The Rural Voice, 2003-09, Page 78People in Agriculture
Perth 4 -Hers visit Saskatchewan
Seeing Canada
A group of Perth County 4 -Hers recently visited Saskatchewan as part of
a 4-H exchange, then hosted their counterparts from Shellbrook.
Saskatchewan when they visited Ontario. Taking part in the exchange
were: (front row, left to right) Nellie VandenHoven, chaperone, Amanda
Brodhagen, Jessica Nyenhuis, Melanie Luyten, Kevin Squibb, Dora
VanHerk, chaperone, Jill McCallum; (back) Ben Clutton, Rachel Baker.
Travis Grodner, Matthew Krooner and Mark Krooner.
A group of 10 Perth County 4-H
members took part in an exchange
with members of a Shellbrook,
Saskatchewan club during August.
First the 10, plus two chaperones,
travelled west from August 1-8 to see
what life in Saskatchewan is like.
Then from August 11-18 they hosted
their western visitors, taking them to
the Newton corn maze, St. Jacobs
and the farmers' market, the Seaforth
4-H judging night, Mitchell Cornfest,
the Stratford Festival and Niagara
Falls.
The Perth 4 -Hers, mostly from the
Mitchell -Stratford area, worked hard
to raise funds for the exchange,
taking part in everything from a road
clean-up for the Monkton Lions Club
to several bake sales and barbecues,
yard and garage sales and a car wash.
As well the 4-H Youth Exchanges
Canada program is funded by a grant
from Exchanges Canada, part of the
Department of Canadian Heritage.
Taking part in the exchange were:
Rachel Baker, Amanda Brodhagen,
Ben Clutton, Travis Grodner, Mark
Krooner, Matthew Krooner,
Melanie Luyten, Jill McCallum,
Jessica Nyenhuis, and Kevin
Squibb. Nellie VandenHoven and
Dora VanHerk, served as
chaperones.°
Huron County 4 -Hers
have top calf,
showmanship
at Gencor West
Jim Franken of Huron County
had the champion calf and Kora
Bennett or Huron took the award as
champion showperson when Gencor
West was held at Stratford July 17-
18.
The competition which kicked
off with an education session, drew
151 participants from across the
southwestern part of the province.
Competitors spent the first
afternoon judging draft horses,
sheep, goats and hay. Following the
education portion of the event they
wrote a quiz based on the speaker's
information as well as general dairy
industry questions. That evening
they held a fun auction.
On the Friday. the showmanship
and conformation competitions
were held. Scores for showmanship,
conformation and quizzes were
totaled and points were awarded on
both and individual and a team
basis.
Darren Hazeleger of Oxford
County was the overall grand
champion. He tied with Alexandra
Lawlor of Oxford as tops in the quiz
portion. He was also top
intermediate competitor and teamed
with Rachel Hargreaves, Trish
MacLeod, Bryan Weldrick and
Jayme Hart to win the
championship team award.
Ashley O'Donnell of Waterloo
was the top junior competitor. Jill
Spearin of Perth County was top
senior competitor.°
Crop circles bring fame to Huron County farmers
elaborate pattern of stocks bent three
Growing cereal grains generally is
a fairly mundane job, certainly not
the kind of thing to bring a farmer
huge amounts of media attention.
Having a crop flattened in a unique
design, however, can bring plenty of
reporters, and curious visitors.
So it was on two Huron County
farms in August when crop circles
were discovered. First it was Ery
Willert's wheat field near Hensall
that became a centre of attraction.
Following the discovery of the
or four inches above the ground, the
crowds started arriving.
"I haven't got a whole lot of work
done," Willert told the Lakeshore
Advance at one point. "It's been
entertaining. We've met old friends
and school teachers." On the Monday
of Civic Holiday he counted 1,000
visitors. The family put out a guest
book but not everyone signed it so an
accurate total was hard to calculate.
He estimated 5,000 people had
visited the farm before the crop was
finally harvested.
Days later it was the Steve Knight
farm east of Brussels that was
drawing the attention when a simpler
crop circle was discovered.
"It's unbelievable," said Donna
Knight, Steve's mother of the 57 foot
wide circle. "First you think it was
just the wind, then you get to
thinking about it and wonder."
So apparently do hundreds of
others.°