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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2015-04-29, Page 11Tommy Cooper Ripley area farmer wins Grey -Bruce farm trophy Don Crosby Sun Times correspondent Tommy Cooper award win- ner John Gillespie sees big challenges coming for agricul- ture as farmers face changes in technology, government policy and the environment. One of the youngest to take home the coveted Grey - Bruce farm trophy, the 38 -year-old Ripley -area beef and cash crop farmer mused about the challenges facing farmers in Ontario. Gillespie singled out the Great Lakes Protection Act, legislation reintroduced by the provincial government in February of this year, that aims to protect and restore the Great Lakes and St. Law- rence River basin. If imple- mented he said it would pose serious new challenges to the farming community. "It's a broad all-encom- passing environmental act that's going to change a lot of the rules and may not be designed with agriculture in mind. From the draft we've seen it has the potential to basically override all other legislation," he said in an interview from his farm the day after winning the 2014 Tommy Cooper award. "It appears that it's written more from an environmental- ist's point of view than maybe an agricultural point of view." Gillespie defended farm- ers as being among the best stewards of land who take a careful, adaptive, scientific approach to the environ- ment, while the proposed legislation will remove a lot of the flexibility currently available to farmers. "It's going to impose rigid ideas that may work in some areas and don't work in oth- ers, and the ability to com- promise and do things locally just won't be there," he said. The only other nominee for this year's Tommy Cooper award was Linda Freiburger from Walkerton, a long-time farm safety advocate. She is a director of the Saugeen Valley Children's Safety Village, the local co-ordinator of Progres- sive Farm Safety Days and a member of the Bruce County Farm Safety Association. Gillespie has been active with the Bruce County Fed- eration of Agriculture for the past decade, having served as president for three years and past president for two. He was a Bruce County 4-H plowing club leader for six years and is an alternate district committee member for the Grain Farmers of Ontario as well as a member of the provincial policy advi- sory council of the Ontario winner Federation of Agriculture. A graduate from the Uni- versity of Guelph with a degree in commerce, Gillespie got into farming in a big way in 1999 when he inherited a farm from one of his uncles. He farms about 220 acres with some beef cat- tle and mostly cash cropping. Gillespie is taking a wait and see approach as recent years of rising commodity prices, especially in cash crops, have begun to soften. Beef prices remain high but that only ben- efits farmers who are selling, not those working to increase their herd size. "There are double and maybe even triple the dollars at stake than there was three years ago... If something changes the price drastically, like another BSE outbreak or trade restriction or some- thing we haven't imagined yet, the challenges are going to be very great;" he said. Beef farmers are still recovering from a decade of low prices following a mad cow disease scare in 2003 that devastated the Cana- dian beef market. It's only in recent years that it's begun to rebound with gradually mounting sale prices. "The market is telling us it wants more beef and we should be expanding but the industry had a tough decade and farm- ers are regrouping, especially in the beef industrywhere farmers are older and not in the prime Cooperating to benefit fish population Bruce Power and Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority team up Bruce Power's new Envi- ronment Fund is teaming up with the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority (SVGA) to restore fish habitat in the North Saugeen River. The SVCA's Lockerby Dam Decommissioning initiative will see the dam structure removed and the area, including the pond, rehabili- tated to its natural state. This will allow the passage of migrating salmon and other fish species, increase fish habitat, help maintain cooler water temperatures and pro- vide a natural buffer along this important waterway. "We're very excited about this project and all the natural benefits it can provide," said Luke Charbon- neau, Chair of Saugeen Con- servation. "We are extremely grateful to Bruce Power for their interest and commit- ment, and look forward to working with them to make this project a reality:' Bruce Power is partnering with the SVCA in this impor- tant project through its new Environment Fund, a $400,000 initiative that will assist vari- ous community -driven envi- ronmental projects, said James Scongack, Vice President, Cor- porate Affairs. "Bruce Power is proud to be a part of the SVCA's Lock- erby Dam Decommissioning project, which will have important, long-term bene- fits to fish species in our area," Scongack said. "We understand the importance of safely and reliably operat- ing our eight units for the people of Ontario, but we also take great pride in improving the quality of life for our local residents and, in this case, wildlife through projects such as this." Having once been used to generate hydro, the Lockerby Dam has not supplied power to Paisley since 1923 and is currently a barrier to fish migration along the North Saugeen River, said Jo -Anne Harbinson, Manager, Water Resources and Stewardship Services at the SVGA. "The dam and the Lock- erby area was established in the early -1850s with the first water power being used for a grist mill and later a saw mill. Removal of the dam is a step in moving forward to a healthier waterway and eco- system," Harbinson said. Work on the Lockerby Dam Project is scheduled to begin this summer. Wednesday, April 29, 2015 • Lucknow Sentinel 11 John Gillespie on his farm near Ripley of their business life that they are going to expand enough," Gillespie explained. The growing demand for information about farming practices has led to the use of social media, which is a new frontier for a lot of producers. "We're maybe a little late to the game but it's a really pow- erful way to get our message out when we figure out how to do it. Even our federation has a twitter account," said Gillespie, who finds it a use- ful way for the farm industry to get its message out to the public and find information in a timely manner. "Farming is now a very information intensive indus- try and a lot of that informa- tion is now online; market prices, parts diagrams, that can be an incredible time saver," he said. Gillespie received the Tommy Cooper award at a dinner put on by the Bruce County Federation of Agri- culture and Grey County Federation of Agriculture at the Elmwood community centre on Friday. The award is presented annually to the person mak- ing the greatest contribution to agriculture and rural life in Grey and Bruce counties. Tommy Cooper was the Grey County agricultural representative from 1920- 1959 and dedicated his life to agriculture in Grey County. Also handed out that even- ing was the Bruce County Submitted Federation of Agriculture's annual award of merit. This year the recipient was Neals Munk program man- ager for the Six Streams Initia- tive- a program developed by the Bruce Biosphere Associa- tion to improve water quality in a handful of streams on the Bruce Peninsula through the creation of new environmen- tal partnerships with local landowners, farmers, envi- ronmental groups and other community groups. The program involves installing solar powered water supply systems that provide alternative livestock watering that keeps cattle out of streams. Future projects will focus on restoration of degraded stream banks in the area. Submitted Bruce Power's Environment Fund dontates $45,000 to the Lockerby Dam Project through Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority. At Lockerby Dam near Paisley from left: Cherie -Lee Fietsch, Environmental Scientist, Environment Programs, Bruce Power; Francis Chua, Manager, Environment & Sustainability, Bruce Power; Wayne Brohman, General Manager, SVCA; and Jo -Anne Harbinson, Manager, Water Resources and Stewardship Services, SVCA.