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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1982-04-07, Page 21DON'T SHOOT — Rob Essery, RR 1 Centralia and Diane McLean, Wingham receive instruction from director Tom Arnott while rehearsing a play for the Junior Farmers Drama Festival. Actor's first try spurs enthusiasm Junior Farmers from Exeter, Seaforth, Wingham and Goderich entered a play in the ten -county Junior Farmers annual drama competition in Walkerton on April 3. The seven cast members and five stage hands, working under the direction of Tom Arnott, RR 1 Cen- tralia, presented a 1920's comedy, "The Man in the Bowler Hat", billed as "A terribly exciting affair." Although the young people did not bring home any awards, they enjoyed their moment behind the footlights. "We, did a good job, the judge said", reported leading man Rob Misery, RR1 Centralia. "Some of the other plays had quite elaborate sets, and many clubs gave very good per- formances." This was Rob's first performanbe as an actor, but not his last. "We learned a lot, and we'll be back next year", he promised. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food Dennis Martin, Associate Agricultural Representative Oyer-alf feeding and management of your 4-11 dairy calf is essential in order to provide healthy vigorous heifers that will have the ability to enter the milking herd at 24 months of age.. Since 4-11 calves vary in age, naturally feeding pro- grams are adjusted as your calf reaches maturity. It is critical that the new born calf be properly looked after so it has minimum contact with disease organisms. Calves should receive at least 4 pounds of colostrum as soon as possible after birth, preferably within 4 hours. The first three weeks of the calf's life are the most critical. Feeding programs are usually designed to feed calves milk or milk replacer during this period. Calves of the large breeds should gain approximately one pound per day, calves of the small breeds should gain approx- imately .7 pounds daily from birth to 7 weeks of age. Potential 4-11 calves that receive limited amounts of whole milk and that are weaned at six to eight weeks of age must receive a quali- ty, palatable calf starter un- til they are approximately 4 months of age. The regular dairy herd grain mix often does not contain sufficient protein and energy to meet the needs of the young calf. The crude protein percen- tage . of the calf starter should be 20 percent protein, 75 percent T.D.N. and for- tified with antibiotics. Three - four month old calves should receive bet- ween 2 and 4 pounds of starter per day depending on the rate of weight gain and body condition desired of the calf. Quality hay, should be huron farm and home news J fed however; medium moisture silage can be used. Water should be available at all times and if there is to be a vaccination for brucellosis it should be done between 3 to 6 months of age. • Calves from four - ten months of age can be in troduced to the grain fed to the milking cows providing it contains 18 percept protein. In cases 4-6 pounds of grain per day along with good quality roughage pro- duces adequate growth and body condition at this age. Calves should receive salt as well as calcium . and phosphorus supplement. When heifers are eleven - twelve months - grain can be discontinued if quality roughage is fed. Ten pounds ' of hay plus 10 pounds of silage would be adequate. Phosphorus supplement is especially important after the grain is discontinued. As heifers approach breeding age (15 months) they grow well on good quali- ty roughage without supple-• ment. During the last half of pregnancy it may be beneficial to introduce milk- ing cow grain supplement. Philosphies vary as to how and what to feed a calf near or at Achievement Day time. Some people say they can get more bloom on their calf by feeding some beet pulp at this time. nutritionally there is very little in beet pulp. If a 4-H member has properly fed his or her calf throughout its life, there is nothing to be gained by changing the ra- tion. 4-11 members may decide to feed more grain or different grain which may cause fatness. Sometimes calves may go off feed. Therefore, I urge 4-11 members to feed properly every day of the calf's lite and no major feed changes will be\ required near or at Achievement Day time. C, , ..v.... a '.-.., r.