Huron Expositor, 2009-07-15, Page 91...., s`_- o s
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The Huron Expositor • July 15, 2009 Page 9
Bringing rural younstes er from around the
world through junior farmers exchange program
Su$an Hundesttmark
While they come from farms around
the world, a handful of young adults
who were billeted by the Huron
County Junior Farmers last week
were noting the difference's in Cana-
dian agriculture.
"It'sreally different in Switzer-
1aann��d," says Nadine Huber, who was
billeted with Rachel Haney, of Sea -
forth last week as part of a three-
month international exchange.
"The farms. are really big here but
they're only about 50 acres in Swit-
zerland. I've never seen so much flat
land before. I was a little scared at
first - I felt really lost in the country
where there's all this land and noth-
ing else around."
Huber comes from an organic vege-
table farm in Switzerland where her
family also raises horses and sheep.
She says the farms are closer togeth-
er with neighbours nearby.
She says she's taking home with
her the idea of a hen hotel, some-
thing she saw on an Ontario farm.
"Every hen had its name painted
on it," she laughs.
Olivia Barnard, of Tasmania, Aus-
tralia, says she's also used to moun-
tainous terrain but she's more famil-
iar with very large cattle farms, both
beef and dairy.
With no quota system in Australia,
the dairy farms are huge with 300-
1,000 head. She says a cheese factory
near her farm milks 1,500 head and
dairy farms need at least 100 cows to
be profitable.
Farms range in size up to 100,000
acres where animals are left to for-
age off the land. On sheep farms,
•
for example, the animals are only
seen about four times a year when
they're brought in to be vaccinated
and sheared.
"The big difference here is how ani-
mals are kept in the barns because of
the weather. Our summers go up to
30 degrees Celcius and winters not
below zero so the whether is nowhere
near as extreme as in Canada," she
says.
. arnard lives on a 500 acre beef
fat with 500 head of cattI where
they also raise dairy calves.
She says she'll be doing a report on
the pros and cons of the quota sys-
tem when she returns home.
"I can see it helps farmers have
small farms ' and makes that more
profitable but in Australia, you can
get into the business easier. The
quota system makes it harder unless
you inherit a farm," she says, adding
that Australia still shares Canada's
problem of being unable to attract
many young people into the agricul-
tural industry.
Barnard says the crops are quite
different in Australia as well with
poppies a common crop to make opi-
um.
"You can make a lot of m jney off
of opium - $5,000 -to $10,000 an acre
but you have to have the right tem-
perature," she says.
Barnard says she's also noticed
that while Canadians, might grow
similar crops, the names are differ-
ent.
"Your .corn crops are huge over here
- we call it maize. And, we grow al-
falfa but we call it lucerne - a farmer
told me the older people in Canada
still call it that," she says.
Barnard is being billeted on Sa-
Cast■ Piloti
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mantha Klaver's'
Seaforth-area
farm along with
Lisa Young, of
Scotland. Two
young women
from England,
Angela Kirkwood
and Katy Heady
are staying with
Kayla Bishop at
a Brussels -area
farm and David
McNeugher, of
Northern Ireland
is staying with
Franke Hosper
at a Clinton -area
farm.
Young, who
lives on a dairy
farm in Scotland
where they milk
80 cows, says that
while the cows
are housed in a
barn during the
Susan Hundertmark photo
Nadine Huber, of Switzerland, pets a days old pony with her
host Rachel Haney, of Seaforth. The two were involved in a
recent international Junior Farmers exchange.
winter, they are outside grazing the Huron County Museum in Goderich,
rest of the year. she noticed that while both countries
She says the difference between are
"quite touristy" andcelebrate
her farm and dairy farms she's seen their history, Scotland's is ancient
in Ontario involve the kind of feed and ors back to the 10th and llth
used. Centuries.
"We feed cows silage and pasture, The international guests were
not corn or grain," she says, adding toured throughout Huron County,
that sheep are always out on the visiting Seaforth's Canada Day
hills in Scotland. . , breakfast, • Goderich's historic jail
Young adds that after a visit to the and Huron County museum,
See JUNIOR, Page 19
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