The Rural Voice, 2005-12, Page 63RAINY RIVER
Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
4**
PO Box 416, EMO, ON POW 1E0
807-482-2051
AL. • The Rural Voice is provided to Rainy
RAINY RIVER VALLEY River Federation members by the RRFA.
Greetings to all readers ot The Rural
Voice. My name is Eric Busch and I'II
be one of the new writers for the Rainy
River Federation of Agriculture.
1 am coming from a new
perspective, in that I've only lived in
the district for five months, and 1 don't
have a farm, but hopefully 1 can still
provide an interesting viewpoint. 1
graduated in spring of 2004 from the
University of Manitoba's Agroecology
program, and moved here to work an
internship position with the local soil
and crop improvement association. My
interests stem from soil and
water conservation, but 1 find every
aspect of agriculture interesting in some
way.
1 must admit, that the agriculture
was not the only thing in mind when I
decided to move here. The District is
surrounded by a fantastic display of the
Canadian Shield, including dramatic
rock outcrops giving way to crystal
clear deep lakes, and not to mention.
bordered on the northwest side by one
Rainy River a special place
ot the most amazing and fantastic
bodies of water in North America. Lake
of the Woods. Of course, the Rainy
River borders us to the south, holding
one of North America's healthiest Lake
Sturgeon populations. with Minnesota
sitting on the other side.
It's all these surrounding influences
that give the Rainy River agricultural
community its unique flavours. A
couple of times I have heard a farmer
say that it would be nice to have
the acreage that the farmers do out
west, but being from Manitoba, I can
easily recognize the advantages of the
Rainy River District. Being more
ecologically minded. I don't see the
large industrialized farms as the answer
to aur District's needs. I am an
advocate of soil health and rural life,
neither of which are favoured by
large-scale, chemical -intensive
agriculture.
What I do see as the future is local
communities supporting local
producers, in response to rising energy
costs. Phis will come with increased
communication in the District. and
increased willingness to unite to form a
common voice. Luckily. the district
already has much overlap between
organizations, with there being active
communications and idea sharing
between the different members. A
perfect example of which is where the
Rainy River Federation of Agriculture
and Rainy River Future Development
Corporation stepped in to provide me
alternate employment and workspace
this winter so I could extend my
internship with the Rainy River Soil
and Crop Improvement Association 'til
next fall. This shows that when faced
with a challenge or task. the people of
Rainy River District are more than
capable of getting organized and
getting stuff done. So. I'm looking
forward to taking in as much as 1 can in
the next eleven months. and writing
more articles in The Rural Voice. See
ya.0
— Submitted by Eric Busch
2005 a year to forget for Rainy River crops
Greetings from the Emo Agricultural Research Station. We are in the process of finishing things up for another season. We operate from
April 1 to December 1. This has been a very frustrating year. We ended the fall of 2004 very wet, so we were hoping for a long hot, dry
spring in 2005, but that didn't happen. It you were able to plant the first few days of May, you were okay, but then it turned wet and cold. We
had a very late spring with many fields unseeded. The lucky ones were the people who did not get any land worked up the fall of 2004 as
they didn't have to worry about planting in 2005.
Finally by mid-July things turned hot and dry and we were able to make some hay, but yields were low because of the lactc of heat we
had in the spring. And then, since it turned hot and dry, second -cut yields were much lower as well. Generally, I think everyone has enough
hay despite these conditions.
We had a few decent days in September, but again if you missed those days you were out of luck as it then turned wet and miserable. It is
so wet here now it is just a big mess.
Now the last few days we have had a large dump of snow on top of all that water. Beautiful. No matter where your cattle are right now, they
are in mud.
When weather and crop reports are given we tend to be forgotten here in Rainy River District. We are in the middle of nowhere, or so
people seem to think. There are over 300 of us trying to farm in our district and the weather is important to us as well. We are still producing
food for someone, somewhere.
Like I said we did not have a great year here at the Research Station. We are still a month behind but unfortunately I don't think I will be
able to finish plowing now. I will be concentrating on finishing my Research Summary and if you would like a copy please contact me.
Here are just a few research results - keep in mind, our yields are very low this year.
Top 3 Varieties (Barley Performance Trial) Top 3 Varieties (Oat Performance Trial) - Top 3 Varieties
1. AC Kings 3458 kg/ha 1. CFA00137 5199 kg/ha (Spring Wheat Performance Trial) -
2. GB006076 3392 kg/ha 2. 0A1046-3 4793 kg/ha 1. Hoffman 3540 kg/ha
3. OAC Baxter 3332 kg/ha • 3. Nice 4723 kg/ha 2. 5602HR 3514 kg/ha
3. Torka 3166 kg/ha
These cereal trials were planted on May 4, 2005, so they are the best trials
we had at the station this year.
Northern Ontario Soybean Performance Trial: our normal target planting date is right around the long weekend in May, this year we
finally were able to plant on June 23, 2005.
Top 3 Varieties - 1. Primo RR 576 kg/ha
2. PS 2 RR 570 kg/ha
3. Emerson 565 kg/ha
Since Eric and I are sharing this column this month, I don't have space to talk about forage yields. My contact information (if you'd like a
summary) is - Kim Jo Bliss, Emo Agricultural Research Station, Box 475, Highway 11, Emo, ON POW 1 E0 807-482-2354 Phone / Fax
kbliss@uoguelph.ca - Submitted by Kim Jo Bliss
DECEMBER 2005 59