-.... , ',gr., - You can't lose when you buy Crop Insurance - On good years you build up equity, - On poor years, you .are protected; But, every year you hove peace of mind. For Details Coll: Donald Weigand RR 1 Dashwood 237.3418 After May 1st Yoti're On Your Own OMAF Specialist outline other alternatives Times -Advocate, April 7, 1982 Piogs SA Lowlycorn cob.01oo energy sourco Petersburg is proauc►ng which is sold to a utilityp methane gas as a by-product company. This system cost =200,000, and should pay for itself in four years. By Yvonne Reynolds OMAF energy specialist Helmut Spicer outlined ti►e advantages and disad- vantages of various alter- nate energy sources to the April meeting of the Huron Federation of Agriculture. He discussed solar power, wind energy, methane gas, alcohol and last but by no means least, the lowly corn- cob, Passive solar heat has been found to be economical and effective in farm workshops, swine and veal barns. Building a workshop with a vertical solar wall of corrugated fibreglass panels and insulating the rest of the shop coats 11-11.50 per square foot more than conventional materials, and repays its costs in four years. Tools stored in such a structure don't runt. To protect the fibreglass panels from ultraviolet breakdown, they must be sprayed originally with a special coating and retreated every five years or they become milky - and opaque. The OMAF offices have building plans for both a swine and a veal barn using fibreglass and special 75- pound concrete blocks to construct the collector wall. After a sunny day, moderate temperature is maintained until 2 or 3 a.m. This system cuts heating costs dramatically; one veal barn owner who previously spent 11,000 per month now spends the same amount in a year. Payback can be expected in three to five years. The system is bypassed during thesummer months. Drying grain by solar power has proven Im- practical so far. Dust must be controlled, and the weather often refuses to cooperate. Spicer does not believe wind power will be'a viable alternative for the Im- mediate future. An Australian -designed model near Ridgetown, built at a cost of 16,000 five years ago, produces 2,000 watts, enough to run a four -slice toaster, In a 25 miles per hour wind. Despite the manufacturer's claim of a thirty-year life, this model has not withstood the effects of the wind. An egg -beater type df wind -powered generator being tested in the Magdalen Islands for a number. of years is still running into problems. Spicer advised farmers that silos were not designed to hold windmills - they are too close to the barn, and a falling. blade ,or other loosened piece of heavy metal could do a great deal of damage to the building or person unlucky enough to be in the way. He said a number of good wind generators are available, and people living along the lakes and subject to more wind would derive the most benefit from wind power. The energy specialist eliminates wind power in the short term as a practical, economical means of ob- taining power. A custom feed lot near while producing single-cell protein by centrifuging the manure from a 5,000-cowfeedlot. This system is producing one-quarter million dollars worth of cattle feed per year, and the gas is flared off. The process; is closely ;end constantly monitored, as methane gas is explosive. In .Michigan, manure is stored and heated in a trench for 30 days. The methane gas is collected. id a rubber bag covering the trench and fed through an industrial engine to produce. electrical power ENERGY SPECIALIST = OMAF specialist Helmut Spicer discusses various forms of alternate energy at Huron F of A's April meeting. Cold winters are a draw- back, but Spicer believes p methaneotential. gas does have Spicer next talked of alcohol production, and mentioned an operation in Minnesota, one of the first to produce alcohol on the farm. The owners found they were devoting so much time to F e l d m a n conducting tours around their operation they gave up e farming and concentrated on I s leaving the tours, at 1100 per tour. They are now fighting charges in court that stills they manufactured and sold are not delivering as promised. Alcohol is costly to produce if the required heat is provided by propane or oil. A lot of equipment is required, and production, denaturing, storing and selling are all •tied up in layers of governmental red taAAllcohol can not be burned directly in diesel engines. Injection into the airstream by turbocharger results in disintegration of the tur- bocharger blades and scorching of the cylinder. Spicer