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Home My WebLink AboutTimes Advocate, 1992-07-01, Page 11One Foot in the Furrow How can anyone in a rational state of mind take the prattlings of Jeremy Rifkin seriously? He is blaming the poor, innocent cow for Third World hunger, the shrinking rain forests and the gro m- ing -deserts. He claims in his new book Beyond Beef: the rise and fall of the cattle culture, that bovine belches and bovine flatulence con- tribute to global warming and that cow dung is poisoning all the lakes and rivers of the civilized world. I wrote a short review of this book in this column not too many months ago and received half a dozen letters suggesting that Riflcin is a solid researcher and should be given an audience and not summar- ily dismissed as a nutbar. I'm afraid I cannot agree with some of Rifkin's research. The U.S. National Cattlemen's Association asserts that, far from destroying the environment, cows protect it. Like mowing a Lawn or pruning a tree,cattle grazing pro- motes plant vigor and diversity. Agricultural scientists dismiss Rifkin's arguments as distorted and even spurious. Global warming? The methane emitted by one cow in a year has the same effect on global warming as the fuel to power a single 75 - watt lightbulb. •The effects of cow flatulence on the atmosphere have been greatly exaggerated, said Du- ane Chapman and Thomas Dren- nan, two highly -regarded research- ers at Cornell University. To say, as Rifkin does, that cattle are transforming the bisophere into a wasteland of deadly gases, has prompted one critic, Dennis Avery of the conserative Hudson Institute, to call Rifkin "the Stephen King of horror tales." The problem is, though, that eve- ryone will hear about Rifkin's accu- sations and only a small handful of those who hear it will read about the saner minds who refute him. Rifkin is an expert in getting media attention. He has been quite crusad- er against biotechnology research. He will be getting all lands of ink and many minutes of exposure on television cameras with his anti - cow tactics. The environment has been a great bandwagon for all kinds of' people to climb on. It has become the cause celebrate around the world, a major concern everywhere. Cattle raisers fear that the anti -cow campaign will provoke response from uninformed people and the consumption of herd meat and dairy products will take another major decline in consump- tion. I love the remark made by the book viewer in Time magazine: "The real threat to the carrying ca- pacity of the Earth, dear Jeremy, comes not from cattle but from our- selves." Amen. Let mankind clean up the environment first. Get automobile emissions down, acid rain licked, chemical effluent eliminated and the thousand -and -one other things that populace this planet eliminated and maybe we can start on. the poor old domesticated cow whose only sin is that she has been developed to this point byen and women who see beef as alhgitimate source of protein along with all dairy prod- ucts. To suggest that the whole world has been bamboozled by the big packing plants and the dairies is a lot of bull. Usborne 4H EXETER - The last meeting of the Usborne 4ii was held at the Ex- eter Scout Hall on June 16. Behind the Scout Hall Tom Seip taught the club how to build a camp fire. They then prepared a camping meal from the many recipes in the 4H hand- book and cooked the meal on the campfire they had built. Seip also demonstrated setting up a tent the right way, and how to take it down. The final meeting will bean over- night campout, where the members will put to use the many camping and hiking lessons they have learned during this season. FARM JJPDATF TImee-Advocate, July 1, 1992 Page 11 Spontaneous combustion and hay fires CLINTON - Lives have been lost andhay crops destroyed because of fires caused by spontaneous com- bustion. When the weather doesn't co-operate many fanners try to store hay before it is properly 'vured. If the hay crop is put into the mow above 20-25 percent moisture content, spontaneous combustion may occur, warns the Ontario Min- istry of Agriculture and Food. A hay crop that is -placed too wet into a mow will rapidly heat. If the mow is so large that heat loss is re- stricted, the internal temperature will rise. As the temperature rises above 130°F (55°C), a chemical re- action occurs and may sustain it- self. This reaction does not require oxygen, but the flammable gases produced are at a temperature above their ignition point. These gases will ignite when they commi` contact with oxygen. Check your hay regularly. If you detect a slight caramel odour or a distinct musty smell, chances are you hay is ming. What do you do? First f all, gle make yourself a sinpt� that can be inserted into the hay mass to check the temperature. A prgb* can be made from a 10 ft. piece Qf elec- trical tubing. Rivet a Ifardwood pointed dowel to one end and drill six half-inch diameter holes in the tube just above the dowel. Drive the probe into the hay mass and lower a candy thermometer on a tong string into the probe. The ther- mometer shpuld be left for 10 min- utes to ensure an accurate reading. Watch for the following tempera- tures: 150°F (65°C) ** entering the danger zone - check temperature daily. 160°F (71°C) ** danger! Measure temperature ever 4 hours and inspect now. 175°F (80°C) ** Call the fire department! Wet hay down and remove from barn. 185°F maybe** Hot spots and pockets expected. Flames will likely develop when heating hay comes in contact with oxygen. 