HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-8-3, Page 11One Foot in the Furrow
By Bob Trotter
Haying - a hard job
Ah, 'tis a wonderful time of
year to be a farmer.
Sure, it is full of long days,
long days and short nights. Full
of worrying about the weather
and whether the equipment will
stay together for another harvest
and whether you'll get every-
thing in on time and if the bank
will hold out for another month.
But that feeling of getting
barns full for another long win-
ter cannot be topped for anyone
who has a love of the land, a
love for green growing things
and contented animals and a
love of the great God who creat-
ed all these wonderful things.
It can be a sad time of year,
too, if the crop is bad or if
Mother Nature crossed you up
by sending torrential rains to
lodge a whole crop of grain or a
hailstorm that shredded the
corn.
A couple of weeks ago, just
after the second cut of hay came
off the fields, I watched a Men-
nonite farmer in our area har-
vesting a crop of golden wheat
that looked beautiful. As most
readers know, Mennonites, es-
pecially the Old Order and Am-
ish sect, eschew modernity of
any kind. They still use horses,
binders and long wagons.
They stook the sheaves of
wheat until they are ready to
thresh and then haul the sheaves
to the barn for threshing, just as
it was done a century ago. I
could not help but admire the
crew that stooked a field that
must have been 30 acres. The
hot, summer sun was relentless
yet this father, two older sons
and a daughter worked without
a break for at least an hour
while I set in admiration in my
air-conditioned car and contem-
plated the beauty of the land, the
sky and this marvelous group of
people as they worked.
I did not wait until they were
finished. I felt too guilty sitting
there watching them but I.did
drive that same country road the
next day just to see those beauti-
ful stooks of grain standing in
the field. I kept watching it al-
most daily until threshing time
and was surprised to see them
haul out an ancient tractor with
a huge flywheel to power the
threshing machine. I half ex-
pected an old steam engine with
huge metal wheels and a surrey -
type top to be used.
I have not participated in a
grain harvest for 50 years but
until we moved into the city a
few years ago, I usually got in-
volved in haying because we
kept horses on our little hobby
farm. Thank goodness we only
needed a few hundred bales to
feed two horses over the winter.
Besides our barn would only
hold about 270 bales.
That was quite enough, thank
you.
By the end of the first hour,
my arms felt like lead weights.
My blisters had blisters and my
belly was scratched so badly
from heaving bales onto the
wagon or piling them in the
barn that I felt like a pincushion.
It was worth it, though, at the
end of the day, to know that we
had enough hay in the barn to
feed the horses all winter. We
always kept three 45- gallon
drums just inside the hay door
with two of them full of rolled
oats and a third containing "hot"
feed. When the barn bulged
with hay and the drums were
full of grain, it gave me a great
feeling of contentment to lean
against the corral fence at the
end of the day of haying.
I could chew a piece of timo-
thy and gratefully allow the old
buckskin mare o nuz le me in
-
anticipatin C grain. to had a
deep nicker of appreciation that
she saved only for me. I can feel
her velvety muzzle even now
and she has been dead f Tal -
most four years.
If I could get such satisfaction
olio of a few bales of hay in a lit-
tle hobby barn, imagine the feel-
ing of being close to God that a
real farmer would get.
Increase for dairy producers and processors
OTTAWA - The Canadian Dairy
Commission Thursday, July 28 an-
nounced an increase to the returns
for dairy producers and processors
for the beginning of the new dairy
year.
On August 1, the target return to
producerwwill *bee- revised from
$50.76 to $52.28 per hectolitre of
milk, containing 3.6 kilograms of
butterfat. The processor margin
will be set at $7.83, up from $7.60
per hectolitre.
The support price for skim milk
powder will rise from $3.498 to
$3.708 a kilogram. The support
price for butter will be maintained
at $5.324 per kilogram. Consistent
with market trends, all of the price
increases have been placed on the
support price for skim milk pow-
der.
A charge of $0.12 per hectolitre,
up from $0.08, is added to the tar-
get return to cover costs associated
with the normal stocks of butter
held by the Commission to ensure
domestic demand is met and to cov-
er administrative costs related to
the Commission's domestic mar-
keting activities.
"This pricing decision is fair to
the industry and to consumers,"
said Gilles Prdgent, Chairman of
the Commission, "At the same
time, it should ensure the health
and stability of our dairy industry."
