The Rural Voice, 1993-02, Page 48GREY
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
519-364-3050
The Rural Voice is provided to all Grey
County Farmers by the GCFA.
Agriculture: is it a thriving
industry or slowly dying? According
to 1991 Stats Canada Census it is a
large and thriving industry. The
swine industry is down considerably
(24,000) and the remainder has either
increased or is slightly down.
This means Grey County is a
driving force in agriculture for the
Province of Ontario. Even though
Grey's cropland acreage is down
minimally, the provincial picture is
FARMING IS YOUR FUTURE
OFA IS THE VOICE OF FARMERS
MEMBERSHIP MARCH — MARCH 1-13
the same giving us 3.43 per cent of
cropland in Ontario. The crops vary
from the one acre of apricots and
grapes to 171,483 acres of hay and
legumes. The number of census
farms in Grey is down to 3,146 but
Ontario is also down about 1,000
farms. Grey represents 3.5 per cent
of all farms in Ontario. The barley
crop of 33,628 acres and mixed grain
38,459 were down from 1986 by
31,000 acres. The bean crop was
double 1986 and wheat was three
times as large in 1991. This is an
indicator we have more cash crops
even though the prices were not high.
The apple crop in Grey makes up
20 per cent of the apple acreage in
Ontario. The big change in the apple
industry is the standard tree is slowly
disappearing with the dwarf and
semi -dwarf gaining in popularity.
Blueberries, grapes and apricots were
grown in very small quantities in
comparison to the provincial picture.
Our largest production is in the
livestock industry. Chickens and
turkeys numbered 1,139,391 in total
GCFA Directors' Meeting
Thursday, February 25, 1993
United Breeders
Boardroom, Markdale
1:00 p.m.
Members are welcome to attend
44 THE RURAL VOICE
Agriculture in Grey County
and there were over seven million
dozen eggs produced.
The swine numbers are down to
less than 80,000 and all cattle
dropped in number to 141,383. The
sheep and lambs in Grey County
account for 11.45 per cent of Ontario
production. The number of 28,802
increased by approximately 1,000
even though prices were not strong at
this time.
Large numbers of horses, goats,
rabbits, fox and mink account for the
rest of our livestock industry. Bee
keepers were busy looking after
4,470 colonies. The bees not only
produce a crop of honey, they
pollinate the fruit trees to help
production in the apple industry.
Many jobs are created in our
towns and villages by the farmers of
IF FARMING IS YOUR BUSINESS
OFA IS YOUR ORGANIZATION
MEMBERSHIP MARCH — MARCH 1-13
Grey. With this being such a
significant industry here, I hope our
ANNUAL
CURLING
BONSPIEL
sponsored by
Grey Federation of
Agriculture
February 27, 1993
Markdale Curling Club
To enter, call:
Carman Hamill
794-2805
Wes Sparling
538-3196
local politicians take extra care when
developing the new official plan.
Since all garbage ends up in rural
OFA — DON'T FARM WITHOUT IT
MEMBERSHIP MARCH — MARCH 1-13
Grey, the committee looking into
waste management has a big job
ahead just to find a suitable site let
alone develop an environmental
plan.0 Allan Kinney
Executive Director
GCFA 48TH ANNUAL
PUBLIC SPEAKING
COMPETITION
Seml-Finals
North West Grey
Tuesday, February 16, 1993
7:00 p.m.
St. Basirs School
925 -9th Ave. West, Owen Sound
North East Grey
Tuesday, February 16, 1993
7:30 p.m.
St. Vincent-Euphrasia School
Mearord
South West Grey
Tuesday, February 16, 1993
7:30 p.m.
Egremont Community School
R.R. #2, Holstein
South East Grey
Wednesday, February 17, 1993
8:00 p.m.
Beavercrest Elementary School
Markdale
Finals
Tuesday, February 23, 1993
8:00 p.m.
Sullivan Central School
Desboro