The Rural Voice, 1998-03, Page 48Full Line
STABLING & VENTILATION EQUIPMENT
for Beef, Dairy & Hog Barns
• Vandepas Stabling
• Ideal Equipment
• Pasture Mat -Cow Comfort
• A -Ps PVC Panels & Feeders
• Axis Air Ventilation
• Full Line Of Livestock Flooring
• Lucknow T.M.R. Mixers
• Wic Equipment
• Crystal Spring Wet & Dry Feeders
• Ritchie Fountains
• J & D Super Hook & Eye Chain
• Metko Conveyors & Feeders
• Van Dale Equipment
* Winter Special *
Wic 13 H.P. Electric Start - Tilt Tub Bedding Chopper
free estimates
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44 THE RURAL VOICE
News
the location of neighbouring houses.
If the house was located directly in
the middle of the 100 -acre farm and
near the road, there was much less
area on the neighbouring farm that
was available for construction of a
hog barn.0
New crops provide
alternatives for
farmers
While the buzz in the room at the
crops day at Grey -Bruce Farmers'
week was caused by the idea of
legalized hemp production in 1998,
Mike Columbus, alternative crop
specialist with OMAFRA in Sirncoe
suggested three other crops could be
of interest for farmers in the area.
Pearl millet has been developed as
an alternative for forage feed, fed
green, used as silage or dried as hay.
In Canada it's an annual crop, unable
to survive the winter. But in its short
life, it can produce over 72 tons per
hectare (compared to 30 tons for
corn). It also has lower input costs
especially for fertilizers and pest
control chemicals.
It has such huge potential for
production because of its rapid
growth. It should be planted after
May 25 for maximum yield potential.
At about 60 days the plant is three
feet tall and can be harvested with a
regular forage harvester with a corn
or hay head. The plant then requires
only 30 days to produce a second
cutting and another 30 for a third
cutting.
Dry matter yield is about 16.5
tonnes per hectare with an average
crude protein of 17 per cent
(compared to eight per cent for corn
and 17 per cent for alfalfa). The dry
matter digestibility rate was about 64
per cent.
Sorghum, the fourth most
important crop in the world (after
wheat, rice and corn) has also
undergone trials in Ontario. The crop
has been grown extensively in the
southern U.S. for forage and grain
and there is considerable production
of brooms and syrup. There has been
some use in Canada for forage under
the name sudan grass.