The Rural Voice, 1987-08, Page 22Where Hopper
Goes the Water
Flows.
Call Collect
Neil 527-1737 h,.'
James 527-0775 I:.
Durl 527-0828
W.D. HOPPER
& SONS
WATER WELL DRILLING
R.R. #2
Seaforth
Since
1915
RetrtAReel
Manurigation
Rental
Service
MALA Err n�
Walton, Ontario
Toll Free (519 Area)
1-800-265.9682
We're in
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20 THE RURAL VOICE
of their new trees, dwarf peaches de-
veloped at Ridgetown, are the Harrow
Diamond, an early peach, and the
Harrow Beauty, which is later. The
Lassalines grow seven varieties of
peaches in all.
The cost of starting out
in fruit farming can be
an expensive
proposition — $6,000
to $10,000 per acre for
apples, with no return
for the first four years
... but the return on an
established acre is
also quite high.
"A lot of people are surprised that
we can grow peaches up here," says
Lawrence. But a number of factors
make the Lassalines successful peach
growers. Their soil meets the require-
ments — it's sandy loam with a good
gravel base — and the farm is located
on a ridge, which provides it with a
constant airflow that helps to prevent
frost damage.
The market for the Lassaline crop
is three -fold. A small portion of the
fruit is sold right at the farm to con-
sumers, and local grocery stores pur-
chase a percentage. But most of the
fruit is sold to a wholesaler. The
contract with the wholesaler is usually
signed just prior to picking. Because
the cost of building a large refriger-
ated barn is prohibitive, the farm does
not have large storage facilities. The
fruit market is fairly stable over the
short term, the Lassalines note. If the
price of apples is up or down it will
usually remain so for the season. The
state of Washington, they add, is one
of the largest producers of apples in
North America. "The size of their
crop pretty much determines the price
of apples in any given year," says
Lawrence.
The Lassalines belong to the
Integrated Pest Management Program
offered by the provincial government
for spraying, and their local field
office is the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture and Food in Clinton. In
Ontario, the IPM program was first
developed for peach crops, and its
efficacy with peaches prompted
expansion into other crops. Spray
applications are timed to the critical
stages in the development of the pest,
and the Lassalines and a pest man-
agement specialist work together to
refine the pest control program. The
program, the Lassalines note, pro-
vides good control at a reduced cost
because of a reduced number of spray
treatments.
In the 1950s and 1960s, little
spraying for insects was done in this
area of Huron County — insects were
simply not a big problem. In the past
number of years, however, the insect
problem has increased. "With the
IPM program we spray less and we are
happy using less spray," Lawrence
says, "We are always conscious of the
environmental and consumer concerns
about spraying." The apples are
generally sprayed 10 to 12 times in a
year, excluding sprays for fungi such
as scab, which are not under the IPM
program.
An extensive background in fruit
farming together with hard work,
efficient management, and a willing-
ness to change has helped to build a
successful farm for the Lassaline
family. But for beginning farmers,
fruit farming can be an expensive
proposition. The cost ranges from
$6,000 to $10,000 per acre for apples,
with no return for the first four years.
Growing fruit is a high-risk, high -
labour, and capital -intensive business,
but the return on an established acre is
also quite high.
"I enjoy farming," Lawrence says,
"especially this kind of farming. I
enjoy being my own boss and I have
too much farming blood in me to be
doing anything else for a living."0
T