The Rural Voice, 1999-06, Page 70People
Local Huron County boy makes Ag Rep
Daryl Ball: New Huron Ag Rep.
When the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
went looking for a replacement to Bob
Humphries, who retired as Agri-
cultural Representative late last year,
they didn't have to look far afield.
Effective May 3, Daryl Ball, who
lives on the family farm near Auburn,
just north of Clinton where the county
OMAFRA office is located, became
the new Ag Rep. A native of Auburn,
he now owns and operates the farm
that has been in the family for 150
years.
Ball is a graduate of Centralia
College and the University of
Wisconsin. He worked for Manitoba
Agriculture for several years before
joining Farm Credit Corporation as a
Credit Advisor. He has 12 years of
agriculture financing experience in
several locations in southwestern
Ontario, most recently in Clinton.
Ball said his first priority will be to
meet the people involved in the
farming industry in Huron.
"Huron County is the strongest
agricultural producer in Ontario," said
Ball, indicating he is excited about the
opportunity to work with the county's
farming community.°
Clinton -area farmer selected
to help save American chestnut
A Clinton -area farmer is one of 24
landowners across Ontario chosen to
help keep the American chestnut from
disappearing from the Ontario
landscape.
Jim Ginn, RR2, Clinton, was given
50 seedlings, thought to be resistant to
chesnut blight, as part of a plan to save
the American chestnut, once a
common site in Ontario woodlots but
devastated by disease earlier this
century.
"We can't keep losing these species
in our forests or we won't have
forests," Ginn told the Goderich
Signal -Star. He pointed to the elm and
the butternut as species that had all but
been wiped out by disease.
In the early 1800s, chestnut blight
was accidentally introduced to North
America through Chinese chestnuts
imported into the U.S. The American
chestnut lacked natural resistance to
the disease and the blight spread
through North American forests at a
rate of 32-80 km per year. By 1950 it
was estimated that nine million acres
of chestnuts in the U.S. had been
blighted and the tree had been virtually
eliminated from forests.
The disease made its appearance in
the Niagara region in the 1920s and by
the 1940s two million chestnuts were
dead or dying across southwestern
Ontario.
But a few trees survived and nuts
from these trees, thought to be
resistant to the blight, have been
planted at the Burford Tree Nursery
and the seedlings distributed to 24 sites
across the province, including the Ginn
farm. It may be a number of years
before it's possible to know for sure if
the seedlings are resistant to the blight,
Ginn says.
Chestnut is valuable as a strong,
straight -grained wood, resistant to rot
and its nuts were a valuable source of
food for wild turkeys, squirrels and
bear. A decrease in wildlife may be
partly tied to this loss of food supply.
"It's a valuable wood that many
would like to see reintroduced," Ginn
says.°
Annika Rear
region's Youth
Corps Co-ordinator
Ripley's Annika Rear has been
appointed 4-H Youth Corps Co-
ordinator for Region 5, covering
Bruce, Grey, Huron and Perth
Counties.
"This is a great opportunity for
youth to work with youth," said
Rear. "We have a unique view of the
4-H program as seasoned members
and also as a branch of the Ontario 4-
H Council. This wonderful
combination will give up the ability
to reach out to the community for
support and have an enthusiastic
influence on youth."
The 4-H Council has hired six
Youth Corps Co-ordinators who will
work with 4-H members across the
province to build a Youth Corps to
promote the program and organize
local and regional fundraising
projects.
The program is assisted by the
Agricultural Adaptation Council,
Ontario Agri -Food Education
Summer Experience Program and the
Ontario 4H Council.°
Alex Connell
honoured by
agrologists
Alexander (Alex) Connell of
Minto (formerly Minto Township)
was among those honoured with a
life membership by the Ontario
Institute of Agrologists for
"distinguished service to the
agricultural industry in Ontario".
Alex and his brother Jim operate a
1700 -acre farm of which 800 acres is
devoted to the production of pedigree
seed. They also have a substantial
beef feedlot enterprise.
Connell served as chairman of the
Ontario Seed Growers' Association
in 1983-84 and is currently second
vice-president. In 1996 he received
the Robertson Associate Award, the
top award the CSGA can bestow. He
has also shown leadership with
Junior Farmers, the Ontario
Cattlemen's Association. the Ontario
Agricultural Hall of Fame and as a
shareholder in First Line Seeds.°