could also foresee grave problems if someone decided to grow acres of Jerusalem artichokes for alcohol production. The plant is considered a weed, and is difficult to kill. "You may be growing it because you want to, and your neighbour even if he doesn't," Spicer warned, showing a slide of a field of soybeans that had been almost crowded out by free - growing Jerusalem ar- tichokes. Spicer concluded that the most practical way to use farm -produced alcohol would be to sell it for gasohol production, and use the money to buy conventional fuel. PIANO FROLICS RECITAL — The Piano Frolic students of Julie Easterbrook presented a recital at the Exeter. United Church, Wednesday night. Back, left, Heather •Wagner, Jeremy Brock, Becky Morgan, Fred Golbolt, Derek McGee, Peter Visscher, Simon Dinney.and Matthew Godbolt. Front, Judi McGee, Angie Plumb, Jaime McGee, Tanya Visscher, Victoria Bisback and Amy Johns. Flak seems to be coming from all directions against farm marketing boards, especially those with the power to ,set production quotas. The Canadian Egg Marketing Agency, for in- stance, was castigated a couple of weeks ago because $4.7 million was lost on the sale of surplus eggs. What most reporters fail to mention is that most of that loss was taken by the far- mers themselves. Producers paid for the export deals through a 5.5 cent -a -dozen levy paid to CEMA. Only 2.5 cents a dozen is added to the. consumer price to reduce the price on eggs Gold to Canadian processors. One cannot help but add that five cents a dozen is a small price to pay to keep farmers on the land'and keep hens in production. The charge that marketing boards gouge the consumer does not apply when the statistics are studied. The Consumer Price Index for food rose 75 percent from 1976 'to 1981, a five-year period. But the index for turkey and eggs rose by 41 percent and the index for dairy He lives not who lives not in earnest. Remember the saying "You don't have anything if you don't have your health". It's true. products and chicken rose 65 . percent. But prices for beef, • for instance, more than doubled in that time and beef farmers still operate under a free market system. In other words, the commodities produced under a system of quotas and formula prices raise in price by an average of about 53 percent while the overall price of food rose 75 percent. Listening to Agminister Eugene Whelan not long ago, I couldn't help but be im- pressed with his statistics. "Sometimes, when I brag about the proportion of in- come spent on food in Canada - it actually declined from 22.2 percent to 17.7 percent in the past 13 years - I get accused of advocating a cheap food policy in Canada," he told a group of farmers at a marketing seminar sponsored 7 by the Ontario. Federation of Agriculture recently. "That's nonsense. I want to see fair prices, that's all." And I am firmly convinced that is exactly what farmers want, nothing more but nothing less. They want a fair price for their products and many of them are not getting a fair price. If the consumer gets high- quality food for a small percentage of his or her take- home pay and the efficient farmer gets enough to cover costs, everybody should be happy. The fact that Canada has one of the lowest food - percentage costs in the world should indicate to consumers that nobody is getting ripped off by marketing boards even if they are quota -setting boards. When you spend only 17.7 cents of every disposable income dollar on food, you P. 0 lepers are apprec.aled by Sob Tro11er (Male Rd E1mna Oni N30 2C 7 A, are getting food at a of attacking marketing reasonable price whether boards. you believe it or not when you leave your money at the checkout counters. It must be remembered that, when you go into a big food store, you are not only purchasing food; you are buying all kinds of extras, What consumers must remember to do is figure out how much they spend on food alone. 'Food' does not in- clude paper products, hardware, plants, soft drinks, kitty litter or any of the other one-hundred-and- one•itemsyou stuff into your so-called grocery cart. EugeneWhelan speaks for a lot of farmers. He has been trying to get the message across for a decade that food in Canada is abundant and it is available at reasonable prices. It is time a few more city dwellers came to that con- clusion and began believing the agricultural sector in- stead of that other tough little troop of people out there who make a career out It will pay thie who cannot do as they please to please as they do. Seed Corn Still Available Pride #1169 Limited supply! Phone Don Kerslake 229-8730 V Huron Cpunty Federation of Agriculture fieldman Bill Crawford is being promoted to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture m Toronto as Director. of Insurance and manager of Insurance and Administration Services. Mr. Crawford has been the fieldman for the HCFA since. 