (One warning, Scheifelc said the fibre of
hemp is so tough that hemp clothing should never be worn around farm
equipment because it wouldn't tear if caught in equipment.)
Although the Farm Show's plot of hemp was planted late and therefore was
only shoulder -high, Scheifele brought along a couple of stalks from a crop grown
in Sudbury which towered 13 feet up the central tent pole.
While the crop has now been legalized under special permits, Scheifele warned
the permit only applies to the fibrous stem of the crop. A farmer who picked a
few leaves from the Farrn Show's plot and took them home, could face charges
for possession of cannabis.°