The Rural Voice, 2003-11, Page 20Ontario Forage Council
Forage Focus Conference
December 2, 2003, Shakespeare Optimist Hall
December 4, 2003, Trenton Knights of Columbus Community Centre
Featuring Speakers: Dr Ron Schmidt (Allied Seeds) and Bill Grexton (DHI),
Joel Bagg and Mike Cowbrough (OMAF) and Local Farmer Panels
Pre -registration is mandatory, $30 registration includes hot beef dinner.
For more info call 1-877-892-8663 or visit www.ontarioforagecouncil.com.
CCA Accredited
HELP FOR ONTARIO FARMERS IN CRISIS
Queen's Bush Rural Ministries
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Provides - a free confidential service
to listen and offer a network
of helpful contacts.
Call Collect 1-519-369-6774
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drau is ' um.
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Bearings
Hydraulic Pumps
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Distributed in the north of Ontario by Barfoot's
BARFOOT'S
WELDING AND MACHINE INC.
517 Brown St., Wiarton (519) 534-1200 1-800-265-6224
16 THE RURAL VOICE
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or she may hire an agent to act on
their behalf, says OSCIA. Agents
who can act without authorization of
MNR include licenced trappers,
employees or agents of the Ontario
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals, members of the
landowner's immediate family acting
on their behalf, or employees of
wildlife control agencies, if the
wildlife is released upon capture.
Employees or agents of a
municipality whose responsibilities
relate to wildlife control can
undertake wildlife control on
municipal property. Everyone else
must be authorized by MNR to take
action.
A farmer or his agent may get
authorization from the MNR to
harass or kill white-tailed deer in
protecting their property but to
qualify for a permit there must have
been a reasonable attempt to deter
deer by other means and an evaluator
must appraise the extent of the
damage. MNR has issued very few
kill permits for deer.
Canada
Geese fall under the
protection of the Migratory
Birds Convention. There is,
however, an open hunting season for
waterfowl in the fall.
Farmers can encourage hunters to
use their property to harvest
waterfowl, deer or other problem
wildlife in season but the problem is
that the number of hunters has been
declining. Scott Austin of Maitland
Guiding Services notes that
Waterfowl hunter numbers in Canada
have declined from about 500,000 in
1978 to 200,000 in 1999. And that
was before the gun registry
legislation.
Of course the same wildlife that
causes problems can also relieve
some problems. While Brassington
hasn't had coyote problems on his
farm, his son has had problems on
his. At the same time there are very
few groundhogs on his son's farm, he
notes.
Smith has some parting advice.
"Keep your eyes on your crops.
Anticipate problems based on prior
experience. And learn from your
experience. If you always do what
you always did, you'll always get
what you always got. Yes, I'm being
affected by wildlife damage, but 1
modify my rotations and farming
practices to live with it."0