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The Rural Voice, 1980-02, Page 28Advice on Farming Certification program progresses The voluntary certification program for Ontario farm machinery distributors and dealers is under way. Information concerning the new Ontario Farm Machinery Code, and application forms for certification have been mailed to more than 300 farm equipment di§tributors and dealers in the province, says John Kessler, secretary -manager of the Ontario Farm Machinery Board. "Certification means that participating distributors and dealers agree to meet or surpass a set of minimum standards of business practices, warranties, service contracts, and repair parts availability." The Ontario Farm Machinery Code was developed in cooperation with farm equipment associations, which represent dealers, distributors, and manufacturers, to improve the level of service available to Ontario farmers, says Mr. Kessler. Ontario farmers invest about $300 million in farm equipment each year. Certification of dealers and distributors is the first step of a three-part program. The program also includes development of information on farm machinery, and mediation of disputes between farmers and the equipment industry. The board expects to contact all dealers and distributors in Ontario before the end of 1980. Dealers and distributors, who have not yet received information about certif- ication, may contact the Ontario Farm Machinery Board, School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, NIG 2W1. Standby power generates security When the power goes oft in the city, people worry about darkness and the food in the freezer. But on the farm, a power failure can mean serious financial loss to the farmer. "Many farm operations depend on a steady supply of electricity," says Lloyd Swackhammer, of the University of Guelph School of Engineering. "For example, if the power is off for just a short time in a poultry operation, the farmer may lose some of the birds." Because of the importance of electricity to the modern farm, many farmers install emergency or standby power systems which generate electricity during a power failure. "There are basically three types of standby power systems," says Mr. Swack- hammer. "By far the most popular is the tractor -driven generator which is driven by the PTO (Power Take -Off) of a standard farm tractor. Diesel tractors are more efficient for this purpose than gas tractors; howevet, diesel tractors need electrical heat to start in cold weather." The other types of generators include the smaller engine -driven generator and the large, fully automatic, self -powered unit that switches on when the regular power supply goes off. Automatic generators cost many times more than their tractor -driven counterparts. The tractor -driven generator is usually permanently installed inside a farm building that is easily accessible to the farm tractor. Installing the generator at the main hydro pole is a popular practice, but farmers sometimes find it difficult to get the tractor out to the pole in bad weather. For new farm electrical installations, Mr. Swackhammer suggests running power lines from all of the critical equipment to a central building housing the generator. This saves the farmer from running around to turn off all extraneous equip- ment before switching over to farm generated power. "The most important aspect of instal- lation is the double -throw transfer switch," says Mr. Swackhammer. "This mandatory switch protects the lineman from electrical shock when repairing power lines, and protects the farm generator from damage when the regular power is restored." Tractor -driven generators are available in several sizes, but they usually are not designed to handle the full electrical load of the farm. To determine the size of generator you need, determine the total number of kilowatts required by all of the necessary equipment. No evidence of acid rain damage Soil and plant scientists at the University of Guelph have found no evidence that crops in Southern Ontario are becoming damaged by acid rain. In controlled experiments at the Simcoe Horticultural Station, plants were sprayed with acid solutions of varying strengths. It was necessary to use a solution ten times more acidic than the most acid rain sample monitored by Environment Canada to produce any plant damage, according to Professor D.P. Ormrod, of the Department of Horticultural Science, University of Guelph. Acid rain is even less likely to detrimentally affect the agricultural soils 6f southern Ontario, most of which range from pH 6.2 to pH 7.6 (neutral reading is 7.0) "It may do so in 500 to 600 years," say Professors E.G. Beachamp and R.W. Sheard of the University of Guelph's Department of Land Resource Science, "but, because of the enormous buffering capacity of these soils, the effect of acid rain now is hardly noticeable." Southern Ontario soils are generally well endowed with such alkaline elements as magnesium, potassium and calcium, all of which tend to counteract soil acidification. In the areas where soil acidity is a problem (the Canadian Shield, for PG. 26 THE RURAL VOICE/FEBRUARY 1980 example), limestone can be applied easily to cultivated lands. One reason that acid rain presents more of a problem to forested areas is that it is difficult to incorporate limestone into the forested land to adjust the soil pH. The acid spots occurring in some soils in Essex, Ken t and Middlesex Counties are probably due to nitrogen fertilizer rather than acid rain, say the soil specialists. However, acid rain would further aggra- vate the occurrance of these spots. Although no damage to crops on Ontario farmland from acid rain has been found, nor is it expected, Prof. Ormrod would like to see a research project set up to study this phenomenon in depth. While the pollutants (sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide) which cause acid rain are actually beneficial to plants in Southern Ontario today at levels at which they occur in the atmosphere, it would be better that sulphur and nitrogen be applied as fertilizer to the land which requires them for food production, say Professors Sheard and Beauchamp. This would protect the forests and fresh -water animal life from the acid rain menace. In the long term even our well buffered agricultural soils will become more acidic, a process accelerated by the acid rain.