Loading...
The Rural Voice, 2000-05, Page 18QUICK -FIT INTERCHANGEABLE FRONT-END LOADER ATTACHMENTS Front Loader Pallet Fork 111 A 1 111 1 it • 48" long solid forklift tines • Sliding adjustable • 5000 Ib. capacity Manure Fork • 48" - 7 tines • 60" - 8 tines, • 72" - 9 tines • 84" - 11 tines Single European -Style Spear SE500 • 39" forged tine • Easy stabbing & removal • Optional 49" tine available Material Bucket eft e • Wrap-around wearbar for extra strength • Unique formed construction for easy filling and clean-out HORST WELDING R.R 3, Listowel. Ontario N4W 3G8 (519) 291-4162 FAX (519) 291-5388 Dealer enquiries invited 14 THE RURAL VOICE Mabel's Grill "The great thing about spring planting," said Dave Winston the other morning, "is that you have the perfect excuse not to do something the wife wants you to do." "You mean like pick up your dirty socks?" asked Molly Whiteside as she refilled his coffee. "Yeh, that too," said Dave. "I was thinking more like shop- ping," said Dave. "The wife wants to shop for a new refrigerator but when the ground dried up I told her I had to get planting." "But you managed to find be in here," sniped Molly. "I couldn't miss a day of your friendly, smiling service," said Dave. "What are you going to do when planting's over?" asked Cliff Murray. "Yeh, being a pig farmer, you don't have haying as an excuse come June," said George. "I was trying to persuade her to wait for those new `smart' fridges they're supposed to be coming out with," said Dave. "What's a smart fridge? I thought all a refrigerator had to do was sit there and be cool," said George. "Sort of like a teenage boy," said Cliff. "Haven't you heard about these new fridges where a computer will keep track of everything you put in the fridge and everything you take out and automatically order more food when you're running out of something?" asked Dave. "Bill Gates is working on it with one of the appliance ,companies." "Bill Gates? I hope he can make it better than his software," said Cliff. "I could starve to death if my fridge crashed as often as my Windows 98." "I like my fridge the way it is," said George. "I don't know if I want a `smart' refrigerator." "You just don't want a refrigerator that's smarter than you are," said MABEL :a• The world's problems are solved daily 'round the table at Mabel's time to Molly. "It's the coming world," said Cliff. "They've got robots that milk cows. I was reading about a robot that will drive your tractor." "They've got robots that answer the phones for OMAFRA," said Dave. "Now, now, they've still got real' people answering the phones in Guelph," said George. "Yeh the robots come after the next budget," said Cliff. "Then they can get rid of people altogether." "I can see the day coming when I hook up my robotic tractor to a telephone line to OMAFRA head- quarters and the Minister of Agricul- ture can tell it how to farm," said Dave. "They won't need me at all." "And the computer in your barn can be hooked up to Michael McCain's computer and all the pigs can get fed to just the right size," said Cliff. "Great, and the computer can spread the manure too," said Dave. "Maybe now that there won't be so many OMAFRA people hanging around they'll get off this bandwagon about Nutrient Management Plans," groused George. "It's all bull shit anyway." "It is for you," said Cliff. "For me it's sheepshit." "Well none of you have the trouble us guys with pigs have," said Dave. "These plans were created to cause us trouble." "But in the interest of `fairness' they're going to nail us all," said Cliff. "Pretty soon we'll all have to do plans, even if we just throw a little fertilizer on the pasture." "If they're talking about managing your nutrients, why don't they hit the guys in cities too," said Dave. "I mean your average family of five creates a fair amount of 'nutrients' but they don't have any responsibility for getting rid of it." "Yeh, just imagine how much lawn fertilizer they could save in the cities if they had to have a compost- ing toilet and spread it on their lawn," said Cliff. "Yeh but I'd worry about what the guys in high-rise apartments do with theirs," said Dave, "especially if I lived below."0