1972. Blane Stephenson is his replacement. The HCFA held a surprise farewell dance for Bill and Eleanor Crawford March 27 at the White Carnation in Holmesville. Ninety-five people attended. HCFA president Gerry Fortune noted in a presentation that Mr. Crawford was the first fieldman hired by OFA. Crawford served with six of .the Huron County presidents. He was heavily involved in membership. He helped to create a lot of new memberships over the years which helped to make Huron County the largest mem- bership of Ontario. , Fran • McQuail, Chair- woman of HCFA's Public Relations Committee and Tony McQuail, first vice- president of HCFA, presented Mr. Crawford with an ink print of the Huron Tract. Mr. Crawford's wife, Eleanor, received a stained glass trinket box. At one time Ms. Crawford provided an answering service when the Clinton Office was not staffed. Mr. Crawford has lived in Huron County since - 1967. Before his involvement with the federation, he was an agent for Metropolitan Life Insurance. He is still living. in the area but at the end of the school year he will be moving. Mr. Crawford says, "My new. job will be a real challenge." It will involve public relations and ex- plaining insurance to members. As well as ad- ministration. Over and above the insurance he will be responsible for all memberships in OFA and recording it in a computer Cecil R Squire Sales & Service Repair Shop Equipment 92 Waterloo St. Exeter 235-0465 Oil obtained from soybeans, rapeseed, peanuts, sunflowers - and milkweed can be used in diesel trctors with little or no alteration to the engines. The producer needs a crusher or extruder to extract the . oil, filters it, and it's ready tfor use. Universities are doing a great deal of research into vegetable oil fuel, trying to eliminate the one disad- vantage - cold weather turns the oil thick and viscous. Saving the best for the last, Spicer next discussed biomass on the farm. Corn cobs on a per pound basis are every bit as good as dry hardwood, he informed his listeners, producing 7,000 BTU's per pound at 15 percent moisture. The cob on one ear of corn is more than enough to dry the kernels on that cob. If a farmer har- vests all the cobs fras4 a field of corn, he will have (slough heat to dry that corn, and some left over. A farmer near Shetland hes built a collection basket for the back of his combine, and an equipment dealer in the same area has designed a furnace that burns wet cobs; a forage wagon holds the cobs that are fed in to the furnace by auger as needed. This furnace produces silt million heat units from 400 pounds of cobs each batt, and last year dried 7,000 bushels�of corn at a cost of 14/00. As vegetable fuels seem to have the most future potential, farmers may soon be growing their fuel requirements right an the farm. - Corny, maybe, but economical and practical. MILONNIA ONTRACTORS Ltd. Kirkton, Ontario John Mills 229-6704 and Stud Form BUILDINGS • Roofing and Siding • Renovations of all kinds Phone 229-6704 Terra Steel Buildings Fornt—Residential—Commereiel Light Industry Build Yourself Or Hire Us SEAMLESS EAVESTROUGH SIDING Ask About Our SPRING SAVINGS FREE ESTIMATES • Stelco Shutters • The energy window. • Aluminum Storm roll shutters system Doors & Windows • Renovations General • Aluminum Awnings Construction JIM BEAKER CONSTRUCTION DASHWOOD 237-3526 Chipman Inc. and your local Chipman Dealer invite you to attend our 1982 WHITE BEAN ' YIELD MANAGEMENT. SEMINAR pate E• Monday, April 12, 1982 Time ■ 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Hot lunch provided Place ■ Thorndale Community Centre Maximum yields require total pest control. This meeting will cover identification andcontrol of the major insect, weed and disease problems which can reduce your bean yields. Special Guest Speaker Robert Eaton MPP Middlesex "NEE YOU 7111-RI-- Dean 111-RI-- . Dean Barclay Chipman Inc. 519-652.3759 Sponsored by: CYANAMID - Cytrol Cygon BASF - Patoran STAUFFER - Eptam DIAMOND - SHAMROCK Bravo CHIPMAN - B-3 Reglone • s, 140 • • � R • :