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The Rural Voice, 2000-09, Page 46l This year's apple crop isn't too rosy for growers in the Georgian Bad area. "The growers are caught between a rock and hard place . . . it's darn close to a disaster." said Ed Farrar the president of 150 -member Georgian Bay Fruit Growers Inc. The combination of a warm spring, followed by a late frost damaged the apple blossoms at a crucial time. "It dropped our crop by 60 per cent of the five-year average," said Farrar. The combination of last year's rock bottom prices and this year's poor crop means many of the growers are in financial difficulties and Farrar predicts many of them will drop out of the apple business altogether. That's why Georgian Bay Fruit Growers Inc. is fighting hard to get some financial aid to its growers as soon as possible. The group is lobbying the provincial government to initiate the Restart Program which will help cover the cost of removing standard old trees which produce inferior fruit and are holding the industry back. said Farrar. "We've come a long w ay in the industry in the last 10 years. the growers having been doing the best they can, but now they need some financial help." he said. The growers association past president Murray Loucks said it was a real blow when the Ontario Ministry. of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs closed its field office in the heart of the Georgian Bay apple growing region last year. The office had served the apple industry for 41 years so the organization's executive went into action. said Locks. "We were able to negotiate with the OMAFRA to keep Provincial Apple Specialist Ken Wilson in this area, so we won that battle," said Loucks. But the executive was unable to Battling together Whether ifs government cutbacks or bad weather, Georgian Bay apple growers work together to battle adversity By Roberta Avery Weather conditions will greatly diminish this years Georgian Bay -area apple crop. get any commitment about what happens when Wilson retires in a few months, said Loucks. "So we will have to go to battle again, we produce 25 per cent of the apples in the province, but we don't even have a research station here," said Loucks. That's why the growers' Research and Development Committee initiated a grower funded Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM), said Farrar. Growers pay $650 each to participate in the program, which monitors the insect and disease 42 THE RURAL VOICE population in a four -hectare section of orchard.' If the balance between beneficial insects and the fruit damaging insects gets out of proportion and fruit damage is imminent a small amount of chemical control is applied. "The older way was to go out and spray anyway every two weeks, now we don't spray unless it's necessary," said Farrar. The growers have hired hree people to conduct the program, said Farrar. Growers participating in the IPM get specific information about pest control in their own orchards, but a hotline that gives all growers general information on insect populations is also maintained by the program. "These are just some of the things we have to do for ourselves since government cutbacks," said Farrar. The growers' organization has also gone to bat for orchard owners over the increase in property tax assessment for apple storage facilities. Under the new property tax programs, many of the storage facilities were classified as commercial resulting in six fold and more tax increases. "Apples are a perishable crop, but there is no way that we can sell them all in the fall, so we have to store them like any agricultural product, but that's not how the government sees it," said Farrar. Several members are still fighting their assessments on their storage facilities and the grower's organization is sitting in on hearings and supplying information to tribunals, said Loucks. Apple specialist Ken Wilson agrees the Georgian Bay crop doesn't look too rosy this year. "It's a poor crop, the smallest I've ever seen," said Wilson. The problem stemmed from "disgusting cold, wet weather" at bloom time and overnight frosts late into the spring when apples are forming, he said. In a normal year the area located