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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 1993-03-17, Page 41ZEBRA MUSSEL 1 INFORMATION, SIGHTINGS, SOURCES 1-800-563-7711 0,TARIO FTDER AI 105 OF VOA LP% F. HI NM, With the assistance of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources SMITH STEEL FABRICATION INC. • Angle Iron • Steel Plate • Flat Bar • Round Bar • Hollow Square Tubing • Pipe and Pipe Fittings • Rebar and Concrete Mesh • Expanded Metal Grating • Checker Plate • Channel Iron • I Beams • Square Bar • Wide Flange When buying steel, remember Smith's can sheer, break, roll and weld to fabricate your product. Smith Steel & Fabrication Inc. P.O. BOX 152, ATWOOD NOG 1130 (519) 356-2802 OR 356-2824 • FAX: (519) 356-2413 NEW HOURS: Mon.-Thurs., 7:30 to 5:00; Friday 7:30 to 4:00; Saturday and Sunday CLOSED LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS You are invited to attend an information meeting at BRUSSELS LEGION on Thursday, April 1, 1993 at 7:45 TOPIC: CONTROLLED GRAZING and HIGH POWER ELECTRIC FENCING Learn: - how to utilize your pasture to maximum potential - how to fence more effectively at HALF THE COST - how to double your land carrying capacity - information on Maitland Valley Conservation's CURB program - more on Gallagher Power Fencing's wide range of products Joan McKinley - Pasture Consultant (also uses at home farm pasture techniques - Grey, Dufferin OMAF) Brent Robinson - Maitland Valley Conservation's CURB Program - Area Representative David Picken - Area Manager, Gallagher Power Fencing Sponsored by: Tim Prior R.R. #3 Brussels, Ont. 887-9648 S4LLIGHER FEATURED SPEAKERS: PROPERLY TILED FARM LAND IS A NECESSITY! OUR CREW IS READY AND WAITING FOR YOUR CALL ,A good drainage system, *Allows fields to be worked earlier *Improves soil conditions to promote plant growth *Improves fertilizer efficiency *Aerates the soil *Promotes deeper root systems *Faster soil warming *Extends harvesting *Minimizes erosion *Allows better crop rotation and planting of higher yielding crops *Increases land value Ron McCallum 519-887-6428 "We install BRuCL drainage tubing" CALL THE EXPERTS KMM FARM DRAINAGE 519-887-6428 WALTON FARMING '93, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1993. A21. Farm 93 Don Lobb: Planning for the future When Don Lobb's neighbours saw the bulldozers at work taking out fencerows on his Holmesville- area farm more than 20 years ago they must have thought him any- thing but a conservationist, he fig- ures. Recently, Mr. Lobb was inducted into the Canadian Conser- vation Hall of Fame. All that work was part of a plan, a plan, he told those at the Progres- sive Farming Workshop of the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority "for profit and peace of mind". Back in 1966 Don and his wife Alison were redesigning their farm after buying nearby property. The layout of the fields meant he had to crop up and down slopes which wasn't a good conservation prac- tice. If he took out the old fencerows and some low grade trees he could redesign the fields to crop across the slopes. But "I didn't feel good about taking out trees without doing something to replace them." He looked ahead at how he would like the farm to work with nature and began to plan. Today the fields are laid out across major slopes, he has retired land where wind erosion was a problem, plant- ing it to trees, and planting a future woodlot to replace the trees taken out. "It helped my conscience a lot," he says with a wry smile. The farm is also a model for others to look at when they try to combine a profitable farm operation with care for the environment. Because profit is important, Mr. Lobb says. Without profit you can't feed your family and without profit you can't afford to undertake the kind of conservation measures he has carried out in the last two decades. But it's also important to plan for peace of mind, to know you are leaving food production capacity in the soil and leave a clean environment for future gener- ations. The Lobb farm has become a vir- tural laboratory for research into soil and water conservation and environmental aspects of farming as researchers from universities and conservation authorities have come to learn from the man many call "the father of conservation farm- ing". There are monitoring systems, for instance, tied in to the tile drain system that have, for six years now, measured the amount of nitrates in the water that seeps down through the earth to the drainage system (and from there to creeks, rivers and lakes). Researchers are study- ing whether there is more nitrate getting into the water from land that is conventionally tilled, or land where no-till is practiced. So far, Mr. Lobb says, the researchers have found no difference. Their hypothesis was that there might be more nitrate escapes from no-till land because the number of worm holes might let the water filter through the soil more quickly. What they've found out, he told the farmers at the MVCA meeting in Brussels March 10, was that the worms' holes are lined with organic material that has a high carbon con- tent creating, in effect, a filter for the water. The Lobbs' farm plan includes things like grassed waterways and berms to create holding and settling ponds but these should only come after attacking the problem of soil erosion at the source, he said. He turned to no-till to leave residue on the soil to reduce erosion. He start- ed with a grassed waterway in 1966 but found it began to fill up with silt. "A grassed waterway is not a soil conservation measure. Soil conservation has to be done upfield." By keeping more crop residue on the soil he reduced soil loss. The grassed waterway slowed water and prevented rill erosion. Where two slopes came together and this was- n't enough, he brought in earth moving equipment to crease berms, creating areas where the water would sit for up to .a day before they would drain dry, letting the sediment settle out so it wouldn't go into the tile drain system and pollute creeks and rivers. Flow restricters were used to make sure the water would stay around long enough for the settling to be done. Once finished, the ponding areas were graded so that he could farm right over them. Some of the poorer producing areas of the farm have been retired from food production and planted to trees. "It doesn't make sense to me to continue farming land that doesn't make a profit," he said. "Let's do some analysis on what are lie most profitable parts of the farm and concentrate our efforts there." He created buffer areas along streams and open ditches which provides greater safety by keeping farm equipment away from the steep banks, and also helps filter out potential pollutants from runoff from the fields. Putting trees in these buffer areas will help cool the water in the streams and improve the fish habitat. He has used stones picked off the fields, with the advice of Ministry of Natural Resources officials, to help create breeding spots for fish in the streams. He believes that windbreaks should be made of deciduous trees that let more air move through the leaves and dry off crops on the downwind side, rather than on evergreens which create dead air pockets which may leave crops wet and allow disease. He has also built shelter belts to allow wildlife to move from one wooded area to another with an element of protec- tion. "It didn't take very much land out of production but it will have a useful role on the land in the long run." All this has been accomplished while he actually increased produc- tion. Yields in his no-till versus conventional tillage tests have proven consistently higher on no- till land since 1986 than on conven- tional tillage fields. On sandy loam there has been an average 14 per cent advantage for no-till and on silty clay the advantage is 17 per cent. No-till on clay soils does take longer to establish, however, he says, with yields being less stable- until the earth worm population increases, allowing the land to drain more quickly. "You have to think in terms of systems," he says. "You have to think of a systematic adaptation of practices. You can't make one change in cropping without chang- ing the whole system." Rather than weed control being a bigger problem on no-till land, Mr. Lobb has found it to be less of a problem, particularly in dry years when there are weed escapes from herbicide failure on conventional- till fields. No-till, because of the narrow band, of soil it disturbs, doesn't plant weed seeds in the soil, meaning there are fewer weeds to deal with. Annual weeds tend not to be so much of a problem though there can be perennial weed prob- lems. Herbicide can be more target- ed to these problems though, he argues. Asked how a farmer should get started in no-till, Mr. Lobb said that planting any crop into soybean residue is the easiest. Planting into corn residue is next easiest and planting into wheat and cereal