212°F (100°C) ** Critical! Tem- perature rise is rapidly above this point. Hay will almost certainly ig- nite. CAUTION: Before entering the mow, place long planks on top of the hay. Do not attempt to walk in the hay mass itself. Pockets may have already burned out under the hay surface. Always tie a rope around your waist and have a sec- ond person on the other end in a safe location to pull you Out should the surface of the hay collapse into a fire pocket. Extreme caution should be taken when fighting a hay fire if hay has been treated with chemical preser- vations. Hay treated with preserva- tives containing ethoxyquin and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) will at around 240°F (115.C) pro- duce hydrogen cyanide gas. This gas is very deadly. Additives con- taining primarily propionic acid do not produce hydrogen cyanide dur- Product registered for preharvest use OTTAWA - Agriculture Canada this month announced registration of glyphosate, sold under the brand name Roundup, for preharvest use on wheat, barley, soybeans, peas, lentils, canola and flax. Canadian growers will soon have access to the same technology al- ready available to their competitors in other countries, such as Europe and Australia, says Agriculture Canada. Glyphosate is effective for con - teal of troublesome weeds and eas- es harvesting by drying -down weeds and crop. This crop produc- tion tool provides soil and moisture conservation benefits by reducing the need for cultivation to control weeds. Producers and fain organizations have supported this use as a man- agement option which will help them remain tmpetitive. Health and Welfare Canada has established maximum residue lim- its for glyphosate in harvested crops to ensure public health and safety. Tolerances have also been established internationally to cover this glyphosate use. Residues fall- ing within these levels are not con- sidered to pose a health hazard to consumers. This registration decision is based on a thorough scientific re- view by experts in the federal de- partments of Agriculture, Health and Welfare and'Environment. Getting back to basics helps GUELPH - Getting back to ba- sics helps both the environment and Ontario dairy farmers. That's what University of Guelph land resource science student Mitch Anderson discovered when he set out to find a solution to one of the causes of agricultural phosphorus pollution in the Great Lakes - milkhouse wash water. Effluent from washing milk pipe- line systems on dairy farms causes an estimated 12 percent of phos- phorus pollution in Ontario. Phos- phorus is harmful because it causes excess algae growth, which de- pletes the oxygen in water and kills fish. Proposed solutions to deal with the milkhouse wash water problem were very expensive and large scale, and the farmers generally did not agree with them, Anderson says. So he headed out to talk to farm- ers to find some workable solu- tions. Over the past two years, he has visited more than 100 fauns. He also surveyed 130 farmers with milkhouse wash water weeping bed systems to determine how well they worked, what was causing prob- lems and what could improve them. The Ontario -Ministry of Agricul- ture and Food recommended these disposal systems for many years. The systems are actually a good way to treat and dispose of wash water - when they work. For un- known reasons, however, many of them were plugging up, giving them a bad reputation among farm- ers. It turns out the only thing going into the weeping bed systems that plugs them up is milk, he says. If the milk can be stopped from going into the system, they work fine. According to the results of An - FARM AND MUNICIPAL DRAINAGE We have t1* Experience & Specializing In: 0 Farm and Municipal Drainage 0 Open Trench or Plow Method 0 Backhoe Service 0 Clay & Plastic The Installation D Septic Systems Installed 1 For quality and service call WAYNE COOK R.R.2, Zurich 519-236-7390 Drainage Tubing PARKER & PARKEP Limited derson's survey, a typical dairy farm produces 1,000 gallons of wash water a week. It doesn't nec- essarily matter what size the dairy production is - everyone uses a lot of hot water and cleaning chemi- cals. Some farmers had come up with a solution to this problem years ago. After milking, they were flush- ing the pipeline with a couple of gallons of water, then using the wa- ger to feed their calves. The system was cheap, simple and easy, and the -milky water was a good supple- mental feed for calves older than five weeks. Much of Anderson's role was ,to share this information with farmers who still had the wash water problem. Armed with this information, An- derson has taken his study a step further. With a $5,000 grant from Ontario Hydro, he and Oxford County farmer Ron Forbes have de- veloped a sink that uses water much more efficiently than the tra- ditional milkhouse sink. The results have been impressive, says .Anderson. Farmers using the new sink use the minimum amount of water needed and save up to 40 percent on their hydro bills. The sinks cost $450, but estimated sav- ings for some farmers are up to $1.000 a year. Anderson measured the savings by installing water and hydro me- ters and having the farmers record the information themselves. ing a fine. Many farmers sprinkle salt on hay as it is stored, in an effort to prevent hay fires. However, tests have shown that salt has no effect on con- trolling spontaneous combustion. Dry ice, liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide gas pumped into the hay will help prevent combustion by eliminating the oxygen from the hay mass. Spontaneous combustion is not an accident. It is a gambling loss. By following good storage practices, not only will spontaneous combus- tion be avoided, but a higher quality of hay will be obtained. ammimmimminim THE RUGGED, DEPENDABLE ZETOR Test Drive One Today and You Will Know Why. ,Supply Ltd ems.•., >.:::::: r -- CUP 'N'SAVE —so• SIM NNW -7 POWERTOOL SMALL ENGINE REPAIRS Come in & see Steve For a *FREE ESTIMATE* present this coupon & receive POWER TOOL 1 0% off SMALL ENGINE REPAIRS IN JULY 1 Steve Corbett HUREX 236 Matti St . Exeter EQUIPMENT & TOOLS 235-0970 L CUP 'N' SAVE . 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