After consultation with produc-
ers, processors, dairy ingredient us-
ers and consumers, the Commis-
sion decided to add to producer
returns, in recognition of recently
revised cost of production metho-
dology, which incorporated chang-
es to the data used to cost a number
of pricing inputs. The Consultative
Committee - representing the above
groups - which provides advice to
the Commission on pricing matters,
had earlier unanimously approved
this revised methodology. The
Commission felt that it would be
appropriate to implement a portion
of the resulting cost increases at
this time. The Commission also
considered that further work is re-
quired to validate provincial pro-
ducer survey data and to develop
competitive benchmarks for the
dairy sector in order to increase the
productivity and efficiency of the
industry. - The industry has undertaken a
number of market driven initiatives
to enhance its competitiveness and
to stimulate consumption. As a re-
sult, effective August 1, 1994, there
will be a 2.5 percent increase of the
national Market Sharing Quota for
industrial milk. This will be allocat-
ed to provinces in accordance with
the provisions of the National Milk
Marketing Plan.
A necessary rise in the level of
butter stocks, up from eight to 10
million kilograms, together with
higher interest rates and storage
costs has resulted in an increase to
the butter carrying charges.
Silo gas warning issued
due to poor weather
GUELPH - The Farm Safety As-
sociation has issued a warning that
gases produced from recently en-
siled haylage can cause death. The
recent heavy rains and hail storms
in various parts of Ontario have
damaged the hay crop and condi-
tions are ideal for the formation of
silo gas.
Silo gas or nitrogen dioxide is
produced as a by-product of the fer-
mentation process that takes place
once plant material is put into a
silo. A variety of climatic stresses
on the plait material during the
-wing season can dramatically
increase the possibility of toxic gas-
es forming. To avoid silo gas, farm-
ers are advised not to harvest crops
immediately after a rainfall. Con-
versely, crops damaged by hail or
frost should be harvested as quickly
as possible to avoid build-up of ex-
cess nitrate in the plant material. If
weather or other factors have in-
creased the possibility of nitrate
build-up, plant material should be
cut higher than normal, as excess
nitrates are stored in the lower por-
tion of corn stalks.
Silo gas may be visible within a
few hours after silo filling and may
be recognized ''by a bleach -like
odour and may be visible as a yel-
lowish -brown haze. Dead flies or
birds at the base of the silo may
also be an indicator of the gas.
Once a silo is filled, it should be
sealed and declared off-limits for at
least a three week period. Levelling
of silage should be done immedi-
ately after the last load is put in
with blowers running. If gas is sus -
peeled, do not enter. During this pe-
riod of time the silo should not be
entered unless all rules for confined
space entry are closely followed
and a self-contained breathing ap-
paratus is used.
Times -Advocate, August 3, 1994 Page 11
Swine seminar August 17
1
SHAKESPEARE - Artificial in-
semination of swine promises to be
an important management tool for
the nineties. Besides the obvious
advantage of genetic improvement.
Al offers advantages for disease
control, labour savings and cost
control. To explore the merits of
"Artificial Insemination of Swine",
a seminar will be held at the Shake-
speare Community, Centre on Au-
gust 17.
Topics will deal with on-farm Al,
boar management, commercial use
of Al, heat detection and produc-
ers' experience with using AI on
Gimme
shelter
REGINA - It's surprising what a
prairie shelterbelt can produce. A
branch within Agriculture and
Agri -Food Canada is looking at op-
portunities to increase cash flow for
fanners and strengthen rural econo-
mies.
Shelterbelts are rows of trees
around farms that are traditionally
seen as a way to protect soil, ani-
mals and crops from wind.
But biologists want to expand
that protection image by stressing
the shelterbelt can also produce
berries for jams, sap for maple syr-
up, mushrooms for cooking, and
wood for lumber, heating or carv-
ing.
Always Alt e"gtne tr{are
t,npluc yr1 a machine, ov rmaktrg repairs
their farms. Speakers from Ontario,
Alberta and Quebec will be ad-
dressing the various topics.
To register, obtain a registration
form from the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Af-
fairs office in Clinton. Cost for the
seminar, which includes lunch, is
$50. The program will commence
at 9:30 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m.
WE WON'T
HANDY0U THE
SAME OLD LINE.
r
Introducing The New White Mid -Size 6000 Series.
63 To 106 HP.
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